OMAD
/ˈoʊ.mæd/
CommonOne Meal A Day. An extreme fasting protocol where all daily calories are consumed in a single sitting.
The acronym is pronounced as a word. People who do OMAD treat it as a distinct identity, not just a diet variation.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | OMAD for 3 months, down 25 pounds and i feel fine | Sustained OMAD produced significant weight loss with no reported issues. | reddit, 2024 |
| 02 | my OMAD meal looks unhinged but it hits every macro | The meal is large and unusual looking but nutritionally complete. | tiktok, 2024 |
| 03 | people think OMAD is crazy until they realize they already skip breakfast | OMAD is closer to common behavior than people assume. | x, 2023 |
| 04 | started OMAD thinking about food literally all day. not sure this is for me | The fasting period led to constant food fixation, a common early OMAD experience. |
Use it when
- Referring to the specific practice of eating only once per day.
- Describing someone who follows a 23:1 fasting protocol.
- Discussing extreme fasting within wellness or diet communities.
Do not use it when
- You mean general intermittent fasting with a larger eating window.Use “intermittent-fasting” instead.
- You mean multi-day fasting.Use “water-fasting” instead.
OMAD vs intermittent fasting
OMAD
OMAD is eating once per day with a 23-hour fast.
VS
intermittent-fasting
Intermittent fasting is a broad category that includes eating windows from 4 to 12 hours.
Origin and context
Emerged from extended fasting communities online in the mid-2010s as an extreme subset of intermittent fasting, gaining traction on Reddit and then TikTok.
- First seen
- mid-2010s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/omadUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0