Could you live on just one meAl A dAy?

These women do — and swear it’s the secret to taming a mid-life tum while still enjoying good grub

Abig breakfast, filling lunch and hearty dinner — with a few snacks in between to keep us going. That’s the way most of us eat.

After all, we’re often told three meals a day is the best way to keep our energy up.

but now conventional wisdom is being turned on its head with the rise of scientifically-backed fasting diets, such as Michael Mosley’s 5-2 Diet, which advocates two days a week of consuming just 800 calories, and diets where meals are replaced by ‘slimming shakes’.

going hungry even has the royal seal of approval: Prince Charles, who looked slim on the beach in the Caribbean recently, aged 70, is said to swear by ‘saving himself’ for his evening meal, and skipping lunch.

Now there’s an even more extreme take: eating a balanced healthy diet, but having just oNe meal a day. one Meal A Day (oMAD) fans have created numerous groups and followers across social media, with women in their 40s and 50s using it as a means of staving off a middle-aged spread. but is it really safe?

Not according to nutritionist Dr Deborah Pufal, of the University of Huddersfield, who says: ‘This is yet another diet that involves fasting and is unsustainable for long-term weight loss. During the menopausal years women deposit more body fat around the stomach. Worryingly, the temptation is to embark on very low-calorie diets for cosmetic reasons — not health ones.

‘The modern mentality that a diet must be extreme in order for it to work is also harmful.

‘So many women fall into this trap and while they will lose weight, they’ll be walking around in a state of starvation,’ she says.

She warns that restricting meals to one a day will also mean diets lack calcium and iron.

‘if we don’t get enough iron we feel tired. it’s easy to blame those symptoms on the menopause when, for example, having more red meat will address it. After the menopause, women need calcium for their bones.

‘And while caffeine is a great stimulant, it causes us to excrete more calcium.

‘There’s a real risk that a diet like this will destroy our relationship with food. The obsession with clean eating means ‘disordered eating’ is the norm among women today.’

but followers of the oMAD way of life beg to differ. Here, four women tell us how they survive on just a meal a day —and how they simply now couldn’t live any other way . . .

IT’S WORTH IT TO BE A SIZE 10 AGAIN

Science writer Dr Sue Pearson, 53, is married, with two grown-up children, and lives in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. She says: LAST spring i had one of those awful lifechanging moments of realisation. i was going through some photos and one in particular jumped out at me.

The image looked like me, but wearing a fat suit. i was dumb-founded. i worked out i’d gained nearly two stone after i turned 51. i was almost ten stone, it was the heaviest i’d ever been, and felt really angry with myself.

i knew this weight gain was mostly down to the menopause. it crept on from September 2017 to April 2018 during a cold winter. i was eating more and not exercising enough. i just bought some bigger clothes and blamed the weather.

going down to one main meal a day was a no-brainer.

At breakfast, my husband and daughter sort themselves out, my son is at university, and i just have a cappuccino. The milk is filling and the caffeine gives me focus. There’s no one to cater for at lunchtime, either. even though i work from home, my office is away from the kitchen and temptation is out of my way. occasionally, i nibble on a few nuts and seeds.

My husband, daughter and i sit down for my only meal at 6pm. We enjoy the camaraderie in the kitchen and prefer to cook from scratch. A typical evening meal is roast chicken fillets coated with olive oil and garlic. i’ll have two or three roasted potatoes, with vegetables topped off with gravy.

i ensure half the plate is vegetables and the other is meat and carbohydrates. i might occasionally indulge and have a pudding at the weekend, but not in the week. i restrict alcohol to the weekends, too. i’ll have the odd glass of red wine or treat myself to one — or maximum two — gin and slimline tonic.

According to my Fitbit, i eat between 1,100 to 1,500 calories per day (within a healthy, balanced diet, a man needs around 2,500 a day to maintain his weight. For a woman, that figure is around 2,000 a day, according to the NHS).

i do Zumba twice a week and a three-mile walk twice a week.

i reached my goal weight of 8st 2lb last July and have maintained it ever since. it is hard work but i like how my body looks. For me, the occasional hunger pang is worth it to stay a healthy size 10.

i recently had an over 50s health check and my blood sugar and cholesterol levels where exactly where they should be. That’s why i’m sticking with it.

I SURVIVE ON SIX COFFEES A DAY

Full-time carer lesley Roberts, 53, is mum to Amber, 26, and Jackson, 23, and has one grandson. She is divorced and lives in Accrington, lancashire. She says: AS SooN as i get up each morning, i have a cup of coffee or two. it wouldn’t occur to me to eat something. i’ve never been a breakfast person.

even when the children were little i wouldn’t eat it.

Throughout my adult life my weight has fluctuated from 10st to 10st 7lb. At 15, i was fully-grown and weighed 10st.

i’ve still got a pair of cut- off denim shorts i’ve had since i was 15 — if i feel i’m gaining weight i try those on!

i work full-time as a carer and there is no downtime. i drive a minibus for much of the day.

i simply don’t need the calories someone with a physically demanding job such as a builder would need. However i do need to focus and concentrate.

on the rare occasions i’ve eaten something at lunchtime, i feel sleepy afterwards. i’ve been doing this all my adult life except during my two pregnancies.

i put on three stone during my first one and five stone during the second pregnancy.

it was a struggle to lose the baby weight, yet cutting out meals has always worked.

Since then it has been my go-to method for keeping my figure in check.

That’s why i live on coffee throughout the day, surviving off at least half a dozen. The caffeine keeps me going.

if i’m honest, i do enjoy the physical feeling of hunger pangs when my stomach contracts. it’s rare my tummy will gurgle, but if it does it stops after a coffee.

i enjoy eating and look forward to my one meal of the day. i never

eat in front of the TV, I always lay the table and have a bowl of soup with cheese sprinkled on it and a large chunk of ciabatta bread. I always ensure I’ve eaten by 6pm so my body can properly digest it. I try to avoid eating much later.

I probably have about 1,000 calories a day, which is more than enough and I savour every mouthful.

On the odd occasion that I’ve worked a long day I’ll be too tired or simply forget to eat.

But I’m mindful that my body does need food. I’d fade away if I didn’t have that one meal.

I don’t understand people who wolf down three meals a day — how can they work afterwards?

My body works well like this. I’m fit and active and this lifestyle is what my body prefers.

I’M NO SAINT — I STILL LOVE PIZZA

Dog walker Bryony Farrow, 47, is married with two children, aged 23 and 16. They live in Warrington. She says: I’Ve been practising the onemeal-a-day lifestyle since August 2016. I lost approximately 10lb in the first 12 weeks and have kept it off.

When I turned 40 I was diagnosed with being perimenopausal.

For the past 20 years I’ve had endometriosis, but suddenly the symptoms flared up and I was confined to my bed.

The medication meant I felt sleepy all the time and couldn’t function properly during the day.

I felt fat and sluggish. even though I was working out and watching what I ate, it didn’t make any difference to my weight.

I started looking into the benefits of fasting. I discovered that eating one meal a day was a concept that worked for women my age.

I’d never eaten breakfast anyway so skipping lunch didn’ t seem impossible.

I planned my day to ensure I ate my one meal between 5-6pm and had tea or coffee — around four cups — throughout the day.

After a few days, I didn’t feel hungry. I never felt ill, tired or dizzy because of the ‘ lack’ of food either.

At first my family and friends thought I was mad, and I was constantly having to justify myself.

Before I started, I was 10st 3lb and I now weigh 9st 7lb. Yet the biggest change was the freedom that it gave me in my relationship with food.

I’d spent years attempting one diet after another. All the concern around calorie counting just disappeared.

There’s no weighing, calculating, guilt or over-thinking about food. I eat what I want and if I ‘overindulge’ during my meal it doesn’t matter.

I estimate I consume between 1,800 and 2,000 calories a day. I cook from scratch and love a roast dinner on Sundays.

In the week, a favourite meal is spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread and a salad.

I also have low-calorie jelly, fresh fruit and ice cream. I also eat plenty of vegetables. I’m not a saint, though — I still have a pizza when I fancy one! I don’t drink in the week, but I enjoy a cider or two at the weekend.

When I go out with the girls they are generous and know we need to eat sooner rather than later!

Almost three years later and my mind is utterly free from the relentless thoughts of food.

One of the most surprising health benefits is a year after adopting this new lifestyle my endometriosis dramatically improved. I’m full of energy and don’t have the same amount of pain.

My condition has transformed so dramatically that I recently cancelled my hysterectomy.

It’s down to eating one meal a day that I’m eating healthier foods and feel fantastic.

I NO LONGER EAT WITH THE FAMILY

STay-at-home-mum Lisa Walker 49, is married and has two children, aged 15 and 12. She lives in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire. She says: The trigger to start eating one meal a day came four years ago. I was in my mid-40s and weighed 11-and-a-half stone.

I’d struggled with my weight for the past two decades and I couldn’t seem to shift any while eating three meals a day.

A friend recommended a nineday, low-calorie diet regime.

The first three days involved fasting and were supported by an aloe vera drink and supplements.

The final six days I had 600-calorie meals.

Throughout the fasting week I’d really thought about why I ate three meals a day.

I realised I was never properly hungry when I ate, I just hadn’t questioned the notion that our society is geared around eating at breakfast, lunch and dinner regardless.

While I lost 9lb after the nineday diet, the far more beneficial outcome was that I’d gained a better understanding of my body and relationship with food.

eating one meal a day seemed to be the answer to maintaining my figure at a healthy weight.

I hated being over 11 stone. Today I weigh 9st 5lb.

For breakfast I have a frappe, which is coffee and water. I take some supplements including a multi-vitamin, B12 and turmeric.

The frappe keeps me going until noon when I’ll eat my one meal of the day.

I’ll normally have a sandwich made with two slices of wholemeal brown bread, filled with scrambled tofu in vegan mayonnaise with salad, followed by a packet of hula hoops. For pudding I’ll have a vegan yoghurt or a slice of vegan cake.

Throughout the day I sip on fizzy water. I suspect I consume in the region of 1,500 calories a day and I power walk four miles a day with my two dogs.

And that’s it for the day. Occasionally if I’m hungry I’ll have an apple, but I usually finish off the day with a milky coffee.

Admittedly, I don’t eat with the family. The children are at that stage in their lives where they don’t really notice.

even at weekends it’s unlikely to happen. I’m never tempted to join them when they do eat their evening meal. In the past I found that if I ate again around 6pm I’d feel nauseous.

Whenever I’m invited anywhere I do tell people up-front. The typical reaction is one of alarm that I’ll be doing myself damage.

It frustrates me I feel pressured to make excuses all the time. But the advantage is that this isn’t a diet, it’s a way of living.