As we sluggishly drag our turkey-bloated bodies through January, it could be time for a fresh start.
There's no time like the first month of the year to kickstart your new fitness routine, although let's be honest, most of us will have ditched those New Year's resolutions long before day 31.
While we're not here to promote the sometimes cult-like status of New Year's resolutions, we've got to admit it's a good time to try to kick your smoking habit, ease up on the booze, or even try out a new vegan lifestyle.
One of the most popular regime changes related to diets at the start of the year. While there's been a boom in the popularity of so-called skinny jabs – and this is set to continue with a new pill form – others remain determined to do it the old-fashioned way by pounding the pavement or hitting the gym.
Advert
There was the guy who tried to do 100 pushups a day for a year in an attempt to transform his body, but as the old saying goes, abs are 70% made in the kitchen and 30% in the gym.
After previously trying 'every way' to lose weight, YouTuber Will Tennyson has road-tested the 'One Meal a Day' diet. Previously promoted by the likes of Channing Tatum and Coldplay's Chris Martin, OMAD does what it says on the tin as you limit your meals to just a single serving of food.
Working as a form of extreme fasting, OMADietes typically eat in a specific one-hour window and fast for the rest of the day, although water and zero-calorie beverages like black coffee and tea are allowed.
Advert
Joking that OMAD doesn't stand for 'Only Me and Donuts', Tennyson explained how he wanted to undertake the endeavour to see whether it really is the key to fat loss and can promote other benefits like mental clarity, focus, and dietary freedom.
Importantly, Tennyson says OMAD doesn't involve calorie tracking, which might appeal to those who don't want to crunch the numbers. Weighing in at 181.8lbs, Tennyson wanted to see whether his weight would go up or down as he crammed a whole day's calories into just one sitting.
After putting week's worth of meal prep into one giant bowl, Tennyson's first meal weighed in at a colossal 2,517 calories and boasted 32oz of ground turkey. Day 2 included an 'epic' Chipotle bowl that was almost the size of his head, with Tennyson saying he was force-feeding himself.
That didn't improve when he tucked into a full rotisserie chicken, and around the fourth day, he noted that things weren't getting easier. To take his mind off his hunger, his caffeine intake went through the roof, which the YouTuber reiterated couldn't be a good thing.
Advert
Revealing his tricks of the trade, he'd been adding salt and baking powder to his water to boost his electrolytes, while apple cider vinegar was also helping blunt his appetite.
Getting to the end of the ordeal, Tennyson revealed his new weight was 170lbs. Despite marking an impressive 3.8lb loss, he admitted that it was just too extreme: "All I thought about the entire time was food. The best way to describe my feeling like I was a bull at the rodeo, had my balls tied."
Concluding that it's only when you undertake something this extreme that you realize how much food plays a part in our lives. Ultimately, he suggested that he lost weight because he was simply struggling to reach his normal dose of calories when stuffing everything into one meal.