The Warrior Diet?

There's actually a diet based around undereating all day and binging at night? I think I'm misunderstanding something here; can anyone explain this diet?

uhhhh, that sounds like my life before I started eating healthy and losing weight.

Binging at night does not help you lose weight at all, who told you that?

That is a very ridiculous-sounding diet. Undereating in the day will lead to all kinds of problems and you will definitely binge because of the lack of food in your body!

It sounds like a bunch of hocus. It's "creator" looks like a zombie and is a former columnist for penthouse. It also doesn't sound like he has any scientific backing of his "methods"...he's just promoting how he "thinks" you should eat. I definitely would not try doing this. Sounds damaging.

"Its premise: eat one main meal at night, avoid chemicals, combine foods adequately and challenge your body physically. The Warrior Diet shows how to nourish the body in sync with its innate circadian clock – separating between a.m. foods and p.m. foods for effective removal of toxins, increased conversion of fat for energy, increased utilization of nutrients and improved resilience to stress. The result: a leaner, stronger and healthier body. "

A Review

http://www.cbass.com/warrior_diet.htm

I'm always puzzled when I see diets like this. Why go to all the trouble and pain of following somebody's off the wall ideas.  It's so much easier to just follow the food pyramid to make sure you're getting a good balance?  Those changes would last you a lifetime not just the duration of a "diet."  It's so simple - burn more calories than you eat and you'll lose weight.  Then eat more nutritious food and you'll be healthier, feel better and look better too.  Do it long enough and you'll never have to diet again.

It sounds like bull.

The people who come up with these diets I can't explain. But looking for an easy fix is going to take a lot longer than actually doing it the healthy way because they're going to develop bad habits and then they will have to fix those habits. I honestly don't think someones going to be able to do the warrior diet until they lose the weight they want to and keep it off, It will lead to some kid of eating disorder.

I do not suppport the diet at all, but here is how it makes sense: when you train or excersize without having any carbs within four hours or so, you are burning much more fat than you ever could after eating a meal with carbs. if you do cardio- you are burning the maximum amount of fat- which is why many people prefer to run or do cardio firstthing in the morning without eating. If you wight lift- you are maximizing your muscle growth by letting your muscles recruit protien for energy. and while you are lifting- and calories burned will be fat calories. so if you eat only at night all of your days activities are recruiting fat to burn for energy. on the downside- if you do not have proper protien intake- you may be burning muscle as well. if you binge at night onthis diet you are going to be restoring your glycoren storages and carb storages, so little of the carbs will not be immediatly absorbed overnight, meaning not much of it is going to be turned into fat.

of course, i dont recommend it beacuse if you deprive yourself all day like this your likely to go over your entire intake for the day at this nighttime meal- truly binging because you wont be able to control your hunger. also, it has to be just horrible for energy levels and blood sugar. this program is assuming you will even have the energy to work out before night without eating all day.

if you want to get the benefits of this without the negatives- workout first thing in the morning and eat breakfast right after. you will burn fat during the workout and you will get the after burn of calories after the workout for the rest of the day, and can eat a normal schedule of meals.

one mor ealternative- if you need food as soon as you wake up (like me) high protien-high fat meals are proven to have the same effect on your body's energy usage as not eating prior to workout time. I have an egg/egg white scramble with cheese melted on top for breakfast before i workout. it gives me energy and satisfaction without carbs ruining my bodies fat usage. afetr i workout i have a higher carb meal to restore my energy and fill up on a little fiber and good carbs for the day.

I'm all for the Warrior Diet. I eat this way as a lifestyle and I love it.

My body looks tough and strong, My mind is clear, I have tons of free time during the day, I eat until im completely satisfied at night.

It takes a while to get used to, for sure, but once you are used to it, it feels AWESOME. Totally worth it.

During the day it feels like I have endless energy. Definitely enough to work out as hard as I want to.

This is a very hedonistic diet. I like it because it acknowledges the pleasures of something as simple as nourishment. It's awesome.

Message me if you want more info.

This is interesting. I already (not purposely) have this eating pattern. I'm not overweight, and I'd say I look healthy. I definitely don't have a lot of energy during the day though...and I don't feel all that healthy.

I pretty much lost a stone within 2 months on this, but I didn't know it existed until I found found it in the net: I just thought I created my own diet!. I ate nothing but fruit (as much as you want)/coffee/diet coke all day then had a large, healthyish meal for dinner. So it isn't exactly binging at night: that wouldn't work.

You forgot, that you must slay a beast, preferrably by hand, per day as well.

This is what raised the red BS flag for me from the linked article:

He also offers a line of Warrior supplements.

And a book on sale at Amazon.  I'm sure the method works much better with the purchase of both. 

Oh, and the sub title of his book is "How to take advantage of undereating and overeating" - Yeah...I think I'll pass.

i get so hungry in the morning! this wouldnt work for me on a daily basis. maybe if i had a day wiht NOTHING but sitting and reading or something low-key. but i have classes and work in the AM and i need to eat!

ahaha they can make a diet book around anything.

I'm marketing the Cat Food Diet where you can eat all the cat food you want all day and whatever you want for dinner. The premise is you either get really sick and lose weight or you don't eat anything until dinner and not get enough calories and lose weight

My supplements are in the pet food aisle and cost $15/can

I just posted a question about Intermittent Fasting & nobody has responded! "The Warrior Diet" is based on the intermittent fasting / paleo idea that humans probably didn't eat much during the day & culminated their feasts at night when they had the kill/foraged goods from the day of work & it was safer to relax post meal.

My friend from Eastern Europe grew up exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, working the feilds all day & feasting all night with the families of the farms.

I dunno. I'm curious, so I'm on day 3 of the experiment. I'm definitely not all crazy lightheaded like I expected to be. I'm not even getting the headaches I would normally get around "dinner time." We'll see what happens! I'll definitely post updates.

I am usually a grazer, eating small bits throughout the day, so it's really counterintuitive for me. I've found I'm less hungry & obviously have more time for other things. It's also really satisfying to have a big meal at the end of the day with my family, whereas normally I'd have a small portion of something lower in calories. Tonight I had 2 big plates of vegetables, a whole trout & a melted unsweetened chocolate bar with skim milk in my "eating window" 6-9pm.

It's important to note that "IF" isn't about calorie reduction or binging, & just like everything else in science there is debate regarding metabolism and eating.

Anyway, curious about anyone else who has thoughts besides the pet food diet.

Original Post by freshbakedpi:

I just posted a question about Intermittent Fasting & nobody has responded! "The Warrior Diet" is based on the intermittent fasting / paleo idea that humans probably didn't eat much during the day & culminated their feasts at night when they had the kill/foraged goods from the day of work & it was safer to relax post meal.

 True - but how many modern human beings actually lead a "paleo" lifestyle?  How many people have to forage around and hunt for their sustanance?  Have to engage in hard labor and battle the environment to ensure survival? 

If it works for some, great, but no one diet is perfect for everyone.  I certainly wouldn't find this sustainable.

Hi I know this is an old post ..I was wondering how the folk who were doing it got on ??

x

It's not surprising to see people knock something they dont understand or havent taken the time to understand.   Yes, it may sound foolish to those who take a cursory look at the ideas.   However if you speak to those who actually follow it and read up on the ideas (you dont have to purchase a book) then it starts to make sense.

A lot of people knock low carb diets with comments like "all you do is eat an entire cow.  How stupid!"  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I would suggest knowing the real basics so you do not dismiss something that could potentially be a good match for you out of ignorance.

No, not everyone is going to follow the Warrior Diet or Anti-Estrogenic Diet.  However its not just some crazy guy trying to push his book and supplements.

For any who are interested, here is a very basic premise:

'Undereating' means that you stick to fresh fruit and vegetables during the day (preferably organic) to give your body a break in constantly digesting food.  You do not 'starve' yourself.   If you are hungry, eat a small salad, a small amount of protein or fat, and stick to fresh fruits and veggies.   The idea here is to not overload your body during the peak hours of the day with a heavy meal.   Your body has an internal switch and knows that if you consome a large breakfast or large lunch that it switches into a sedentiary digestive mode.  That's when you feel tired and sleepy during the day.

As mentioned previously, working out while undereating is much more effective in using stored energy (fat) for fuel.   Bodybuilders have a pre-workout meal and a post-workout meal consisting of protein, carbs, etc in a smart balance to maximize the effects, so you are not consuming your own muscle due to shortage.

In the evening, your 'overeating' phase starts with a large salad with as many vegetables and varieties of herbs that you can find, again preferably organic.  The enzymes from the fresh vegetables help with digesting the rest of your meal.

Next you move on to cooked vegetables and some protein, preferably eggs, fish, beans, or organic meats.   Eat a healthy portion, then wait 20 or 30 minutes.

The last part of the meal you incorporate fats OR grains OR sweets OR alcohol, never mixing them.  So you might have some rice (grains) or nuts (fats) or carbs (sweets) etc.   You eat until you are satisfied.

When you do this for a while your body recognizes the phases and maxmizes fat loss and nutrient storage.   During the day you have more energy, typically do not feel hungry, have a great workout, etc.  At night you look forward to a large but healthy meal.    Your body uses the nutrients from the large meal to repair your muscles and replenish your body's stores, while discarding the extra foods it doesn't need.

That's the premise.  For some it works great, for others they prefer other ways of eating.  There is no one right way, but its certainly not some frankenstein idea that someone pulled out of their ear.  The more you research it the more (to me) it makes sense.    It's a diet that strategizes the time of when you eat as well as what you eat, sticking to healthy organic choices when possible.  If that's crazy, then so be it. :)

Two friends of mine lived the lifestyle, and I've spoken to Brad Pilon who did a version of Intermittent Fasting for his Eat/stop/Eat book - and it's still crap. It's just some mental trickery to make you cut calories below maintenance, the nutrient partitioning claims are nonsense, and I note that the average paleolithic lifespan was 35 years which I find to be a very persuasive argument against trying to read too much into "natural" or "evolutionary" arguments.

 It may be 100% natural and organic, but so is cobra venom.

 What Brad Pilon says and where he makes sense is that for a lot of people doing intermittent fasting and/or his Eat/stop/eat periodic fasting serves as a substitute for calorie-counting for people who feel like measuring and maintaining some nutritional awareness feels too obsessive.

 But I note that out of the two guys who followed an IF diet, one of them did very well and the other came damn close to developing binge eating disorder.

 Still anectdotal of course. But me, personally, I think the whole notion that periodic starvation and attendant crisis hormone cascades with shedloads of stress hormones coursing through your veins from lack of food intake is somehow "giving your body a break" from anything is so far around the bend it can't touch sanity with a 10' pole.

Original Post by kvalhion:

'Undereating' means that you stick to fresh fruit and vegetables during the day (preferably organic) to give your body a break in constantly digesting food.   

How much of a break does the body need from digesting food? You already take 8 or so hours off when you're sleepling, isn't that enough?

I actually looked into this diet.  In theory it makes sense.  But...in the real world I found that I just can't live this way.  And any "diet" that is not reasonable in real life just isn't an option for me.  The good thing about calorie-count is that you can still incoporate no-nos occasionally if you do it within the framework of your maximum intake.  Sure, some people could be successful on this diet, but I'm not one of them and I guarentee that 95% of people out there wouldn't do well on this diet either.  We live in a different world now.  That's my opinion on the matter.