Okay I did a search and only came up with one reference to the warriors diet by Ori Hoffmekler. I was wondering if any others in the T-Nation army have tried this diet or have any information on results from it. It seems like such a freeing diet (from the kitchen), but is there any real life application for the strength training soldier on the front line? Please, help me out if you have any info or experience with it. Thanks!
some people around here will say no, but they’re wrong. if the warrior diet meets your nutrient needs you’ll be fine.
it’ll take some adjusting to, but that’s necessitated by change.
IMO, warrior diet is not popular in the bodybuilding scene because they believe insulin and blood aminos are regulated better by feeding half a dozen times a day.
IME, building mass on the warrior diet is easy. besides, warrior dieting makes the meal far more delicious.
I bought that book last year in December. I returned it two days after I bought it.
The warrior diet goes like this:
Eat One meal a day.
Do NOT eat Breakfast.
Do not Eat Whole Wheat.
and other such crap.
If it works for you, kudos.
dont throw the baby out with the bath water. the warrior diet is one meal a day, period. all else is just filler and opinion.
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The Warrior Diet: A T-Nation Interview with Ori Hofmekler http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459242
You MUST read the above interview.
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T-Nation’s Guide to the Warrior Diet: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460176
Alright, the above T-Nation edition of the Warrior Diet is basically crap. it ruins the whole point of the diet. However i did take from it two important things which i can just tell you here:
1- use HOT-ROX or another thermogenic during the undereating phase to keep your metabolism working. Ori drinks a cup of coffee in the morning which might do the trick but i dont drink coffee.
2 - check out the T-Nation description of the over-eating phase. i dont do it as extreme as they do…i only do the first important meal and then a shake before i sleep… and if i get hungry in between i have some more of what i had in the first dinner or i eat some home-made peanut butter and brown toast. This might be wrong as you’re supposed to over-eat during this phase… but i stop myself when i feel i’m just a bit over full. it’s been good enough for me so far.
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Great little summary of everything you need to know about following the diet: http://diet.ivillage.com/plans/plowcarb/0,,q50k,00.html
with this you dont need to read the book. you gotta read it.
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Scientific study confirming everything Ori said in the T-Nation interview… newspaper article: New York Daily News
read it. it proves that, as Ori believes, the Warrior Diet is not only about making a strong body but a “tough” body that can handle stress (and as the study shows, more than just stress…check it out, it’s a nice surprise!)
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oh and this is useful too: The Delta 1250 Diet, TC’s version of the ABCDE diet. http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460662
i suggest you read the way it works and its benefits because it’s just like the warrior diet except its streteched over weeks isntead of daily. so you undereat for two weeks then overeat for two weeks, instead of undereat in the day and overeat in the night. but if you look at the description of the benefits you should get more insight into how the warrior diet works!
i guess that’s all you need. it doesnt take any time to get thru, so i suggest you read it.
as for my own experiences:
i only started lifting 3 months ago. the first 3 weeks i was eating 3 meals a day and stuff. Then I switched to the Warrior Diet (note that for me the main reason for switching to the warrior diet had nothing to do losing weight or gaining muscles, these were added benefits… i’m doing the warrior diet for other reasons)
on my first 6-7 weeks of the warrior diet i lost 10 kgs on the scale, using also a thermogenic for 3 weeks to keep the metabolism working during the day. My strength kept increasing throughout but that’s normal for a beginner i guess.
for the next 6-7 weeks or however long its been, my weight on the scale has remained the same but my body shape has totally changed, becoming more like a nice v-shape and getting some nice muscle… my strength gains (my ability to increase the weight in every lift) has not yet stalled.
now for one week i noticed my stomach started to get bigger (or at least thats what i thought, im still not sure…) but then i decided to try and overeat like you’re supposed to on the diet (i was eating only enough to feel full). After the overeating my stomach shrunk again and the muscles grew further. also note that i’m vegetarian and i’m only taking in 40 grams of protein a day, max! I’m sure you’d lose more weight and gain more muscles if you take in more protein but i personally dont want to.
that’s about it… i plan to live my whole life on the warrior diet, but mostly for health reasons and for other reasons that were mentioned in the Ori interview above.
Wow, great stuff! Thanks for all the great links. I have a lot of reading and research to do. I think that I am going to try it for a few weeks and see how I feel. I will never know until I do. I will keep you guys updated.
first week might get a bit tough, same with second, but now after more than two months its a peace of cake for me. so dont take hunger into consideration in your evaluation as it will go away. evaluate based on weight loss and strength progress.
I own both books (Warrior Diet, Maximum Muscle, Minimum Fat) and tried it 3 times within 2 years. It’s a beautiful idea and I felt great during the day, but every time my appetite would diminish greatly and I would start gaining fat after a few weeks.
He recommeneds working out in the evening before the big meal, however I would always work out an hour after waking up and drink a shake afterwords.
I love the Warrior Diet! The diet recomposes your body to one that favors lean mass over fat. I am very pleased with the diet, plus it is so damn convenient! I have gotten fantastic results even occasionally eating fast food as my meal. I am going on a cutting phase where I eat very clean soon. I am excited by what will happen.
My typical day is as such:
HOT-ROX and lots of water upon waking.
HOT-ROX 6 hours later. Water throughout day.
Workout
Meal consisting of huge salad and other vegetables, main course and a supplemental protein shake. I also take a multivitamin and 6g of fish oil. I usually have an icecream sandwich or snickers bar too.
I cannot imagine being a “Tupperware slave” eating 6 times a day! I am clear and focused and much much stronger while on empty. I have gained muscle despite my chaotic and less-than-consistant training. My sex life has improved as has my overall health. I will never go back to eating several times a day!
Read Ori’s “Warrior Diet” book. Then buy “Maximum Muscle, Minimum Fat” as it explains the science behind the diet.
Try it for a month, I bet you will be a Warrior for life like I am.
hey Zalian,
I dont have The Warrior Diet book, but I do have Maximum Muscle, Minimum Fat.,. havent read it tho… what’s the whole fatigue training thing… something of the sort. is it explained in the warrior diet book? have you tried it?
Hmm…
Maybe I should reconcider.
Interesting, but for someone who gets up, eats, waits 2 hours, eats, etc. Eating once a day seems crazy and how would one fit 200g of protein in one meal? I imagine you would be starving by the time supper came around but I guess thats the premis and your body gets used to it?
[quote]Rookie21 wrote:
Interesting, but for someone who gets up, eats, waits 2 hours, eats, etc. Eating once a day seems crazy and how would one fit 200g of protein in one meal? I imagine you would be starving by the time supper came around but I guess thats the premis and your body gets used to it?[/quote]
it’s all about adaptation. if you suddenly started eating once a day you’d kick your body way out of homeostasis, and you don’t want that. but you could gradually reduce meal frequency and such and get where you want easily.
it’s been shown that rats eating every 48 hours the same amount as rats eating every few hours have slightly less body mass (but higher reduced-calorie-longevity benefits). of course, we aren’t rats and the rats didn’t lift, but it is rather interesting.
although ive gained a lot of weight on the warrior diet and i think anybody can, i wouldn’t recommend someone changing to a less frequent diet if they wanna gain weight. but if you wanna lose weight then the warrior diet could be very beneficial.
Rookie21:
This excerpt is from the T-Nation interview with Ori Hoffmekler that might address your question:
T: But to be a true warrior?someone who needs to endure physical hardship, or even an athlete who needs to compete?you need some sort of glycogen storage, right? And that’s hard to do when you eat only once a day.
OH: You’re reaching a very important point. You’ve got to eat in such a way that you’re capable of fighting for two hours straight, or wrestling or marching for hours on end, or being without food, or whatever. When I was a Navy SEAL, that’s what we trained to do. By not eating, we learned to stretch our glycogen reserves. Those who train on empty, more and more and more, will find out that they have more and more glycogen reserve ability in their muscles and liver. The last time I looked up the research?I think it was a year ago?sedentary persons with what was thought to be about 200 or 300 calories of available glycogen reserve could stretch it up to 2,000-3,000. Some people even had 5,000 calories of glycogen reserve. There’s a whole area of science about the situation of a body under glycogen depletion, and it’s so relative. But one thing’s for sure, as long as you are glycogen depleted?what I call fasting?your insulin sensitivity gets higher and higher, as does your protein efficiency. Sometimes, it goes 30-50% higher. That means that, after fasting, your protein efficiency could be 30-50% higher. You can eat less than 30% and still digest as much protein.
I hope this helps a little.
ive only been doing this diet for about a week and it already feels great…i have so much more energy and i feel like im getting the most from my workouts because im doing them after 20 hours of fasting…im planning to do it for awhile and see how it works…hopefully my fat loss is as great as all yours were
I’ve always been interested in this kind of diet, but, like Wufwugy said, it doesn’t sound like the right thing for someone looking to pack on a lot of weight. Especially if that person has a faster than average metabolism.
Anyone have any experience with this?
[quote]ZachDelDesert wrote:
ive only been doing this diet for about a week and it already feels great…i have so much more energy and i feel like im getting the most from my workouts because im doing them after 20 hours of fasting…im planning to do it for awhile and see how it works…hopefully my fat loss is as great as all yours were[/quote]
zach i tried answering the question on your thread… i didnt answer it for a long time nor did anyone, so i thought maybe you just forgot about it. so just in case you didnt check it again, i tried to help out.
[quote]NateN wrote:
I’ve always been interested in this kind of diet, but, like Wufwugy said, it doesn’t sound like the right thing for someone looking to pack on a lot of weight. Especially if that person has a faster than average metabolism.
Anyone have any experience with this?
[/quote]
yes i dont think this diet was meant for building mass, even ori himself says that it is not for those looking to become huge. i think lean-ness is more the goal on this diet