To those who are/were on the Warrior Diet..

[Caveman]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I know there are a few of you here that have at least tried the Warrior Diet in combination with Raw Paleo.

If you stopped doing it, why was that?

I am totally feeling the advantages of the fasting/undereating period. My energy comes back and I can think clearly. It really is amazing in that aspect..

However, I find that the "overeating" period is really no good for me. Actually, I think this may be one flaw of the warrior diet.

Since my digestion has been so screwed for years, overeating is really what has made everything worse for me and I usually was never able to control it. When I could control my eating, things would improve for me and I keep forgetting this, so I must remember.

I know Raw Paleo is right for me, but how I incorporate it into my life is very important. I'm still finding what's best for me.

It doesn't seem to be stated very specifically how you should be "overeating" at night. I think I am taking my overeating to the extreme here, where it's completely unhealthy.

Being on it for two days now, I have gotten the "runs" exactly the same every night and increased acne, which was well on its way out.

My plan is to eat a little less and a little more slowly tomorrow during the 4 hours I have to eat. If things don't improve, I will start eating either very small amounts of food throughout the day or two smaller meals.

What are your experiences on the Warrior Diet?

[miles]

Overeat doesn't mean you should be force-feeding yourself; it doesn't mean you should be trying to eat more than you feel like; or as much as possible... You should just naturally feel like eating more if you've had nothing the rest of the day. It's just so that people don't fast the whole day, and then try and restrict themselves to a normal 3 meals a day size-portion... It's overeating because you're eating more than you would if you'd had several other meals that day. You should still only eat what's comfortable.

However, I find that the "overeating" period is really no good for me. Actually, I think this may be one flaw of the warrior diet.

That doesn't make sense. If you eat less the rest of the day you have to eat more during that period or you will have an overall drop in caloric intake. It can't be the one flaw. If that's a flaw, then the whole thing is flawed.

[TylerDurden]

When I last tried it, I understood the warrior diet to just mean a small meal in the morning followed by a big meal at night, didn't read about "over-eating" as such, must have missed that. I found this 2-meal-aday routine to work fine for me until I got used to the 1 large meal a day eaten within a 4-hour period IF routine.

[achillezzz]

The author of warrior diet wants you to eat 1Huge cheesecake after your night meal 

[KD]

That doesn't make sense. If you eat less the rest of the day you have to eat more during that period or you will have an overall drop in caloric intake. It can't be the one flaw. If that's a flaw, then the whole thing is flawed.

heh

The author of warrior diet wants you to eat 1Huge cheesecake after your night meal  

To me these get to the root of it, Ori's diet wasn't really meant to work on a diet that is exclusive of so many foods and particularly the dense carbohydrates that would FOLLOW the fats and proteins which can only contribute so much for many people. Not saying people cannot get it to work for them or have invented their own IF or fast-5 plan. The thing about it is, for many people its going to be pretty much impossible getting enough to eat this way, because muscle meat won't supply a tremendous amount of energy and animal fat will probably be hard to eat in serious quantity. If you are dealing with a larger window I suppose that could include some kind of natural carbs and then meats/fats later or something, but the idea that one exact meal is going to provide for an active 'warrior' type person - or even inactive person particularly new to eating animal food - is very unlikely.

One of the major pillars of eating raw is that it doesn't engage your digestive system in the same way and should pass through effortlessly. I understand that some people might need some extra rest and so forth provided by less frequency but particularly if one can't get this to work effortlessly, its kind of a misplaced effort IMO.

[bharminder]

Since you say you have problems with "overeating" and that when you fast/undereat you can think clearly, then that is what you should do now.


In the future, how you feel may change. Maybe undereating in the future will not help you to think more clearly, but less. In that situation, you may choose to eat more.

Exercise is important and generally if you are doing some moderate-to intense workouts (not overkill but you know the fun kind of intensity, not burnout), then you will have an increase of appetite and desire to eat more. That has been my experience that since I exercise more often my appetite has increased a lot. I can think much clearer when I eat a lot. There was time though where I felt better undereating....

So be aware that your bodily needs may change in terms of food/calories/how often you eat.

[Caveman]

Right. I lift weights every other day. It's very hard for me to gain weight and at the same time, overeating has never helped with that..

[piwaio]

Hi Caveman,

I've been on the warrior Diet (tailored to my needs) for 4 years, so I have a pretty good grasp of it. On the other hand, I started Raw paleo 3 weeks ago, so I am still tweaking things to combine both approaches in an optimal synthesis. What's an optimal synthesis ? Well, I still need to find a way to replace the carbs to solidify my stools 

Yet, as to the problem of not bulking up enough on the WD, I can offer a few pointers. Brad Pilon, intermittent faster and body builder dug through the research (you get all the references in his book if you care) and proved that you build muscle with 1 to 2gr of protein per kilo. Anything above that is pretty much wasted. So you shouldn't have to eat that much meat to start adding muscle to your frame. Yet all IFers I have heard about advocate post work out nutrition, as it promotes anabolic activity. Ori even has his own brand of whey, and said in his late radio show he "grazed" over it all day when he was teaching athletic workshops .

So about 20 to 40g of protein (from whey, raw eggs, or hemp protein) mixed with fruit to maximize absorsion should do the trick.

You can also time the end of your workout with the begining of your 4 hour window, as does Martin Berkhan from leangains (great resource!). As a sidenote he advocates a much larger timeframe for eating.

Although this article goes to great length to promote expensive supplements, it's also the success story of a hard core bodybuilder who made the WD work for him, so you may want to check it out (hope it's ok to post links):

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_pulse_feast

Personally I've not found it a problem to build muscle while doing IF, but it's also a question of your definition of IF and truly the 3 people I've mentionned have a different way of applying the principles.

If you don't want to compromise with your fasted hours, just go for Martin's approach.

If you want to follow Ori to the letter, he clearly states that the warrior diet is not about water fasting, so a few grams of protein and carbs here and there is ok (exactly how much, I have in my notes somewhere if you care). Now, as another sidenote, Ori is a vegetarian, eats only whey, greens and cooked grains... and is not the portrait of health, really.

If you want to benefit from the fasted state AND eat throughout the day, it's also possible! Brad fasts every other day. And for what it's worth is really the bulkiest of the 3...

Have fun experimenting!

Piwai

[robbyt]

I have tried the Warrior Diet for a while now. There seem to be a few major flaws, some of which have been mentioned above.

-The biggest flaw people like me who are heavy eaters i.e. need lot of fats and have a quick insulin trigger, is that eating whey all day as Ori suggests is a recipe for spiking your insulin all day long, you can't lose weight this way. BCAAs are highly insulinogenic, and whey as high as it gets in BCAAs. People like me need very slow digesting proteins.

-Secondly, as a post above mentioned it is very hard to get a day's worth of heavy meats and fats in one meal. I've tried, eating nearly 3/4 of a chicken, but it's just too extreme. I think Ori can do it because the stuff he eats is so light and his metabolism breaks it down so slowly. But if I ate all the grains he eats I would rip through them and it would spike my blood sugar, it wouldn't give me any steady energy through the night as he suggests is the goal.

-Related to the first flaw, if you are a meat eater and eat lots of meat at night, especially purine meats, they will keep you up all night, purines cause insomnia.

In a nutshell, the warrior diet as Ori spells it out doesn't seem to be designed for heavy-food metabolisms like mine. I am experimenting with a large lunch, which seems more natural to my metabolism, then a smaller dinner.