Beginners guide to The Warrior diet

The warrior diet is a type of intermittent fasting, inspired Have you ever heard the rumor that “we used to be healthier back in the day”, or that we “evolved to be hunters”? In recent years, the rapid popularity of the Paleo diet, and indeed intermittent fasting can be viewed as a call back to ancient, and perhaps, healthier times.

The warrior diet is like the intermittent fasting type that tries to mimic ancient times the most. The basic gist of the warrior diet is that you consume very little during the day and then feast at night.

The creator of the warrior diet is Ori Hofmekler in 2001, who promotes the warrior diet as a way to improve “The way we eat, feel, perform and look”. Ori is an ex-Israeli special forces agent, and thus not a trained dietician. He acknowledges that the diet is based on “His beliefs and convictions”.

The scientific census on the diet hasn’t been too good either. Very few articles have been published on the warrior diet, and the general opinion is that the diet is excessive and without added benefits.

How do you practice The Warrior Diet?

An alternative name for the warrior diet would be “20:4”. Because in the warrior diet, you have a 20-hour window where you undereat.

During this period, you eat small amounts of nuts, berries, and eggs, and water much like an old warrior would during a hunt. Then during the night, you can eat as much as you want. During the overeating window, you are encouraged to eat organic and unprocessed foods.

Getting started with The warrior diet

In his book “The Warrior Diet” Ori Hofmekler lays out a three-week plan to get started. He suggests in his book, that this period will help your body to get better at burning fat. This is consistent with the process of Ketosis, which is helped by intermittent fasting.

Week 1: “Detox”

The goal for the first week is to improve the body’s capacity to remove toxins. This should help your liver to get rid of substances that make you gain weight. To do this Ori suggests to:

• Undereat for 20 hours of the day. In this timeframe you should eat small amounts of, raw fruit, vegetables juices, clear broth, unprocessed, fatty dairy , hard-boiled eggs, nuts and seeds.
• At nighttime, after the 20 hour fast is done, you should eat a salad with oil and vinegar dressing. After the dressing, you should eat plenty of plant protein, like beans, whole grains and cooked vegetables.

Week 2: “High fat”

The goal in the second week is to improve your body’s ability to enter into Ketosis. You do this by eating high-fat foods, which should make your body better at burning fat for energy.

• Just like in week one, you shoul Undereat for 20 hours of the day. In this timeframe you should eat small amounts of raw fruit, vegetables juices, clear broth, unprocessed, fatty dairy , hard-boiled eggs, nuts and seeds.
• During the four-hour overeating period, you eat a salad with oil and vinegar dressing, just like in week 1. After the salad, you should eat lean meats, cooked vegetables and lots of nuts.
• During week 2 you should not eat any grains or wheat products.

Week 3: “Concluding fat loss”

The aim of the third week is to improve your body’s ability to burn carbs for energy. During this period, you cycle between a high carbohydrate intake and a high protein intake.

• Cycle your weekdays between high carb days, and high protein – low carb days.

After you complete the 3-week cycle, Hofmekler recommends that you start over again. You can however skip the two initial weeks, and just continue cycling between high carb, and high protein days.

The individual meal sizes are not specified in his book. Therefore, it is up to you to adjust portion sizes.

Note that serving sizes on the Warrior Diet is vague and there is no set calorie restriction.

To get the most out of the diet, Hofmekler recommends getting plenty of exercises. Cardio, strength training, and HIIT are all good choices. When you exercise, you should drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

The warrior diet and science

The warrior diet has not been well documented by science. While it is true that the warrior diet can help you lose weight, much of that benefit can be attributed to intermittent fasting. In fact, many studies and dieticians are calling the warrior diet excessive or extreme.

One online review by dieticians calls many of the claims of the diet into question. Eliminating processed foods is healthy, but only eating one meal a day in such a large fasting window can be very unhealthy.

Moreover, Ori does not back up his single meal claim with any evidence or testing. In fact, very few scientific articles have been published on the warrior diet. This means that both the efficacy of the health loss the diet provides is unsubstantiated. But also that the safety of the very long 20-hour fasting window hasn’t been tested.

Benefits of the warrior diet

Despite its shortcomings and lack of specific scientific backing, the warrior diet still has some things going for it.

Fasting helps you lose weight

This one is more attributed to intermittent fasting than the warrior diet specifically. Intermittent fasting has scientific backing, that shows it is at least as good as caloric reduction.

This is a scientifically backed weight loss. The warrior diet is most definitely a type of intermittent fasting. The 20-hour fasting window, with the 4-hour eating window, is very reminiscent of 16-8 fasting.

Fasting has additional mental and physiological benefits

Intermittent fasting has a range of documented benefits. Some of these include:

• Decreases inflammation
• Increased brain functioning
• Improve blood sugar
• Increase insulin resistance

These are just some of the benefits. We have a more comprehensive list of the benefits here.

Downsides of the warrior diet

The warrior diet can be very challenging to stick to. The very long fasting window can lead to periods of very high hunger. Additionally, the diet doesn’t give you any better weight loss than caloric reduction or less extreme intermittent fasting.

It is too extreme for many people

The high requirements of the warrior diet mean that it isn’t safe for many people to follow. Therefore if you are on the following list you should consider another type of fasting, or consult with your doctor before attempting the warrior diet.

• Children
• Pregnant women
• People with eating disorders like anorexia
• People with heart problems
• Underweight people

It varies from person to person how they are affected by fasting. However, women are especially at risk of hormonal imbalances.

Can exacerbate negative IF side effects

Intermittent fasting is not without side effects. While most of them are harmless, and subside after a few weeks, the extreme nature of the warrior diet could lead to serious side effects. Some of the more alarming include.

• Anxiety
• Starvation due to low nutrients
• Hormonal imbalances
• Insomnia
• Constipation

Most side effects of intermittent fasting are harmless, and can even be helped or completely alleviated if you know what to do.

Conclusion

The warrior diet is a niche form of intermittent fasting, that promises to help you live like a warrior of old. However, the method lacks scientific backing and is difficult to follow, and is very extreme in its requirements.