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Warrior diet

Warrior diet

The Warrior diet is a diet and fitness program.

The diet is based on a cycle of under-eating (or fasting) during the day, and feeding at night.

Much like the Paleo diet, the Warrior diet is based on the Ancestral diet theory with several key differences and applications.

Nutrition

Unlike other diets that require counting calories, points, or other adherence to strict controls, the Warrior diet is based on the premise that the human body is programmed to control its own feeding.

[1] The one rule regarding feeding is one meal per day, ideally two hours before bed.

The diet can be modified for those who work at night, or travel frequently, by altering the under-feeding phase to coincide with the working hours (whether day or night) and the over-feeding phase to align with the end of working hours.

The Warrior diet draws many parallels to Stone Age and other ancient cultures in regards to nutrition and meal timing. The idea being that most of the labor was performed during the daytime hours with little or no food consumed until the evening meal. Some argue that humans were more rugged and responded better to stress during the Paleolithic Era, but no scientific evidence exists to directly support this. The other rule of thumb in regards to nutrition provided by the diet, is that a person should stop eating once his or her desire for water is greater than their desire for food. In other words, a person should stop eating once you feel more thirsty than hungry. [1] Although human instinct plays a large role in food choices under the Warrior diet, there are some definite dos and don't's including:

  • Avoiding refined processed foods

  • Eating only organic foods.

  • Minimize consumption of foods that are wrapped or bottled in plastic containers (plastic fibers contain estrogen chemicals dangerous to human health) [2]

  • Minimize alcohol consumption because alcohol compromises the liver's ability to rid the body of toxins [3]

  • Eat carbohydrates last during the evening meal in order to stabilize the level of insulin in the blood.

  • Cycle between high-fat and high-carbohydrate days in order to maximize the body's energy utilization efficiency and capacity to burn fat during exercise

Exercise

Exercise is done during the under-eating phase of the Warrior diet.

Whole body workouts are recommended, including squats, chin-ups, high jumps, frog jumps, kicks, punches, sprints and presses, as opposed to exercises that isolate one particular part of the body.

The other guidance for exercise is short and intense workouts, no longer than 20–45 minutes.

[1]

Controlled fatigue training (CFT)

Controlled fatigue training is an important part of the exercise outlined by the Warrior diet.

CFT means that a person continues to exercise when they are already fatigued, using workout sets that mimic the 'fight or flight' responses caused by the sympathetic nervous system, and that prehistoric people needed when they had to fight or hunt while hungry.

Origins

The first edition of the Warrior Diet book was published in 2002 by Dragon Door Publications.

Prior to that, in 1999, Hofmekler while still employed as health editor for Penthouse magazine, gave an interview with T Nation where he outlined the Warrior diet as well. [4] The Warrior diet was one of the first documented diets to incorporate the idea of intermittent fasting as a core concept of its nutrition plan, advocating that 'when you eat makes what you eat matter'. The premise of the diet is based on Hofmeklers personal experiences in the Israeli Defense Force, as well as studying the eating and training habits of warrior societies throughout ancient history, such as the Spartans and Romans. [5]

Feeding phases and autonomic nervous system

Eating cycles are broken down into two phases, the feeding phase and the fasting (or under-eating) phase.

These phases are influenced by the biology of the human autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. [5] The Warrior diet attempts to align feeding and exercise around these biological systems to maximize energy utilization, efficiency and metabolic functions around the circadian clock. [6] Under normal conditions the human body's sympathetic nervous system kicks in during the day and puts the body in an energy spending activity mode while the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in at night and puts your body in an energy replenishing, relaxed and sleepy mode. [7] Following the science of how these 2 systems ideally work, the Warrior diet aims to keep these systems operating that way by requiring an 18-hour under-feeding phase, ideally during the day, and a 4-6 hour over-feeding phase, ideally at night. [1]

The Warrior diet argues that eating at the wrong time, such as at a big lunch in the middle of a workday, interferes with the autonomic nervous system.

[10] Specifically by inhibiting the sympathetic nervous system and instead stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, making individuals sleepy and fatigued rather than alert and active during work hours.

[7]

Anti-oestrogenic principles

While the Warrior diet doesn't claim to be an entirely anti-oestrogenic diet, it does encourage reducing estrogen levels by reducing foods with phytoestrogenic content and other endocrine disrupting effects.

References

[1]
Citation Linken.wikipedia.orgThe original version of this page is from Wikipedia, you can edit the page right here on Everipedia.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Additional terms may apply.See everipedia.org/everipedia-termsfor further details.Images/media credited individually (click the icon for details).
Jul 28, 2016, 9:00 PM
[2]
Citation Linkbooks.google.comThe Warrior Diet
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[3]
Citation Linkcdc.gov"National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals"
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[4]
Citation Linkpubs.niaaa.nih.gov"Exploring Alcohols Effect on Liver Function"
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[5]
Citation Linkt-nation.com"The Warrior Diet: An interview with Penthouse editor Ori Hofmekler"
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[6]
Citation Linkdiet.com"Warrior diet overview"
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[7]
Citation Linkfitness.mercola.com"The Intermittent Fasting Dilemma: How Many Meals Per Day Should You Eat?"
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[8]
Citation Linkeducation-portal.com"The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System: Definition, Function & Effects"
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[9]
Citation Linksciencedirect.com"Tandem-Pore K+ Channels Mediate Inhibition of Orexin Neurons by Glucose"
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[10]
Citation Linkdx.doi.org10.1016/j.neuron.2006.04.032
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[11]
Citation Linkwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov16731510
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