What Is the Warrior Diet?
The Warrior Diet does not involve eating small amounts of food like one would have to do if they were stranded on a battlefield or eating whatever they could find in the wild.
The Warrior Diet, which author Ori Hofmekler created in 2001, is an intermittent fasting diet that only allows you to eat during a 4-hour window each day.
The diet is based on the premise of a 20-hour daily fast, with the remaining four hours as an “unlimited” feeding window.
Breaking down your fasting hours would show that you are fasting for 12 hours out of your 16 waking hours every day.
Hofmekler claims that his approach to meal planning, detailed in his books and online content, can improve your athletic performance, resilience, hormones, and more.
The Warrior Diet is not a diet plan meant to help you gain or lose weight. This approach to eating is more general and could potentially have some benefits.
How to Eat Healthy for 4 Hours a Day
If you’re only allowed to eat for four hours daily, can you eat whatever you want?
Although it is technically possible to see results by doing that, it will not happen quickly.
Instead of following a modern diet, it is recommended that you follow a diet similar to that of the Paleolithic era, which includes whole, unprocessed foods.
Paleo Diet Foods
- Meats (poultry, beef, lamb, turkey, pork)
- Nuts/Seeds (almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds)
- Eggs (pastured or free-range)
- Fruits (avocados, bananas, berries, apples, pears, oranges)
- Vegetables (onions, carrots, leafy greens, peppers)
- Healthy Fats/Oils (coconut, avocado, extra virgin olive oil)
- Fish/Seafood (trout, salmon, shrimp, shellfish)
- Potatoes
The paleo diet emphasizes eating organic, non-processed foods, but you don’t have to follow it strictly.
After you finish your fast, eating healthy foods before indulging in snacks or other treats is a good idea. There are some things that you should try to avoid.
Food/Drinks to Avoid
- Trans-fats (margarine, labeled as hydrogenated)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup (soda, fruit juices, candy, ice cream)
- Highly Processed Foods (meal replacements)
- Vegetable Oils (corn, soybean, sunflower)
It would be best if you avoided candy, Mountain Dew, cake, and regular ice cream. Try replacing sugary drinks with healthier alternatives like La Croix water, Halo Top ice cream, and diet drinks (in moderation) if necessary.
The following are general guidelines for what you should and should not eat. I recommend eating healthy and eating until you’re full. You’ll be amazed by how quickly this happens.
You can either eat one large meal or split it into two smaller meals, one at the beginning and one at the end of your four-hour eating period.
I prefer to eat small portions throughout the day, so I don’t overeat at any time. I find that the long fasting times are easier to handle when I wear a compression garment, and I can avoid digestion issues, bloating, and stomach pain.
There’s no need to worry too much about it; you’ll figure out what works best over time.
How Intermittent Fasting Became Popular
The Warrior Diet is a popular fasting craze because it produces rapid results and has health benefits. Hofmekler believed in the ancient warrior lifestyle, where hunter-gatherers would eat little during the day and have a massive meal at night.
He suggested that the stress on the body from not eating would eventually lead to a healthier mental and physical state, even though few of his claims were backed up by science.
More recent studies about fasting have found evidence that it may help with Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insomnia.
Fasting has shown to be beneficial, and why do people like myself love the warrior diet?
How to Exercise Safely While Fasting
Although dieting is essential to a weight loss program, it’s also important to not forget the other 20 percent.
One of the negative aspects of intermittent fasting is that you may feel more tired during physical activity. However, there are ways to combat this.
How to Exercise on the Warrior Diet
- Schedule your workouts about an hour before your eating period starts
- Perform strength/weight training first (10-20 minutes)
- Do a cardio session for 30 minutes (treadmill, elliptical, jog/run)
- Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly
- Perform HIIT (high-intensity interval training) routines to maximize workouts
Benefits of the Warrior Diet
What are the claims about the merits of this diet, and is the Warrior Diet just an enhanced protocol?
Although intermittent fasting has been gaining popularity in the health and fitness industry, it is still unclear if controlled fasting has any health or performance benefits.
- It May Help You Lose Fat
There is a lot of interest in special diets for losing fat. Several popular diets claim to have found the key to balancing energy. According to some research, one-meal-per-day protocols are more effective at weight loss than diets containing multiple daily meals.
- It Might Be Effective for Countering Obesity
Diets work differently for everyone. Compared to people with a healthy weight, interventions to help people who are overweight or obese are more effective only if they can be practically maintained as a lifestyle.
It is believed that fasting helps to curb uncontrolled eating habits and other negative behaviors associated with obesity. However, these claims are far from comprehensive.
- It Could Improve Your Memory
Your choices about what foods to eat, how to eat them, and when to do so affect much more than your body composition.
Some researchers have concluded that intermittent fasting might positively affect animals by staving off adverse effects such as cognitive decline, memory loss, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Although these studies may not apply to human beings, they are conducted on animal subjects.
- It May Reduce Inflammation
There are both positive and negative aspects to inflammatory responses. While localized inflammation can be beneficial in healing specific tissues, there are also downsides to inflammation.
Fasting for an extended period may help to reduce inflammation in the body by limiting the accumulation of markers such as IL-6 (interleukin-6) and homocysteine.
These biomarkers can indicate an increased likelihood of inflammation or even cardiovascular disease.
The study subjects conducted the religious holiday of Ramadan, during which they fast for multiple days. This is distinct from the Warrior Diet’s protocol.
- It Saves Time
You can’t avoid the fact that meal prep takes time. If you prefer to eat three or more meals from whole foods, you can spend a lot of time in the kitchen, which can take away minutes from other areas of your life.
The Warrior diet is simple and is one of its best features. If you restrict your eating to only four hours daily, you will probably have more free time during the rest of the day.
Instead of ordering takeout for lunch, use your lunch break to do a quick workout. Instead of making breakfast from scratch, hit the gym early.
- It Allows You to “Indulge”
If you’ve followed a restrictive diet for an extended period, you’re well aware that it can be just as challenging mentally as it is physically.
The Warrior Diet has some good points. If you limit your food intake to four hours, you may feel like you’re “indulging” in more food because you’re eating it all at once.
If you’re always hungry or frustrated with your diet of small meals, try sitting down to eat one sizeable satisfying meal instead. This will help you stick to your caloric goal.
5 Negatives of the Warrior Diet
- May Be Challenging
It will be tough to switch from eating 3-6 meals daily to a 20/4 fasting diet.
Many people do not see this as a long-term solution and will drop out early. Sadly, too many people start a diet, lose a lot of water weight, and then return to their regular eating habits, which only causes the weight to return. To see the benefits, you must keep using it for 2-3 months.
Other drawbacks to the program include following a specific diet and exercise regimen.
I recommend that people fast for shorter periods, eating small portions of fruits and vegetables, or if that is not possible, follow Leangain’s Protocol, which allows for a 14 to 16-hour fast.
- It would be best if you Eased Into It
This is a suggestion.
If you have never fasted before, you should not try to do it for a long time at first. Start with short fasts and gradually increase the time you fast. First, you should fast for 10 hours, then 12, then 14, until you get used to the eating schedule of 20/4.
If you have never tried to quit smoking suddenly, you know how tough cold turkey can be, which may negatively affect your mental health in the short term. If you don’t go cold turkey, it may take days, weeks, or months to quit smoking successfully, but it’s worth taking the slow and steady route if you can stay with it. This activity is not suitable for people who are not patient.
- Possible Nutrient Deficiencies
It can be challenging to consume all the nutrients your body needs in a day when you only eat 1-2 meals. There will always be something missing from your diet, no matter how healthy you try to be.
Missing out on nutrients while eating healthy can lead to deficiencies if you eat unhealthily.
I believe that as long as people have stable health, they will be fine if they do not eat during their fasting cycles.
- Exercise May Be Hampered
Although it may be difficult to maintain 100 percent energy during a prolonged fast, there are many ways to overcome this. If you are fasting, you can have a couple of small meals, moderate exercise, or change your routines.
You should try to do more strength training instead of just doing more cardio or exercising an hour after you eat. Try out different combinations of workouts and see what works best for you.
If you stick with fasting, you may find that your performance improves.
- No Additional Health Benefits Compared to Other Intermittent Fast Diets
Studies on the warrior diet have not found any additional health benefits compared to other intermittent fasting routines. However, people following the warrior diet are more likely to eat less during the shorter period they are allowed to eat.
If you go on this program, you will still get the benefits of fasting and have a chance to burn extra fat.
Why the Warrior Diet Is the Best Intermittent Fasting Method
The Warrior Diet is an effective way to lose weight and gain muscle because it combines calorie cutting with exercise.
This is one of the best forms of fasting because it is not restrictive, and you can eat during your eating cycles. You will lose weight faster if you avoid junk food.
It takes more effort to go without food for 20 hours than 16, so it will take some time to get used to. It would be best if you did not start a fasting diet without gradually easing into it. If you are worried about your health or have an eating disorder, you should talk to your doctor before beginning this weight loss program.
I want to make it clear that this kind of fasting is not appropriate for everyone and that it is not recommended for people with type 1 diabetes or for women who are pregnant or nursing. The Warrior Diet may appear to be a healthier way of living, but it’s not always the case.
The Way of the Warrior (Diet)
So, what’s the word on the Warrior Diet? What are the benefits of Hofmekler’s approach to eating?
Strictly speaking, it depends. The diet lessens one’s intake to only 4 hours of eating per day, with a 20-hour fasting window.
Although it can be successful for some people, it may not be worth pursuing. Some research suggests that fasting can be beneficial, but it can also be risky for certain groups of people.
There is no harm in trying the Warrior Diet, but remember that following this diet is unnecessary to be healthy.
