The Warrior Diet: Switch on Your Biological Powerhouse for High Energy, Explosive Strength, and a Leaner, Harder Body

I give the diet - meant in the broadest sense as a lifestyle/eating pattern - five stars, but the book three or four.I (male, early 30s) successfully lost and kept off 30 pounds of body fat using the main principal explained in the book - controlled fasting consisting of 16-18 hours, including sleep, of little to no food during the day/active cycle, then a generous portion(s) of healthy food in the evening/rest cycle. I usually drank water throughout the morning (when thirsty), a handful of mixed nuts and/or an apple in early afternoon, whatever the family is having for dinner, then breakfast food for second dinner (usually bacon and eggs). I followed a minimalist strength and conditioning program  Kettlebell Simple & Sinister  3-4 days a week as well. The book has its own "workout", but I didn't follow it.The book starts with two chapters on the general philosophy of the diet: cultivating a Warrior Instinct and patterning one's life on the Warrior Cycle. For the former, it contrasts the predator/scavenger instinct of mindful, purposeful, useful eating (Predator) against mindless eating (Scavenger), and how the modern Western diet is basically a Scavenger diet of mindless fast and processed food designed to be highly palatable, feel good, and deliver quick but "empty" energy. The Warrior Cycle describes the daily pattern of energy out and energy in: day time is for expending energy, being creative, being productive and useful, and fueling only as much as needed for that (less than you think); night time is for recovery, healing, taking in energy (food), and resting and relaxing. In contrast, a pattern of constant eating minimizes the upside (and maximizes the downside) of both phases. Chapter 10 ("The Warrior Diet Idea") offers more on the philosophy and "why" of the diet.The next several chapters go into greater detail on the Undereating and Overeating phases. The Undereating phase is characterized as "less than a full meal" throughout the day (so around 400-500 calories total), eating only "live" foods such as raw vegetables, yogurt, and light protein such as whey or raw nuts (almonds are recommended). The Overeating phase is typical healthy eating fare: cooked vegetables, meat, and low-glycemic carbs such as rice (generally, it does talk about cycling high-fat and high-carb days). The rules are simply to begin with vegetables, end with carbs (if wanted or needed for performance reasons, though not if one is looking to lose fat), and stopping when more thirsty than hungry. This last trick is a neat hack; I would use it to pace myself by not drinking water during the meal, stopping when I was more thirsty than hungry, drinking a glass of water, and maybe (more often than not) coming back for more 20-30 minutes later. The meals I gorged, scarfing it down, I had an upset stomach.There is a brief chapter on "stubborn fat", which has it's own ebook that I would recommend.Chapter 8 compares the Warrior Diet to other diets.Chapter 9, "Lessons from History", is the historical background underlying the undereating/overeating pattern. It is interesting enough, but lacked references to historical documents, sources, etc. to substantiate the picture he's laying out. It's not a huge deal, I just took it with a grain of salt. I don't doubt the information, and the principles of undereating/overeating make sense even if they weren't widespread practice in ancient times.The remaining chapters on the diet include a Q&A, a discussion on sex drive and potency, and a chapter on women on the Warrior Diet.The second to last chapter is "The Warrior Workout", which is focused on joints and back strength, explosive movement (strength, speed, velocity), training to resist fatigue (but not training to failure), and keeping the session short (but intense). Lots of pictures, exercises, and routines to follow. For an untrained person, almost any exercise will benefit you; for a trained person, there are probably still things to learn here. Being a student of StrongFirst and Kettlebell: Simple & Sinister (referenced above), many of these training principles align with the philosophy of StrongFirst.The last chapter includes recipes and meal ideas, including desserts.So to summarize: The idea is simple (straightforward), but is counter-cultural; you will seem odd to your friends, family, and coworkers for not constantly "fueling" all day. Yet, when you adapt to this eating pattern, they will marvel at your seemingly endless supply of energy, focus, and productivity, while they remain in a fog from "grain brain", ride the sugar high/crash, or just are constantly focused on food. You will enjoy a daily pattern of retiring from the day with a hearty meal (or two), relaxation, recuperation, deep sleep, ready to rise and "get after it" the following day. The flaws of the book are some "quackery" about supplements (conveniently for sale on the author's website), lack of references throughout, particularly in the first two chapters, Chapter 8 (historical), and Chapter 10, and the Warrior Workout program (not principles, which are solid) being overly complex.

Okay...as someone who practices intermittent fasting I was excited about this book....but telling everyone to eat fruit nuts vegetables and snack all day. ..THEN PIG OUT WITH ONE HUGE MEAL AT NIGHT IS NOT FASTING.HAVING A CONSISTENT CARBOHYDRATE DIET OF FRUIT DURING THE DAY TOTALLY THROWS THE BODY INTO A STEADY STREAM OF INSULIN PRODUCTION.AS AN RN OF TWENTY THREE YEARS...I CANNOT GET EXCITED OVER A BOOK THAT PERPETUATES SNAKING ALL DAY LONG AND BINGING AT NIGHT....FASTING IS ABOUT ABSTAINING FROM FOOD...NOT GRAZING.

I loved this style of eating for a long time. I was able to follow the Warrior Diet plan of eating for two years. The worst two years of my life. I thought eating once a day (OMAD) was the best way of eating, ever. Something I could do the rest of my life. No foods were off limits at dinner time, that was my favorite part. I lost a ton of weight. Because I thought, like a lot of women, that taking up less space in the world is a good thing. That's what diet culture wants us to believe, isn't it?On the Warrior Diet I was starving, cranky and uncomfortable all day. On this diet, the pounds melted away. As did my health and sanity. I was at my lowest weight, and my lowest health.After 18 months on the Warrior Diet, my typical day looked like this: I started day dreaming of dinner the second I woke up. I spent half the day looking at dinner recipes online instead of working. I started dreaming about food at night. All I thought about was food. I didn't realize these were warning signals. My body was telling me it was starving. I wasn't eating enough. I was hungry. All. The. Time. All I ever thought about was food. I'd never been like this before. I was a different person. I was following the Warrior Diet, hanging on by tooth and nail. (When my nails weren't cracking from lack of calories.) I was thin, fit, I looked great, and it sucked.The warning signs were all around that this wasn't a natural, healthy or long term way to live. Duh! I now realize the Warrior Diet teaches you how to be bulimic (of the non-purging variety). You "starve" all day by restricting food, and then eat till you're overly full at night. Repeat day after day. Purge during the day, binge at night. This was my life as a bulimic, I just didn't know it at the time.And when my body had enough, and I had ignored all the food dreaming and warning signs, I lost control. My body took over. Thank goodness my will to live (eat) took over. For that I developed a raging binge eating disorder. Binge eating is a natural biological response to food restriction. Put a bowl of kibble in front of a starving dog, and they will binge. It's called survival!Humans are no more capable of controlling their food than they are capable of controlling their breath. You might be able to do it for a short period of time, but eventually, you’re going to start gasping for air (or food) as the case may be. (Words of Isabel Foxen Duke.)I was trying to force my body to eat in a way that went against my body's natural signals of hunger and fullness. If you want to eat small meals all day, that's fine. If you want to eat a huge dinner for breakfast, that's also fine. If your body feels its best eating once a day, that's fine too. The Warrior Diet was not fine for me. Lesson learned. If I could get in a time machine, I would never have read this book or followed any part of this diet in the first place. I hope this review helps someone avoid the same thing that happened to me.

It's rather a philosophical book, than a diet one. There are some concepts there that are right, but I know it because I read Dr. Jason Fung books about how insulin works and intermittent fasting, and those are the books that I would recommend for far better results. Author contradicts himself in many places. Phrases such as "I strongly believe", "It is believed" etc. etc are really off putting.I hoped that part about training will make up for the first part, but it did not.

This was my first real introduction to IF. Ori Hofmekler knows what he is talking about and the book is very interesting. I never thought I would cut out breakfast and because of him I have. But I have to admit I do have a light lunch and afternoon snack. So the one meal feast has not worked for me so far. I think you would have to go to gym late afternoon for this to work.

I read this book twice because I like the ideas presented in the book, it's certainly quite controversial when seen in light of most doctors and nutritionists recommend and I don't agree with all the assertions made but they are the authors views so you can accept them or leave them. I have taken the principles from this book and applied them for a few months and I like this mode of eating and I did lose some body fat when I first started it.

even if ya don't do it! some good new info there

Interesting new ideas, if you are not satisfied with your diet, worth the reading and trying the new lifestyle.