The Warrior Diet, developed by satirical artist Ori Hofmekler, applies primitive living habits to the routines of modern life. Hofmekler believes that many of today's health problems stem from routines the human body finds unnatural. The Warrior Diet includes only one major meal daily. If you follow the Warrior Diet, you snack on small amounts of healthy food and drink during the day and eat one satisfying meal at night. Details change as the plan progresses through weekly adaptive stages.
Hofmekler's Theory
The Warrior Diet plan guides participants in a paleolithic pattern of eating, working and sleeping. Hofmekler, a former Israeli Special Forces soldier, encourages you to eat simple food similar to the diet your paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors would have eaten in the wild. Hofmekler suggests that you divide your day into an active under-eating phase and a short overeating healing and resting period. During the day's active phase, you intentionally eat fewer calories than you burn in your daily activities. In the resting phase, you eat nourishing food until satisfied. At the end of the evening meal, you sleep.
Active Phase
When following the Warrior Diet, you start the day with one or two glasses of water flavored with citrus juice and a cup of coffee or tea. The first meal comes at mid-morning and could be a piece of fruit or a glass of fruit or vegetable juice. At noon you drink another glass of vegetable juice. An early afternoon snack could consist of a small bowl of berries, and a late afternoon snack could be coffee laced with milk foam. Prepare for an evening workout with a glass of water or a cup of tea and recharge after exercise with water.
Resting Phase
Your main meal begins at the end of your day's activities. An active day lasts from 16 to 18 hours, and your evening meal commences just before bedtime. During this overeating phase, dieters follow simple rules designed to naturally control appetite and balance the diet. The meal starts with salad and progresses to lean proteins and cooked vegetables. You conclude the meal with carbohydrate foods. When you feel thirst instead of hunger, drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes. If you still feel hungry after the break, eat more food until you feel thirsty again.
Fine-Tuning
Hofmekler recommends trying the Warrior Diet for only one or two days a week for the first few weeks, giving your body time to adjust to the new regimen. A 2007 study of alternate-day fasting and its effect on human health, published in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," supports some of Hofmekler's claims for the benefits of controlled fasting. Subjects fasted for 20 hours one day and ate regular meals on the alternate day. Some risk factors for diabetes declined after three weeks of the alternate-day fasting. The cholesterol levels of some participants improved, and some individuals appeared to burn fat more efficiently.
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