I've been using a variation of the Warrior Diet for the last few days to maintain muscle mass with little effort, which I thought would be terrible, but is actually blowing me away by how well it's working.
Wrote up a small piece here with my specific plan: http://www.xyque.com/freedom-with-the-warrior-diet/
Let me know what you think! I'll keep you all posted on the results, will post a 30-day update with pictures, weight, and body fat testing.
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Thread: One meal a day... amazed!
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12-08-2009, 06:58 PM #1
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One meal a day... amazed!
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12-08-2009, 07:03 PM #2
Do a search for the wave-length diet plan. His was contest prep, but it had a similar premise. I'm not too sold on the merits of this for building, but as long as you could mentally get past not really "eating" all day, I could see it being a good cutting tool. I don't buy into 6 meals a day. To me diet is a numbers game.
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12-08-2009, 07:30 PM #3
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12-08-2009, 07:32 PM #4
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I used to eat 6 BIG meals while gaining weight, yet I was never really satisfied. It's really hard to explain the feeling you get from this, it blows my mind. You eat that big meal and you feel like life is perfect, and then throughout the day when you're undereating, you have crazy energy levels.
And like I said earlier, I'm using this to maintain. I don't see this as being helpful to build for the typical person, it's just too difficult to get an excess of calories in that 4-hour span to push your weight up on the scale IMO. Perhaps with the right food choices and overdoing the fat content, but there's easier ways to gain. Stress-free maintenance is what I'm looking for.
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12-08-2009, 07:36 PM #5
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12-08-2009, 07:45 PM #6
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A good one that is much easier at the moment, but we'll see over the next few months. I've got several people doing a similar approach so we'll have some good data to compare.
The first few years you start bodybuilding, you'll be obsessed and meals, etc. won't be an issue getting them in. 5 years into it, sometimes you think to yourself that there's better things you want to be doing with your time. I'm in amazing shape and it's to the point where I'm very satisfied. Nobody but me cares whether my arms are 16" or 18", I'm not doing this professionally. So with that mindset that I now have, how can I maintain this amazing physique with as little effort as possible? That's where I'm coming from with this. It just feels EXTREMELY natural and healthy to eat this way, I feel fantastic so far.
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12-08-2009, 07:49 PM #7
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12-08-2009, 07:49 PM #8
i have been on warrior diet for about 3 years, will never go back to eating during the day,
2-4 hrs eating each evening after working out, i see my abs always,
have gained and lost weight on this diet, same as you would while eating multiple meals: to lean out, clean up the food as much as possible, cut out some carbs, to gain, just add butter and steak and eggs and cheese and oats and peanutbutter etc etc
never carry food with you, never be tempted to eat the **** they sell everywhere, never count calories, never get fat
also saves a lot of time, it really does
and every night you feast, happy as can be
glad to see someone using this diet to get into great shape, nice work man, i wish more people would try it, the diet hangups people have are sucking the enjoyment out of getting ripped, shouldnt be that way, should always be fun... just my two cents
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12-08-2009, 07:50 PM #9
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12-08-2009, 07:55 PM #10
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Dude I know! It's hard to explain how awesome you feel after the feast, you just feel so joyful and sleepy haha. I can certainly gain on this diet if I chose too if I added several fat sources.
As soon as your body gets used to the undereating stage, it's crazy what happens when you start eating at the feast - I start sweating within 5 minutes, I can feel my metabolism just firing right up. Very cool!
Do you fast completely during the day or snack on veggies/fruit to stave off until the feast?
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12-08-2009, 07:57 PM #11
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I think it's completely useless information. I think your body can utilize a large portion of it personally. You can literally feel your metabolism ramping up when you start eating, you'll start sweating within 5-10 minutes. I think your body goes into overdrive to utilize all the nutrients.
I only read the book once last week, but I think I remember that Ori referenced a study showing that protein absorption increased by over 30% after a period of undereating. Logically, it makes sense to me that based on human evolution, if there's a period of undereating, the body is going to be MUCH more receptive to nutrients and restoring the body when compared to always having food coming in 6-8 times a day. That's not what nature intended =)
Sometimes we do things the way we do things, because that's the way we've always done things. This has been a breath of fresh air, this diet rocks for maintenance. For the typical person, I don't think building would go well on it because you'd really have to pack in the food, but I honestly don't know - it might be incredibly successful!
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12-08-2009, 08:07 PM #12
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I think the thought process that sprouted this whole argument is that theres really no "reserves" for protein. Protein synthesis doesnt happen super fast and it makes you wonder, if theres nowhere to store excess.... what must logically happen to it?
But that's the bro-logic coming out. I mean for all intents and purposes the "protein storage" is primarily your muscles. Excess carbs go to glycogen, then fat, Excess fat goes to fat. Excess protein ... ?
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12-08-2009, 08:10 PM #13
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I'll give it a go just because recently I have been doing something somewhat similar without even knowing it had has been dubbed "The Warrior Diet."
Here is what I have been doing:
M-W-F split
On workout days I'd sip half a scoop of whey every 1-2hours. I'd workout at night and after workout pretty much shovel food down my throat.
On OFF days i'd just sip protein shakes, eat some eggs, not many carbs, pretty low calorie content. My belief is that after a day goes by after workout your muscles don't absorb as many nutrients as the day of the workout.
It seems like I lean out on off days and build muscle on workout days. It's been working I'll tell you that. I don't really know my maintenance intake is--if this term even exists--but I have been able to drop fat while making gains to all my lifts. So somethings working.
Thanks for sharing!
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12-08-2009, 08:11 PM #14
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12-08-2009, 08:15 PM #15
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I think it's certainly possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time - you just have to do it at different times in the day! Perhaps losing fat for 18 hours but maintaining muscle mass, and then repairing/anabolic state in muscles for 6 hours.
If you look at the history of Nutrition, we are just scratching the surface of knowledge... it will be interesting to see how this plays out!
Hawaiian - it took me about 1.5 days to get used to the hunger. No more hunger now, just energy and adrenaline all day long =)
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12-08-2009, 08:40 PM #16
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sounds really interesting, I would love to just eat once a day b/c of the time saving. I will def. give this a try once i get back from my vacation in about 2 months. Being hungry during the day is not really a problem since I have done this before, but I'm sure I was not on the right "diet" thanx for sharing
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12-08-2009, 08:58 PM #17
This.
Although when i was on vacation a month or two back, i was at a hotel for 3 weeks or so and was eating only once most of the time at the buffet which was huge and lots of variety, i would sometimes eat at night too b/c i got hungry but mainly it was once a day w/ whatever i wanted at breakfast. Over the 3 week period i think i just gained a bit of water weight cause the stuff was loaded with sodium, other than that i don't think i gained any fat. I did it mostly for convenience since i'm back to eating 4-5 meals a day now and body-composition wise i do look better than doing the 1 meal / day.However i've never counted calories and neither did i during the vacation so it's possible i went a bit overboard and let to some weight gain, but if macros are in tact i believe the approach could work. But all this stuff's too complicated to try to explain, way too many factors to be considered like age/metabolism/activity level and so on.
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12-08-2009, 09:32 PM #18
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There are SO many variables that can affect the scale, that's why scale weight in particular on this isn't a big deal to me. I'm very systematic in my experiments so we'll see what conclusions I can draw. The main variables I'm looking at are pictures, body fat %, and overall energy levels.
Just finished my overeating period, time for bed, feeling soooo satisfied.
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12-08-2009, 09:55 PM #19
I'm kind of interested in this... but do you count calories? I'd like to do a "recomp" with this type of diet. Right now I eat under maintenence for 3 days, then on the 4th day I eat roughly 4500 calories. I think this works great. My question is, would I be able to do that with this diet? I actually can eat 4000 calories in 1 sitting if need be.
Also, I train both endurance and weightlifting, so I train for 3 hours a day. Would I be able to get through my workout while eating barely anything?
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12-08-2009, 11:41 PM #20
Some might say you sound overconfident with your physique but you're looking real big and lean, definetly what I'm going for and you should be proud of the great gains you've made. I like the idea of using a warrior diet variation, definetly something i might try (especially during exam time where cooking multiple meals or going out to get food can become a pain in the ass). Good stuff!
"Every fourth quarter, I like to Mike Jordan 'em" - Jay-Z
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12-09-2009, 12:01 AM #21
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12-09-2009, 12:20 AM #22
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12-09-2009, 01:21 AM #23
As long as were talking about maintaining it could work. But for those who think they can bodybuild on this diet well, think again. Our body can only process around 35 g of protein at once without anabolics. Everything else is just going down the toilet. Now to bodybuild properly we would need around 1.5 g/per kg so 35 g is not even nearly enough.
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12-09-2009, 06:08 AM #24
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So a 4'11" 130 lb couch potato women can process 35g of protein at once, just as a 6'0" 200 lb bodybuilder could? That's INTERESTING! Do you have studies?
Like I mention in my article, this is an experiment, and I'm going off experimental data to see what works for MY physique and I thought you would all be interested in this. So I don't mean to disagree, but I do. I absolutely think my body after a period of undereating will absorb much more protein.
To show there's variables in protein absorption, read the abstract of this study:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/136/6/1504
"Direct measurements of protein synthesis from incorporation of labeled amino acids into individual tissues in animals showed that feeding stimulates protein synthesis in muscle, although the magnitude of the effect may depend on age, developmental stage, and type of muscle"
Another study showing that amino acids increase in the blood during undereating, priming the system for protein synthesis
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/6/932
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12-09-2009, 06:15 AM #25
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12-09-2009, 06:40 AM #26
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I will be doing a trial run of something similar that i picked up from the intermitent fasting thread. 8 hours a day eating 3 meals and fasting 16 hours for my cut.
Dont think i could fast with just one meal or pre/postwork meals, would be hardcore.
Seen so many people boasting personal experiences blowing '6 meals a day' and 'fasting=muscle loss' out of the water.
Should be a fun experiment.
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12-09-2009, 07:12 AM #27
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12-09-2009, 08:47 AM #28
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I didn't think the fasting was going to be very easy either, but after a day and a bit there's honestly no hunger. Very interesting feeling.
To the guy that says it isn't really practical... well, yes, it takes some self-discipline, and a bit of planning, but I'm coming from the mindset that you're already committed to bodybuilding and probably already getting at least 5 solid planned meals in a day.
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12-09-2009, 09:36 AM #29
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12-09-2009, 09:56 AM #30
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....
Exactly.
Sure, if you're not 100% dedicated and do enjoy your afternoon latte, business lunches, and other random meals, then you're not following a strict bodybuilding nutritional regime to begin with anyway, than *anything* else wouldn't be practical.
But if you're already in a strict diet routine, Warrior Dieting / Intermittent Fasting / Eat. Stop. Eat is AWESOME. It gives you so much more freedom, less time preparing meals, more energy and focus throughout the day, and that great full feeling in the evening before going to bed.
OP, great thread! I've been a fan of various Intermittent Fasting routines for a while now! I'm still trying to figure out how exactly to incorporate multiple-a-day high-intensity workouts with it without too much performance loss, but I'll get there...- Amateur Muay Thai 4-1
- Amateur MMA 1-1
[IIFYM Crew], [IF Crew], Fighter.
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