Starving Yourself for 1 Day?

[SkyDaddy]

Hi.

Would it be beneficial at all, to starve yourself for one day? I.e. no food but water, all day. Then maybe a big meal at the end of the day, like that warrior diet.

Then the next day you would go back to normal. You'd do this once a week.

Would it aid in fat loss? Sudden shock to your body, but it wouldn't adapt to it since it'd just be once a week. Maybe you could do a refeed the following day. Most people do refeeds whatever.

[Flat4Suby]

Maybe someone more educated can respond, but other than the pain of not eating the whole day and starving, I don't see benefits. If you want to lose weight, just eat a little less daily, no need to starve yourself and have a crappy day once a week.

[DHSH]

Hi.

Would it be beneficial at all, to starve yourself for one day? I.e. no food but water, all day. Then maybe a big meal at the end of the day, like that warrior diet.

Then the next day you would go back to normal. You'd do this once a week.

Would it aid in fat loss? Sudden shock to your body, but it wouldn't adapt to it since it'd just be once a week. Maybe you could do a refeed the following day. Most people do refeeds whatever.

I do this every day (one meal a day every day). It has no benefit to fat loss other than perhaps making it easier for some people to stick to a deficit, if they have trouble when eating more meals. See Eat Stop Eat and Lean Gains diet.

[Flat4Suby]

^I do a similar thing where I eat around 800 calories during the day and consume about 2000 between 7:30PM and 11PM ish before bed. It just works for me because I like to eat a lot after I workout at night and just a little during the day when my ass is on a chair at a desk.

[MikeK46]

Hi.

Would it be beneficial at all, to starve yourself for one day? I.e. no food but water, all day. Then maybe a big meal at the end of the day, like that warrior diet.

Then the next day you would go back to normal. You'd do this once a week.

Would it aid in fat loss? Sudden shock to your body, but it wouldn't adapt to it since it'd just be once a week. Maybe you could do a refeed the following day. Most people do refeeds whatever.

No. What will determine fat loss is your total weekly/monthly caloric deficit, not your eating pattern. Eating 1 meal/day is fine, you can do that every day if you want to. It's called a warrior diet.

[nobrah]

Would it be beneficial at all, to starve yourself for one day?

Beneficial and starve aren't words that go together. Didn't you watch Sesame Street?

Then maybe a big meal at the end of the day, like that warrior diet.

The warrior diet doesn't disallow food during the day. You basically described eat stop eat, which is an actual fast for 24+ hours once or twice per week.

Would it aid in fat loss?

Do the math and compare it with calorie restriction. Basically, yes it can aid in fat loss, but not by any magic other than calories in vs. calories out (at least in a significant way).

[PBateman2]

Fundamental laws of thermodynamics will always hold true. Like the above...cals in vs cals out.

Your thread title "Starving" sounds almost painful...lol.

[FitnessCPA]

I do this every day (one meal a day every day). It has no benefit to fat loss other than perhaps making it easier for some people to stick to a deficit, if they have trouble when eating more meals. See Eat Stop Eat and Lean Gains diet.

I have been toying with this idea for months and I might give it a go.

Got a couple questions if you don't mind:

1. What time do you eat?
2. What time do you work out?
3. How many calories do you eat in the meal?
4. What foods does a typical meal consist of?

I have no doubt that I could scarf down my required 3,300 calories while hitting macros and micros, but I would probably end up getting slightly fewer micros than my normal 3 meals a day because I probably couldn't eat 4-5 fruits and two pounds of vegetables plus an additional ~2,500 calories of other stuff. Not a big deal, really, because I probably go overboard on fruits and vegetables now anyway.

[Flat4Suby]

^I know your questions weren't aimed at me, but are you bulking?

[FitnessCPA]

^I know your questions weren't aimed at me, but are you bulking?

Yep. But whether bulking or cutting, I'm still always hungry. Maybe not always hungry, but I love eating. If I had no restrictions I'd probably eat 5,000 calories a day.

[SkyDaddy]

If the warrior diet has no fat loss benefits, what's the point in it exactly?

Also if you got your whole daily protein intake in one sitting, would your body really be able to process/digest 150g+ of protein? Surely it would just get rid of most of it?

[nobrah]

If the warrior diet has no fat loss benefits, what's the point in it exactly?

Well, in the case of the warrior diet specifically, the point is to sell you a book. There's also been some compelling research on intermittent fasting in general (you can find a nice collection at www.leangains.com).

Also if you got your whole daily protein intake in one sitting, would your body really be able to process/digest 150g+ of protein? Surely it would just get rid of most of it?

If you can eat so much protein that your body can't process it, you're probably a world class professional eater. The point being that your body is damn good at managing what you throw at it.

[hilltopper1993]

Yep. But whether bulking or cutting, I'm still always hungry. Maybe not always hungry, but I love eating. If I had no restrictions I'd probably eat 5,000 calories a day.

know the feeling. A casual family meal in my house can easily hit 4-5000 calories while casually talking and enjoying yourself. In a totally non binging way, some people are just food families/people.

[in10city]

You will extend your lifespan by exactly 23.6777 days.

[krete77]

I think the word starving is a bit misleading here. What came to my mind is fasting. I personally think fasting for a whole day is a good thing. From experience, I will have higher energy and feel leaner. Actually, I do this quite often but not exactly starving myself. Like take for example, myself today, I didn't have one bite to eat until about 7pm tonight (that is about 19 hours). That means I went all the way from when I went to bed up until a few hours ago without anything besides coffee and a half a banana.

The longer I can hold myself off from eating, the better I feel...and it sets me up to stay in a deficit easier since the later I eat, the less food I'm able to consume before I go back to bed. It's worked well in my favor. I can't speak for anyone else though.

I've also heard it used in religious situations, for things such as prayer, or even for physical/spiritual healing. I have ZERO experience in either of these however.

[Flat4Suby]

Yep. But whether bulking or cutting, I'm still always hungry. Maybe not always hungry, but I love eating. If I had no restrictions I'd probably eat 5,000 calories a day.

haha I hear ya. well you don't have to necessarily eat all your cals in one meal like DHSH. Like i said, i eat a little during the day and save the bulk of my calories after my workout, for a "feeding window" of about 3 hours. I'll start the window by eating a big post work out dinner, then just literally keep snacking every 20 minutes making sandwiches, eating almonds, cashews, cottage cheese, cereal...man anything to hit my macors. My dinner is usually around 500 cal and then I eat the rest in small snacks while watching TV or doing what ever. This kind of night feeding does kind of make you need to stay near food the whole night though so I only do it when I have work the next mornings/during the week and I'm at home anyway. Weekends I don't eat like this.

Another great advantage is if its like 9pm and I realize I have 500 more cals to go and I've met most of my macros, I can just drive to mcdonalds and grab a big mac or something. So it really helps you splurge responsibly because you see what you have left at the end of the day, and decide what "treat" to use it on instead of molding your macros for the rest of the day after say a cheat lunch. I obviously follow IIFYM haha.

[FitnessCPA]

^Seems like you've got a good system in place for yourself.

Right now I just eat three meals a day and they get gradually bigger. For example, breakfast 800 calories, lunch 1,000, dinner 1,400. Give or take.