Warrior Diet

A combination of overeating and und undereating

The Warrior Diet book caught my eye while I was in the bookstore and I decided to try it not so much because I needed to lose weight as because I found the concept interesting. I did feel the need to eat differently, and I thought perhaps I could learn that from the book. I thought maybe there was something I was doing wrong and on which I could approve.

What seemed to be rather strange to me was the concept of undeating during the day. Certainly during the existence of wars warriors were forced by nature to eat less during the day for fear they may miss an attack while they were busy eating a meal, but in this modern age there is no justification for it.

Another thing that appeared strange to me with the Warrior Diet was its emphasis on eating a heavy meal in the evening. In many diet plans the emphasis appears to be on eating a light meal in the evening or eating earlier in order to have the opportunity to burn off the calories before going to bed.

Of course, its intent is to increase the metabolic rate when you eat only at night and allowing you to lose weight by tapping into your fat resources during the undereating phase.

Although for some that may work, for the average person it is going to have the opposite effect because of the tendency of the metabolism to enter into a “starvation” mode when the body does not get the food it requires. In addition, eating a very heavy meal at night when there is less chance of burning the excess calories may provide more of an opportunity for weight gain.

In spite of my concerns, I decided to try the Warrior Diet in an effort to discover if my concerns were justified or I was looking at the diet from a wrong angle. For me at least I discovered my fears were well founded.

After two weeks on the diet not only did I not lose weight, I actually gained three pounds. I am not sure why that occurred, but I am assuming it is a combination of eating a heavier meal late in the evening and undereating during the day when I am the most active. I do not normally have problems with gaining weight but the design of this diet actually decreased my metabolism, thus making it work at a slower pace than it normally does.

The Warrior Diet may have worked for those soldiers in the past that had the need to be alert during the day, but for me it had the opposite effect. Both my roommate and I tried the diet, and she had the same results I did.

Perhaps a man’s harder working metabolism has different effects, but all of the women I know who tried the Warrior Diet had the same results I did.

On the other hand for someone needing to eat healthy and gain and few pounds the diet is fantastic.

Review by Elizabeth Camponelli