Warrior Diet Review: How I Began to Eat Steak and Lose Weight
Who doesn’t want to look like an ancient warrior? Especially if you are like I was 243 lbs of skinny fat. If you’re not familiar with the term, it doesn’t mean powerlifter or strongman fat, but emaciated arms and legs and blubber. I was a chubby lil pumpkin.
Not even me at my fattest. Fatty fat fat.
I am now 60lbs lighter and can that The Warrior Diet for 40 of that.
I picked up the book because I wanted that Ancient Warrior Physique. Believe me, this was not the first diet book I ever picked up, but it was the the only diet book I ever managed to follow and the only diet that really kept the weight off. The reason I was able to follow the recommendations: Simplicity.
The one basic rule was only eat once a day in the evening. That’s really it. That meant steak, butter, whatever I wanted was fine, but just once a day. With one big meal a day in the evening, you eat either nothing or coffee and a little bit of fruit or nuts during the day in case you need the energy.
So when I started, I cut out breakfast, lunch, and snacking. But I wasn’t even that hardcore, occassionally eating during the day if I had a reason (birthday lunch, or eating breakfast when visiting relatives, etc.). I even cheated a bit by having a danish with my coffee instead of fruit or nuts on a pretty regular basis. Point being, I didn’t have to think a whole lot, just obey the one big rule.
Now, according to most conventional thinking, I should have actually gotten fatter, more unhealthy, had major mood swings, and other nasty consequences. Doesn’t one meal a day ruin your blood sugar? Isn’t eating last thing in the evening the worst time to eat for fat loss because your metabolism is slowing down? Well the opposite happened. I lost weight and felt brimming with energy.
Ori Hofmekler, the author, a former Israeli commando and cartoonist for Penthouse, (yes, that’s his real resume) has some solid ideas about why this diet works and doesn’t have all the expected side effects. This diet can be beneficial for your blood sugar because you’re not jumping up and down on your pancreas (or stomach for that matter) by eating five times a day. It actually gets some rest. Also, yes, your metabolism is slowing down near bedtime, but you get higher quality sleep, something I can also testify to. So it is a trade off, but one with a net benefit. You do feel “hunger” but quickly learn to distinguish between actual hunger and just “habit hunger.” Actual hunger means a decline energy as a signal that you need fuel. Habit hunger means you’re used to eating at a particular time and place or eating a particular food.
While Ori doesn’t have the background one might expect for someone who writes a diet book, he has the only credential that matters to me: what he says actually works. It was the easiest diet I’ve ever done because when it was time to eat, I didn’t have to slow down or be all that choosy. The weight dropped off me like crazy, and I never said no to a steak once.
The Warrior Diet also has a lot of fun historical facts and reasoning behind it, and I realize it is a reality shift for most people. In spite of the fact that it is really only one simple rule to follow for diet, learning the reasons behind it can really get you motivated. This is the book that got me “hooked” on diet and fitness. I was interested before, but this was the first time something worked in a way that I could stick with. And not just worked a little bit either, but worked in spades.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Solter. John Solter said: I used this to lose 40 lbs & keep it off. http://www.eatsteakloseweight.com/warrior-diet-review-how-i-began-to-eat-steak-and-lose-weight/ [...]
no offense, but over 240 lbs is just fat, skinny fat applies to people with low bmi’s and high bf %’s.
Let us hold onto our illusions that we didn’t used to be just disgusting fat bastards.
Fair enough!By skinny fat, I meant I was fat without the corresponding comfort of being strong (I mean Paul Anderson was fat, but was the strongest man in the world). But yeah, just plain fat. And weak. And sad.