My trainer Steve Beattie has been talking about the Warrior Diet since he started it a number of months back. I was waiting for him to find its pitfalls and switch to a different way of eating, but alas he has made a dietstyle (this should have been made a word a long time ago) out of it. See my interview with him below:

Foodcoach: What makes the Warrior Diet unique compared to other proposed diets?

Steve Beattie: Everyone has a diet.  Our diet is what/when/how and why we eat.  However, the word ‘diet’ in our society has gained a negative connotation as something dreadful we have to do to reach a weight loss goal.  The Warrior Diet is more like the lifestyle diet.  Within days, certainly within the first week, of being ‘on’ the WD it seemed like the most natural way for me to eat.  I never feel like I am going without but rather I spend my day anticipating the great feast I’m going to have that night.

FC: What are the 4 or 5 top principles behind it?

SB: The main principal of the WD is to follow the natural hormonal cycle of the body.  Our parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for our sleeping, repairing and digesting.  When we have a big meal this system takes over.  This is why we feel sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner.  Our sympathetic nervous system is in control of our adrenals and keeping us alert.  We want this to be the dominant system during the day.  The WD works within these two systems.  In the evening we begin our over-eating phase, which will last about 6 hours.  The order in which we eat our evening meal is important for digestion.  We should start with raw fruits and vegetables, then cooked vegetables and protein, followed by more cooked vegetables and finally starchy carbohydrates (I include dessert in this category!).  The under-eating phase lasts for the next 18 hours, eight of which are sleeping hours, when we eat very little.  The only food allowed during this time is raw vegetables and easy to digest whey protein.  This is because our digestive system is not fully engaged and these foods come with their own enzymes so our system is not stressed.  It is important that we don’t make a meal of these foods; just enough to take the edge off the hunger.  I often don’t eat anything at all, or just a recovery protein shake after a workout.

FC: What science supports the Warrior Diet?

SB: The science behind the WD is well established.  In both Ori Hofmekler’s books, “The Warrior Diet” and “Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat, The Science of Physical Perfection”, he references well over 100 different studies that support his claims on the effects of insulin, fasting, glycogen storage, nutrient timing, fat mobilization the list goes on.  What is important is that Hofmekler does not make any unsupported claims.

FC: As my trainer, I know that you have been following this ‘dietstyle’ for a while. What was your personal draw to it and how has it been for you?

SB: About 10 years years ago, around my 30th birthday, I began to develop some food sensitivities.  I tried eliminating various food.  It would work for a while but then the symptoms would come back.  This went on for years. I would feel better for a while, but then feel much worse.  About 3 years ago I learned about Metabolic Typing and discovered that I was a protein type.  According to this I would do better getting as many as 50% of my calories from protein, 30% from fat and 20% from carbohydrates.  I was eating the exact opposite.  Around this time the ‘Caveman Diet’ came out.  It dawned on me that until very recently humans didn’t move around much. We have optimized our bodies and digestive systems to take advantage of the food available to us.  For the past 2 years I have been following the principals of the Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain.  The Warrior Diet was just a natural progression of this process.  The book talks about slowly increasing the length of the under eating phase.  I went cold turkey.  One Monday morning I just stopped eating.  It was easy right from the start and I never looked back.

FC: The nature of the diet is not for everyone, for both physiological and psychological reasons. From your perspective, who is  most likely to benefit from it?

SB: I believe anyone who can do it will benefit from it.  But the people who will be successful at doing it are the ones who don’t have an appetite in the morning, and those that like to have really big dinners.  I have spent my career as a trainer nagging people to eat breakfast – it’s the most important meal.  And don’t binge in the evening – it will make you fat.  I don’t know yet if people who don’t like breakfast are the same people who like to overeat in the evening, but perhaps these people have a more instinctual connection to their food and would benefit the most from the Warrior Diet.

FC: Is there anything else that you want to mention about the Warrior Diet?

SB: The greatest benefit, and unexpected benefit, I have experienced from the Warrior Diet is that it has healed my food sensitivities.  I was gluten and lactose intolerant and lived with constant pain, GI ‘emergencies’ and a general feeling of being unwell.  All that is gone and I have never felt this good.  It is this feeling of wellness that spawned my Fitter By 40 project.

Steve’s Bio: I’ve been a personal trainer for four years. My fitness philosophy is simple: I believe that you should be able to live well, be pain free and be able to do all of the things you want to do in life.

Learn more at fithedonist.blogspot.com