In an effort to become an ideal version of ourselves, we often look for external factors such as protein shakes, supplements, and extreme exercise routines to help us on our journey. However, although these can certainly be positive additions to our everyday lifestyle, the best way to strengthen every aspect of your body down to the smallest cells comes from understanding the body from the inside.
Intermittent Fasting is a type of diet that allows a restricted number of hours during the day in which you can eat. Even consuming more than 10 calories breaks the fast and you enter a metabolic state, so milk in your coffee is a big no-no. The rest of the time is known as a ‘fast’. Sounds restrictive?
When you become aware of the benefits of this diet and understand how it works, it will all make perfect sense. Let’s look at an example of intermittent fasting in a study that was carried out on mice.
The Intermittent Fasting Experiment
The mice were given the same food and amount of calories to eat over a time span of a few weeks. The only difference between the mice is that one was able to eat 24/7 while the other mouse had an 8-hour window to eat and the rest of the time he was fasting.
The mouse on the left is the mouse that could eat whenever he wanted. Eventually, he became obese.
The mouse on the right ate for 8 hours of the day and fasted for 16 hours. He was in optimal health, and his body had four times less body fat than the obese mouse who could eat any time.
Intermittent Fasting can be done with several different hour pairs for eating and fasting. The most popular ones are 13:11, 14:10, and 16:8. However, the greatest combination of them all is called the Warrior Diet or the 20:04.
Well, there are so many benefits to the Warrior Diet when it comes to the health of your body that the restrictive hours eventually become just a passing thought. Suffering from hair loss? Is your body far from its ideal condition? The Warrior Diet may well be the answer that you were looking for.
Let’s look at the Warrior Diet in greater detail and discuss its benefits for hair loss, diabetes, chronic illnesses, and much more.
What Is the Warrior Diet?
The simplest explanation for the diet is this:
The Warrior Diet restricts eating for 20 hours a day and allows eating for 4 hours a day.
The Warrior Diet is based on already tried and tested intermittent fasting rules such as 18:6 or 14:10 fasting and eating hours. However, as you can tell by the fasting span, it is a lot stricter than the traditional intermittent fasting diet. And with this strictness come a lot of new benefits.
The diet was developed by fitness specialist Ori Hofmekler in 2002 and has since become extremely popular with people who want to lose weight and bring their health back into the best state possible.
According to Hofmekler, the Warrior Diet was developed from the nutritional knowledge and survival science that has been passed down from our ancestors.
Consider how much food many of us are privileged to have at the moment. Supermarkets at every corner, fruits and vegetables from all over the world available 24/7, and of course, a plethora of fast food and quick meals any time of the day.
However, this is not the amount of food that our bodies naturally need throughout the day, and we certainly don’t need to eat everything all the time – although sometimes it may be difficult to resist as our “old brain”, you know the reptile one, basically says: “Calories, let’s eat as we might starve,” and thus overrides any common sense in the “new brain”.
The Warrior Diet helps your body feed during the right hours and then rest for the remaining hours of the day. Among other benefits that we will discuss later, this is a sigh of relief for your digestive system, pancreas, kidneys, and Thyroid gland.
The Philosophy of the Warrior Diet
Hofmekler believes that our bodies are pre-programmed to work according to biological cycles. The purpose of these cycles is to keep us balanced and improve our chances of survival.
Think about sleep for example. Biologically, humans are programmed to be active during the day and to sleep during the night. What happens when you stay up all night and mess up the system? You feel drowsy, lethargic, nauseated, and overall not ready to handle the day. The same is true when it comes to food.
When Hofmekler researched the Warrior Diet method, he realized that the interruption of these cycles causes illnesses for the body including chronic stress syndrome, weight gain, gland problems, and mental health issues. A disbalance in your eating cycle, in short, affects every aspect of your day and prevents you from being able to carry out positive thinking techniques.
How to Follow the Warrior Diet
If you decide to start the Warrior Diet, the first thing to remember is that you need to phase into it. Your body needs time to ease into the process, and you should never start anything new right away because it may shock your system – especially if your system is used to overeating on junk food.
Thus, the Warrior Diet has an introductory period that spans 3 weeks.
Week 1 – Phase One – Detox
The first week is a 7-day period that will slowly guide you into the Warrior Diet. During this week, for 20 hours of the day undereat and focus on detox foods. This includes vegetable juices, yogurt, raw fruits and vegetables, boiled eggs, and clear broths. During the 4 hours that you can eat, focus on making a raw vegetable salad with a simple olive oil dressing and some lean meat. You can always drink water, tea, and coffee without sugar throughout the day.
Week 2 – Phase Two – High Fat
During this phase, when you undereat for 20 hours focus on the same things as in week one. Vegetable juices, raw fruits and vegetables, dairy, and clear broth. During the 4 hours when you can eat, focus on cooked vegetables, lean meat, salads, and a handful of nuts. It’s important not to eat starches or grains during this week.
Week 3 – Phase Three – Fat Loss
Phase three switches between high carb days and high protein days. For example, you can start day one with a high carb day and then for day two follow a high protein day. But remember, everything you eat needs to come from healthy sources. Fruits, vegetables, dairy, and lean protein.
Some people only do three weeks of the Warrior Diet. However, in order to see long-term benefits and allow your body to reach its ideal health, this is an eating plan that can easily support you for a lifetime.
Benefits of the Warrior Diet
The following are the greatest benefits from following the Warrior Diet, although this is certainly not an exhaustive list.
The Warrior Diet Can Slow Hair Loss
Hair loss is a significant problem for many people across the world. There are many causes for hair loss including genetics, illnesses, accidents, and other causes. Luckily, with the advancement of technology, there are now many ways to stop hair loss and restore your hair with the Ideal combination hair transplant known as a DHI and FUE Sapphire hair transplant combination. When combined with intermittent fasting, you will dramatically improve your biomarkers, which in turn leads to you not losing additional hair and making your hair follicles stronger.
The Warrior Diet goes hand in hand with this procedure and greatly improves the strength of your hair follicles. The Warrior Diet and the intermittent fasting that comes with it help to keep your body balanced, which means that it will greatly reduce stress.
Stress is one of the main factors of hair loss because it affects the body at a cellular level. When the cells of your hair follicles become stressed they also become weak, which means that hairs can easily break or the hair follicles may die completely and fall out.
The Warrior Diet encourages you to eat foods that are rich in nutrients and vitamins that your body needs to function properly, and this directly affects the health of your hair as well. Of course, if you are suffering from hair loss, you may also consider boosting the strength of your system with the Ideal hair vitamins – great not only for stronger hair but also for your overall health.
The Warrior Diet Helps with Weight Loss
The most popular benefit of the Warrior Diet is guaranteed weight loss. Intermittent fasting keeps your food intake under control, stops you from snacking, and discourages you to eat random meals without thinking about how they will digest in your body or what nutrients they will provide you with.
If you only eat for 4 hours a day, your body spends the rest of the day cleaning itself up, which includes getting rid of excess fat storage. Plus, it will not be possible for you to eat too many calories in a single day on this diet as long as you ensure that you are eating the right foods.
The Warrior Diet Lowers Blood Sugar Levels
Many studies have shown that the Warrior Diet helps to control blood sugar levels and stops your body from releasing too much insulin. This is especially important for people who suffer from Type 2 Diabetes – the type of diabetes that is acquired through life through bad eating habits that waste too much insulin.
However, if you suffer from Type 1 Diabetes, or you are currently on medication for your diabetes, please consult your doctor before you go on the Warrior Diet.
The Warrior Diet Lowers Blood Pressure
The weight loss effect of the Warrior Diet also goes hand in hand with lower blood pressure. Because your body is getting rid of excess weight that covers our abdomen and internal organs, it becomes much easier for the body to handle its daily activities. It is also much easier for your heart to pump enough oxygen throughout your body if there isn’t fat in the way to stop the oxygen from reaching your cells.
The Warrior Diet Reduces Inflammation
Inflammation is a common problem for many of us. Although it can of course be a result of an illness and medication, it is more often the cause of poor food choices, constantly being in a metabolic state, and a dehydrated system. Because the Warrior Diet encourages you to drink water and to eat healthy foods, inflammation becomes less of a problem.
In turn, this means that your brain will no longer experience the dreaded brain fog and your cells will not be too stressed to work properly. Many people who follow the Warrior Diet report higher brain functions, better concentration, fewer causes for instant stress, and better sleep. It lets the digestive system rest, which triggers autophagy and other longevity pathways and therefore reduces inflammation.
How to get started with intermediate fasting?
Millions of pages have been written on the benefits of the Warrior Diet and how it can improve our health and prolong the years of our lives, the problem is of course getting started and not giving up.
Start with 13:11 weekdays
The good news is that you don’t have to start with the most hardcore fasting right away. Simply start by skipping breakfast (please note that anything over 10 calories is a big no-no, so no milk in the coffee or nuts) and try to keep a circadian rhythm diet or 13:11 during weekdays if it is hard on the weekend.
Keep track from day one with an app such as Zero.
Level up to 16:8 weekdays
Once you have mastered the 13:11, try to increase to 16:8 during weekdays. Basically eat no later than 18:30 (it’s also great for the body to have 3-4 hours of fasting before going to bed) and have a late lunch at 12:30. On the weekend (2 days a week), you can allow yourself and your family some quality time but keep the 13:11 fast.
It only takes 1-2 weeks of being on the 16:8 diet to see results, especially combined with training. You will quickly notice improvements in your digestion and concentration levels, along with better sleep. But as you level up to follow the Warrior Diet, the deeper benefits will become more apparent and you will quickly shred not only fat but also see anti-aging benefits appearing (your face won’t be swollen, you won’t lose hair in the shower, etc).
#Life hack when you get super hungry during a 20 -24 hour fast
Sometimes the bacteria in your gut will scream for food, especially if you slept poorly or had junky food or wine during the weekend. When this happens, there is a great hack – go to the gym and sip on a protein shake (2 boiled eggs work also, but don’t over boil them as up to 33% of nutrients disappear when you do). If you consume a max of 120-130 calories during a hard workout, you will still stay in ketosis and won’t break your fast.
If the above is too hardcore, simply take a walk as this will release fatty acids to your bloodstream and make you feel full.
Let me and our team know how it goes! Good luck!