Ori Hofmekler's Book?

Hi

Recently I came across a book by Ori Hofmekler called the “Warrior Diet”. I don’t make claims of being an expert in nutrition and I’m no doctor but what was written in this book totally discombobulated me.

Basically, the diet recommends “controlled fasting” (whatever that might mean) during the day and eating one big meal at the end of the day. This is supposed to increase one’s metabolism and to burn fat. No disrespect to the author but this goes against the grain of everything I’ve read so far.

I thought frequent meals was the way to go when trying to shed bodyfat. That’s why I decided to consult you on this issue. If there are knowledgeable people around here (and I’m sure there is) would you please explain to me how exactly this is supposed to work? Does anybody have any practical experience with this diet? How did it go?

I’ll provide a little background information about myself so that you can judge whether the Warrior diet will be suitable for me. I first started training bodybuilding for two years and during that period I ate six meals a day. But I didn’t like what bodybuilding was doing for me and I switched to powerlifting.

During this time I ate four meals a day. Right now I don’t train with weights. I do various bodyweight exercises, agility drills and a bit of running. I do exercises like one-arm pushups, pistols, pullups, I like to do exercises on the rings once in a while - you get the idea mostly gymnastics type of training where I try to maintain maximum tension throughout the whole body.

With that said, will the deprivation phase during the day hamper my ability to generate maximum tension while doing the exercises? Will I have enough energy if I don’t eat all day? I’m not that fat but a reduction of bodyfat is definitely on my list of priorities and I feel now is the time that this issue should be addressed.

Currently, I’m eating three normal-sized meals a day. I have never been on a diet before and I’m a bit daunted by the thought of not eating anything the whole day.

I hope somebody will be able to explain the Warrior diet to me and to provide some suggestions for my situation.

Thanks.

[quote]bogyman wrote:
Hi

Recently I came across a book by Ori Hofmekler called the “Warrior Diet”. I don’t make claims of being an expert in nutrition and I’m no doctor but what was written in this book totally discombobulated me.

Basically, the diet recommends “controlled fasting” (whatever that might mean) during the day and eating one big meal at the end of the day. This is supposed to increase one’s metabolism and to burn fat. No disrespect to the author but this goes against the grain of everything I’ve read so far.

I thought frequent meals was the way to go when trying to shed bodyfat. That’s why I decided to consult you on this issue. If there are knowledgeable people around here (and I’m sure there is) would you please explain to me how exactly this is supposed to work? Does anybody have any practical experience with this diet? How did it go?

I’ll provide a little background information about myself so that you can judge whether the Warrior diet will be suitable for me. I first started training bodybuilding for two years and during that period I ate six meals a day. But I didn’t like what bodybuilding was doing for me and I switched to powerlifting.

During this time I ate four meals a day. Right now I don’t train with weights. I do various bodyweight exercises, agility drills and a bit of running. I do exercises like one-arm pushups, pistols, pullups, I like to do exercises on the rings once in a while - you get the idea mostly gymnastics type of training where I try to maintain maximum tension throughout the whole body.

With that said, will the deprivation phase during the day hamper my ability to generate maximum tension while doing the exercises? Will I have enough energy if I don’t eat all day? I’m not that fat but a reduction of bodyfat is definitely on my list of priorities and I feel now is the time that this issue should be addressed.

Currently, I’m eating three normal-sized meals a day. I have never been on a diet before and I’m a bit daunted by the thought of not eating anything the whole day.

I hope somebody will be able to explain the Warrior diet to me and to provide some suggestions for my situation.

Thanks.[/quote]

Do a search here for the Warrior Diet. There were a few threads on it way back in the day, when T-mag first interviewed Hofmekler about the diet. Hopefully the threads didn’t get lost when the switch was made to “T-Nation”.

The theory behind the whole thing sounds nice, but the real world application has been pretty much crap for everyone who has ever tried it.

Sorry to rain on your parade. If you make gains on it, that’s awesome. But I wouldn’t expect much.

I made gains on it as a beginner cause it’s easy to make gains as a beginner, no matter what you’re doing. but a few months later the gains became slow and i had to stop it. unless you only want to become really thin, and dont care about building muscle. then it’s a great diet.

by the way, i couldn’t follow it exactly as recommended because you’re supposed to eat like a bear at night, and i just couldnt do that. especially after fasting, your stomach shrinks (not literally), but you can’t eat as much. if i had eaten as a bear i might still have made the gains.

there’s some guy out there who made great gains with a similar diet. instead of one large meal, he would have two large meals a day. huge breakfast, huge dinner. fasting in between, but taking lots of aminos and liver tablets throughout the day. very expensive diet but i tihnk it works (for him at least). can’t remember his website.

anyway i did learn some very cool information from Ori’s more advanced/technical book, “maximum muscle, minimum fat”.

but still, i wouldn’t do it (unless you’re obese).

[quote]silencer wrote:
there’s some guy out there who made great gains with a similar diet. instead of one large meal, he would have two large meals a day. huge breakfast, huge dinner. fasting in between, but taking lots of aminos and liver tablets throughout the day. very expensive diet but i tihnk it works (for him at least). can’t remember his website.[/quote]

What you’re talking about sounds like Gironda’s Hormone Precursor Diet, which I posted in another thread awhile back; if not that then something similar. And you’re right, the number of supplements recommended per day is mindboggling.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1111397&pageNo=0#1113947

[i]VINCE GIRONDA’S “HORMONE PRECURSOR DIET” FOR MUSCLE BUILD-UP

Gironda recommended this diet for four to six weeks, followed by a mostly vegetarian “alkalinizing” diet.

Breakfast
Vince’s special protein drink made of 12 oz half and half, 12 raw eggs, 1/3 cup milk-and-egg protein powder, 1 banana. (Make one to three mixtures of this formula and drink throughout the day, between meals, and before retiring)

Supplements
1 multi-vitamin tablet
3 vitamin A and D tablets or 3 halibut oil capsules
1 vitamin B complex
1 vitamin B-15 tablet
1 vitamin C comlex (300 mg)
2 vitamin E capsules (800 iu)
1 zinc tablet
1 chelated mineral tablets
5 alfalfa tablets
10 kelp tablets
3 tri-germ and wheat germ oil capsules 1 RNA/DNA tablet
3 Lysine tablets(400 mg)
1 hydrochloric acid tablet (before meal)
3 digestive enzyme tablets (after meal) 3 multi-glandular tablets (nucleo glan male or female)

Lunch
1 pound hamburger or other meat
Mixed greeen salad or raw vegetables

Supplements
1 iron tablet
4 calcium tablets
Repeat of breakfast vitamins with omission of vitamin E, tri-germ, wheat germ, halibut oil

Dinner
1 to 2 pound steak or roast meat
Raw or steamed vegetables or salad and cottage cheese

Supplements
Same as lunch

Special Supplements
10 amino acids and desiccated liver tablets (every 3 hours)
5 yeast tablets with the protein drink

4 raw orchic tissue tablets (before and after workouts)

6 each of the following before retiring: arginine, ortithine, tryptophan, calcium tablets [/i]

I have the Warrior diet, back in the day ( like '02/'03 it has been awhile). I tried it for a dew weeks and i just could n’t maintain it for very long. I was always run down, my brain would fade and generally i didn’t feel all that shit hot.

Everything i have read about nutrition counter acts his ‘theories’. I understand his concepts but he also doesn’t back anything up other than with history. Which makes for a compelling arguement but i just didn’t find this diet worked for me. I just eat right all the time now and Diet isn’t a word in my vocabulary. I don’t diet i just make lifestyle eating choices if you need a term put to it. Ok thus endeth my rant on Ori.