Warrior diet - eating once a day

[sallywicket]

Have been doing this for the last 3 weeks. Cravings gone completely but slow weight loss. Based on the idea that as hunter gathers we would have only eaten one big meal a day. Seems eating frequently causes insulin to stay in the blood making you want to eat again. Please don't post saying it's not sAfe etc. Just wanted To hear other people's experiences

I often only eat once a day.

Mainly because i don't get around to breakfast, eat a cooked leftover lunch and then i'm too full for dinner at 4.30 when DC get in from school.

I don't tend to eat after 6pm, due to no being able to sleep, if i have had something.

Just lots of cups of tea/fruit teas.

Muddy how does it work for you? Does it mean you maintain your weight?

Anyone else just eat once a day? And does it make any difference? I find not eating makes me not obsess about food and can get through the day not having massive cravings. I eat a big dinner plus pudding in the evening. I'm not losing weight but maintaining.

This sounds odd to me and I definitely could not do this.
What do you eat? Are you getting all your necessary nutrients and the right amount of cals?

This doesn't sound healthy. Some paleo (and similar) dieters do this for a limited period. It puts your body into ketosis, it starts running on fat instead of glucose. So it's very important to consume lots of fat in order to get any energy and sustain yourself. Being in ketosis is not dangerous, people like the inuit live mainly on fat and protein, but you should probably eat more than once a day in order to not starve!

Anything so ridiculously faddy has to be bullshit imo. You're not a warrior. You are most likely a fairly run of the mill person who needs 3 decent balanced meals per day. I doubt you're hunting down many bison in your spare time. Hth.

That's a bit harsh fucki

You don't sound like you're trying to help, you just want to put somebody down.

HTH

Each to their own, but I'd be very hungry and also worried about starvation mode due to not enough calories.

FWIW I know someone who did this very overweight, despite (over several years) just once a day big meal with her DH including meat carbs veg. Tea and coffee during day only. Ate nothing all day. Metabolism just slowed down and she also developed diabetes which meant that she had to address eating habits.

My DH only eats once a day most days and has done for years, doesn't appear to have had any ill effects and he is built like a stick

www.warriordiet.com/content/view/24/35/.
It makes a lot of sense to me. Why do we have to buy into this 3 meals a day idea. I don't have a hugely active lifestyle. If I was doing hard physical work I can see the need to eat loads. If you constantly grazing are you not keeping your insulin levels up thereby craving more food. My insulin levels are stable. My sweet cravings have reduced loads. I eat all my calories in the evening so def not starving. I'm not hungry throughout the day and I sleep loads better. Snaplegs interesting about your husband, wish this would happen to me. Does he eat lots at his evening meal? Ignoring fucki's comments. Foreveronadiet do you think you're friend got diabetes because she was so overweight and not eating good food? Anyway I don't want to get into arguing about the rights and wrongs of this way of eating. I just wanted to hear from people or who knew people who'd tried this. thanks everyone!

hi sally. I agree not faddy at all - there's loads of different primal-type diets, makes sense, we've not evolved food-wise from caveman days so it's the carb-laden, eating-every 3 hours or whatever brigade which seems crazy to me with our sedentary lifestyles. However, I guess it is important to eat enough to get you thro the day, not mess up your metabolic rate. there's quite a lot on intermittent fasting - i think some people advocate missing trhe occasional meal or eating within a short window of the day, fasting for the rest of the time which might be a more flexible solution. Have you looked at Dr John Briffa? He's quite interesting on all this and is a medically trained, practising doctor ie not faddy at all.

DH did this and PUT ON weight and he eats generally healthilily. I am on the Paul Mckenna who says eat slowly and consciously when you're hungry and STOP when you're full and i've maintained a loss of nearly 3 stone.
If I eat a lot at night I always PUT ON weight and feel hungrier in the morning strangely.

Of course she got diabetes as she was overweight, but was making the point that she managed to stay overweight (for years despite only eating once a day, and when I discussed what she ate for dinner, it was def less than 1000 calories.

In terms of what, didn't sound like unhealthy food, like meat, potatoes and veg or spag bol, all normal stuff. I think over times your metabolism gets used to one meal a day and slows down.

Sallywicket no just a standard evening meal (home cooked) he does drink lots of coffee and full fat drinks during the day so probably just survives on the sugar from that

I'm a "one meal a day" person! I don't do the warrior diet (though I'm familiar with it) - I just do intermittent fasting, usually 16-20 hours a day, then eat normally at night.

IF is a dietary "way of life" rather than a weight loss plan, but I've found it's made eating for weight loss much easier to stick to. You quickly get used to not eating through the day and, because your blood sugar is stable, you don't get the mid-afternoon slump or grumpiness.

I also have a "cheat day" on Saturdays, when I don't fast and can eat as much junk food as I want!

I've lost 3 stone so far, most of which has been since I started IF in October (a steady 1-2lbs loss a week).

This blog is worth a read!

monkeynuts Congrats on the fantastic weight loss. Eating less frequently does make you want to eat smaller quantities I find. I think the blood sugar being stable is key. did you follow a diet plan when you were doing the fasting? Would love to know how you did it and this is how much I need to lose. Will read the blog. foreveronadiet sorry to hear about your friend, obviously some ways of eating suit some people and not others. Snaplegs am seriously jealous of your husband.

monkeynuts I've read the blog and it all ties in with what I believe. However I'm losing very slowly. I don't weigh myself. I just go on my clothes and they are slightly looser but only very slightly. The only think I can think is I must be taking in too many calories when I have my evening meal. I can't find this issue addressed anywhere.

Thanks sallywicket!

Fasting alone isn't a guarantee for weight loss - you could theoretically spend your non-fasting time eating lots of cakes and you'd definitely gain weight ;)

I lost my weight initially by calorie counting (using myfitnesspal.com). A reduced calorie diet feels much better when it's eaten in a short period of the evening, rather than spread throughout a whole day! Around Christmas I switched to eating from the Harcombe diet recipe book - I didn't follow the diet as such, but I'd just use the recipes Sunday to Friday then cheat day as normal on Saturdays. Harcombe food is great because you are eating a lot more than you would be by calorie counting, the food is VERY tasty and you still lose weight!

Must say, I didn't really feel a difference at first although I could see from weighing myself that my weight was dropping. It's only the last stone or so that I've had to buy new clothes because my old clothes are dropping off me :) Losing slowly isn't necessarily a bad thing - 1-2lbs a week is a good, sustainable rate. Maybe it might be worth stepping on the scales for a few weeks, just to see what's happening?