Eating One Meal Per Day to Get Ripped? I Know it Sounds Crazy!
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on 3/6/2008
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Have you ever heard of the Warrior Diet? It is a diet based around the idea of eating only one meal per day and eating that meal at night. Yeah I know it MUCH different than the advice you normally hear about eating 6 meals per day. Believe it or not it actually works really well.
Here is a link to the Warrior Diet Website to do a bit of exploring. This site is dedicated to selling his book, but it gives you a really good outline of why the diet works.
http://warriordiet.com/
Won't Eating One Meal a Day Slow Your Metabolism?
I know you have been told that you need to eat every few hours or your metabolism will slow down. This is the whole basis of why people have been telling us for years to eat 6 meals per day. This is almost a fitness "commandment". Here is the deal...what they are finding is that metabolism slows over a period of days or even weeks. Your metabolism will slow if your daily calories are too low over a period of 7-14 days (not an exact number). Your body will not adjust it's metabolism over a period of hours.
What if You Ate the Same Amount of Daily Calories, But Just in One Meal?
You would think that eating a lot of calories at once would cause you to put on weight. I always thought that your body would only be able to absorb a certain amount of nutrients and the rest would then be stored as body fat. That certainly makes sense...right? Well what is interesting is that after a period of fasting, your body increases its ability to absorb nutrients. Also...your body increases its production of HGH (your body's natural fat burning hormone) in a fasted state. This one-two combo means that you will burn fat in this fasted state as well as create an anabolic environment once you eat. This way of eating is called "Intermittent Fasting" and believe it or not there are a lot of people using this as a way to get ripped while preserving muscle mass.
Why Eat That One Meal at Night?
Without any calories in your system during the day, your body has to resort to burning fat instead. When you eat six meals per day, you always have food calories in your system and that is what your body will use as fuel. I was always worried that I would lose muscle if I went an entire day without eating. The increased level of HGH from fasting prevents this from happening. When you eat a large meal at night you can relax and let the food go to work for you. This relaxation also allows you to prepare for sleep later in the evening.
Won't You Get Tired or Sleepy Without Eating During the Day?
It actually has the opposite effect. The body actually gets energized and you don't feel mid-day crashes or anything like that. Also...the Warrior Diet does allow for fruits and veggies during the day on days you are extra hungry. I was on this diet for 4 months and ate fruit about 3 days per week. The diet worked well for me...I was able to maintain a low body fat percentage.
This Isn't an "All or Nothing" Diet
You could actually eat "Warrior Style" 5-7 days a week, or only 1-2 days per week. What I like about this diet is that you are able to eat quite a bit more food in one meal. You can actually eat quite a bit "looser" than other diets. While I think it is best to eat mainly healthy foods, you could have junkier meals every now and then and still make progress.
***My Recommended Way of Using The Warrior Diet***
I know eating one meal a day is VERY extreme for most people. It is probably unrealistic for a lot of you reading this. If you know that you are going to a happy hour on a Friday and want some "damage control" -or- you are going out to eat at a steak house -or- a big party, etc...Why don't you try the "Warrior Diet" or Intermittent Fasting on that day? You aren't going to lose muscle and your metabolism will not slow down. You can eat eat those calories will less impact than if you ate 5 meals leading up to that high calorie night. Makes sense to me!
Note: For those of you interested in reading how other people are doing on the Warrior Diet, head over to my blog. I have a post on the Warrior Diet that has over 600 comments and testimonials from people giving it a try.
http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/lose-body-fat-by-eating-just-one-meal-per-day
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lose body fat, warrior diet, six meals per day, one meal per day, ori hofmelker
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