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Category: Physical

  • My Attempt at the Warrior Diet

    **I am not a medical doctor, and this article is intended to provide general information on health and fitness. It is not intended as medical or profressional advice. Always consult a medical professional before undertaking any significant workout or diet plan.

    I recently read The Warrior Diet by health and fitness writer Ori Hofmekler, outlining a very rigorous approach to daily eating and nutrition. The Warrior Diet is an intense form of intermittent fasting, which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a dieting regimen which calls for limiting food intake to certain time windows each day. Most fasting plans fall somewhere between the 12-12 (fast for 12 hours and then eat within a 12-hour window) and 16-8 (fast for 16, eat for 8) schedules. The benefits of intermittent fasting are well established, and anyone looking to cut fat, increase energy and improve overall health should give it serious consideration.

    The Warrior Diet takes this to an extreme level. The book’s premise is that “robust health and a lean, strong body can best be achieved by mimicking the classical warrior mode of cycling-working and eating sparingly (undereating) during the day and filling up at night.” Essentially, the plan calls for 20 hours of fasting each day, and limits food intake to a 4-hour window. The individual chooses their own window, but my guess is that, for most men (myself included), the practical flows and demands of the workday mean that this window is likely to be placed somewhere between 4 pm and 10 pm.

    I gave the Warrior Diet a shot, and came away with some good insights:

    • It’s not as difficult as it sounds: At first glance, just the idea of having one meal at night and refusing food the rest of the day may seem daunting. However, you might be surprised at how quickly your body acclimates to the change, particularly after the first couple of days. It’s not easy by any means, but anyone with a fair amount of discipline and determination can make it work. I should also point out that I’ve been an intermittent faster for about a year now, and my standard schedule is 16-8 (my eating window is generally 2 pm to 10 pm). So, bringing the window in a few hours, while challenging at first, was not an impossible task for me. If you’re interested in the Warrior Diet, you may consider starting off with a less intense dieting schedule, and easing your way in.
    • It has been very effective for me: When I’ve done the Warrior Diet, I have noticed great results, and pretty quickly. Weight loss of 5 lbs. or more per week is not out of the ordinary, particularly if I’m working out through the fast (which I generally do). I’ve also felt much more active, sharper, with a lot of “healthy” energy (as opposed to the Red Bull-induced kind). Again, though, I have been dedicated to intermittent fasting for some time, so I’ve been aware of (and committed to) the substantial benefits that stem from the regimen.
    • Be careful how you spend your 4 hours: Some proponents of the Warrior Diet emphasize the fact that, because you’re consuming 0 calories for roughly 80% of the day, you have the freedom to essentially go crazy during your 4-hour window, and eat whatever your heart (or stomach) desires. From a pure caloric standpoint, that’s not necessarily wrong. If you aim for a standard 2,000 or 2,500 calories per day, it’s unlikely that you’ll go beyond that in one meal setting, no matter what you eat. However, from a nutrional standpoint, it’s still not a great idea to consume 4 slices of chocolate cake at 10 pm, even if you’re still staying under your caloric target for the day. Poor nutrion is poor nutrition, period, and you will pay a price any time you turn to the junk.
    • Be careful if you are trying to add mass/muscle: The Warrior Diet can help you shred fat and shed pounds, there’s no doubt about that. However, if you’re working to add mass and build muscle, you need to be careful here. Mass = plenty of calories (preferably with a good portion coming from protein) + plenty of strength training. If you’re constraining your eating windows to only 4 hours a day, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to pull in the amount of calories to build significant muscle, now matter how quickly or aggressively you eat in that time frame.
    • May not be a long-term choice: I’m still on the fence about whether I will adopt this as a long-term regimen. I’m already all-in when it comes to intermittent fasting in general, having experienced a number of gains over time. However, I get substantial benefit from doing some of the “lighter” forms of IF, and haven’t yet determined whether the gains from the Warrior Diet signicantly surpass those obtained from, say, a 16-8 window. My personal jury is still out on that one. However, the Warrior Diet has certainly produced increased energy and quick fat loss when I’ve used it, and it will definitely be a part of my ongoing fitness arsenal, even if I only break it out from time to time.

  • Book Recommendation: The Strenuous Life

    The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete

    Author: Ryan Swenson

    Brilliance Publishing, Inc., Copyright 2019

    Muscular Christianity. It’s a phrase that in the modern world evokes – well, evokes nothing most likely. Ask average people on the street – even those with a decent knowledge of history – about the concept, and you’re likely to be met with blank, confused stares. In the Victorian Era, however, the idea was a very big deal on both sides of the Atlantic. In short, Muscular Christianity was a movement/philosophy that recognized a tie between Christian morality and physical fitness, and sought to enhance such traits as self-discipline, courage and patriotism through hard physical training. Proponents of the philosophy took the idea in many different directions, from increasing male participation in church services to expanding the British Empire. Regardless of the aims pursued by its various adherents, however, the core principle of Muscular Christianity remained fixed: that virtue and physical fitness go hand in hand.
    This had an enormous impact on the world of athletics. Many of our most popular sports in the modern world – including football, soccer and basketball – either stem directly from the movement or arose in parallel with it. It played a significant role in the beginnings of the YMCA (which, of course, was initially known as the Young Men’s Christian Association). The philosophy is also thought to have influenced Pierre de Coubertin as he worked to develop the modern Olympic Games.


    As important and influential as the Muscular Christianity movement was 150 years ago, it’s largely forgotten today, a relic of a hyper-moralistic past that many would just as soon forget. However, the tenets of the movement, and the role they played in shaping the modern world of sports (and beyond), have many lessons for Christian men, as well as for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of modern sports culture. Why do we take morality in sports so seriously? Why do we wince at the idea of amateur and college athletes receiving huge paydays? Where do we get the notion of a pure, moral college or high school athletic program, and why is it something that we seem to collectively long for (even while we know it exists largely in myth)? An understanding of the Muscular Christianity movement provides answers to a lot of these questions.


    Ryan Swenson’s book provides a fascinating look inside this culture, its adherents, and its impact both in the movement’s heyday and in the modern world. Swenson focuses on Teddy Roosevelt as the central character, which is entirely appropriate given that Roosevelt not only championed the philosophy, but fully (and intentionally) embodied it better than any other individual of his time. The book’s title is drawn from Roosevelt’s essay of the same name, in which he not only championed the virtues of physical exertion, self-discipline, competition, and courage, but also ties them explicitly to the success of America as a nation. Swenson outlines in detail how Roosevelt, while never a great athlete himself, nonetheless sold the nation on the efficacy of athletic endeavor, and single-handedly imposed his vision of a nation whose young men were strong, durable, and unafraid to “hit the line hard”.

    Modern-day sports have, of course, fallen about as far away from morality as possible. Not only do concepts such as virtue and self-discipline often receive eye rolls in the athletic world, but their antitheses are in many cases celebrated. The Strenuous Life provides insight into many of the roots of modern athletics, particularly as they have manifested in America. The book also, whether intentionally or not, provides inspiration to modern Christian men – athletes and otherwise – to aspire to physical fitness, embody courage and virtue in our undertakings, and “hit the line hard” in pursuing the work of Christ.