Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

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Ginger1
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:22 am

Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by Ginger1 »

Hi all,

Interested in the views of experienced Warrior Dieters on here, as I come to the end of Warrior Dieting Day 1.

I'm your typical office dweeb, not expending a significant number of calories beyond the normal background metabolic burn. In the midst of a day of minimal food consumption, as part of the under-eating phase of the Warrior diet. I've chomped on half a cucumber, quite a few celery sticks, a handful of green beans and a few bits of fruit. However, I've been battling rather distracting hunger all day but more worryingly suffering from a lack of clarity and quickness of thought - even to point of slightly reduced ability to word find and articulate myself clearly. Not ideal in the middle of a working day with high profile meetings etc.

I imagine that if my body is happily pumping out insulin in anticipation of meals that are failing to materialise, I may be suffering from slight hypoglycaemia, and that this might be contributing to the above symptoms. Is this normal and does it improve? I feel I'm just sitting waiting for the feeding phase to begin, and it's impacting on my productivity.

Any thoughts very welcome.

Dave
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Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by Dave »

Hi Ginger,

I have been more or less following the WD for a year and a half, with varying degrees of adherence between water fasting and following the recommended undereating phase guidelines.

As Ori mentions in the book, I would highly recommend transitioning into the WD. That is, if you are used to eating three meals a day, try to reduce the size of your breakfast and lunch, then maybe cut out breakfast altogether, then cut out a traditional "lunch" and do a large portion of fruits/vegetables, then do smaller servings of fruit/vegetables, and so on.

I know a few people who have tried transitioning to 3 meals/day directly to WD and they have all failed, on account of the reasons you noted above. My recommendation to you, as to them, is to follow Ori's advice and ease into it. It will get easier with time, to the point where the hunger is not significant and energy levels stabilize.

The benefits of following this diets are significant, and I hope you find success with it. Just give yourself time to ease into it. I am of the opinion that most people can adapt to this style, but you need to be smart about the adjustment period.

slimicy
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Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by slimicy »

In my experience snacking on low-cal foods will only make you hungry. I trend toward IF with and eating window more than Warrior Diet, but I notice it's much easier to not think about food until your meal if you just avoid it all together.

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Ego
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Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by Ego »

I don't do the warrior diet but I do all my eating in six hours then refrain from food for the remaining eighteen. I find that the anticipation of a meal makes me ravenous and I experience the corresponding low blood sugar symptoms. But on days when I just can't eat on my normal schedule for whatever reason, I am not hungry at all. It is as if a switch goes off in my mind telling me that I can't eat so I shouldn't be hungry or grumpy, impatient, hypoglycemic... I know Jacob wrote something about the physiology underlying this response but I can't find it right now.

jacob
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Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by jacob »

The cravings will go away after about two weeks.

The body releases insulin at certain times (your regular meal times) in anticipation of a meal, so it can prepare for the rush of blood sugar. If that blood sugar doesn't materialize or doesn't materialize fast enough, your blood sugar will drop and you'll get start getting hungry or you will get quite hungry.

After two weeks the body will have learned that you no longer eat at those times.

Conversely, if you eat something that releases blood sugar faster than what you were prepped for because the body didn't anticipate you eating that many fast sugars, the body will overreact and release a lot of insulin. This will make you tired. This is also the reason why "restaurant" lunches or donut breakfasts tend to send people straight to the coffee pot afterwards.

Ginger1
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Joined: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:22 am

Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by Ginger1 »

Thank you all for your replies.

Dave: Yesterday, on your advice, I started the day with a smallish breakfast (reduced amount of porridge with ground flax seeds, a banana) and then ate again at lunch (celery, cucumber, carrot, tomato - and a bag of crisps). On this combination, certainly lighter than I would normally eat during the day, I had no sense of hunger until 5pm but also was able to maintain concentration and a clear-head throughout the day.

Today I am phasing out swapping the crisps for a few small new potatoes, which I will then reduce by one day by day until left with just the salad. Let's see how that goes.

Slimicy: Once I get to the point where I'm down to a few pieces of fruit and vegetables during the day, I'll see how that goes.

Ego: Interesting. I wonder if there's a Pavlovian release of insulin as well as saliva in the mouth. Would make sense if there were, which would fit with your experience.

Jacob: That's what I thought was happening. Do you think a tapering approach, whereby I day-by-day cut back on complex carbohydates, will also taper off the insulin release? That I can transition through most of the pain? I remember reading a post by you (in relation to cold showers I think) which said that trying to taper off like that rarely works. Or maybe it was the other way round :)

cmonkey
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Re: Warrior Diet and concentration/focus.

Post by cmonkey »

Ginger, Did your cravings go away after the 2 week period? How are you faring?

I started transitioning on Saturday so I'm on day 3. I can say for certain that my afternoon energy levels are much higher, however, I'm dealing a bit with the hunger. I haven't experienced lack of clarity, on the other hand my mind feels extremely focused and clear.

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