Q: How can you overeat at night and lose weight?

A: By following a daily cycle of undereating during the day and overeating at night. You can trigger a biological mechanism that forces the body to redesign itself, burn fat and lose extra weight.

Q: What is this biological mechanism that forces your body to burn fat and lose weight?

A: The biological mechanism that forces your body to burn fat is a primal survival mechanism that evolved over many years of evolution. This survival mechanism is triggered in times of danger, physical stress and lack of food. When triggered it helps the body cope with stress, burn stored fat as fuel for increased energy demand and improve endurance to better survive.

Q: How exactly can you trigger this survival mechanism that will force your body to burn fat?

A: You can trigger this survival mechanism by mimicking situations of danger, physical stress or lack of food. In practical terms, you can trigger it through undereating or exercise. Preferable, you should combine both undereating and exercising to maximize this survival mode's impact on the body and increase the fat burning effect. On the cellular level a most powerful factor is activated during exercise and fasting. This cellular factor, called cyclic AMP, forces the body to burn fat for energy while inhibiting any fat gain.

Q: How does this survival mechanism help you survive by losing fat?

A: When triggered, this survival mechanism improves the body's survival capabilities and it does so by forcing the body to burn fat stores as fuel for increased energy production. Increased energy production helps the body survive in times of increased energy demand such as during danger, starvation or extreme stress. Additionally, cAMP stimulates steroid hormone and growth hormone production and thereby further enhances recuperation and overall rejuvenation.

Q: What is the role of overeating at night?

A: Eating one meal a day at night puts the body in a most beneficial biological cycle in which it is destined to be. The big meals at night helped humans recuperate from the loss of nutrients during the day. It replenishes energy reserves. Eating at night supports all critical hormonal actions that are necessary for building tissue, healing and maintenance. Most importantly, overeating at night can help increase the body's overall metabolic rate and therefore enhances its ability to burn fat. On the top of all this, overeating at night helps you relax. Night is the time to relax and get sleepy.

Q: However, we do know that many people binge late at night and as a result they gain weight and get depressed. How can you explain that?

A: People gain weight because they binge compulsively in an uncontrolled manner. On the other hand, overeating at night such as when following the Warrior Diet is conducted in a controlled manner. Overeating at night should always complete a daily cycle which means it should always follow a period of undereating. This way of eating is completely different from compulsive, late night uncontrolled bingeing.

Controlled overeating can help one increase metabolism, relax, reach full satisfaction and lose weight in the long run. On the other hand, the typical uncontrolled late night bingeing may adversely cause fat gain followed by nervousness, guilt and a sense of failure.

Q: Why do so many people binge late at night?

A: Many people binge late at night because of an unconscious need to satisfy a deep primal instinct to overeat at night. It is very possible that during many years of evolution, humans developed a primal biological need to overeat at night in order to replenish energy reserves and lost nutrients and also in order to relax and reach a sense of full satisfaction.

Overeating is likely a part of this survival mechanism that helped humans cope with daily stress, lack of food and hardship. Modern over-restrictive diets leave many people feel nutritionally and emotionally deprived. It is usually late at night when artificial boundaries are broken and this primal urge to overeat erupts like a volcano forcing one to compulsively binge as a way of compensating for the lack of satisfaction and nutrients.

Every time that you force your body to go against its destiny, it will find a way to come back with a vengeance. Compulsive bingeing is a brutal and desperate way of the body to reinforce its own rules.

Q: What then should people do to follow their biological destiny, reach full satisfaction and lose weight?

A: Follow a daily cycle of undereating and overeating. Exercise three to four times per week.

Q: What is undereating?

A: Minimize eating during the day to mostly raw fruits and veggies. Coffee, tea, soups and light protein such as poached eggs or yogurt are ok too.

Q: What is overeating?

A: Eat as much as you want from all food groups. Start with veggies, protein and fat. If still hungry, finish your meal with carbohydrates.

Q: How do you know when to stop eating?

A: Stop eating when you're fully satisfied or when you're much more thirsty than hungry. A sense of thirst should guide you as to when to stop eating.

Q: What makes the Warrior Diet different from other diets?

A: What makes the WD unique is the fact that it is based upon human instincts. No other diet gives you the unrestricted pleasure of eating as much as you want from all the food groups (including carbs) and still lose weight. The Warrior Diet is based on profound biological principles with serious research and anecdotal evidence and as such, it makes more sense than any other diet.

Most importantly, the Warrior Diet isn't just a diet, it's a way of life. It can be modified according to special personal needs and can accommodate individuals who suffer from different kinds of metabolic problems including high cholesterol or blood sugar and all that while giving individuals a full sense of freedom and satisfaction. Finally, most current diets fail in the long run. The Warrior Diet isn't a fad diet. Both men and women could find it easy to follow. In fact, many who try this diet testify as to its long lasting effectiveness especially as far as getting lean and staying lean. I believe people can follow it for a lifetime -- hopefully a long one.

FAQ - Special Topics

Maximum performance is the ultimate goal of individuals who wish to excel. Being the strongest, fastest and toughest you can be is a virtue that goes far beyond athletic performance. The quest to be your best forces you to push your limits and rise to your potential. Most important, you gain the courage to change things that need to be changed and thereby increase your chances of improving the way you look, feel and perform. However, the way to becoming better you isn't always easy. As they often say, "the devil is in the details", and those who are in the process of changing and improving diet and workout routines often face problems that need to be addressed.

Readers and followers of the Warrior Diet continually ask for practical advice and sometimes for clarification. Many of the e-mails I receive address important issues that deserve more than a simple "do this or do that" response. As many inquiries reoccur, this newsletter includes a selection of relevant and frequently asked questions with answers that include practical applications, in addition to general and detailed information beyond what is in the Warrior Diet book.
Nevertheless, certain topics such as how to deal with insulin resistance, how to maintain a state of alertness or the amount of protein one should consume to effectively build muscle, are of special interest due to their often unresolved and controversial appeal.