Information on this subject is not always as straight forward as it first appears. I know I used to just use a common sense approach, but now I do direct research before coming up with my next move. Keep the information coming….

Also, I have always thought of fight and flight energy as being designed for short term use only (for hunting down prey or running from a predator) and not the ideal state to spend the whole day in to ensure adequate energy - interested to hear your thoughts on this.
This discussion is certainly triggering lots of food for thought.

“That’s the best part, you should be able to eat unlimited healthy foods (healthy proteins, fats, veggies, fruit, nuts…see Paleo Diet in the resources page). If you are eating more processed foods, breads and other high calorie intakes then you may have to monitor and control portions. Please know this is NOT about chronic calorie restriction or starving yourself. When I do weeks of eating 1-7pm, I am eating a ton of protein and veggies (complex carbs pwo also). I am hardly starving myself. I am not taking in 4000 cal a day however, so my daily average of say 2200-2500 cal is still low compared to the alternative. If you want to lose weight of course you will need a calorie deficit to pull the “stored energy” out of fat cells. That is the advantage to eating “Paleo”, you can’t over eat on protein, healthy fats, fruits (in moderation) and veggies. If you are making bad choices or starving yourself on IF, you may lose the effectiveness or slow progress. All goes back to the fact that if it is not working, then change something up! (there is always something that can be changed…and food choices is the #1 place to start!) I don’t count calories, and by eating natural foods that have been around for 100s of years….I don’t need to! (eating healthy natural foods will not only help you lose weight but also improve your health and lower your risks of diseases….so eating for health should always be the #1 goal in any program)

Hopefully this will give a good overview while trying to keep it simple. Remember it’s your journey to take, measure progress and adjust things that are not working. Start with one approach, and modify it. Who knows, your approach may change every couple months and that is ok. Life is always changing and so should your approach to health and fitness (as the body always responds better to change than sticking with the same eating/exercise approach for a long period of time).”

Anyway, I’m not saying its right for everyone to miss breakfast - eating is individual. I have read by a few people that your body is still detoxing from the night before so your first meal should be very light and easily absorbed by the body. Probably best to be low in carbs too.

On the IF site there was a quote by Ori Hofmekler (author of the warrior diet). Here is his take on breakfast:

“When you wake-up, your body is already in an intense detox mode, clearing itself of endotoxins and digestive waste from the past evening meal.

During the morning hours, when digestion is fully completed (while you are on an empty stomach), a primal survival mechanism, known as fight or flight reaction to stress, is triggered, maximizing your body’s capacity to generate energy, be alert, resist fatigue and resist stress.

This highly geared survival mode is primarily dominated by part of the autonomic nervous system known as the SNS (sympathetic nervous system). At that state, the body is in its most energy-producing phase and that’s when most energy comes from fat burning. All that happens when you do not eat the typical morning meal.

If however you follow what “normal guys” do and eat your morning bagel and cereal and egg & bacon, you’ll most likely shut down the above energy producing system.

The SNS and its fight or flight mechanism will be substantially suppressed. Instead, your morning meal will trigger an antagonistic part of the automatic nervous system known as the PSNS (Para sympathetic nervous system), which makes you sleepy, slow and less resilient to fatigue and stress.

Instead of spending energy and burning fat, your body will be more geared towards storing energy and gaining fat. Under this state, detox would be inhibited. The overall metabolic stress would increase with toxins accumulating in the liver, giving the body another substantial reason to gain fat. (Fat tissues serve as a biological storage for toxins)

The overall suppressing effects of morning meals, can lead to energy crashes during the daily (working) hours, often with chronic cravings for pick-up foods, sweets, coffee and tobacco. Eating at the wrong time, would severely interrupt the body’s ability to be in tune with the circadian clock. The human body has never adapted to such interruptions. We are primarily pre-programmed to rotate between the two autonomic nervous system parts: the daily SNS and the nightly PSNS.

The SNS regulates alertness and action during the day, while PSNS regulates relaxation, digestion and sleep during the nightly hours. Any interruption in this primal daily cycle, may lead into sleepiness during the day followed by sleeping disorders at night.

Morning meals must be carefully designed not to suppress the SNS and its highly energetic state. Minimizing morning food intake to fruits, veggie soup or small amounts of fresh light protein foods, such as poached or boiled eggs, plain yogurt, or white cheese, will maintain the body in an undereating phase, while promoting the SNS with its energy producing properties.

*Note: Athletes who exercise in the morning should turn breakfast into a post-exercise recovery meal. Such meals should consist of small amounts of fresh protein plus carbs such as yogurt and banana, eggs plus a bowl of oatmeal, or cottage cheese with berries.

An insulin spike is necessary for effectively finalizing the anabolic actions of GH and IGF1 after exercise. Nonetheless, after the initial recovery meal, it’s highly recommended to maintain the body in an undereating phase by minimizing daily carb intake in the following meals. Applying small protein meals (minimum carbs) every couple of hours will keep sustaining the SNS during the daily hours while providing amino acids for protein synthesis in the muscle tissues, promoting a long lasting anabolic effect after exercise.

In conclusion, breakfast isn’t the most important meal of the day. The most important meals are post-exercise recovery meals. Saying that, for a WARRIOR every meal is a recovery meal helping to recuperate from either nutritional stress (undereating) or physical stress (exercise). It’s when you eat that makes what you eat matter. “

I’d happily trade in my day job to apprentice to a medicine woman in a hunter gatherer tribe.

Yep I think that if we started the day with a more relaxed balanced system with nutritious easy to digest foods that this would be ideal. Chicken broth or chicken soup would be ideal plus a glass of raw milk kefir and maybe a raw egg yolk or too whipped through the chicken broth. If you’re nourishing your body well you actually won’t feel hungry until later in the day and as most really nourishing foods are far from low calorie the appetite suppression is not due to a depressed metabolism.

I wouldn’t reccomend the juices either (I think of the digestive system as a crock pot simmering away all day and pouring large volumes of cold liquid into it really does slow the digestive fire down - I’ve modified my Tiger’s Milk now to include the coconut oil dissolved in hot water added to the smoothie to make it nice and warm rather than cold). All fruit and root vegetable juices (the nice tasting ones) are far too taxing on the poor pancreas and will tend to elevate insulin levels and stimulate the adrenal glands. I think you’d be better off with an apple and a hunk of cheese (parmesan would be good or my fave…triple cream brie mmmmm)……or maybe a few big juicy wiggly witchedly grubs!

If your adrenal glands are fried and you stop all the stimulating foods like sugar, coffee, flour, juices etc you’ll recconnect to how tired and exhausted your body really is after living on adrenalin for so long. You’ll often crave the adrenal stimulants for a while as your metabolism adjusts and your body starts to heal (adrenalin is just like amphetamines and is just as addictive). So munching on the pemmican or parmesan every few hours (before the coffee cravings strike, if you leave it till they strike it’s usually too late) for the first few weeks might make the transition easier.

Avoiding all the grain based foods will most certainly allow a stressed and damaged digestive tract time out to heal and repair. It’ll also give your immune system a nice break too.

As for the more physically active part: Another blogger here, Henriette, is an archeologist. She mentioned that HGatherers used approx 2 hours per day to find their food and fire. Agriculturists used 6 hours per day. Having said that, there was other activities Hunter Gatherers did for fun that used the body. Wouldn’t that be nice.. Wake with the sun, spend a couple of hours gathering food and fire and spending the rest of the time playing, dancing, making yourself beautiful, planning ceremonies, exploring the landscape. Then gathering by the fire for stories and falling into a well earned sleep after the sun sets.

Our modern day schedule, however, goes a little more like this: Wake (after sunrise) to a blaring alarm, hurry through the shower while worrying about the day ahead, scoff down a adrenal gland hammering hot drink, rush out the door without so much as a deep breathe. Sit in traffic, pissed off, for anywhere between 30mins to an hour, perhaps driving through a junkfood shop for a bite. Working all day at a desk, using only fingers and stopping only for another adrenal gland hammering hot drink. Rushing home to sit in front of the television, sipping alcohol for longer than we should just to calm down from all the adrenal hammering. Finally taking ourselves to bed and talking ourselves into sleeping long after sundown.

What if, Sarah, we could start with a balanced system, a more relaxed yet active lifestyle and nutrient dense foods which are easy to digest? Then, do you think, the Warrior Diet would be appropriate.

I’m concerned about the juicing thing though, Louise. From a Chinese medicine perspective, raw vegetables and fruits are very ‘cooling’ for the digestive fire. The last thing a person with damaged digestion needs. Hence my suggestion to try Pemmican or at least raw dairy snacks during the day. You can get a nice Parmesan called Zanetti - imported from Italy - from Woolies cheaply. That and a nice free-range ham and some raw milk kefir will continue to nourish you during the day, without harming your digestion further.