The Godfather of Intermittent Fasting

Ori Hofmekler altered nutritional thinking forever. He conjured it out of thin air. He not only talks the talk, he walks the walk!

What you need to understand about Ori is that he is a warrior-artist with a love of ancient history. His nutrition and exercise strategies were a result of his immersion into the warrior culture of ancient Greece and Rome. He could relate performance tales of the Greek Trireme rowers and point out that Roman soldiers carried 30% of their bodyweight in armor and weaponry with every step they took. On average the Roman foot soldier weighed 150 pounds and carried 45 pounds of protection or weaponry on long marches, while running and fighting. They ate infrequently.

Ori noted that the Trireme rowers were not slaves, they were motivated capitalists that auditioned for seats and a split of the captured loot. Ori noted that the poundage carried by the soldier and the continual pulling on oars (and pushing with the legs) created what he called, hybrid-muscle fiber. Hybrid muscle had the best attributes of fast and slow-twitch fibers. His training combined aerobic and strength, Ori was the master of what I labeled “sustained strength.” In one memorable drill, Ori set on an exercise bike, pedaling like a demon as he overhead pressed a pair of 5 pound dumbbells for 25 minutes. I told him I could not duplicate that empty-handed. Ori and I have history.

Intermittent Fasting 2021

Recently, my head exploded after someone forwarded me a couple of TED Talk YouTube videos on intermittent fasting. The presenter at one of TED talks began by relating the physiological advantages of intermittent fasting and the disadvantages of the old USDA Food Pyramid, which in hindsight seems moronic – who in their right mind would recommend 9 to 11 servings a day of refined carbs (including pasta) that spike insulin through the roof. The presenter briefly mentioned that dietary fat was not the artery-clogging killer that the medical establishment told us it was with such certainty in the not-to-distant past. The advantages of organic over processed was discussed and appreciated.

The wheels came off the presentation (for me) when the presenter indicated that the recommended “window,” i.e., the time during the day when food was allowed, the fast period, was eight hours. My jaw dropped. My first thought was, so I have breakfast at 9 am, lunch at noon, then go catch a senior citizen 4:30 pm early bird dinner – and this is intermittent fasting?!

The presenter claimed amazing results with this “revolutionary” approach. This defanged, dumbed-down, neutered, eviscerated version of intermittent fasting, was likely made user friendly to increase sales.

No mention of deprivation (which is really the I.F. core tactic,) no mention of getting in touch with hunger, no mention of the “intense exercise” that Ori felt was critical for success. Ori and my definition of success is defined as body fat mobilized and oxidized, muscle and endurance built with hardcore exercise, health, wellness, and detoxification attained via organic eating.

If you are seeking new weight loss business, preaching depravation, organic eating and intense exercise is one hell of a hard sell. If you less concerned about results than sales, the classic approach is to take a system that is effective, strip out all the unpleasant aspects (neutering the effectiveness) and make your version more “doable” and “sensible” and not coincidentally more saleable. Claim the benefits but rid the “system” of the difficulties.

My History with Ori Hofmekler

While I never claimed to be an expert on intermittent fasting (IF) I have used intermittent fasting for over a decade and for two years I was Ori Hofmekler’s radio show cohost. Ori invented intermittent fasting. That’s right. He invented it. Conjured it right out of thin air. No one heard or talked about IF before Hofmekler. Ori said, let us reexamine meal frequency and reexamine meal content. And let us reexamine the relationship between intense exercise and intense dieting. No one has ever done it better.

Ori had an hour-long nationally syndicated weekly radio show, and I was Ed McMahon to Ori’s Johnny Carson. My job was to put a finer point on Ori’s sophisticated strategies, to break into digestible soundbites his revolutionary ideas. He was a clear speaker and a great communicator but tended to roll from one subject to the next in a stream of consciousness flow state. I acted as “everyman” and would stop him before he rolled ahead, I had him clarify or expand on some profundity he had just uttered.

The show would launch, and Ori would start riffing on whatever aspect of intermittent fasting or (his unique approach to) exercise he had energy on. When he would hit on some golden nugget, rather than let him slide into the next related topic, I would stop him and request he expand, clarify, or drill down, perhaps say it in a different way.

We had great chemistry because we were real friends. I loved his radical ideas. I remember when he first came on the scene, proclaiming “Breakfast is the worst meal of the day!” I was like, “Who is this bomb-thrower! I LOVE this guy!” I have always had a soft spot for bomb-throwers. Ori’s contentions went against every mainstream nutritional convention. Ori was pouring sunlight on Orwell’s “smelly little orthodoxies” and the Empire struck back. Ori was vilified.

The truth won out and intermittent fasting has gotten tremendous traction on a worldwide basis because, if it is done right, it is truly revolutionary. Miles Davis once said of Duke Ellington, “every jazz musician on the planet should get down on their knees one day a year and thank God for Duke.” One day a year every expert on the planet preaching the benefits of intermittent fasting should get down on their knees and thank God for Ori – and tithe him 10% of any IF-generated income.

Ori conjured intermittent fasting out of the depths of own his deep Mind. No one has done it better or made it clearer. Nowadays there is a floodtide of intermittent fasting experts making big bank promoting watered-down, diluted versions of the Old Master’s Master Plan.

Intermittent Fasting Done Right

Here is how it is done right: start off with a total fast. No food. Water. That’s it. Stop eating. Shoot for three days. Establish hunger. The fast begins a detoxification process and reestablishes taste. Our tastes buds are deadened by the chemically drenched artificial foods we consume. A fast periods allows taste buds to re-sensitize.

As one IFBB professional bodybuilder once told me in an interview, “If you are deep into a competition dieting phase (super strict) and you take a bite of an apple, if that apple doesn’t taste like the most incredible bite of food that you’ve ever eaten, then you are not dieting hard enough.” With real depravation comes taste amplification.

When you cannot stand to fast another day, consume the lightest of proteins, perhaps some eggs, fiber is recommended. Try and avoid starch (insulin spiker) as long as possible. I break my fasting with raw milk and protein powder. I can go another 2-3 days existing on three power shakes a day. One after training and two within my four-hour window.

Coming off a fast, all foods taste fantastic. Take advantage heighten taste. Don’t mess this up.  Ori’s stress on organic food was all about detoxification: not only are you eating less you eat chemical-free foods, and you are exercising your ass off. Ori was flat emphatic: to be maximally effective intermittent fasting requires intense and regular exercise. Period. The intense exercise fires up the body’s sluggish metabolism, accelerating the expulsion of body pollutants.

No eight hour windows – how about four hours.

Start with a six hour window and over time whittle it down to four hours. Think about it: a four-hour food window gives the body 20 hours a day to work its magic. The human body is a fantastic self-healing, self-adjusting machine if allowed the time and space needed to send out the bodily repair crews.

If the body is flooded with food all day long with insulin-spiking food, insulin receptors sites never have a chance to cleanse and clear themselves and regain function. If continually clogged, no fat-burning is possible. If the body is fed insulin-spiking foods from waking till bedtime, when does the fat burning occur?

When you create a 20 hour window where no food or insulin-spiking substances are consumed, receptor site clearance becomes a daily occurrence. Add some savage training to a 4 hour window eating (mostly) organic food and you trigger a radical physical transformation.

I have been an intermittent faster for a decade. My current practice is to eat from 3pm to 7pm. The last few hours before my 3pm refuel can be rough, tough to hold out. Yet I suspect that right before breaking the daily fast is when the deepest best cleansing and rehab work is done, right before refueling.

Ori wants intense exercisers to drink a delicious replenishment shake (his Warrior protein powder shake is incredible) after completing a high intensity training session. 30 grams of protein and some quality carbs are ideal, providing muscles traumatized by a proper workout with exactly what they need to heal and repair.

Coffee and tea are fine throughout the day. One thing I have noticed with years of practice, a small window is easier to manage than, in the old days, fighting an all-day running battle with dieting. Now I just have to control the content and quality of what I consume within a four-hour period. Check out our general guide on intermittent fasting as well as a post on how to cook simple, tasty food. As a bonus we have added a FREE .pdf that you can download to help identify hidden sources of sugar in your nutritional program.

What could be easier?

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