Eating behavior and digestive health

These notes combine advice from 23 reviewed passages across 16 workouts.

Overview

Coach’s claim

Eating behavior covers how you chew, what texture your food has, how much you eat at one time, and how often you eat. These choices determine how much work digestion has to do: the stomach is treated like a muscle that strengthens with use, so food chewed into a purée leaves it little to do while coarser food keeps it working. Portion size and meal frequency matter as much, and individual foods can speed digestion up or slow it down. [1] [2] [9] [12] [13] [16]

Coach’s claim

The practical guidance is to give digestion a moderate and varied workload. Keep some texture in food instead of living on purées and liquids, spread large amounts of food across the day, and do not take fasting to extreme lengths. [4] [15] [22] [23]

Stomach workload: chewing and food texture

Coach’s claim

The stomach works like a muscle and becomes stronger with use. Food chewed into a purée before swallowing leaves the stomach little work to do. [2] [9]

Coach’s claim

Internal organs should occasionally be placed under mild stress. Slightly challenging the stomach is claimed to increase its contractions, while a permanently puréed diet leaves it underworked and does not maintain those contractions. The stomach should sometimes be given liquid foods such as soup to relax it, so food texture should vary instead of staying on one extreme. [3] [4] [6] [7]

Coach’s claim

Many people the coach knows who turn their food into purées have stomach problems. [3]

Coach’s claim

Starting to swallow food with little chewing suddenly can cause mild stomach pain if the stomach is not used to it. Increase the load gradually; it is claimed to make the stomach stronger. [5]

Coach’s claim

The same idea applies to children. Constantly feeding soft baby food leaves the jaw muscles weak or underdeveloped, so soft food should not continue indefinitely. [8]

Meal size and meal frequency

Coach’s claim

Large amounts of food should be divided into smaller portions across the day rather than loaded into the stomach all at once. Three portions are better than one heavy meal. [22] [23]

Coach’s claim

A very large single serving is trouble. Eating five chicken breasts at once is said to inevitably cause a side effect, and eating too much in general can cause bloating. [12] [18]

Coach’s claim

For structuring the eating day, the Warrior diet is recommended: one main meal a day with very small amounts at other times. [14]

Coach’s claim

The body does not need constant high-calorie eating. It has been accustomed to a single meal over hundreds of thousands of years; four or five meals a day are a modern construct partly driven by product sales, and such a high calorie intake is not actually needed. [13]

Coach’s claim

Mild fasting is claimed to support health: the stress of fasting is said to keep a person healthy and long-lived. That reasoning does not extend to extremes; going without food for three days is described as not good for the body. [4] [15]

Foods that affect digestion

Coach’s claim

Oats speed up digestion noticeably. [1]

Coach’s claim

Bananas can contribute to constipation. [16]

Coach’s claim

Green plums should not be overdone. A very large amount can bring digestion close to diarrhea. [17]

Practical habits around eating

Coach’s claim

Do not train right after a meal that is still being digested; wait about an hour. Such a meal can make you sleepy, so the practical pattern is to eat, sleep, then train. [19]

Coach’s claim

Cold drinks and food do not harm the body. Chinese tradition starts a meal cold and Western tradition starts it warm; starting warm is meant to make the stomach more comfortable. [21]

Coach’s claim

Holding the nose blocks the taste of food because smell and taste meet at the same point. [11]

Coach’s experience

In his own eating, the coach sometimes swallows meat and other food without chewing, a habit he has kept since childhood. He has never had stomach problems and noticed that he felt more robust. [3] [6] [7]

He eats what he wants and sometimes eats before going to sleep. [6]

He can finish a steak in about two minutes, relying on his cutting and grinding teeth and only light chewing. [9]

He developed the habit of drinking his meals because cooking and plating take time. Drinking a large amount made his stomach feel nauseated, and he considers eating actual food better and more logical. [10]

When drinking something unpleasant, he holds his nose and gulps it down, then drinks coffee, orange juice, or another beverage so the smell does not linger. [11]

He once ate about two kilograms of green plums over the course of a day and came close to diarrhea. [17]

He generally tries to go long periods without eating and finds that food tastes better when he eats occasionally. [20]

He sometimes wants to eat a large amount at once, deliberately stops, and eats again about an hour later. [22]

Sources

1. 2024-01-06, 4152.0-4157.5s

Workout: workout:2024-01-06

Passage: passage:2024-01-06:001896-001898

2. 2024-02-16, 4746.4-4763.9s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001608-001614

3. 2024-02-16, 4763.9-4795.5s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001615-001616

4. 2024-02-16, 4796.1-4818.1s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001617-001617

5. 2024-02-16, 4818.8-4828.4s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001618-001619

6. 2024-02-16, 4861.6-4872.6s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001641-001646

7. 2024-02-16, 4903.8-4913.3s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001662-001665

8. 2024-02-16, 4921.5-4935.9s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001668-001674

9. 2024-02-16, 4986.4-5009.6s

Workout: workout:2024-02-16

Passage: passage:2024-02-16:001695-001701

10. 2024-03-12, 4574.6-4603.6s

Workout: workout:2024-03-12

Passage: passage:2024-03-12:001689-001704

11. 2024-09-15, 4302.7-4337.3s

Workout: workout:2024-09-15

Passage: passage:2024-09-15:001338-001353

12. 2024-12-05, 3002.3-3009.2s

Workout: workout:2024-12-05

Passage: passage:2024-12-05:000810-000811

13. 2025-01-07, 6495.3-6508.5s

Workout: workout:2025-01-07

Passage: passage:2025-01-07:002400-002403

14. 2025-01-17, 2439.1-2443.7s

Workout: workout:2025-01-17-muscle-machine-5

Passage: passage:2025-01-17-muscle-machine-5:000775-000777

15. 2025-02-25, 1801.8-1806.7s

Workout: workout:2025-02-25

Passage: passage:2025-02-25:000536-000538

16. 2025-04-14, 1507.7-1509.9s

Workout: workout:2025-04-14

Passage: passage:2025-04-14:000455-000455

17. 2025-05-13, 4504.0-4554.5s

Workout: workout:2025-05-13

Passage: passage:2025-05-13:001484-001485

18. 2025-06-04, 3952.8-3953.7s

Workout: workout:2025-06-04

Passage: passage:2025-06-04:001034-001034

19. 2026-04-25, 2954.8-2971.7s

Workout: workout:2026-04-25

Passage: passage:2026-04-25:000873-000878

20. 2026-05-29, 377.4-386.1s

Workout: workout:2026-05-29

Passage: passage:2026-05-29:000097-000099

21. 2026-06-03, 3685.1-3705.7s

Workout: workout:2026-06-03

Passage: passage:2026-06-03:001333-001338

22. 2026-06-28, 4043.7-4068.1s

Workout: workout:2026-06-28

Passage: passage:2026-06-28:001420-001428

23. 2026-07-02, 1519.6-1524.7s

Workout: workout:2026-07-02

Passage: passage:2026-07-02:000556-000557