REFEEDS:
(Pre-refeed on left, post-refeed on right)
I get asked constantly about my refeeds. So I will go ahead and explain a bit here. Some people have cheat meals, I have refeed days. The difference is the strategy that goes into refeeds versus cheat meals. On Refeed days EVERYTHING is tracked. The point of a Refeed is to bring your carb intake up to help bring leptin levels back to a stable position and allow your muscle tissue to stay full. I typically double my carb intake if not more on refeed days. Again, this is what I do based on my daily intake/deficit/muscle tissue needs. Is this what you should do? I have no idea, so unless I am your trainer and I know what type of intake and expenditure you are on daily, please decide on your own if refers are something you believe you should implement into your current nutrition schedule.
How much should you refeed yourself? This will depend on how long you have been dieting, how intense your diet is, and your current level of bodyfat. Those who are at a lower level of bodyfat will need to refeed more often than those who aren’t. Similarly, the more extreme the diet being followed, the more intense the refeed. The last refeed I had in this before and after photo, I ate about 300G of carbs. As you can see here, there are noticeable differences in muscle fullness before and after this refeed.
Tip: If the scale freaks you out, DONT WEIGH YOURSELF. I have completely detached my emotions from my weight and therefore I actually find it entertaining to see what my weight is at after a day of eating banana bread, lots of yams, oatmeal, English muffins. graham crackers, arctic zero or frozen yogurt, etc. I was only up about alb after the reefed I implemented in between these two photos and I could care less because I look AND FELT better!
Think about your muscles as a tube, like the inside of a tire. When you aren’t eating adequate carb intake and lifting/working out you deplete these tubes with glycogen (what carbohydrates break down into) and therefor you begin to look flat (like a deflated tire). A lot of people, girls specifically, get so scared of eating carbs because they think they will look worse. But you know that jiggle on your ass? Don’t you think it would jiggle less with some air in those glute balloons? You catch my drift? Filling your muscle tissue up will leave you with full muscles, making you look tighter and “hard” versus soft and flat. Why do so many people think they look better the day after a show? Because typically they didn’t properly fill there muscle tissue up with carb intake until post show.
The amount you refeed with basically has to do with how low your leptin levels are. The lower the levels, the more calories above maintenance you will be needing to bring them back up. I know my body handles carbs well, but I do not respond to fats well, so on refeed days I make sure my fats stay low and I choose foods high in carbohydrates and low in fat, aka- fat free frozen yogurt.. yumm! I try to keep my protein intake fairy consistent. The only macronutrient I really manipulate is my carb intake.
All of this information can easily be found and studied by looking up and researching refeeds. I get asked over and over about this in particular, so please do your research and figure out what works for you or hire a coach!
