Low Carb Diet - Refeed/Carbing Up

Diet and Nutrition
1

I have certainly been getting more and more cofused about refeeding. I have been dieing for a total of 20 weeks now. Dont worry, I have taken 2 breaks of maintanence cals during this period.BUT I think I could have speed the fat loss up far more to begin with if I had a smaller intake during the refeed day on a low carb diet. I did high pro/fat loww carb 6 days a week and 1 day of refeeding. I did take some carbs post workout which may have slowed the fat loss down for me I think. And as I mentioned, I think smaller refeeds should have been practiced. I will be back on my diet this week, with less carbs than usual. I know that the refeed day requires higher calories, and if you are not having a day of high carbs, maybe more moderate, ie 200g then the rest would have to come from fat right? So my current plan is 2-3 pro/fat meals then 4 pro/carb meals…which enables me to get a higher number of calories.

But the more I think about it, maybe I should have had a lower intake of calories during the week earlier on in my diet and not blame the amount of carbs ingested during the carb up day. CT really stands by his recommendation that the fatter you are, the less carbs you should eat(incl the carb up day)…which makes more sense to me now, for my body anwyay…however, I have read everywhere that the carb up day should be full of carbs and will maximise the effect of the low carbs during the week??? I still have a nice amount of fat to lose in IMO

Thoughts?

GJ

2

Read the Anabolic Diet thread.

3

Very intelligent questions being asked about here lately…

Despite temptation, people refeeding carbs from a low CHO diet should view carbs as fuel, not fun. This is especially true as the day goes on. So- you could maybe have nice cereal to start the day, and a few biscuits, but you must be super-strict from lunch onwards, if you are fat-prone (i am, and learned the hard way).

Try to eat baked sweet potato and turkey breast all day, with side orders of oats, undressed spinach and some fruit. Eat all you like, it will be hard to eat all that much. The best tip is- when you feel sleepy, soft and approaching full, stop. Don’t ever eat to bursting. Eating this way will make you stronger come monday, but eating to bursting would make you sleepy and tired all Saturday, and fat.

I recommend you do read the AD thread, especially I remember some pertinent remarks from SashaG, and dischoss is always a good bet. But it’s long, so be prepared. Good luck mate

4

Thanks,

I have been on the tread before…not that I dont believe in what they say, it is just that personally when I limit the carb up day a bit, but still take it high calories to shock my metabolism during cutting, I lose more fat in the coming week…If I increase the carb up, as some mention to do, even if it is clean, I dont lose quite as much fat over the following week? Do you think limiting the carb up will lead to muscle loss?

GJ

5

I am going low carb myself. Mainly protein, veggies, nuts, fruits, oats, protein powder, peanut butter (bkft only) and an occassional avacato.
In the past I was also eating cottage cheese & yogurt or cc & pineapple but may stay away from that and add additional meats & veggies.

Can you give an example of your normal low carb day & a normal refeed day.

What kind of fat loss have you had so far?

Here’s to wishing you continued success!!

B-3

6

Refeeds should be determined by your own body’s response. I know some people who can go without a refeed for a week and do just fine. My metabolism downregulates if I don’t refeed every 2-3 days. While some do small refeeds, large refeeds (2000 kcal difference) work for me. Take into consideration your performance in the gym, weight…etc and go from there.

7

[quote]BodyBldgBabe wrote:
I am going low carb myself. Mainly protein, veggies, nuts, fruits, oats, protein powder, peanut butter (bkft only) and an occassional avacato.
In the past I was also eating cottage cheese & yogurt or cc & pineapple but may stay away from that and add additional meats & veggies.

Can you give an example of your normal low carb day & a normal refeed day.

What kind of fat loss have you had so far?

Here’s to wishing you continued success!!

B-3 [/quote]

I’m not the OP, but I do a pretty low carb lifestyle all the time. Here’s my typical “low” day. Generally, I cycle carbs, but a few days a week are no starchy carb sources. Anyway…

Meal 1:
4 eggs
broccoli
1tbsp olive oil

Meal 2:
2 scoops protein
1 tbsp olive oil

Meal 3:
1 can tuna
1 oz. almonds
green veggie

Meal 4:
6-8oz. beef (top round or lean ground beef)
1oz. almonds
green veggie

meal 5:
2 scoops protein
1 tbsp olive oil
NOTE: I’m not a huge fan of this much liquid nutrition. But, I teach guitar at night, and it’s either a quick shake between students or nothing.

Meal 6:
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tbsp natural peanut butter

Not crazy low carb, but under a 100g. proably under 70.

Typically, I do one cheat meal a week on friday night (training day, but not right after training). On a “high” carb day, I’ll consume some chocolate milk post work out, oatmeal with breakfast in place of olive oil, and some oatmeal or brown rice an hour and a half after my PWO shake. “high” carb days are typically the days that are heavy days–like ME upper and lower body days.

EDIT: You can view fat loss progress in my profile. I’m back up right now. But essentially I “cut” for a year not really knowing what the hell I was doing, and probably destroyed whatever muscle and metabolism I had left. I went to maintenence/slightly above in last June, and gained 20lbs since then. A fair amount of muscle, but also some fat (of course). New plan is go low carb and get rid of the fat–I’ll probably end up around 190, currently 205. Basically, I dropped a ton of weight, but I’ve never been super lean. But that can be probably attributed to a lack of muscle mass (doesn’t do much good to cut to bone), and stupid training.

8

Are you guys meaning “refeed” and a “free day” to be the same. Please forgive my ignorance, and please be patient with me, nutrition has been my down fall each and every time so I’m trying to obtain as much knowledge as my little pea brain will handle. :wink:

The BFL plan encourages a free day once a week where u eat anything u want. In the beginning this is fantastic because ur not neglecting junk food. however, once your body becomes accustomed to your new healthy lifestyle u no longer fill urself full of junk. for me, an enjoyable free day eventually became a free meal which included ribs and or a larger portion of chicken with bbq sauce & cheese and either a slice of cheese cake or Baskin Robbins icecream.

I’m curious if my free meal sounds okay or do I need to be doing something different?

Thx!!

9

My refeeds are generally clean…all the extra calories mostly come from carbs (oatmeal, bread, brown rice). Free days may be better for some people, but I know that when I eat an insane amount of fat with high gi carbs, I end up gaining a little too much fat. I’ll have SOME high GI carbs and non-bodybuilder friendly food on my refeed day, but I definitely won’t binge on it. It all comes down to trial and error.

For me, if I was going to have an entire free day, I would probably have to decrease the frequency of refeed days. However, I would rather have more refeed days during the week and have a controlled amount of “dirty” foods rather than binge on the refeed day and deal with hunger pangs for the rest of the week.

10

The point is that it’s a free or cheat meal: eat what you want. It’s designed to keep you sane with restricted calories.

Shugs posted some things in the PC threads that stated he doesn’t really like cheats. It makes the bad food some sort of treat or reward. Personally, I don’t see a problem with cheats with the right mantality. Don’t look at them as if they’re rewards for a week of good eating. Instead, make them part of your diet. I schedule my cheat meal in my diet plan for the week.

Just don’t go crazy on the cheat meal. BBB, what you posted sounds fine. I wouldn’t do a whole free day on a fat loss plan, but that’s me. I also tend to cook with my girlfriend a lot for my “cheat” meal. Sometimes we’ll just make steak. Last time around, I made ribs with BBQ sauce. Not bodybuilder friendly foods, but a lot better than ordering a pizza or something.

11

Hey guys,
Current stats: 6.1 ft, 212 lbs and 12-15% bf
A typical training day/diet is:

Meal 1: 12 egg whites 5 yolks + tbspn salsa
Meal 2: Plain tuna + capsicum + 15 fish oil tabs
Meal 3: Steak + Brocoli + 1 tbspn olive oil
Meal 4: Same as 2
Peri-workout: 30g WPI + 10g BCAA’s + 5g creatine + 15 ml glycerine
During workout: 25g BCAA’s + 5g creatine + 5g glutamine + 15ml glycerine
Post workout: 40g WPI + 10g BCAA’s +5 creatine + 10g BCAA’s
Meal 5: Chicken + brocoli + 1 tbsp olive oil
Meal 6: Cottage cheese + 15 fish oils
So this is about 300g pro, 120g fat and trace carbs = 2300 calories.
That it what I will be eating this coming week. Carb up day at the moment incl 220g carbs, 300g pro, 80g fat = approx 3000 cals to shock the metabolism.

Over the last few weeks, I had a higher intake of carbs on the carb up day and it seemed to slow the process down. So I dropped the carbs a tiny bit in favor of more fats to get the calories up on the refeed day…which has been working very well. As CT has recently mentioned today, there are other nutrients to do the same job as the carbs. If on a calorie deficit for fat loss, a refeed of simply more fat and or protein can be employed to get the calories up…which makes sense ey. So I will keep the carb ups on the lower side <200g and very clean and monitor progress for now. Plenty have told me to go very high >500g + in order to maximize the effect of the low carbs, but when I eat more, I dont lose any fat. The guys that have told me,have a really good rep, BUT what worked for them, has not fo me…VERY INDIVIDUAL ey…

Good luck to us all in the pursuit of obtaining a lean and musclur physique!

GJ

12

Diet looks pretty clean, may want to try replacing the cottage cheese in meal 6. I assume this is your pre-bed meal. Try some Casein protein powder and some veggies on the side.

13

Hey AC,

Only problem is that over here in AUS, the price of casien has doubled. I guess that I could purchase a slow release protein powder from GNC or something, but man the supps have started adding up ey. WPI, Multi, Vitamins, BCAA’s, creatine, glutamine and glycerine!

GJ

14

[quote]Gymjunkie wrote:
Hey AC,

Only problem is that over here in AUS, the price of casien has doubled. I guess that I could purchase a slow release protein powder from GNC or something, but man the supps have started adding up ey. WPI, Multi, Vitamins, BCAA’s, creatine, glutamine and glycerine!

GJ[/quote]

Casein isn’t too bad, it depends. Can grab some Syntha-6, which is a blend, or some muscle milk if you don’t mind the MCTs + Glycocyamine, GNC has a sale on til the 3/1 or something I think.

15

Thanks for that Dan…Where u located in AUS? I was buyin my casein from a place called Cell Biology wholesalers for about $40/kg…but they simply dont make it anymore because of the price. BUT they introduced another one which is a blend. My mum started buying me cottage cheese when she does the shoppin, which saves me some cash, so thought I’d stick with that for now…haha, tightass

GJ

16

Haha awesome, I’m in Melbourne. How about you? I wouldn’t mind grabbing some straight Micellar Casein from somewhere if anyone knows where…