dt79 - could you perhaps elaborate on the refeed day? is it anymore complicated than just readjusting the macros for the day? i.e shuffling fats into carbs? how does this effect anything?
lorez - thanks for the heads up on metabolic damage, like i said, my assumption was probably a naive one…
claudan - thanks for the definition
chobbs - how do you make use of refeed days?
i dont think we have pop tarts in the UK, haha am i missing out on much?
[quote]hmorcom wrote:
i dont think we have pop tarts in the UK, haha am i missing out on much?[/quote]
They are joking around, even though, yeah some people using a ‘flexible diet/IIFYM’ fill their calories with pop-tarts and still remain ‘ripped’ or whatever.
[quote]hmorcom wrote:
i dont think we have pop tarts in the UK, haha am i missing out on much?[/quote]
Pop tarts are disgusting.
Not complicated.
Maintainence calories or a bit higher
Slightly lower protein
Lower fat to 40g-60g
Up carbs
Once a week on leg or back day.
Reason: disrupt the decrease in metabolism among other things
[quote]magick wrote:
[quote]hmorcom wrote:
i dont think we have pop tarts in the UK, haha am i missing out on much?[/quote]
Pop tarts are disgusting.[/quote]
Heretic!!!
[quote]dt79 wrote:
Not complicated.
Maintainence calories or a bit higher
Slightly lower protein
Lower fat to 40g-60g
Up carbs
Once a week on leg or back day.
Reason: disrupt the decrease in metabolism among other things[/quote]
What he said
Dt79, how do you feel about keeping fat to the absolute bare minimum to get more carbs in lol
[quote]chobbs wrote:
[quote]dt79 wrote:
Not complicated.
Maintainence calories or a bit higher
Slightly lower protein
Lower fat to 40g-60g
Up carbs
Once a week on leg or back day.
Reason: disrupt the decrease in metabolism among other things[/quote]
What he said
Dt79, how do you feel about keeping fat to the absolute bare minimum to get more carbs in lol[/quote]
But a single pop tart already has 5g of fat per serving!
Seriously i’m not sure as i’ve never tried going so low in fat and i’m only writing stuff based on what i’ve done in the past. I think it would be fine. Based on the objectives of the refeed, it would also make sense to simply increase calories to fit in more carbs.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
[quote]chobbs wrote:
[quote]dt79 wrote:
Not complicated.
Maintainence calories or a bit higher
Slightly lower protein
Lower fat to 40g-60g
Up carbs
Once a week on leg or back day.
Reason: disrupt the decrease in metabolism among other things[/quote]
What he said
Dt79, how do you feel about keeping fat to the absolute bare minimum to get more carbs in lol[/quote]
But a single pop tart already has 5g of fat per serving!
Seriously i’m not sure as i’ve never tried going so low in fat and i’m only writing stuff based on what i’ve done in the past. I think it would be fine. Based on the objectives of the refeed, it would also make sense to simply increase calories to fit in more carbs.
[/quote]
Sherbet has no fat 
Oh wow they do look pretty good ha, although that’s far from what I would associate getting lean with! So perhaps il skip on those and go with something else…
In your experience how regular do you find you need to include a refeed day, is it like a once a month thing?
What are your guys go to cardio/conditioning?
Cheers for the advice so far…
Yup since you’re a type 1 diabetic, you should definitely skip the pop tarts haha.
Refeeds can be done once a week on leg or back day. Do monitor your blood glucose levels though.
I have never done any form of conditioning other than something called “The Bear Complex”. It was very popular on this site about a decade ago. There are probaly lots of other variations out there nowadays so try googling circuit training and complexes.
Yeah, that does cause me some issues with foods lol but i’ll happily neglect pop tarts
ah ok, so once weekly i can up my carb intake. Does this have any benefit to doing this the day before leg day? some form of carb loading or whatever? im not going to pretend i know what thats about…
i tell you what really burns me out, is doing the 5 sets of 10 rep squats on the boring but big 5/3/1 variation. today i hit 97.5kg x 5, 112.5kg x 5, 125kg x 7, then finished with 5x10 100kg. i was smoked after that!
Ok, relax, no need to overcomplicate things. There are multiple things going on in a refeed day but some don’t apply to you because of your diabetes.
Just understand basically why the refeed day is done.
Your body will always fight to maintain equilibrium. This is a survival mechanism. It wants to maintain your current weight.
When you decrease calories, it will do things like decrease your metabolism to prevent your weight from dropping further.
The refeed day is to bring it out of survival mode by getting in more calories.
That is all. Even the macro breakdown isn’t set in stone. These are just guidelines. When you read more about this, just remember the main objectives if you get confused.
You can schedule it on any day you want but its best done on your most intense workout days.
And yes, squats for 5×10 reps are brutal lol.
ok i understand what your saying, its just to prevent any equilibrating of the metabolism.
thats absolutely fine, i should easily be able to incorporate a refeed day once weekly on leg day.
cheers for the advice so far guys.
Hey man, i had the same issue as you, i used to be chubby so regaining the lost fat has always been scary, and because of that i always ate what i thought was arround my BMR, until one day i really decided to get some muscle/strenght and increased gradually my calories, surprise surprise, my BMR is actually much higher than what i thought.
Try it, considering your height, weight and training i think 2200cals are low, try increasing 300cals a week and see if you start gaining weight and strenght.
fwiw, it’s worth, a number of coaches (esp. on this site) are against weekly refeeds for a couple reasons:
That being said, I still utilize the weekly approach, though I switch between these options, depending on how the week is looking:
-cheat meal: basically, a full meal, consisting of a course of bread/crackers, soup, salad, main course (with good serving of carbs), dessert, and tea… maybe some wine
-A carbloading window: Stuffing my face w/ as many carbs as possible (but low fat) for 1-6 hours. I typically fast for the rest of the day after this, and some of the following day, or at least highly reduce my food to maybe a shake or a little meat and fat. This probably isn’t the method to go with diabetes.
-fasting: the least common, but I’ll utilize it once and a while to shock the body, save some time, and feel hunger again.
hi Pedro - that would be great news if i could increase calories, im pretty confident my strength would increase, however how might that affect my quest to lean down? i find it difficult to believe i could increase my calories and become leaner simultaneously. of course correct me if im wrong, that would be a much appreciated insight…
1 man island - so is the take home message that the concept of a refeed is good, however the frequency and specifics are questioned? it makes sense to me that altering the macro ratios on a particular day by upping carbs on a leg day for instance, would both, increase performance on that day and also prevent the body/metabolism equilibrating to the given calorie situation.
