Refeeds/cheats?

[TurbulentFluid]

Hullo... since I started making my diet count, I am having loads of questions... atm I'm in the 1550 - 1600 kcal range (aiming for 1700 next week). I'd love to do 1x refeed a week, mostly for carb-up purposes... as I'm allergic to additives and specially baking powder, plus lactose intolerant - I have a problem!

All my refeeds (I'd like to add 600 - 800 extra CLEAN calories that day) end up being cheats since I've no idea what to eat! Yesterday I wanted to do a refeed, ended up just binging on fruit, chocolate and muesli cookies. What's good refeed foods, considering my limitations? Or should I just cheat? (A pizza wouldn't kill me, my additive allergies just cause an uncomfy bloat).

[Scarl3tbutt3rfly]

I wish I could help you. That is a great question. I would imagine ideally, you would want to eat whole grains, and clean carbs for your carb refeeds. But I would imagine that if you had a slice of pizza or 2 it wouldnt hurt you.

I am just starting to understand the concept and understanding for refeeds. I am trying to bulk though, and I always have 1 treat meal a week anyway, so my 'pizza' would fit there.

If you are carb cycling, my understanding is overall you want to have low fat and high carb that day though. However, I have read the "Cut Diet" and although that is in a difference class of dieting, those carb refeeds, they recommend Carbs and fat only and no protein. So it is a little confusing overall. The addition of fat I would think would slow your insulin spike as it would slow digestion which may be their reasoning for this. But if part of the concept reasoning for refeeds is to restore glycogen stores, etc. I would assume additional carbs period would help. Youd have more insulin spikes with lower fat I guess. But I dont like the idea of eliminating the protein (of course that is in the cut diet, which is in a different class of dieting anyway) I dunno.

My plan was to lower my fat slightly today, (it is a refeed day for me) only because today is also my day for a treat meal, so hopefully it will balance any unexpected fats I get in that.(Although I still am careful on my choices of food, and I tend to prefer whole grain, healthy stuff anyway, but I dont weigh, Im not strict about portion size, and I do have some tastes of naughty stuff, ie dessert). On my more controlled day, I dont really adjust my fats any different from my regular low carb day, I just add more carbs (your percentage of fat intake should then go down by default as increasing carbs to 60+% would obviously decrease fat and protein percentages as everything has to still add up to 100% )Im not planning on adjusting my protein intake.

Hopefully some others have some input which have more experience, because my understanding of everything may be way off

PS, if anyone has any more articles regarding the science, philosophy regarding refeeds and restoring glycogen stores etc. Id love to read them. Please PM me links or post them.

[ozigal]

Hullo... since I started making my diet count, I am having loads of questions... atm I'm in the 1550 - 1600 kcal range (aiming for 1700 next week). I'd love to do 1x refeed a week, mostly for carb-up purposes... as I'm allergic to additives and specially baking powder, plus lactose intolerant - I have a problem!

All my refeeds (I'd like to add 600 - 800 extra CLEAN calories that day) end up being cheats since I've no idea what to eat! Yesterday I wanted to do a refeed, ended up just binging on fruit, chocolate and muesli cookies. What's good refeed foods, considering my limitations? Or should I just cheat? (A pizza wouldn't kill me, my additive allergies just cause an uncomfy bloat).

for clean re-feeds just try eating the same as usual but extra calories at each meal, or add in an extra meal or two. Alternatively have wholemeal pasta, basmati rice or brown rice

[Eileen]

For clean carb-ups, I'd go with pulses and root vegetables.

Lentil and carrot soup, served with rye crackers.

Baked potato and baked beans (if eating out)

Low fat oven chips dipped in salsa.

Seafood chowder: white fish, onions, sweetcorn, potato etc cooked in stock.

Irish stew: lean beef with potatoes, onions and carrots.

Watery stew: round steak, potatoes, leeks, turnips cooked till very soft with lots of water.

Shrimp stir fry, shrimp, peas, sweetcorn, chili, tomato and rice noodles.

Chili con carne, with lots of kidney beans and rice.

[MauiZos]

There are really 2 reasons for the cheat or re-feed:

1) So you can mentally give yourself a break and eat that pizza/cookie/ice cream/whatever you've been craving that's driving you nuts

2) To replenish muscle glycogen and reset leptin levels on a low carb diet

So if you're just cheating to give yourself a break, eat the pizza or whatver it is you want. Earn it and then enjoy it!

If you are doing carb cycling - usually 2-5 days of low carb depending on your skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity - you need to refeed to replenish muscle glycogen. You'll need insulin to carry the glucose into the muscles so the higher GI the better. If you want to stay clean, get the carbs in with fruit, potatoes, white rice. If you don't care about clean, go for some kind of sugary candy. How many days you've been low carb will determine how many g's of carbs you need to replenish.

The body cannot burn fat in the presence of insulin, but it also can't build muscle without it. That's why a lot of BBers employ a carb cycling strategy to appropriately fuel their muscles, but also keep their bodies burning fat to stay lean. It's hard and takes a lot of focus and dedication to your diet.