[FONT="]Carb refeeds are like magic when it comes to fat loss. If you follow a carbohydrate refeed properly, you’ll retain more muscle, lose more fat, and perform better over the long term. And they’re also a good way to enjoy your favorite foods on a semi-regular basis if done correctly.
Dieting Is Hard On Your Body
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[FONT="]When you’re eating fewer calories than you burn by creating a
caloric deficit, you’re putting your body under stress because this process forces our body to break down and mobilize fatty acids at a rate that’s higher than normal.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In fact, you’re burning fat all day long. If you’re sitting down or on a walk while reading this, guess what? You’re probably burning body fat (unless you just ate a meal, but don’t worry about that. Hang with me here).[/FONT]
[FONT="]But when you deliberately restrict your intake, you force your body to rely on reserve energy, also known as body fat. This is how we lose body fat on purpose, by eating less than we burn each day.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Over time, dieting can be stressful on the body because of the energy deficit. Carbohydrate refeeds can help you feel better, perform better, and they can even relieve the stress you’re putting on yourself by raising certain hormones and lowering others. We’ll get into that in a bit.[/FONT]
[h=2]What’s Carb Refeed?[/h][FONT="]Carbohydrate refeeds are short periods where you strategically and purposely eat more carbs than normal. There’s a big range in terms of what’s best for you, but in general, we’ll put the range at somewhere between 300 grams and 1000+ grams of carbohydrates.[/FONT]
[FONT="]If that seems like a crazy huge range, it’s because it is. Refeeding on carbohydrates are important for various reasons, all of which we’re covering in this article.[/FONT]
[FONT="]NOTE: a carbohydrate refeed will (and should) always put you into a caloric surplus and when done properly, will prevent most fat gain associated with a typical caloric surplus. Technically, you only incorporate a refeed when you’re actively dieting, not when you’re in a caloric surplus to gain muscle.[/FONT]
[h=2]The Science Of Refeeds[/h][FONT="]While refeeding is rooted deep in the bodybuilding culture where a group of individuals were doing much of this dietary manipulation before there were hard data and science to back it up. And what’s cool is that while some of it might be unnecessary from a practicality and performance standpoint, lots of it actually checks out.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In this section, you’ll learn the process of refeeds, how they work and why they work.[/FONT]
[h=2]What’s The Point Of Overeating On Carbs?[/h][FONT="]The short version: body and mind. When we’re dieting hard to lose body fat, the body’s metabolic processes naturally slow down. Over time, you will eventually burn up glycogen (carbs stored in your muscles) and this can have a negative effect on your performance in the gym.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Refeeds help refill glycogen and give a bump to the hormones in your body that regulate weight gain or loss.[/FONT]
[h=2]Glycogen and performance[/h]
[FONT="]If you can’t perform your best in the gym, you might begin losing muscle. This is especially so if you go too long without taking a break from dieting by eating more food, or having a high carb (refeed) day.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Glycogen (carbs stored in the muscle) are what gives you energy in the gym. So while you’re losing fat on a diet, and you’re using weight training as your primary means of exercise, you’re not actually burning fat for fuel during your training.[/FONT]
[FONT="]This is a common misconception, especially when people are so adamant about losing body fat. They tend to cut carbs to very low levels in order to speed up fat loss, and while it does work, it’s not optimal and can actually hurt your efforts in the short and long term.[/FONT]
[FONT="]When you’re strong in the gym, it has a lot to do with your levels of glycogen. And when you’re feeling weak, it can be for many reasons such as being in a calorie deficit too long, lack of sleep and proper rest, but also a lack of stored glycogen.
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[h=2]Hormones: Thyroid and Leptin[/h][FONT="]If carbohydrates are too low for too long, you will produce less T3 (thyroid hormone), which can ultimately slow down your metabolism making it harder to consistently lose fat.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The following excerpt is pulled directly from my fat loss course for men,
4D Fat Loss.[/FONT]
[FONT="]T3 is the most potent form of the hormones and is the most active in the body. It’s responsible for growth and development and regulating heart rate, body temperature, and not so surprisingly, your overall metabolic health.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In fact, one of the most common causes of a slower metabolism is lowered T3 production. Some of these signs and symptoms can manifest in a low body temperature (with waking temperatures consistently below 98°) and feel cold most of the time (mostly having icy hands and feet, especially upon waking).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now bear with me, as I dive into some of the research on carbohydrate and metabolic health in brief. In the 70s, there was an obesity study done at the University of Vermont, in which men were overfed for seven months—so much that they gained up to 25% above their ideal body weight. What they found was that after they’d gained the weight, they then required 50% more calories to maintain their heavier body weight than they did at their original leaner weight.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The researchers wondered if there were changes in thyroid production that caused them to require more food as a result of increased thermogenesis (production of heat within the human body). They then decided to do another experiment, in which they’d taken two groups—a high-carb group and a high-fat group—and overfed them again.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The high-carb group was overfed with a diet of mostly carbs for 7 months, and the high-fat group was overfed with a diet of mostly fat for 3 months.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Both groups did gain weight, and they were returned to their maintenance level diet. During the maintenance level diet, the levels of T3 within the high-carb group were higher than that of the low-carb diet group. Then, when they put the low-carb folks on a high-carb maintenance diet, their levels of T3 rose(1).[/FONT]
[FONT="]When they compared the diets directly with the amounts of T3 they produced on any given day, each succeeding level of carbohydrate intake seemed to progressively improve T3 production directly. This showed that increasing carbs, regardless of the calorie and macronutrient totals, seemed to show greater T3 production(2).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Yet another study showed that after 4 days of fasting in obese subjects, T3 levels declined significantly. After the fast, some were given diets of mostly protein or mostly fat, but neither of those restored their T3 levels. When they were given a mixed diet of protein, carbs, and fat, however, T3 levels rose significantly. It’s also interesting to point out that a carb-only diet showed similar increases in T3 hormone levels(3).[/FONT]
[FONT="]So we know that carbohydrates are important for thyroid production… but it’s also important for another hormone: Leptin.[/FONT]
[h=2]What Leptin Is And Why It’s Important[/h]
[FONT="]Leptin is a hormone (discovered in 1994 by Jeffrey M. Friedman, Ph.D.) that is produced by fat cells. Its role is to regulate weight through means of controlling appetite. The short version of all the science mumbo-jumbo is that the more fat you have in your fat cells, the higher your leptin levels; the leaner you are, the less leptin you secrete.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Leptin levels have a huge impact on the dieting process because as a result of dieting and losing body fat, leptin decreases as a result. Lowered leptin levels tell the brain the body needs food, making you hungry and more likely to overeat and sabotage your dieting efforts. This is simply the body’s natural evolutionary mechanism for survival, and it’s a major reason why people go on apocalyptic-level binge episodes.[/FONT]
[FONT="]To combat this, we have to create a “fed” signal through the short-term manipulation of our diet.[/FONT]
[FONT="]One of the main advantages of a refeed is the ability to give you a bump in a hormone called leptin. When you diet for an extended period of time, and you’re losing fat, you run low on leptin after a while. When you’re low on leptin, hunger tends to increase, causing you to eat more.[/FONT]
[FONT="]And when you eat more, you will probably gain some body fat, thusly restoring some leptin in the process. However, high-carb meals have been shown in the research to improve leptin levels more so than a high fat meal.(4)[/FONT]
[FONT="]And when you limit fat intake during a high carb day, you’re less likely to store that fat as body fat.[/FONT]
[h=2]Carbs Spare Muscle Tissue[/h][FONT="]On a diet, your body is pulling energy from 3 potential sources: fat (body and ingested), carbohydrates (stored as glycogen) and muscle tissue (or ingested protein).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ideally, you want your body burning body fat and carbohydrates, never protein. So if you train hard, which requires glycogen (carbs), and you restrict carbohydrates too much, your body will have to turn protein (either what you ate, or your muscle tissue) into glucose for fuel.[/FONT]
[FONT="]And turning protein into glucose (sugar) is a costly process. So if you diet too hard, restrict carbs for too long, you’re likely to cut into your muscle tissue unless you’re consuming a very high protein intake (somewhere around 1.5 grams or more per pound of body weight).[/FONT]
[FONT="]TL;DR —
eat enough protein (about 1 gram per pound of body weight) to preserve muscle and enough carbohydrates to fuel your training sessions. Let the calorie deficit do its thing and mobilize fat for fuel.[/FONT]
[h=2]What Are The Benefits Of A Carb Refeed?[/h][FONT="]While I’ve covered the physiological benefits of refeeds above, it’s time we go over the psychological aspects.[/FONT]
[h=3]The Mental Woes Of Dieting[/h][FONT="]Dieting for a certain period of time (anything longer than 4-6 weeks) can be hard on the individual mentally because let’s face it… hunger sucks. There’s little worse than feeling tired, lethargic and hungry for all the foods you’re abstaining from on a diet.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I mean, actually, there are MANY things much worse going on in the world than being a little hungry on a diet so you can lose a few pounds to look great at the beach, but you get what I’m saying.[/FONT]
[FONT="]If you’re fortunate enough to have the luxury of dieting so you can improve your appearance, you know how it can impact your mental state.[/FONT]
[FONT="]So here are a handful of ways that a refeed can help you psychologically.[/FONT]
- A refeed gives you something to look forward to. When it comes to dieting, it’s nice to know you have a high carb day coming up so you can prepare and plan for some of those foods you’ve been missing out on.
- A refeed makes you feel better physically. And this helps you relax mentally. Dieting raises stress hormones and can keep you on edge and even keep you from sleeping deeply. When we overeat on carbs, it allows us to relax, kick back and chill out. This body relaxation is good for the mind.
- It can help restore sleep patterns. If you’ve been struggling to sleep well because of the dieting, having a high carb refeed day can help ease you into a slumber fit for a bear getting ready for hibernation. I mean, you’re not a bear, so don’t sleep your week away. You get the point.
- It can help you stay on track with your diet long term, which is the entire point. Refeeds are there to help you make progress. And many times, saying to hell with the diet comes from not being able to chill out and enjoy some foods you really want in large quantities.
