Finished my refeed, lost a pound, gained four...

PrimalGirl

Hi
You probably get posts like this all. the. time. BUT, I'm going to ask anyway.

I did a 10 week refeed. I felt great, was sleeping better, had more energy and made some strength gains in the weight room. At the end of the 10 weeks I was feeling fresh and rested, but I'd gained 5lbs and it was visible. I also significantly increased my carb intake (I'm Paleo, so I struggled a lot with aspect but stuck with it regardless). I attempted an IIFYM split but found it almost impossible to eat enough carbs each day, so lowered those and increased fat and protein to hit my calorie goal instead.

So I decided to come off the refeed. I dropped my calories straight into cut mode (probably my first mistake). In the first week I lost just over a pound. In the two weeks since I gained 4 and I'm now heavier than I was during the refeed.

I did keep my carb intake higher than it's been historically (not sure if that was my second mistake?).

Have I cut too hard, or was I just not ready to come off the refeed? Or maybe I need to rejig my macros back to a low-carb split instead of IIFYM? Any advice or thoughts welcome.

Thanks all

PrimalGirl

XavierNusum

If you cut your cals, but kept carbs higher does that mean you lowered your protein intake? If so, put it back and take those cals away from carbs. Also, I've heard, coming from Paleo or any other low carb eating plan will take some time to retrain the body to use carbs.

heybales

As a woman, your BMR literally will change through the month, so you can't base anything on less than 4 weeks minimum.
More time needed.

As commented above, you likely topped off some carb stores for initial part of gain. Carbs store in muscles with water, about 2 lbs of it there.
The other 4 lbs gained in 2 weeks is obviously water weight.

Unless you think you ate 1000 calories daily over maintenance that entire time.

As to why more water weight, body could be stressed at reduction in calories but still lifting at same higher level.
Recovery will be slower in diet, that's a given, so more stress there maybe.

Or again, just need to wait to really see.

Ditto's to if carbs were kept the same, confirm it wasn't protein that lowered when you went to deficit. Not that it should have anything to do with this weight change, but it shouldn't happen anyway.

PrimalGirl

Hi
Thanks both. I think I might shift up to maintenance rather than cut for a few weeks and make sure I'm getting adequate protein, lowering my carb intake a bit too on strength days and keeping it a bit higher on cycling days.
I don't want to keep changing things up every couple of weeks, but I do now think going from 2200 cals to 1600 was too much of a jump.

Jennifer_Lynn_1982

When you do decide to cut after being in maintenance, perhaps don't cut as much as you did. If you do a 15% cut off of 2200, then you'd have 1870 calories to play with. I think that might be a bit more realistic for you since you have less to lose.

Jennbecca33

1600 cals is probably too low for you and your body didn't like going back down there. Can you post your stats and what workouts/length of workouts you do and we can better help you look at your numbers? Were you aiming to do a full metabolism reset? And what is your dieting history like?