Is "refeeding" necessary?

foxygirl14

Just read this article and would like your thoughts.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/

Bonus question: As a 5'2" female with ~18% bf and eating 1200 cal for the past 6 weeks, do you think I would benefit from a refeed or is that only for 'real athletes'?

feisty_bucket

Well, glycogen stores are a real thing. It's a good idea, IMO, to eat "some" carbs after hard exercise, which is usually called refeeding:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mohr114.htm

On the other hand, there are people who call themselves "zero carbers" and they often exercise. I don't know their results. I'd guess not stellar, but haven't thoroughly looked into it.

As for the article and your bonus question: calorie cycling is also a thing that people do and is useful. It just means eating more on some days and less on others, depending on what you're doing. Lifting requires a surplus, to build. All this stuff is a big deal in the Intermittent Fasting/Leangains world and also with people doing recomposition. On myfitnesspal, it's easy to manage if you use the "calorie banking" approach.

For example: all my days are different, calorie wise:
1. lifting day = TDEE + ~1/3rd
2. running/hard cardio day = TDEE + a lil' bit
3. resting day = TDEE
4. fasting day = ~1/6th TDEE

So yeah - back to your question. Six weeks is a long time, I'd definitely eat big at some point in there. Don't freak out if the scale jumps around though, (as you'll see a lot of people do on here), because water retention will be happening.

DavPul

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Just read this article and would like your thoughts.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/

Bonus question: As a 5'2" female with ~18% bf and eating 1200 cal for the past 6 weeks, do you think I would benefit from a refeed or is that only for 'real athletes'?

What is your exercise regimen?

foxygirl14

DavPul wrote: »

What is your exercise regimen?

Running 3-5 miles and doing 30-45 min of strength training (gym machines no free weights) 5 days a week and walking and resting the other 2.

kdiamond

I like refeeds and I believe they can help mentally, if not physically. You're exercising a lot on low calories, it's time!

TavistockToad

foxygirl14 wrote: »

DavPul wrote: »

What is your exercise regimen?

Running 3-5 miles and doing 30-45 min of strength training (gym machines no free weights) 5 days a week and walking and resting the other 2.

And you eat gross 1200 cal? Or net?

foxygirl14

Gross 1200 cal

kshama2001

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Gross 1200 cal

Well, you're undereating.

Lyle McDonald hits on a lot of the same points about refeeding here http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partitioning-part-2.html/ and in his video, which is long; I watched it while doing yoga warmups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6846ZTBu08k&index=4&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr

In the video he stresses refeeding is more helpful for people close to their goal weight then people who have just started dieting/have a lot to lose.

thefuzz1290

Short answer is yes. You don't need to eat back every single calorie, especially since calorie counts may be off, but get close. You should aim to be close to your expected calorie goal by the end of the week.

Christine_72

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Gross 1200 cal

How do you function on such low calories doing all of that exercise?

foxygirl14

Christine_72 wrote: »

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Gross 1200 cal

How do you function on such low calories doing all of that exercise?

Not very well! I was hoping refeeding would help.

thefuzz1290

Then there's your answer.

Springfield1970

I think rather than a re feeding issue, you should first look at the massive undereating you are doing on a daily basis.

TavistockToad

Springfield1970 wrote: »

I think rather than a re feeding issue, you should first look at the massive undereating you are doing on a daily basis.

QFT

Christine_72

Springfield1970 wrote: »

I think rather than a re feeding issue, you should first look at the massive undereating you are doing on a daily basis.

Yes, this is probably a better idea than doing a one off re feeding every now and then.

bmahrenholz216

For women, the lowest calories you should be eating is 1600 kcal a day. If you are running 3-5 miles almost every day you want to restore your muscle glycogen so you don't pull from your blood sugar (which could result in hypoglycemia). If you aren't getting a sufficient amount of calories your body will actually decrease its basal metabolic rate (calories burned at rest) and make it harder to utilize the macronutrients you eat for training.

randomtai

Springfield1970 wrote: »

I think rather than a re feeding issue, you should first look at the massive undereating you are doing on a daily basis.

So much this

sijomial

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Gross 1200 cal

How do you function on such low calories doing all of that exercise?

Not very well! I was hoping refeeding would help.

So would eating back your exercise calories!
You are going to have to when you want to maintain so why not while you are losing?

kshama2001

Springfield1970 wrote: »

I think rather than a re feeding issue, you should first look at the massive undereating you are doing on a daily basis.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

bmahrenholz216 wrote: »

For women, the lowest calories you should be eating is 1600 kcal a day.

I'm a man, and I eat 1,350 kcal daily in order to lose weight when I wasn't losing at 1,660 kcal daily. So this universal proclamation of a minimum calorie goal of 1,600 for women is worthless.

therealfitt

So your body only realizes that it goes under intense athletic training when stood in Beijing ready to go for gold.. You run and get sikver. Must have been because yoi didn't have that refeed because not quite sure if youre a real athlete.. But I guess youre not with just a silver ... That refeed will come one day.. Keep striving ....

KetoTeacher

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Just read this article and would like your thoughts.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/

Bonus question: As a 5'2" female with ~18% bf and eating 1200 cal for the past 6 weeks, do you think I would benefit from a refeed or is that only for 'real athletes'?

Go back and reread your book with 18% bf (and a female ) you are a category 1 in his weight loss, so you should be feeding your muscles and eating more.

Chriswashere86

Referring/cheat meal. It works. If you think about it, your goal in losing weight is to shock your body, make it work harder, and burn more calories than you take in. If you become adapted to the calorie or macro-nutrient restriction (i.e.: low fat, low carb) diets, by switching it up every few weeks, you are doing just that. Switching it up and shocking the body. You will be in a state of fat burning so when you take in extra calories, the body will use them accordingly. Plus it works as a reinforcement for your good eating behavior

Chriswashere86

Refeeding * darn typos

hardyd85

Not sure what your carb intake is but you can try alternating your carbs. Something like 100grams Monday, 75 grams tuesday, 50 Wednesday, 25 Thursday. The last day bump the carbs up to 150 or so. There are a bunch of protocols for carb cycling that tends to do the trick if your stuck. If your also going on a low carb day your fats should be bumped up slighlty.

Ngegee

Meh , I'm no nutritionists but sounds like a fad/gimmick. You may think you're a 20(?)something but your body is about 70,000 years old! Thousands of generations before you have evolved to cope with glut/famine, i don't think this will give you miraculous weight loss

zoe6724

You should look into reverse dieting so that one day you are able to eat more without gaining weight. The resistance training you are doing is the most important thing for having a healthy metabolism.

SideSteel

First of all there's not some magical minimum number of calories to eat based on gender alone.

I think refeeds can be beneficial.

cowsreaper

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Just read this article and would like your thoughts.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/

Bonus question: As a 5'2" female with ~18% bf and eating 1200 cal for the past 6 weeks, do you think I would benefit from a refeed or is that only for 'real athletes'?

As an athlete I don't agree with this article in the way of just eating everything, but I do believe increasing your raw protein intake and calorie intake is important and can be achieved by refeeding but you have to think onece you start eating that many calories a day you're body will become used to that many so you'll feel the need to eat that many calories a day, meaning if you stop working out you will store it as fat, I reccomend protein powder if your trying to gain lean muscle this will increase your protein intake and not effect your diet as drastically as refeeding.

(PS if your trying to shred out make sure you don't take powders with creatine in them, and make sure you are only drinking water and eating clean, and kill the weight and the running)

SideSteel

cowsreaper wrote: »

foxygirl14 wrote: »

Just read this article and would like your thoughts.

http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/

Bonus question: As a 5'2" female with ~18% bf and eating 1200 cal for the past 6 weeks, do you think I would benefit from a refeed or is that only for 'real athletes'?

As an athlete I don't agree with this article in the way of just eating everything, but I do believe increasing your raw protein intake and calorie intake is important and can be achieved by refeeding but you have to think onece you start eating that many calories a day you're body will become used to that many so you'll feel the need to eat that many calories a day, meaning if you stop working out you will store it as fat, I reccomend protein powder if your trying to gain lean muscle this will increase your protein intake and not effect your diet as drastically as refeeding.

(PS if your trying to shred out make sure you don't take powders with creatine in them, and make sure you are only drinking water and eating clean, and kill the weight and the running)

Refeeding should generally be done with higher carbohydrate intake for glycogen and any potential leptin upregulation.


I'm curious why you'd recommend against creatine during a cut? It's useful regardless of state of energy balance.