Of refeeds and diet breaks

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  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
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    I just had mine too last week, after 2 days of going to back to my cutting calories, I dropped 2 lbs immediately. Of course, it's still early in the week, but still. It's probably some of the water weight being flushed out from the small increase of food the previous week when I was on maintenance.
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited July 2018
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    I am still wondering how come I am losing faster this week after my diet break. I hope it's just the water weight and glycogen that's being flushed out more than me simply losing weight at a fast rate. I wouldn't want to lose muscles. I am on pace to lose 2 lbs this week. I think I'll stick with my current cutting calories for one more week to make sure it was water weight all along and not me simply losing weight too fast. If I see that 2 weeks after my diet break I am still losing too much weight, I'll have to increase my calories. I am already close to my body fat % goal.
  • trishfit2014
    trishfit2014 Posts: 304 Member
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    I did a diet break while on vacation last week. I was happy that I maintained (weighed the day after getting back). I weighed myself this morning after two days of being back on the program and I lost 1.4 lbs. I know it is water weight but very happy. Weight was coming off at about .5 lbs a week. I am at the last 5-10 lbs.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    fb47 wrote: »
    I am still wondering how come I am losing faster this week after my diet break. I hope it's just the water weight and glycogen that's being flushed out more than me simply losing weight at a fast rate. I wouldn't want to lose muscles. I am on pace to lose 2 lbs this week. I think I'll stick with my current cutting calories for one more week to make sure it was water weight all along and not me simply losing weight too fast. If I see that 2 weeks after my diet break I am still losing too much weight, I'll have to increase my calories. I am already close to my body fat % goal.

    That's probably water. Saw your other post. That's a decent calorie level. Will probably slow next week. But, I think you are smart to keep an eye on it.
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
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    mmapags wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    I am still wondering how come I am losing faster this week after my diet break. I hope it's just the water weight and glycogen that's being flushed out more than me simply losing weight at a fast rate. I wouldn't want to lose muscles. I am on pace to lose 2 lbs this week. I think I'll stick with my current cutting calories for one more week to make sure it was water weight all along and not me simply losing weight too fast. If I see that 2 weeks after my diet break I am still losing too much weight, I'll have to increase my calories. I am already close to my body fat % goal.

    That's probably water. Saw your other post. That's a decent calorie level. Will probably slow next week. But, I think you are smart to keep an eye on it.

    As much as I want to get my cut done asap, I know it wouldn't do many favors if I did lose beyond 1% of my bodyweight.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    fb47 wrote: »
    I am still wondering how come I am losing faster this week after my diet break. I hope it's just the water weight and glycogen that's being flushed out more than me simply losing weight at a fast rate. I wouldn't want to lose muscles. I am on pace to lose 2 lbs this week. I think I'll stick with my current cutting calories for one more week to make sure it was water weight all along and not me simply losing weight too fast. If I see that 2 weeks after my diet break I am still losing too much weight, I'll have to increase my calories. I am already close to my body fat % goal.

    Water weight can take several days to be come off. I have been known to take 8 days to return to "normal". Just keep reminding yourself that it takes burning ~7000 calories to lose 2lbs of fat which is not something a person can normally do without intention or sickness.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    fb47 wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    fb47 wrote: »
    I am still wondering how come I am losing faster this week after my diet break. I hope it's just the water weight and glycogen that's being flushed out more than me simply losing weight at a fast rate. I wouldn't want to lose muscles. I am on pace to lose 2 lbs this week. I think I'll stick with my current cutting calories for one more week to make sure it was water weight all along and not me simply losing weight too fast. If I see that 2 weeks after my diet break I am still losing too much weight, I'll have to increase my calories. I am already close to my body fat % goal.

    That's probably water. Saw your other post. That's a decent calorie level. Will probably slow next week. But, I think you are smart to keep an eye on it.

    As much as I want to get my cut done asap, I know it wouldn't do many favors if I did lose beyond 1% of my bodyweight.

    If your strength, recovery, and performance during training haven't taken a hit, then it's more than likely you're not losing gains. It also depends on your body composition. If you're already significantly lean, then yes, a loss of >0.5-1%/wk is rapid, but coming off a diet break, it should be water, glycogen, fat, and insignificant amounts of protein (as long as dietary protein is prioritized, this isn't really a worry regarding nitrogen balance).

    If you're normal or overfat, then losses around 1+%/wk aren't really too bad either. Again, use strength, recovery, and training performance as a kind of reassuring guide that whatever you're losing is mostly everything else and minimal lean mass loss.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    First refeed weekend begins tomorrow - huzzah!! Earlier in the week I was thinking I wouldn't need it, but had been running a higher deficit in anticipation. Yesterday I was dithering because I'm a ball of water retention and don't really want to see the scale go up further. Today though it's clear the high deficit and sudden jump in activity level is taking its toll (srsly, how do people do that for months on end??), so I have carby goodness at the ready, other than needing to pick up some potatoes at the veg market tomorrow morning.

    May take a bit of thought on dinner because my TDEE is much lower than in spring/summer and I'm already at my limit on how much activity I can handle at the moment (plus it's going to most likely rain all blimmin' weekend), so I'll need to scale back on what I'd usually eat for a refeed dinner.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    @Nony_Mouse ITA. I would last about 12 hours on an aggressive weight loss plan. My body and my brain do not do well when input and output aren't in the vicinity of balanced! When I'm exerting myself and haven't eaten enough, I get a headache and suddenly have zero patience.

    Enjoy your refeed! :cookie:

    Yeah normally I stick to a 700 cal daily deficit when I'm doing refeeds, to still balance out at 3500 for the week. But didn't refeed last weekend because it had been a wobbly week getting back on track (so deficit total was well below 3500), but over the past week I've had a couple of days a bit above 700, and a couple well above due to a weird lack of appetite. I did have a 500 cal day in there too, but deficit for six days is something around 5000 cals. Do not recommend!! Part of it may have been lower appetite with late follicular phase (yes, finally reading the Women's Book!), part bad timing around exercise, which seems to be back to blunting my appetite.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
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    I've got a question for those in the know on thyroid function:

    My primary care doctor was willing to order bloodwork this week, and she reviewed a lot of the hormones that dealt with my PCOS diagnosis and my old insulin resistance diagnosis because she wanted to see if losing the weight that I had lost had helped. She was also willing to order a free T3 test, t4 test, and a TSH for me.

    I'm looking at the results now, and wondering what they are telling me. I don't have a thyroid - it was removed in 2014 for cancer. My endo had kept me really low TSH for 3 years, and has been letting it raise since back in the spring as I'm in the lowest percentile for possible cancer re-occurrence. Despite having my TSH clear down to 0.01 at one point, I never showed any signs of being hyperthyroid at all, and still had some of the hypo symptoms.

    Back in March, the last TSH level I had from my endo was 0.5 and this is where she wanted it to stay, so my last medication adjustment was then; however, the result from yesterday, despite having no changes in my medication, shows 2.24 - meaning my TSH has gone up in the last 4 months even though my medication has stayed the same. I'm uncertain why my levels changed so drastically, but I had fasted for approximately 12 hours before this blood test - would that have affected that TSH that drastically?

    with a TSH at 2.24, my free T4 is showing at 1.02 which according to the test result, has a range of 0.7 to 1.25 - so my result is solidly in the middle to upper range of normal. My free T3, however, is sitting at 1.6, which according to the test results I have, has a normal range of 1.7 to 3.7 - meaning that while my free T4 seems to be fine, my free T3 is low.

    I'm definitely going to have these results forwarded to my endocrinologist, but I'd like to know exactly what I need to be discussing with her with results like this - just to have some kind of idea of what may be going on when I go into the office. I do wonder if my fasting (I was having sugar testing done too) has anything to do with these results, or if maybe we need to consider trying me on T3 supplementation too in addition to my synthroid.

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Hello lovely refeed/diet break thread regulars!

    Can I make a request for a new thread with Refeed / Diet Break FAQs & Cliff Notes in the OP?
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Hahaha, I'm an idiot, I didn't check the OP again. I just remembered having such a hard time finding the info.

    Thanks Nony!

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