Help me with my refeed plan, fight runger

fitoverfortymom

I've been on MFP actively for a little more than a year and successfully lost just shy of 100lbs. I'm now 2.5lbs from my original goal weight and 7lbs from what I hope to be my optimal weight. My rate of loss has been consistent with my calorie intake. I've taken diet breaks when I've needed them. I've lost weight when I have a deficit, and only stalled when I didn't. So what's the problem you might ask? I have runger. And baaaaaad. Even on days where I eat all of my exercise calories, I am so so so so so so hungry. So, I did what any good MFPr would do and I read this bad boy for some advice: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1.

Lyle McDonald. That genius.

What I took away from that is because I have been dieting for 16+ months, even though my bodyfat % is probably in the range of 25%-27%,I'm not a lifter (I'm a runner), and I'm a woman, I could benefit from a weekly refeed cycle. Mind you, I don't want to do this to necessarily accelerate my rate of loss, I'm fine with a deficit that leads to .5lbs per week loss. Even weeks here and there when I don't lose at all are totally fine. I know I'm on the right path. What I'm NOT ok with is the runger. I think refeed cycles will help me because I'll get to "fill up" on certain days, which is a feeling I desperately want/need. Psychologically, looking forward to my "get really full" day is very appealing.

I need MFP'er help, because I want to make sure my plan here is sound. Ok. Here we go. First off my stats:

F, 43
5'6"
CW: 152.4
GW: 145-150 (I'd like to hit a low of 145 and then maintain between those two points)
Maintenance calories: 1800 (12,600 per week)

I run 5 days a week, cross train with a Body Pump and core class once a week, and do one long run per week. My training (actively training for planned races throughout 2018) schedule looks like this:

S: Rest (negligable exercise like walking the dog and moving around the kitchen while I meal prep)
M: 3 mile run (300 calories)
T: 4-6 mile run (400+ calories)
W: 3-ish mile run/track or tempo work (350 calories)
T: 3 mile run (300 calories)
F: BodyPump/Core/Treadmill walk with high incline (300 calories)
S: 6-10 mile run (700+ calories)

My plan is to net 10,640 calories per week, which is a deficit of 1960 per week, or 280 per day. Because of the refeed schedule, I plan on eating at a low-carb deficit 4 days per week, eating at maintenance one day per week, and eating refeed/surplus calories 2 days per week (1.5 really, based on how I've balanced the calories). I don't think my sidebar macros are totally correct, but on deficit days, I won't go over 100g carbs and on refeed days, I won't go over 40g fat.

Is that how this is supposed to work for the whole benefit of the leptin > glycogen > better fat burning affect? Is my calorie math at least right? As I mentioned before, I'm not necessarily looking to increase rate of loss (although I'll take what I can get), I'm trying to battle hunger and keep my training schedule. Also, not sure what to do with macros on maintenance day. It follows the refeed days and precedes the deficit days. When I went in to customize my calories, I had to make variances to the macros compared to what's on this image, but you'll get the idea.

Maxxitt

For refeed purposes, keep protein at optimal levels, keep fat to 50-60 g, put the remainder into carbohydrates (which are what affects the hormone levels), and eat at your maintenance or a little above. Do this two days a week. And that looks like what you have planned out, more or less. For the deficit end, you could certainly aim for a more moderate weekly deficit. Your weekly maintenance given your figures above is ~14650 a week (adding in your average exercise burn for TDEE). You are less than 10# away from where you want to start maintenance, and you are demanding a lot from your body. Edited to correct typo and add - a weekly deficit of 10% would still get you to your goal and you won't feel so ravenous all the time.

fitoverfortymom

Maxxitt wrote: »

For refeed purposes, keep protein at optimal levels, keep fat to 50-60 g, put the remainder into carbohydrates (which are what affects the hormone levels), and eat at your maintenance or a little above. Do this two days a week. And that looks like what you have planned out, more or less. For the deficit end, you could certainly aim for a more moderate weekly deficit. Your weekly maintenance given your figures above is ~14650 a week (adding in your average exercise burn for TDEE). You are less than 10# away from where you want to start maintenance, and you are demanding a lot from your body. Edited to correct typo and add - a weekly deficit of 10% would still get you to your goal and you won't feel so ravenous all the time.

That helps. The extra 10g fat (I've been trying to plan menus around only 40g) gives me some wiggle room. I'm planning my day for tomorrow and I'm running out of fat macros before I get to my calorie max and it's pretty frustrating. It's kind of screwing me up, but I think I'm getting a handle on how to meal plan for it. I've never paid a lick of attention to anything but calories, so this is a strange new world for me.