Metabolic boost!

Gee_24

Over Christmas I seriously overindulged. I went roughly 8000 calories over maintenance two weeks in a row. I didn't check the scales initially for fear. I knew I would be at least 8lbs up including water weight.

Before this I was eating at about 1800 a day, with a very modest deficit of 200 calories. Which lets face it, isn't a big margin for accuracy errors.

Anyway, 1 week after my starting my deficit again, I was only 4lbs up. Now these 4lbs took me about 2 months to lose so I decided no point in huge deficits and stuck to a 400 daily deficit by eating at 1600. Well, I stood on the scales again today after less than a week and I am back to my original weight before Xmas. I have lost at least 2lbs of a fat, and Id guess the other 2 was still water weight. And its 9pm at night after a meal, so I may possibly be lighter??!

My deficit is still modest. In fact I have eaten just under maintenance one of these days this week. Considering I actually saw the physical change in my body with the gain, I really feel like I have burned possibly 2lbs of fat 2 weeks in a row.

WOW. Does this imply that letting go for 2 weeks gave me a re-feed effect? And boosted my metabolism? As those last 4lbs, let me tell you, were so slow and frustrating. It took me from mid October to Mid December to lose them, But I seem to have lost them in just over a week!

emilyisbonkers

I've found a similar thing upped to maintenance and i'm actually losing weight,, weird stuff
in for the answers

allen_ac

Refeeds can serve as that purpose, I had the exact same experience during Nov-Dec going on holiday.
With the metabolic advantages, there is a slight boost, but not as significant as people usually thought it was.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. It's more useful for plateau's and such. It's more for mental relief for your cravings and temptations

*If you're only starting a diet and you can maintain the deficit with no problem AND you are losing weight, refeeds are not necessary. If you are running a diet that's been prolonged and weight loss has stalled, that is the best time to start incorporating them in. 7-10 day cycles usually how most people do it. Meaning....once every 7-10 days, not 7-10 days of refeeds..lol!

STC1188

Yes and no. While you definitely could have had some metabolic "boost", it was probably nothing drastic. However, more likely it was mostly water weight. You may have lost some fat, but it would be closer to 1# fat/3# water (and still almost certainly leaning even more toward water). I know I went on a vacation once and "put on 8 pounds" that basically came off the week after.

Don't become a slave to the scale.

heybales

A potential increase of up to 18% in metabolism due to over-eating is nothing to write off in my mind. And 8-40% increase in processing the food eaten.
Who cares if it didn't increase exercise burn. Exercise is for only, what, 1 hr a day perhaps. Your metabolism is all day.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3538842

Metabolic responses to 20 days of overeating were examined in five healthy volunteers. Overfeeding caused a variable increase (1-18%) in basal metabolic rate but no change in metabolic rate during light exercise. Postprandial resting metabolic rate was 8-40% higher (mean 18%) during overeating. The increase in oxygen consumption during a norepinephrine infusion was the same before (20 +/- 2%) and after (17 +/- 3%) overfeeding. Overfeeding elevated basal insulin concentrations in all subjects and increased the insulin response to intravenous glucose in four of five subjects. Overfeeding did not significantly alter mean serum T3 concentrations or erythrocyte 86Rb uptake (an index of Na+,K+-ATPase activity). These data do not confirm reports that overfeeding increases metabolic rate more during exercise than during rest. They also suggest that the increase in resting metabolic rate during overfeeding is not caused by increased responsiveness to norepinephrine or increased serum T3 concentrations.