REFEED'S-over coming a plateau

i do this every other saturday (twice a month)... i eat whatever i want, up to about 4500 calories. i still log! been doing this since september, and i was 246# in september... so, my weight loss is going good... i actually notice an increase in my weight loss during the week immediately following these 2 days a month!

i just want to add, that the nice thing about my 2X per month is that i plan fun family outings around these 2 saturdays a month, so that those are the days that my 5 kids, my husband, and myself can go out, have fun, and not be restricted with my caloric requirements. for me, these 2 days a month are both physical for my metabolism, but also mental, helping me push through each 2 week period having a fun carefree day to look forward to...

wow thats awesome! Now you said you consume about 4,500 calories when you do this. What is your normal caloric intake!?

Thanks!

im one of those hated taboo calorie consumers. i eat 1200 calories a day during the 2 weeks, then i spike up to about 4500 calories every other saturday... in those 1200 cals, i make sure to reach atleast 90g protien, and a crap load of food... i fit the food in like tetris!!! heres what my day looked like yesterday... cals 1198, cholesterol 175, fat 35, protein 82, fiber 18, carbs 115. these are the 5 things i like to keep track of.

I do this too and recently found out so does my PT, I haven't seen it have a negative effect yet and probably eat anywhere between 3 and 6 thousand calories in that day which is also a rest day from the gym. There's a balance to be found though, don't just spaz out all cookie monster like and eat the fridge would be my advice. I did this on more than one refeed day - some days knowingly I must admit - but I found the following weeks training and loss was better when I had some structure to the refeed day rather than just something that resembled Fat B*stard in Austin Powers crying into the bottom of a three gallon tub of cookie dough ice cream. I'm not an emotional eater, I was just sad to run out of ice cream.

On a weekday and sunday I would say I consume around 1700 calories and where I can that is usually made up of 140g protein 40g carbs 40g fats

At the minute though with training for an event at the end of the month I have upped my carb intake

So would this be the day to get in my Cheetos, Cake, and to just generally take care of my cravings?

thats what i do, and it has worked for me. if i get a craving for something that doesnt fit well into my daily calorie goal, i just tell myself, 10 more days... 7 more days... 3 more days... then, by the time the day comes, ive usually either lost the craving, or i have it. all i know, is ive stayed on track for the first time in my life and stuck with it... all the other times i gave up, this time i didnt, and i believe its because i have these days to splurge... not to mention that i truely believe these days have helped me to avoid hitting plateaus... my weight loss is usually an extra pound during the week immediately following the high cal day...

Refeeding seems to really be a hot topic these days. I plan to try it this Sunday. The guidance I received was to increase my carbs to 2x body weight and maintain my protein at about 1x body weight and keep fats to between 30-50 grams.

So would this be the day to get in my Cheetos, Cake, and to just generally take care of my cravings?

Not necessarily. The purpose is to enhance the results of a low-calorie diet by adding extra healthy carbs to the diet to "wake up" your metabolism. A refeed is not to be confused with a cheat meal/day.

i use it as both!

Interesting!!

Love this concept. I have a question for you guys that do this: do you only do it if you plateau or is it beneficial even if you are steadily losing? I haven't stalled yet but don't want my metabolism to get slack

i can only speak for myself. i started sept 17 2012 at 245#, been doing these high cal days every other saturday since the start. i have never hit a plateau... i didnt want top wait to hit one. i read, took into consideration my eating tendancies, family lifestyle, past dieting attempts (failed) and put this plan together for me. wanted something that i could stick to that gave me the freedom to still go a little crazy a couple times a month, and also avoid an plateaus from eating at such a low cal during the rest of the month. wanted to be able to lose 2 pounds per week which meant i had to be at a large defecit. this is what i have done since september, and ive lost 70 pounds doing it. but, thats me, and thats the way im running my plan. others may do it different.

"As folks get very lean, down to the last pounds of fat, the skin and fat cells that are left will often change appearance and texture. It will look dimply (as the fat cells which are supporting the skin shrink and the skin isn’t supported) and feel squishy to the touch. This is bad in that it looks really weird, but it’s good because it means that the fat is going away. I have nothing truly profound to say about this topic, just realizes that it happens and usually indicates good things are happening." --from the article OP gave the link to.

^^this is a kind of cool explanation..

"As folks get very lean, down to the last pounds of fat, the skin and fat cells that are left will often change appearance and texture. It will look dimply (as the fat cells which are supporting the skin shrink and the skin isn’t supported) and feel squishy to the touch. This is bad in that it looks really weird, but it’s good because it means that the fat is going away. I have nothing truly profound to say about this topic, just realizes that it happens and usually indicates good things are happening." --from the article OP gave the link to.

^^this is kinda cool to know.

yeah, i was thinking the same thing. i was actually begining to think that i was getting little cycsts in my upper thighs! they are not as profoun as marbles, but defineatley bumpy where there was once alot of fat! (not cellulite bumpy either... like, actual cycst bumpy in the areas that were once very fat! well under the skin though, you cant see it, only can feel it...)

So would this be the day to get in my Cheetos, Cake, and to just generally take care of my cravings?

Not necessarily. The purpose is to enhance the results of a low-calorie diet by adding extra healthy carbs to the diet to "wake up" your metabolism. A refeed is not to be confused with a cheat meal/day.

A refeed is where you go up to your maintenance or a little over maintenance calories. The purpose of a re-feed day is to help boost your metabolism and help restore your Leptin hormone levels. (Leptin is the king of all fat burning hormones!)
You say you're on 1,200 cals? I'm guessing that's a -500 deficit for you? So you would go up to around 2,000 calories. You keep fats low as possible, moderate protein, and all the rest of your calories would be carbs. Basically its a day where you load up on as much carbs as possible while keeping fat as low as possible, and moderate protein.
And no, its not a day where you can eat however much you want, all that will do is set you back.

Yep^. A cheat day and a refeed are not the same thing BUT you can get the same results. Same with carb cycling. You get a spike in leptin on the higher carb days. Leptin does not burn fat but signals the body that you are getting enough calories to keep metabolism up.

Weight loss will still come down to calorie deficit. Dont binge on the weekend and undo a whole weeks worth of dieting and call it a refeed. You are just slowing down your progress. You would be better off with a smaller deficit throughout the week and one day where you go to maintenance. Starving all week and then having a free for all day is not really healthy IMO.

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