Tagging,but going to quickly comment that refeeds and diet breaks are relatively distinct from each other.

A refeed where you have a day (or two) a week where you significantly increase your carbs. Some people, as I do, leave their other macros as is, others may have a low fat day to allow for more carbs.

A diet break is generally where you eat at maintenance for 10 days to 2 weeks. It is more about eating to maintenance rather than getting carbs up per se.

Will respond more fully with the pro's cons shortly.

In to learn more, especially as they relate to/tie into deloads (if that's not too much of a derail).

In to learn more, very confused about these topics. Also have questions about exactly where BF% range should be to allow for strength/muscle gain and how low it can be maintained without loss of muscle in a 47 year old female. Look forward to learning!

bumping for more info.

I refeed once or twice a week depending on what my body is telling me. I'm low carb most days (<100g) and I have found that my performance is negatively impacted by the lack of carbs. So I do this:

Sun - Fri: 30/35/35 (Carbs/Protein/Fat). And I usually don't hit my carb macro and exceed my protein macro. Target right now is 2,000 cal / day.

Saturday: 185g protein, 70g fat, eat whatever carbs I want. On these days, I'll usually hit 3,500-4,000. So it's both a refeed and a diet break for me.

I have found that the single refeed day is not enough for my lifting, so I usually do a more traditional refeed on Wednesday. That looks like this:

Wed: I target 185g protein exactly and then fill the rest of calories with carbs. Fat falls out wherever. So this is more of a classic reefed where I stay within my calorie limit.

That's my approach. Been doing it for 2 years now, so it works for me. I would love to just eat all the foods all the time but my brain housing group isn't compatible with that right now. I used to be no carb but now I'm just low carb. It works for me.

Tom

Diet breaks are still up for inquiry as the question now arises that if one is now including a re-feed protocol in his/her routine, then are diet breaks still required? Would one still maybe need to break every say 16 weeks or so and eat at maintenance for and extended period of time (my example was say 1 or 2 weeks)?

I think the usefulness and/or necessity of a diet break is going to vary heavily based on the individual and his or her circumstances.

For example, when I go on a cut it typically last anywhere from 8 to about 14 weeks. For me, there's no sense in taking a diet break because I can adhere, my performance levels do not typically suffer, and most of all the duration of the deficit is low enough that it doesn't really make sense.

But for others not all of those variables will match the scenario I laid out above. People who have adherence issues and who diet for several months would probably benefit from periodic maintenance breaks.