Carb ups or refeed

Martin1352
Martin1352 Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey everyone,
Been in the middle of a hard weight cut in which I've been doing the keto diet I stand by this diet 100 percent it's given me results that I want in the past. This is the first time I have done a weight cut lasting longer than 8 weeks I'm in week 10 and have hit a weight plateau for the past 2 weeks. Thoughts on a carb refeed while in the keto diet?

Replies

  • Tedebearduff
    Tedebearduff Posts: 1,155 Member
    I'd say no as it will knock you out of ketosis, just adjust your caloric intake. Also I wouldn't call a plateau nothing happening for 2 weeks around week 4 is when I consider myself in a plateau... but that's just me.
  • MityMax96
    MityMax96 Posts: 5,778 Member
    Ok, my personal opinion and if Keto is working for you fine....but I personally would not do it, and I think it kinda of dumb.
    Especially if you are doing a weight lifting program.

    Carbs are very beneficial for weight lifting and hormonal signaling.....one being leptin.
    Which helps with weight loss.
    The longer you are in deficit, and losing weight.....the less leptin in your system you will have.
    Having carbs (or a refeed) will help kick this hormone up.......and if you are <10% BF then you will need something to get this back up in your system.

    But if you are firm about staying on Keto, then you will have to lower calories more or up energy demand somehow....most go with adding in more cardio.

    I would opt for a refeed day of around 400 - 500 gr(maybe MORE) in carbs....if you have truly been low carb for the entire 10 weeks (i.e. <75gr daily)
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,371 Member
    Just my thoughts on this - I do low carbs 6 days a week and do a re-feed every 7th day with 100+ carbs (at a minimum) for the re-feed. I find that this helps keep me on track with both the weight loss and with hormone signalling (i.e. bumping up leptin/grehlin/etc).
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    Just my thoughts on this - I do low carbs 6 days a week and do a re-feed every 7th day with 100+ carbs (at a minimum) for the re-feed. I find that this helps keep me on track with both the weight loss and with hormone signalling (i.e. bumping up leptin/grehlin/etc).

    How do you find out your leptin/grehlin/etc. level. Is it a blood test from your physician, or a test you can do at home?

  • MityMax96
    MityMax96 Posts: 5,778 Member
    I assume you could get a blood panel done..
    But as far as things go,
    With more Body fat, you have a lot of leptin floating around. As the BF goes down, so does leptin.
    So overweight/obese people have a ton of it....lean ppl have a lot less.

    grehlin is a hormone that signals hunger/promotes appetite. I do intermittent fasting, so one thing you notice when doing IF is that in the morning, if you don't eat anything, your appetite/hunger is not that bad (after you get used to doing it).
    But once you eat something (for me it is post workout), my appetite will shoot up....especially if I have been in a calorie deficit for a few days.
  • chrisleyland314
    chrisleyland314 Posts: 39 Member
    Hi, I have done the low carb diet but not to the point where I'm eating less than 100g carbs. The truth is it works but so does low fat and so does having moderate carbs and moderate fat. The key factor in low carb low fat diets is the high protein. It's the higher protein that helps with the fat loss and being in a calorie deficit. I'm not going to get all keyboard warrior or anything but, if it suits your lifestyle or prefer to eat less carbs and more fats go for it or vice versa. I'm no dietitian or fitness guru but I genuinely believe the key to long term fat loss weight management is finding a balance that you can enjoy or at least bare it.

    The carb refeed thing from what I've read is the leaner you are the less leptin in your body the more frequently you need to refeed your body. I do refeeds on my most challenging workout either for that day or the day after so I've got all the extra energy to push that extra weight or extra few reps. From what I've read and understand from about leptin and plateaus, is your body is very smart you keep giving your body the same amount of low calories your body will adjust and think this is the norm, so will begin to function on the calories you give it (some call it starvation mode) so it's starts to hold on to essential fat that it thinks it needs to keep you warm and stores it for energy when needed. So when you give your body a day of eating a calorie surplus it thinks it's not starving anymore and resets it's rate at which it burns calories.

    I get my information from Nick cheadle fitness. Ben coomber and examine.com

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