For Those Of You Who Refeed-Cheat Weekly...

[Irish Pilot]

Do you continue to experience consistent weight loss?
Does the cheat help "spike" your metabolism?

Ive spent the better part of the winter cutting and hope to be single digits and starting a bulk in the next few coming weeks. I had a great winter of eating clean at deficit and probably "cheated" (either by content or caloric quantity) once a month...and they were humble.

Needless to say, in the past month Ive been "drained" both mentally and physically. I just figured if I cheated on the weekend, it would undo everything I did for the week. Well, the week before the superbowl is when I really started to experience weight loss slowdown. During the superbowl I broke down I just ate everything in sight...beef, wings, meatballs, cheesecake, a few beverages, etc. Stepped on the scale two days after the game for the reality check, and somehow between the day before the game till then I had lost 2lbs lol. Took me by surprise.

I had a huge refeed again last week and following had the best set of workouts Id had in a long time. I havent weighed in yet though. As I get closer to single digit bf my weight loss has slowed, so I decided to bury the scale and just focus on staying on point and hitting the gym. With the satisfaction of enjoy an all-out cheat day, and the subsequent workouts, Ive decided to read up on threads about refeeds and cheating. I was surprised to find out how many people "cheat" weekly.

Do these weekly cheats really keep your fat loss consistant?
Is this too good to be true for me lol?
Is there something that this does for your metabolism...thyroid, etc.?
When you do cheat, do you get just a rediculous hunger explosion?

I dont want to keep this up and get a nasty surprise from the scale in a few weeks lol!

 

[bigdognhb]

They are two different things. Cheating is just eating a bunch of crap once a week as far as Im concerned. Doing a refeed is completely different. Your still watching what you eat and your methodically refilling your muscles to have energy to workout the following week. I dont know if this helped at all. And if your not on CKD having a cheat meal can work wonders in your mental health

 

[EasyEJL]

Do these weekly cheats really keep your fat loss consistant?
Is this too good to be true for me lol?
Is there something that this does for your metabolism...thyroid, etc.?
When you do cheat, do you get just a rediculous hunger explosion?

I dont want to keep this up and get a nasty surprise from the scale in a few weeks lol!

Cheats help keep your fat loss GOING, not necessarily constant. one of the issues is leptin. Leptin helps regulate both appetite and metabolism in general. Whats meaningful to cheat/refeeds are these 2 pieces

To date, only leptin and insulin are known to act as an adiposity signal. In general,

• Leptin circulates at levels proportional to body fat.
• It enters the central nervous system (CNS) in proportion to its plasma concentration.
• Its receptors are found in brain neurons involved in regulating energy intake and expenditure.

Next to a biomarker for body fat, serum leptin levels also reflect individual energy balance. Several studies have shown that fasting or following a very low calorie diet (VLCD) lowers leptin levels.[6] It might be that on short term leptin is an indicator of energy balance. This system is more sensitive to starvation than to overfeeding,[7] i.e. leptin levels do not rise extensively after overfeeding. It might be that the dynamics of leptin due to an acute change in energy balance are related to appetite and eventually to food intake. Although this is a new hypothesis, there are already some data that support it.[8][9]

So what happens is that as your bodyfat goes down, and you remain on restrictive calories (even if not a vlcd), your leptin levels go down. As this happens it becomes harder to control your appetite, and harder to loose fat. A good refeed helps raise leptin levels again.

its not too good to be true

if you are doing low carb it also helps raise T3 levels again, as they go down in the absence of carbs.

I think whether you have more lasting hunger depends on the cheat/refeed. For me its usually about not worrying so much about things I normally avoid, and making sure that for the day calories are something above maintenance. Sometimes all that means is having whole grain pancakes for breakfast and stopping by cold stone creamery for the day (on top of otherwise normal eating)

 

[Andy G]

Look, Dexter Jackson cheats consistently, he swears by it. Sometimes it may be once a week, sometimes once a month or not at all, but this is a pro, with a career behind his decisions. I cheat, usually right after a workout. Once a week. I love it. I cheat twice a week on a bulk cycle. If I'm eating 42 meals a week, and I eat one crap meal, that's 98% of the time I'm fueling up right. Cheat meals seem to challenge the metabolism, making it a more effective machine. It's like the training principle, how our muscles seem to adapt to certain stresses and weights quickly, we need to constantly be challenging and shocking them into growth. I believe the same is true with a cheat meal. Challenge and shock. I'll scarf McDonald's sometimes, and a lot of it too, and I notice no physical impairments whatsoever. There is a mental relief by eating what you want on a given day. You look forward to it, you know its coming, its rewarding and human.

 

[Irish Pilot]

A guy as big as Dexter can get away with a LOT more than a guy like me though.

 

[EasyEJL]

A guy as big as Dexter can get away with a LOT more than a guy like me though.

yeah, but even so, 2 DAYS that are each 700 calories over maintenance averages out to only 200 cal a day. so if the other days are 500 below maintenance your net for the week is still 2100 cal deficit. If you make those 2 higher days workout days, and stack towards more of the cals early in the day (chicken fried steak with biscuits for breakfast ) the impact is lighter still

 

[ozarkaBRAND]

I've been scared to cheat for about the past month..

I'm more drained than ever, energy is sapped, dang, I should prob chow down on some mexican food and ice cream

 

[Rodja]

I have an epic cheat day every Sunday for 2 reasons: to recharge my batteries for the coming week and for the mental relaxation. Throughout the week, I am usually in a decent caloric deficit everyday and, by Saturday, I am very lethargic and drained. I eat a little dirty (pizza is always on the menu that day), but I still eat lots of fruits and vegetables throughout as well.

 

[SoCo4Fun]

Weely cheats are awesome...gives you something to look forward to all week...

 

[EasyEJL]

Weely cheats are awesome...gives you something to look forward to all week...

and lets you participate normally in social events

 

[SoCo4Fun]

and lets you participate normally in social events

well, atleast as normal as I get

 

[ThomasRivera]

I do CKD, I refeed I don't cheat as cheating for me, which would be consuming too many carbs during the week would compromise the effectiveness of my diet and the purpose.

 

[Beelzebub]

every sunday is a shitfest for me. i gain an average 14-17lbs in one day, then end up losing an extra pound or so come the official weigh-in next sunday morn. do i go overboard? possibly, but it works and i look forward to it, so **** it. gone from over 280lbs to right at 220lbs nowadays and still dropping little by little. it may or may not work for everybody, but it does for me. keep in mind, during the week, there is ZERO deviation from my diet.