Have you been on a weight loss protocol for a few months? In the beginning, the weight was falling off nicely until you reached the stagnation, you continue to eat well, you continue to train, but the weight won't budge? Your motivation is decreasing day by day, and so is your metabolism? Read about Refeed Day, it may be the salvation for your weight loss plan!
What is a Refeed Day?
It's a day or specific time when you increase carbs, fat, and cut down on protein intake. Don't confuse this protocol with a cheat day. During a refeed day you make up for the lack of carbohydrates, but you still pay attention to the quality of the product, and more importantly, the better planned refeed, the greater results you can achieve.
Apart from the weight loss itself, the most important advantage of a refeed day is the relief and rest of your mental. It is thanks to this that you can let yourself go, the higher carbohydrate supply will also improve your mood, and most importantly quite possibly your hormonal balance will improve. As a result, you will notice an improvement in libido and mood, and this is insanely important during losing weight and a period of decreased motivation.
Not without significance is also the improvement of performance during workouts, you will notice an increase in the amount of strength so also the spontaneous burning will be higher by improving the spontaneous effort. So it all balances out. In the end, a well-run refeed day can lead to a higher metabolism and a greater reduction of body fat.
How to prepare for a refeed day?
First check at which stage of reduction you are. The first refeed day can be planned for the 3-4th month of your diet. Also, take into account your conscience and how restrictive was your diet in the last months? The next step is to properly plan your caloric needs, choose the right products. The most important thing is to be prepared for the fact that after refeed day you return to the process of reduction and calorie deficit.
The most important thing is to be prepared that after the refeed day you go back to the process of reduction and calorie deficit. First of all - the number of calories should be appropriate for your needs, during the refeed you give up the calorie deficit which you keep in other days. If you already know what your energy requirements are, focus on the distribution of macronutrients. Probably during the reduction, you cut carbohydrates in favor of protein and fats. During the refeed procedure, the distribution changes. We add carbohydrates and decrease proteins, we can also slightly (up to 10%) add fats. Most people should not feel any alarming reaction.
Of course, as I mentioned earlier, you can expect a side effect of increased strength during training, so you burn more calories. As much as possible refeed day should be done during the training day.
Summary
Everything depends on how long you train, what results you achieve and what kind of diet you are on. If it is an advanced phase, you can afford to refeed even once a week, remembering however to still take care of the proper macronutrients distribution and a clean diet.
