Thread: Refeeds and Leptin

lots of cool info in this thread, thanks!

I've been using TP's CC for a while now and I really enjoy it. In the future I would consider dong some type of refeed diet to switch it up however. So inbetween refeed days I would essentially do low carb days on my workouts and no carb days on my rest days and eventually refeed (3-4 days)? Or should I make my workout days even less that 1g/lbs BW? Thanks.

What about leptigen by avant labs. Would that replace this refeed day?

Originally Posted by BigDyl

What about leptigen by avant labs. Would that replace this refeed day?

No.

First of all hello to everyone. I'm new to the forum and I haven't been able to tear myself away from reading your threads since I created my account this afternoon - there's so much great information here. I'm looking forward to putting a lot of this to work for me.

WTG!

Hi All

Im around 23 stone at the moment, and have been for at least the last 5 years or so. My maintenance calorie intake should apparently be around 3800 per day. However for the last 7 months ive only been consuming around 1500 or so per day. Even in the last 5 years theres no way ive ever got anywhere near that 3800 a day level. Even with a fair amount of cardio (walking, badminton, cycling etc) ive lost virtually nothing over the last 7 months. I dont eat any sweets, crisps, ice cream, tea, coffee etc and never really have done as i dont have a sweet tooth at all.

Now, after finding this leptin link (to me anyway) it may explain a hell of a lot about my situation. Is it possible that ive created auch a calorie deficit that ive been in perma-starvation mode for at least the last 7 months (and possibly a lot longer)?

If this is the case, would this refeed plan get my body out of starvation mode and start actually burning the fat off for once? Or does someone my size need to look at a completely different approach?

Thanks for reading.
Ian

you should find your maintenence level and go for a less drastic caloric deficit that provides slow and steady weight loss of about 1-2 lbs per week. it is possible that you have been in starvation mode, but I highly doubt that you wouldn't loose weight if you actually were eating only 1500 calories per day. Make sure you are anal as hell at least at first when counting calories to be sure you are actually on the right track. Don't just guess. If you eventually get down to a lower BF % and are having trouble with plateaus then refeeds can be helpful. Good Luck

Thats a fantastic post.

Thanks for the reply, however no-one ever seems to believe that i only eat 1500 a day.

Breakfast is either a couple of crumpets at 215 cals, or branflakes with semi-skimmed milk (250 cals) or a ham omelette (240 cals). I have a couple of wholemeal pittas during the day, one at 11am and one at 2pm. One plain pitta is 144 calories, 4 slices of ham is 44 calories, or half a tin of tuna is 110 cals. So one pitta is at most 254 calories, plus whatever is contained in a tomato/lettuce and cucumber. Snack when i get in at 5pm consisting of either some seafood sticks (160 cals) or banana/apple (200 cals) and then dinnner at 8pm is 150g lean mince (200 cals) and a tomato based sauce (40 cals max).

So add that lot up and its actually less than 1500. Im not doing this on guesswork (what use would that be?) . Never snack during the day and only ever drink water. So unless 5 litres of water adds up to 3000 cals a day, i cant explain why the weight wont shift.

Originally Posted by Afroninja

Hi All

Im around 23 stone at the moment, and have been for at least the last 5 years or so. My maintenance calorie intake should apparently be around 3800 per day. However for the last 7 months ive only been consuming around 1500 or so per day. Even in the last 5 years theres no way ive ever got anywhere near that 3800 a day level. Even with a fair amount of cardio (walking, badminton, cycling etc) ive lost virtually nothing over the last 7 months. I dont eat any sweets, crisps, ice cream, tea, coffee etc and never really have done as i dont have a sweet tooth at all.

Now, after finding this leptin link (to me anyway) it may explain a hell of a lot about my situation. Is it possible that ive created auch a calorie deficit that ive been in perma-starvation mode for at least the last 7 months (and possibly a lot longer)?

If this is the case, would this refeed plan get my body out of starvation mode and start actually burning the fat off for once? Or does someone my size need to look at a completely different approach?

Thanks for reading.
Ian

Can you tell me all your stats? Age, weight in pounds , height and what your meals at 1500 cals look like now.

Im 29 years old, around 6 ft tall and 23 stone converts into 322 pounds. My meals are been described in greater detail in the post above yours

Most calorie websites suggest my maintenance level is around 3400-3800. The one linked to on this site actually thinks it should be 5000

There is no way ive gone anywhere 3500 a day for the last 5 years (at least). And 7 months of 1500 a day along with exercise has lost virtually nothing whatsoever. This is why i think i may need to kick my metabolism in the nads Either through this refeeding, or simply increasing how much i eat a day.

Cheers
Ian

Great thread

Great Post Jodi would you suggest a lo/no carb diet?








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Well I said it was a great thread awhile ago but now I'm finally going to try implementing this technique into my diet routine. Been hanging around a 155-160lb plateau for awhile now. BF is roughly 12% and I've been averaging a bit less than 1g per 1lb of body weight (carbs, probably 85%-95% "clean) for probably a year, though my BF % has dropped quite drastically in that year (due to moderate carbs/calorie restriction/cardio/resistance). Hopefully this will give me the boost I've been searching for. And the cereal I'm going to eat will be a nice change of pace, once a week or so, pending results that is.

I have recently increased the frequency and intensity of my resistance training and that has led me to feeling a lack of energy and drive so I'm hoping this is a solution to that. I kept my same lower carb diet in place as I increased my workouts so I'm really thinking I might have a Leptin issue.

The only problem is that I have done random carb spiking in the past (just due to cravings and lack of energy) and have found it quite hard to have any type of effective cardio session on the same day. I just tend to feel like sitting around and being fat and lazy for a day.

Thanks again

Jodi are refeeds really necessary if you are incorporating cheat meals every 5th day or so? Please tell me I didnt overlook that?!?!

Originally Posted by Double D

Jodi are refeeds really necessary if you are incorporating cheat meals every 5th day or so? Please tell me I didnt overlook that?!?!

Personally I think you would be ok if your cheat is high carbs. And your not doing really low-no carbs on all days

Originally Posted by Double D

Jodi are refeeds really necessary if you are incorporating cheat meals every 5th day or so? Please tell me I didnt overlook that?!?!

That depends on how many grams of carbs you are talking.....

Hum......taking in throughout the entire day? If so its around 100-120. Very low.

I meant how many carbs on your cheat meal days

Hum.....very good question. I truely dont know. I normally dont go crazy, but I do get full. If I have pizza its like 3-4 pieces. And pizza is my fav so its the norm.

why pizza? You should be trying to keep your fat down when you are pounding in carbs like that.

Yeah I know P, but I dont incorporate refeeds, but rather cheat meals. I was thinking of starting refeeds and kicking the cheat meals.

Depends on your goals DD. You can still have a refeed thats a semi-cheat meal too. For instance, breakfast, have bagels or pancakes or waffles. Dinner go to an italian place and have pasta. Just watch the fat.

Originally Posted by patbuck

Here a good link explaining Leptin:
http://www.theministryoffitness.com/.../article18.htm

But there they say that Fructose is to be taken.

Hey Jodi?..?..
Really good article.
It seems that alot of different ppl are approaching refeeds differently here although, after reading both the sausage and pizza questions, with the above post, it seems like the refeed is about creating a certain... bowel and intestine tract glyucal viscosity... like a syrupy consistency for a glyco reload and speedy bowel thing which would also do the other leptin thing right?. Would that be true to say?
I do sausages to refeed myself. .. sometimes alone .. like a whole pack in 24 hrs or one serve with bread ( and white is sometimes better would you believe) if I can do a no -sugar cordial or something .. It kind of comes down like a creatine I guess.( after it kills me trying to get rid of it from my body).
Long story short, have hep c. dying. too many carbs or fat and I'm trouble. tiny. Looking at b.b. at a bigger weight than I've maintained most my life and thinking creatine/ glutamine combo with maybe yam as my main other carb source. Sometimes I can get away with wholemeal bread ( either dry and seperate or with butter/ low sodium tomatoe sauce and with or without lettuce and no fat cheese or my plainold eggwhite and no fat milk sog that I love so much or something..maybe with vegimite and or tomatoe..peas and corn ).. or sometimes I just do a hell oily lamb or fattyrump juust for the fat( ) or I eat it raw nearly and think that itt kinda glyucs up thesamish with some consensed fruit..
So question is.. If I stay on a long term competition diet pace low carb and bring in some yams and glutamine / creatine and flat taurine hits 2x per refeed cycle.. can you see off the top of your head why that wouldn't work to keep me gaining ?Anyone??

incorporate a refeed even if say ive been on a 40/40/20 diet consuming consistant 246 grams of carbs a day with ralatively low body fat.

I thought the idea was to use it to change gears in your metabolism aas part of your regular eating regime regardless of what else was going on?

I have a very high metabolism, i'm what a lot of people call a hard gainer.

At 24 i'm the biggest i've ever been, 155 pounds, but I cannot physically eat enough to balance out my calorie burning. I would not mind having some fat on me as I built muscle but I cant get it to form.

I am currently attempting 5 meals a day with a total of 3500 calories but one meal may take me over 3 hours to force down. Food quickly becomes disgusting to me and I cant even swallow though I know i have stomache room.

In short I think I have too much Leptin naturally and I want to decrease it or increase my resistance to it. Do you find this adviseable and how can it be done?
Every article on the topic talks about increasing leptin which I feel would only hurt me.

Any info or tips would be apprecieated. thanks.

good idea with the refeed