Weight loss stagnation: This helps | MEN’S HEALTH

When losing weight, you often reach a point where the scales just can’t go any further: the so-called plateau effect sets in. But you’re doing everything right, avoiding carbohydrates and staying in a calorie deficit? When you’re not losing weight, your motivation usually drops too, you suffer from cravings more and more often and are tired of always doing without? We’ll show you how to outsmart your body with a refeed day (also called a loading day) and motivate it to continue to lose weight.

Refeeds are particularly suitable for longer low-carb diets, for example during your muscle definition phase, or a change in diet with the goal of losing weight.

Men’s Health nutrition coaching provides you with suitable nutrition plans – individually tailored to your goals and calorie needs.

On Refeed Day you can take a short break from your strict diet plan and this has several advantages:

• You can treat yourself to something that motivates you to keep going.
• Your energy reserves are filled and you feel fitter.
• Binge eating or cravings are prevented.
• No bad conscience
• Weight stagnation is prevented.

Fitfluencer Sjard Roscher also swears by refeed days and consciously uses them in his nutrition plan to promote fat loss and define his muscles:

Social Media Content

What is the difference between refeed day and cheat day?

On a so-called cheat day, you can really go overboard: pizza, burgers, etc. – calories are not important on this day and you can satisfy your cravings for fat and sugar. A few years ago, this was still considered a good way to take a little break from Weight loss diet plan to take and reward yourself.

There is now a much more effective strategy that doesn’t throw you off track (or form) and you don’t have to feel guilty about it, because you use it specifically as a metabolism booster: refeeds are the “better” cheats.

The term refeed day is often used as a synonym for cheat day, but it is actually more of a “clean” cheat day. On a refeed day, you don’t just randomly shovel calories into yourself, but rather consciously use the refeed as a weight loss strategy on a low-carb diet.

You can download quick recipe ideas for losing weight with low carb here:

Cookbook

20 low-carb recipes for every day

• Cookbook
  20 quick recipes
  including nutritional values
  accessible on all devices

Log in here.
After successful payment you will receive an email with a download link. If you have any questions, send a message to [email protected].

What exactly is a refeed day?

On refeed day, you can eat more than on other days when you are in an energy deficit – similar to cheat day. A calorie deficit is always useful if you want to lose weight or define your muscles. This is what the perfect diet looks like during your definition phase. On refeed day, you leave your deficit for one day and can eat “to maintain”.

A little digression: What does that mean? If you want to lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than you use. This is called an energy deficit. If you eat as much as you should, Calorie calculator corresponds to your daily requirement, it is also referred to as maintenance calories. This means that you maintain your weight, neither lose nor gain weight, because you are neither in excess nor in deficit. On the other hand, if you always eat significantly more than you burn every day, you will gain weight sooner or later. To illustrate this, an example:

• Your daily calorie requirement: 2400 calories
• Your calorie deficit during diet: around 2000 calories
• Maintenance calories on refeed day: 2400 calories

When you “refeed”, you don’t just eat fast food indiscriminately, but instead focus on increasing your intake of healthy carbohydrates, such as pasta, rice or quinoa. On loading days, you can eat significantly more than on any other day of your weight loss program, especially foods rich in carbohydrates. The fat content should not increase, however, otherwise you will quickly exceed your maintenance calories.

For whom are refeed days useful?

Refeed days are useful for those who are currently in an energy deficit and want to lose weight, want to define their body by reducing their body fat percentage and are therefore currently following a low-carb diet. You fill up your glycogen stores again and again with the loading days, and despite Weight loss diet plan Treat yourself and reward yourself – this motivates you and helps you persevere longer.

Do you need help creating a nutrition plan or defining your muscles? Men’s Health nutrition coaching will support you on your way to getting in top shape.

Increase leptin levels: This is what the refeed is supposed to achieve

When you lose weight, you eat around 200 to 500 fewer calories per day, depending on your starting weight. If you eat low-carb, you have also reduced your daily carbohydrate intake to around 100 grams. This is a real emergency situation for your body. Your glycogen stores (glycogen = storage form of carbs or sugar) are depleted and you will probably feel tired and lacking energy at some point.

Your hormones also react to the carb and calorie deficit, especially the so-called “satiety hormone” leptin. It is released by the fat cells in our fat deposits and has an appetite-suppressing effect after a meal. It therefore significantly regulates your feeling of satiety and plays a significant role in losing weight and in controlling your overall energy balance. Leptin is a bit like the puppet master in the background that is involved in many processes. Studies also suggest that leptin levels influence motivation because they act directly in the brain’s reward center. If you eat in a deficit for a longer period of time and burn fat, not only do leptin levels drop, but so does motivation and metabolic activity.

The aim is to stimulate the release of leptin without building up fat deposits again. According to studies, a high leptin level signals to your body that it is full and does not need any more food. And that is where carbohydrates come into play, because they lead to the release of insulin, which in turn has a direct and positive influence on leptin metabolism.

Your leptin level rises, your glycogen stores fill up and your body is given the all-clear because there is enough energy available again. Your metabolism is no longer running on low flame and you can lose weight effectively again.

How to eat properly on loading day

On the refeed day, you can eat to maintain your weight, i.e. increase your calorie intake to the level that corresponds to your daily calorie requirement (maintenance calories). The distribution of macronutrients is particularly important and the focus is on carbohydrates. You increase your carbohydrate intake primarily through healthy carb sources, such as:

• Wholemeal pasta, bread
• rice
• oatmeal
• Potatoes or sweet potatoes
• Vegetables of all kinds
• Simple carbohydrates are also allowed, for example from corn or rice cakes and rice pudding.

At the same time, you should not consume more fat (around 0.5 to 1 gram per kilogram of body weight) of your total calories) and around 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Why? On the one hand, the carbohydrates refill your glycogen stores and provide you with plenty of energy that you can use directly for the next workout.

Lose fat, build muscle: This training plan will get you in top shape:

Training plan

Top-fit ​​with bodyweight training in 8 weeks

• no equipment required

• 48 exercises as picture and video

• 36 pages, accessible on all devices

Log in here.
After successful payment you will receive an email with a download link. If you have any questions, send a message to [email protected].

At the same time, carbs have a direct and positive effect on your leptin levels, as they increase them. Fat as a macronutrient provides a particularly high number of calories, so you could easily exceed your calorie needs.

How often can I have a refeed day?

This depends on several factors, such as your body fat percentage and the length of the low-carb phase. At the beginning, it is enough to have a refeed day every 14 days. However, the more defined you become and the lower your body fat percentage (BFP) becomes, the more often you can “refeed” (1-2 times a week). 2 refeed days in a row are also possible.

You can also have a refeed day if you notice that the cravings are just getting out of hand and/or you have been feeling tired for days. Especially during a strict definition phase, the refeed helps you to persevere and keep your shape.

Recipe ideas for your charging day

Recipe

Recipe

Recipe

Refeeds are like oases in the desert: During a strenuous muscle definition phase or a low-carb diet for weight loss, the planned loading days in between are a small ray of hope and not only boost your motivation, but above all your metabolism. Instead of cheating uncontrollably, you should switch to refeeds and integrate them firmly into your nutrition plan.

Sources mentioned:

Jéquier, E (2006) Leptin signaling, adiposity, and energy balance.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences vol. 967 (2002): 379-88. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb04293.x

Opland, DM, Leinninger, GM, Myers, MG (2010) Modulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system by leptin, Brain Research, Volume 1350, 2010, Pages 65-70, ISSN 0006-8993, doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2010.04.028.

Perry, RJ et al (2019) Leptin’s hunger-suppressing effects are mediated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis in rodents, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Vol. 116 No. 27, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901795116

This article may contain links to providers from whom MEN’S HEALTH may receive a commission (so-called “affiliate links”). Further information here.