Controlled cheat day, Carb up or refeed?

[Sarumyan]

I have been on Low calorie diet (not low carb ) for 5 days now.

Lost good weight, but feeling burned out. Going to refeed tomorrow. Pretty sure my glycogen supply is depleted.

How should I approach it?

Should I just eat 3500 calories of mostly carbs with no fat? Or since I wasn't doing PSMF should I just eat 3500 calories of whatever?

 

[Sarumyan]

Just want to minimize the damage from eating something good.

I've been craving pasta with ketchup for so so long.

 

[ss4vegeta1]

Whatever your plan is, a binge is never a good thing. A cheat meal or refeed meal or controlled cheats are fine every now and then but $10,000cal in one day is a no-no.

 

[Pathogenic]

The first option would be better, but before you decide on the number of calories, it's best to determine the number of carbs you need first. Sometimes my refeeds are 4000 calories, and sometimes they're no more than 2000 calories. Maybe try doing 4-6x your lean mass in carbs over the course of a whole day while getting a good amount of protein, and no more than 50g of fat.

 

[Tosa]

5 days and you're burnt out? That makes me wonder if you're missing something in your diet, or your caloric deficit in unreasonably big.

. . .

Looked at your diet log. Have a cheat day. No wonder you're burnt out, your calories, and protein are both very low. Probably fat too. I think it'd behoove you to adjust your diet to have more nutrition (protein, healthy fats, vegetables), and for longer term weight loss.

 

[Seriously-Dead]

5 days and you're burnt out? That makes me wonder if you're missing something in your diet, or your caloric deficit in unreasonably big.

. . .

Looked at your diet log. Have a cheat day. No wonder you're burnt out, your calories, and protein are both very low. Probably fat too. I think it'd behoove you to adjust your diet to have more nutrition (protein, healthy fats, vegetables), and for longer term weight loss.

My friend there are a million effective and healthy ways to lose weight, and calorie cycling is one of then. It's pretty natural to feel a little burned out by the end of a big five day energy deficit. That's what the reefeds are for.

OP: Definitely lean more towards carbs, but I'm going to disagree with Pathogenic on the fat intake. If you're restricting calories and not eating much dietary fat during the week you should also be looking to eat some nutrient dense fat sources like eggs, cheese, milk, and meat. Gotta stock up on your fat soluble vitamins, minerals, and steroid precursors as well as the carbs.

 

[Sarumyan]

..Thanks guys, sorry I've been an asshole before.

So since my diet during the week was low on protein and fat, I need to do a healthy reefed hitting all 3 macro nutrients, and as clean as possible? I will take double dose of vitamins tomorrow.

Thanks for the answers.

For some reason I felt very comfortable with VLC days. I was burned out all the time, but not physically tired or hungry. And the weight drop is very motivating too.

I should be around 23-25% BF by now, so that gives me around ~210 LBM.... that's a lot of carbs to eat huh.

 

[Sarumyan]

So here is what I ate during my cheat day. Have to say Pasta was like a gift from Jesus.
Diet:

Around 800-900 surplus.

Thirst was crazy today, so will probably bloat up tomorrow.

 

[Tank_Kam]

So here is what I ate during my cheat day. Have to say Pasta was like a gift from Jesus.
Diet:

Around 800-900 surplus.

Thirst was crazy today, so will probably bloat up tomorrow.

wtf?! Dry whole wheat spaghetti with no sauce has that much calories?! I really gotta start reading packages.

 

[magick]

Based on your diet log, I think your diet is simply too erratic to have any real effect. You can't even get a baseline to see what happens to you at a prolonged period with a certain calorie level.

And eat more. Eating too little doesn't actually help you in the slightest. And given your weight and height, I think you're eating way too little.

 

[Sarumyan]

I know.. it's a mess. But it's getting a bit better now. 1000-1400 calories are not much, but with foods like eggs, bean sprouts, sweet potato and frozen veggies, I get adequate nutrition and lots of satiety for little calories. I didn't feel hungry during those days.

I don't train my ass off in the gym anymore, just to get some blood going, and most of my cardio is just walking.

I lost about 25 lbs so far and leaned out... I understand that what I am doing is not optimal, but it worked so far.

As I drop weight, I will keep tweaking the diet to improve it.