One day carb refeeding? page

[Bolivar]

I remember pre-primal I was on the Anabolic Diet which promoted carb re-feeds on the weekends (this diet was for people who did weights workouts regularly). I made a thread a while ago that I struggled to get 3x sessions in the gym per week, and people suggested that I try implementing more carbs in.

Probably a hot topic around here, but does anyone have a carb re-feed day? I feel as if low carb is making me less of a power house which is what I need in the gym sometimes. Could say, Sunday be a 'refeed' day, which would leave me with sufficient glycogen in my system ready for 'lift heavy things' on the Monday?

i'm interested to know

[Pandadude]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it at all, as long as you stick with healthy carbs. While a big refeed on sunday might improve your monday workout, I assume your energy may deteriote again by your 3rd workout. If your focus is performance and not fat loss, then I would suggest also keeping your carbs over 100g throughout the week rather than go VLC/keto. Then one day a week you can eat a couple hundred grams of carbs (I wouldn't suggest drinking glucose and shit for health reasons).
Also know that low carb causes the muscles to become insulin resistant so glucose is spared for use in the brain. Eating quick digesting carbs in an insulin resistant state will cause blood sugar problems and you may feel ill. Starting your refeed the next meal after a workout could help this issue since the glycogen depletion will sensitize the muscles to insulin.

[Bolivar]

Interesting input, thanks, shall give it a go with more carbs. Roast tatoes!

[sghulett]

If you are eating the PB way you will still be getting carbs but not the unhealthy kind. You really want to in keep with this so you don't Yo-yo your blood sugars. This way of eating is lower carb not carb free so you should be fine on what is allowed.

[bwhit]

How to Deal With Water Retention: Part One | Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

Some interesting stuff in here about refeeds. Food for thought.

[NeoBerserker]

It also depends on what your doing in those workouts. Currently after an intense workout (which i do frequently) i'm taking in some meat or eggs and a yam PWO and i'm really liking it so far (great energy, absolutely delicious and i seem to be making great progress). I guess its like a mini carb refeed, but the idea is to replenish glycogen after they have been spent. I think that normal lower intensity days do not need this and your current diet of veggies and such should replenish glycogen by itself. This should only need some protein PWO if anything depending on your goals. When you do your max effort/sprint/HIIT days thats when, i believe, you should be doing your extra carb intake PWO (sweet potatoes and yams). It does not seem to make sense to do a carb refeed on just a random day.... unless your hungry, lol.

[Nomad1]

Also know that low carb causes the muscles to become insulin resistant so glucose is spared for use in the brain. .

Can you break that down a little for me on what it means?

[Pandadude]

Can you break that down a little for me on what it means?

The brain can run partly on ketones, but some glucose is necessary. I don't know any actual numbers with regards to the amount of carbs etc (many variables aswell I imagine), but when you are sufficiently low carb, tissues other than the brain become insulin resistant, so that they don't absorb the glucose that the brain needs to function. This is natural and doesn't affect health negatively (aka it is not the same as diabetes), and it also happens when fasting. Also, when carbohydrate intake is increased the insulin resistance will go away - This may not happen instantly though, which is why a large intake of quickly digesting carbohydrates following a period of low carb could theoretically cause blood-glucose issues, when the glucose in the blood basically doesn't have anywhere to go.
I am uncertain of whether this has any real-world implications, for lean healty individuals it probably doesn't. I know the kitavans didn't have blood sugar issues, but then again they ate carbs on a regular basis (but I assume fasting aswell, maybe not enough to deplete the liver). Personally I think it makes sense to A) Ramp up carb intake gradually, B) Eat slowly released carbohydrates, starch, rather than sugars at least initially when refeeding, or C) Initiate the carb refeed after training where the muscles are insulin sensitive and are ready to store glucose as glycogen.

[Nomad1]

Thanks for breaking your thoughts on that down for me Pandadude.
The term "refeeding" sounds so foreign/goofy to me.
It's like if you've been only driving in Oregon and Washington, but decide to drive to California so you'd call that a redrive. I get a lot of people use the term, just sounds weird to me.

[iniQuity]

I recently read and old robb wolf blog post where he was really thinking carb refeeds and saying "don't bother unless you are lean" pretty much. It talked specifically about post workout carb intake and made me think. Living with my folks I sometimes take in more good carbs than perhaps I need. Mostly potatoes and sometimes rice so I'm trying to be vlc when I prepare my meals since I know that some carb intake may be inevitable. I reckon this evens me out.