Rigid dieters often face emotional problems when they don't see positive results every time they step on a scale. Always weighing themselves for instant confidence boost after a long workout or in the morning. This is particularily true in many of my female clients who are lean but needs to be leaner.
When the number doesn't go their way, they go crazy and begin to doubt whether their diet is clean enough or if their 2hr/day cardio is enough. It usually end up with giving up on their diet, feeling like a loser, and unleash the inner piggy at the buffet line.
This post is dedicated to those who experienced such breakdowns recently and I thought I'd share one of my clients story to demostrate how to move forward. I've included some good articles to supplement on the topic of flexible dieting, water retention, and the importance of weight training.
Before I begin, here's the back story.
She's always been overweight but started a regular exercise program a few years back and has finally reached a healthy weight she was comfortable in. Her program consist of mostly light circuit training. She has conditioned herself to snack more frequently due to misguided conventional wisdoms while making restrictive portion control a big part of her diet routine. She often face with hunger issues when she go on a diet but since discovering intermittent fasting with me, she become more in control of how many calories she eat. Now, she enjoys eating bigger and more satisfying meals.
Since she leaned out and won a local pageant recently, she decided to step up her game to compete in the miss texas pageant this coming feb (2012). For the swimsuit portion of the event, she would like to be at at least 15% bodyfat or lower to have definitions on her upper back and abs. the problem is, she has reached a plateau in her current workout regimen that prevents her from losing anymore fat.
In my previous corrospondance with her, I told her that the bootcamp isn't helping with her fat loss, nor for muscle gain since the movements weren't chellenging. All she's achieved were glycogen depletion instead of actually stimulating muscle fibers for growth. To look tone, you need muscle.
Her workouts consist of 1hr morning bootcamps (intervals) mon-thur, cycling and abs mon/wed later in the evening, sporadic intervals on the weekend. She is finally learning some barbell basics with me 1x a week now. Her diet is basically your tyipcal ADA low fat, clean eating approach.
This was my email reply to her mental breadown while I'm on vacation
"when you're at your bodyfat % (pretty low for an average female), your bodyweight will go up and down much more drastically than male or bigger females. Same with how you look in the mirror, water retention will mask any fat loss/body definition you've accomplished up to 4 weeks or longer if you never let your body to take a break and recover. You could be at a state of 'overreaching'. The masking of fat loss is possibly water retention.
One possible explaination is that the fat content (fatty acids) has emptied from your fat cells (via caloric restriction/expenditure) but your body is under chronic stress due to excessive cardio and lack of refeeds and your fat cells wants fill itself up with water and hold out as long as they can until you (over)feed them w/ calories/carbs before they reach death.
like the good ol' days when human had to starve periodically to survive winter (much like dieting) and were forced to migrate constantly in order to forage food (much like cardio). When they do find food, they feast and the cortisol (one of many hormones that make your body hold on to water) goes away and the body release the excess water weight and they wake up lean and happy the next day.
To get rid of this water problem, you need a massive carbs refeed post workout best on monday and wednesday since those are your highest volume training days. Then relax next day. When i say relax, i mean not even light cardio! Uunderstand the whoosh effect and how relaxing for a couple of days or up to a week (get off training completely) and add a little carbs/alcohol in the mix can help with getting rid of excess water in the system.
From now on, we will train on monday and/or wednesday then you will eat whatever you crave. they will be your cheat meals of the week. About your diet. Rest days would be like the first diet program I wrote you. Plenty lean protein and veggies ONLY, couple pieces fruits, and no snacks. I want you to drink tea/coffee/water when you're hungry. You will only eat 1-2 meals a day (hopefully have them before bed instead of during the day).
Other than mon/wed. Have your first meal around noon, second at usual dinner time, fruits before bed. If you MUST snack throughout the day, snack on fibrous fruits - apples, grapefruit, plum, peaches, strawberry. don't go overboard with bananas and grapes.
For training, I want you to scale down your bootcamps as much as you can, use diet to achieve negative calorie balance, not strictly via exercise. Chronic exercise stressor is much more catabolic (muscle wasting) than calorie restriction when you're at a caloric deficit. This is why marathon runners looks like aneroxics. Try not to go all out (max effort) when you're asked to perform their exercises. Focus on strength training only while dieting.
Two weeks before your competition. you will drop bootcamp completely if you wish to step on stage lean. seriously."
That's basically what I told her and now she's got her sanity back and training properly again.
If you're going through the same thing like her, hollar at me on facebook and I'll help you troubleshoot your struggles
The point of training in improving your lifts and body-composition is to get to a plateau, why would you change up your program (while still making gains) before reaching that goal? you want to maintain it! Then SLOWLY tweak it if there's a prolonged stall. (read the book Practical Programming)
When I was taking motor programming in my early college career, I learned that it takes at least 10 years for athletes to master their sport at the elite level; taking into accounts of spatial movement/balance, central/peripheral visual processes, mental resourcefulness, sensory and feedback loops, and learning types.
Scientific researchers now claimed that bodybuilder/fitness model can maintain chronic low body fat long enough that they "reset" or "settle" into their new body composition at the genetic/cellular level (where the body doesn't fight against chronic negative energy balance due human natural tendency for homeostatis/survival). Allowing the body to adapt to a new condition (new "set-point" or leptin setpoint). So basically, if you diet and train long enough, you will end up carrying less fat and more muscle, permanently.
Sidenote:
when it comes to reducing body fat or gaining LMM, it's not merely an manipulation of energy deficit or feeding the muscle. They're actually serious survival stressor/response to the body. It either defend it fiercely (hunger, injuries, boredom, stalls...) or adapts with it (getting stronger, bigger, quicker, more efficient).
For the obese (metabolically defected or ppl with autoimmune disorders) being in a chronic negative energy balance state can wreck their metabolism (or body fatness setpoint). This means no matter how much "exercise more, eat less" programming you put them through, it's going to break them psychologically and physically.
This is why all the losers on the "Biggest Loser" show gain back all their weight after their final weigh-in. Anyways, not going to get off track on fat metabolism today. To learn all about it, listen to this podcast.
What I really want to talk about today is the the theory on muscle confusion and plateau in terms of strength gain & body recomposition (fat loss). disclaimer: this article is not arguing against HIIT/Circuit training for you pro HIIT & sports specfic training peeps out there :) just physique. :)
As far as fat loss, a session of crazy muscle confusion won't burn significantly any more calories than a silly bootcamp, water paddling, metabolic depleting workouts. It will only make you sweat and hungry (contributed from liver glycogen depletion). I will elaborate on this in another post on EPOC from long steady state training vs. HIIT.
I'm sure everyone's seen the P90X's commercials playing on TV OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. The whole sales pitch is base on a single, unscientific theory... 'confuse the body before it plateau, this way your body are always working/burning (more) calories to perform their movements due to the shocking effect' (compared to conventional/tradition strength training that is).
First of all, if you don't have your diet down or already at a low body fat percentage, mainly focus on burning calories through exercise (especially cardio) is a waste of time. Matter of fact, it might even work against your attempt to lose body fat (hunger, boredom, inflammations, injuries) if nothing's change in calorie intake as you keep increasing activity.
Let's look at the pros and cons of P90X
Pro...
1. Why does it work for some? It's fun and it gets people moving. Exercise are always changing and the visuals help. Anyone spending more than $500 on self-improvement products are always more inclined to stick with it. Just like any other fad diets or fitness equipments out there. at least for the first 2 weeks.
2. Doesn't require fancy equipments since it's mostly body weight stuff.
3. What about strength gain? For the sedentary, yes. If you've never exercise before, any program will help you put on some LMM, even cardio. However, the point of investing your money on a fitness program should be base on efficiency (a minimalist approach). How can you get stronger and fitter with the least amount of time/energy/money invested possible.
If you've always been recretionally active, plays a sport, or been lifting for a couple years, you will not benefit from this program other than maybe gaining some balancing skills considering how many movements they have you floppying around the gym with light weights (like crossfit?) and basu balls.
4. Will it make you lean? It can be for the committed people who has the luxury to train everyday and the obese crowd who has never exercise before. But weight loss has to be sustainable and a big part of sustainbility for fitness is education. P90X offer nothing of this sort and I will discuss the myths and misguided concepts they sell to their customers.
The program do come with a nutritional plan that help you prepare meals and cut calories so you don't have to hire your own chef.
The guy on the right did P20X... IMO, not that impressive, I'll show you some impressive programs and protocols that requires less time, money, and placebo effect in a sec.
Cons...
1. Will you get big muscle? No and don't expect to look anywhere close to the fitness models on those commercials. 20 lbs dumbbells would get a 10 year old a good workout, but not you. You need big lifts, compound movements, and progressive loading to help you build muscle. It's been done this way for hundred of years and plenty research studies to support big lifts for hypertrophy. read these articles on what I meant by big lifts. 1, 2, 3, 4.
P90X is like Tae Bo with bands and light weights added.
Guys that look shredded from P90X are people who's been lifting for years and had a good muscular foundation but their physique has always been masked from layers of fat. When they shed the fat (through cutting calories), the muscle begins to show (after photos). P90X is more fat loss than muscle gain, at best.
This is super confusing on the muscle, super dangerous for the trainees yet burn no more calories than conventional movements.
2. What about fat loss? You will lean out on any caloric deficit diet no matter what diet you're being sold to. However, this does not address nutrient density and the essentiality of food to human needs or athletism.
Just because you're chronically at an negative energy balance doesn't mean you're always losing fat mass or that it's even practical (issue of hunger that will break you down). Your performance may drop and you risk losing muscle mass. When you're require to eat 4-5x a day, 300-400kcals of portion controlled (unsatisfying) meals, and preparing ridiculous low-fat, low-carbs unpalatable food (on top of that, not around your training), you're bound to quit real quick.
Why do dieters/trainees fall off their program and gain their weight back plus lose performance?
Misguided programs like P90X;
A) Majorly interferes with lifestyle, offer little flexibility and cheats which can lead to guilt and negative self confidence/will power issues.
B) Lack individualization in terms of managing macronutrient requirements to support current and targeted weight goals, retention of lean muscle mass, and the volume of work (recovery).
C) Complete backward periodization programming that doesn't help you improve anything specific other than generally getting you more active. If you just join a gym and play with every equpiment they have there, you'd get the same benefit as p90x.
D) Doesn't teach you anything about human physiology & the art of fat metabolism. This is critical to long term success in fitness and sports. If you're clueless of substrate utilization, especially around training, how your body reacts to exercise stressors and the various hormones that regulate basically everything in your system such as hunger, energy level, fat oxidation, and immune function, you'll always have to depend on these pre-made templates/menus, supplements and workout videos to keep you in shape. As soon as you think you're done with P90X, your old habits will creep back in.
3. EPOC (fat burning after exercise) is far greater from doing big lifts compare to light weight stuff. Plus, more fat oxidation @ 24hrs mark and lower BF w/ higher LMM retention within 1 month are found in longer clinical studies compare to HIIT. unless you're totally sedentary and have never ever exercise in your life, doing compound movements is better for the long run.
4. Not as motivational as getting a trainer or nutritional consultant for the amount of money spent. You'll be far more likely to stick with a program if you hire a strength coach or nutritionists so you have some authority figure telling you what to do with regular check-ups for compliance/adherence. A coach can always motivate you better than videos. (learn how to shop for competent trainers).
5. The point of plateau is to become so efficient at something that the skill becomes automatic/comfortable for you to perform at anytime, any circumstances. This doesn't mean you have to do yoga one day, HIIT another, BOSUs and box jumps next, then cardio the next day to "confuse" your body (or all within a single workout session... that ridiculous). In sports specfic training, you actually "want' to achieve plateau first, that's what "practice makes perfect" means.
If you really want "confusion" go do parkour, climb a tree (primal fitness) or play with your dog with a weighted vest for 20 minutes. They're all free, more fun, and almost every movement is "reactively engaging", "unfamiliar", and "muscularly confusing".
When people say, "you gotta "mix it up'", it means you need periodization in your program.
This means setting short term, long term goal with meso/micro cycles.
Play with the load/rep/set range of your workout depending on progression and goal. (read Starting Strength, Beyond Brawn or this guy http://www.myosynthesis.com/)
Mix up the frequency/volume/mode of exercise depending on the sport, the seasons, and signs of overtraining/reaching.
Tweak your carbs/protein/fat/supplements intake depending on performance/recovery.
There should be phases of hypertrophy development plus cardiovascular, strength and peak strength, speed/agility, and active rest. in every program
Looking at the crazy confusing graph below will burn you some calories
Example:
If you can deadlift 100lbs @ 10 repetition right now, isn't it confusing enough for your body to perform the same movement simply by ADDING 20 MORE LBS TO THE BAR NEXT TIME YOU LIFT? your body's gonna be like "WTF!?" totally confused, totally shocked, totally burning more calories, and totally adapting, growing muscle, and never plateauing. It can be as simple as performing the movement/rep slower/faster, resting longer/shorter between sets to make them feel, not just confused but INSANE!
If you're dancer, isn't it confusing enough to switch dance partners from time to time or being in a different dance studio? dancing to different tempos/songs? You don't have to change from Merengue to Lindy Hop when your goal is go become a professional Merengue instructor.
As a runner, a change of terrain, speed/time-to-finish, or even wearing a different pair of shoes is stimulating enough. I'm a sushi chef of 9 years, it's confusing enough just to be working with different incompetent servers and hostesses on a regular basis, i don't need to take up Italian cuisine just to fine tune my sushi skills.
Anyways, my point is, if you're trying to get good at something, lowering body fat, learning a new skill, or perfecting a sport, you have to reach plateau first and stay there a little bit longer and let the body get accustom to it. Then on top of that, get so good at it that when other stressors/distractions come at you spontaneously (vacations, injuries, taking on a new sport/activity, change of rules/environment/stimuli of the game, social pressures, spectators), you can still maintain the former skills without compromise.
This means if you think you've mastered your lifts and reach your ideal body comp and now you're more interested in doing MMA, yoga, or marathons, can you still maintain those lifts/body-composition while adding 2-3extra sessions of the new stuff without losing your current fitness level?
If not, then you have not truly mastered/plateau those former qualities/skills.
Don't be one of those people that are average at everything but good at nothing.
Last example: If you've been eating 2000kcal/day to support 5 miles of running daily. To become truly adapted/progressive improving at running (as a skill), your body has to get more bioenergically efficient.
This means you should train your body to run (up to)10 miles daily while keeping the caloric intake constant (2000kcal/day).
To achieve that state, your muscle has to get stronger, store more fuel/glycogen, greater mitochondria density/size, stronger heart, lung, diaphragm/respiratory pump, release greater SNS output/increase HR (transport and oxidize fatty acids faster), higher threshold for pain, clear serum insulin quicker, recover faster from lactic acid/hydrogen ion build-ups and so on.
You get the picture, progressive loading is enough confusion when it comes to Lean mass gain. Speed up/run further or add a plyometric session for you runners, stop doing things that's totally irrelevant to dveloping the skill or reaching your weight loss goal.
For fat loss specifically, manipulate your carbohydrate intake (cyclically) around your training is effective and confusing enough.
If you don't know anything about proper progressive loading for increasing muscle mass, cyclical diets for fat loss, and periodization for sports performance, get a mentor, get on a program, and follow through! No more P90X, no more stupidity.
No Brain, No Gain!
Here are some REAL RESULTS from real body recomp experts in the field. 1, 2, 3, 4.
One thing you must understand about accountability is that, when you get on the right training or dietary program, there's really no need for the babysitting because the program itself should be practical enough that works naturally/spontaneously for you. Assuming you get your priority straight and commit to real lifestlye changes, the right dietary and training program should work in harmony with your body physiology.
Every cell in our body wants to achieve homeostatis at all time. When given the right stimulant, (fat loss, muscle growth, or improving overall health) you should get results pretty quickly and painlessly. This means no cardio 10 hrs a week, strength training 2 hrs a session, frequent hunger pangs, or massive dollars spent on supplements/drugs.
For those who aren't fortunate enough to work with me or am not following a proper, scientific-based program for your fitness goals, you need to know the 80/20 principle. This means, as long as you do the right things 80% of the time, the 20% of your mistakes/non-compliance won't hurt your overall success. As long as you're consistent with your training and dieting most of the time, giving yourself a break from time to time is not going to kill you.
Don't get discourage just because you fall off your diet with a cookie or some ice cream. Mathematically, the caloric deficit you sucessfully generate over a week time on your diet will never be offset by a cheat meal or a bag of doritos. Just get back on it when you've fixed your craving.
This applies to training as well. Obviously if you're feeling low energy, lazy, or have some social/work obligations on a day you're scheduled to train, just relax, go do some stretching or walking when you find the time. A single workout session is not going to make or break your ultimate result.
What will break you is your mentality. Most people stopped a good routine because of the guilt they inflict upon themselves due to a minor fall off their program. Especially the OCD ones who has to get everything perfect and when it doesn't go accordingly, they blame themselves to have some kind of behavioral-will power issue which typically leads to completely giving up on their program. For these people, some flexibility will go a long way.
Here are few things you can do for accountability for yourself and from others.
1. Let everyone know you're making a dietary change for better health and/or physque, especially those who shop/serve/cook your food and influence your food intake the most. They don't have to be completely on board but at least explain why you're doing what you're doing and if needed, explain to them how it works for you.
2. Don't let your diet interfere with your social life (too much) but also understand that sometimes we do a lot of unnecessary eating that should be eliminated or adjusted like boredom and holidays-social events.
3. Just because it's lunch time doesn't mean you're suppose to eat. Your hormone ghrelin plays a role in meal patterns. Stabalize your hormone ghrelin to a smaller feeding window over the entire day. This will help cut meal frequnecy and can give you a better chance at reducing total daily calorie intake for fat loss.
Be accountable for hunger, not meal patterns. When you do get hungry, it's time to eat big. What you know about gorging due to meal skipping is a myth. When you eat a big meal, it just sit in your stomach longer and can take up to 6-7hours to digest (esp. protein). Cavemen use to eat (proper meals) only once, if lucky twice a day and they eat most of their daily intake in one setting. This is still true for many hunter/gatherers today around the world. Trust me, their muscle didn't fall off due to not having 20 grams of protein every 3 hours like most bodybuilding literatures will tell you. The calories you take in over the entire day matters more than how big a single meal is.
About motivation, seeing your own health improve, weight drop, fitting in tighter clothes, and getting sexier everyday should be enough motivation to keep you going. You don't need a trainer calling you 3x a week just to make sure you're still doing their program.
Again, bringing others into the picture helps. If you let your family/friends/coworkers know what you're doing (losing fat), they will be less likely to tempt you with fattening food. They'll pay more attention to your physical change and compliment you when things go right.
This following article addresses what it takes to be good at something. (dieting, training, and making money) click to view.
"But these answers only raise more questions. What, for instance, allows someone to practice for so long? Why are some people so much better at deliberate practice? If talent is about hard work, then what factors influence how hard we can work?"
Consistency + Passion = Results!
Consistency means making plans to do something, prioritize your goals, and be resourceful with what you got (time/money/genetics/attitude).
To me, passion means getting disturbed enough, desperate enough, painful enough to want to make a change for the better. "Throw your heart out and go after it"... (heard that from somewhere, I know, cheesy). The first thing I do when I talk to potential clients is to find out how bad they want what they're looking for. If they're not hungry enough (not literally), they will never get anything out of my programs.
Tony Robbins is going to set you straight. This video bring up a good point about eliminating distrations that may hold you back from making positive lifestlye changes.
What We Do The Things We Do and How Can We Do It Better.
"It's not that you don't have the resources, you just have to learn how to be more resrouceful with what you got."
For dieters, the best and most resourceful thing you can do is not get hungry in the first place because this will be your number one distraction. If you have excess body fat on your body, find ways to upregulate your fat burning potentials (metabolism) and use that as fuel instead of food ingestion. Manage your insulin/sugar level, drink your coffee, reduce snacking, focus on life projects and you will keep hunger at bay.
"the biggest battle you're going to fight will be against yourself, inside your head. "When you hit the gym, you should be focused on the larger picture- hitting your goals, whatever they may be, and making everyone weep with fear when you stomp around the gym like a miniature Godzilla, not quibbling internally over nonsense that will have little to no bearing on achieving your goals."
"If you're a hooligan, you eschew bullshit and all of its unpleasant trappings, and you grab life by its throat and fuck it into submission."
Your mind controls your body, and if you constantly proclaim to it that you're awesome, it will have no choice but to physically realize that thought... You can actually make yourself stronger, bigger, and leaner through the use of positive thought, and by the same token, if you constantly obsess over being fat and weak, your body will alter itself to match your perception of reality. Like Henry Ford said, "If you believe you can or if you believe you can't... you're right."(Lipton 112)"
"(Spiegel) Similarly, studies have shown that the placebo effect is so strong that 32% of severely depressed people show marked improvements with a sugar pill, compared to only 50% who actually receive medication for their illness. (Lipton 110) In most clinical trials, "fake" drugs prove just as effective as the real ones, simply because the people being tested believe in their power."
I can wear clothes from the normal person’s section.
I RAN A FREAKIN HALF MARATHON! I can do pullups and pushups. I can jump on the trampoline with my kids. I look good next to my gorgeous wife. I am helping a lot of other people get healthy. My blood pressure is normal. I have no asthma symptoms. I AM GOING TO LIVE FOR A LONG TIME.
What things do you get to say now or hope to be able to say in the near future?"
First of all, this post is for a very select few of my dieters who are in the low bodyfat% range looking to get leaner (while training) and those that are truly eating a low carbohydrate diet for fat loss and health. If you're not in this category, the information below is too advance for you. (unless you really want to learn something about the hormone leptin/metaoblism and fat loss stalling issues.)
In the bodybuilding community, we don't call it "cheat days". we call it "refeeds" and it literally means just that.
This is where it came from...
For any caloric deficit diet to work, we have to restrict some foods. The more, the quicker the fat loss.
The less miserable/hunger inducing the diet is, the better. As long as it provide all the essential nutrients the body needs for optimal hormonal functions, enough fuel to support activity & recovery, the rest should be eliminated to create the greatest caloric deficit possible for leaning out.
1. First thing we cut is carbs because it's not essential to the human body. Period. Unless you're training and only on training days, you may increase it.
2. Second is all the non-essential fats from plants/industrialized products. If you eat plenty fatty fish 4-5 servings a week, that's enough on the EFA. If not from fish sources or grassfed meat (which i suspect most of you don't get it cuz heb/walmart is just right around the corner), taking 10g of fish oil (3g of epa/dha)/day is sufficient to meet the requirement while keeping all other protein products lean.
3g (1g of epa/dha) on non-dieting days for the rest of your life if you continue to live in america and don't eat fish.
3. Third is getting the minimal protein to support lean muscle mass, this is no mystery. For general weight loss, 1 g/lb of LMM is plenty. If you get hungry, this is the variable you want to play with more or less to ensure you don't take in more calories than needed from sugar sources. This means female @ around 80-100g, men 120-160g depending on your body comp. and training/resting days. The more unnecessary carbs you take in the less protein you need, gram to gram. Carbs will spare protein metabolism.
My general recommendation is just to eat a pound of meat a day and if fat loss is too slow (esp. for females and sedentary ppl), drop down to .7lbs a day. If fat loss is too rapid and you're afraid to lose lean mass (performance suffers), or hunger is an issue, eat up to 1.5lbs of meat a day.
The three rules above for dieting down body fat fast is basically a "Protein Sparing Fat Loss Diet". For those who are obese, diabetic, or not completely sedentary, ketogenic diet might be more useful (and less miserable) and it's basically a low to moderate protein, high fat, low to zero carbs regime (cyclical).
Both chronic low carbing and low calorie diets lower your hormone leptin. The fatter you are the less this concerns you. Assuming you're not metabolically defected or anything (leptin/insulin resistant).
Leptin is a lipo-stat regulator (one of many) produced from your fat cells that signals hunger when it's running low. It's registered by your hypothamus through the blood/brain barrier. Leptin helps keep some body fat on you and make sure you get hungry when you chronically drop body fat or increasing activity (basically, when you're chronically at a negative energy balance).
When you're going under 12% BF (for men) or 17% for women or lowered food intake for weeks, your leptin can drop drastically. This is the body's defense mechanism to make sure you don't starve to death and induce hunger to ensure you eat more and save your body fat.
When people give in the hunger, they typically eat more calories than the total deficit they originally created (overall during the leptin drop) due to body's need to over-compensate in case this periodic starvation occurs again.
This is why some misinformed dieters would drop calories drastically for days, fit into their dress for photoshoots, then put all the weight back in the next few days, sometimes more than their original/pre-dieting weight.
Sidenote: I'm also not talking about "starvation mode" like most trainers refers to when you don't snack more than 5x a day or when ppl going on a 24-36hr fast. That's not starvation. That's fasting and it's perfectly natural. Periodic fasting is part of our human evolutionary past and we are perfectly adpated to deal with these semi-starvation/intermittent fasting conditions.
Anyways, typically after a contest or simply a mental break down from hardcore dieting, ppl can bounce back and eat 6,000kcal/day easy for weeks.
One of the main side effects of chronically lowered leptin production on most fad/crash diets is unsatisfiable hunger. The greater the deficit, the more you will feel it. Unless you have some insane lean genes, on a really good stim (caffeine/ephedrine), or just really, really, really mentally determined to lose body fat, your low leptin level will break you down eventually.
So to trick and raise your leptin back to normal level (reboot metabolism and reduce hunger) without offsetting the overall deficits you've generated for fat loss, you can refeed your body with carbs for a day/meal to replenish what you may lack from the diet. Simply eat at energy balance/maintenance amount of calories on training days is sufficient and there's no need to binge.
For anyone who's actually keeping carbs under 20-40g a day and possibly eating 600-1,000 kcal deficit overall, a refeed of +200g/carbs once (maybe twice) a week is a good start, then tweak it from there depending on, fitness/energy level, hunger, and fat loss stalls.
A bonus of refeed later in the day is that it increases seratonin which help you get a good night sleep. This is why I always eat my starchy carbs and fruits before bed.
Sidenote: If you think about it, 200g on carbs is basically how most Americans are eating now. 200g = 800kcal. On a 2000kcal/day intake for maintenance (for a female, higher for men and training), that's about 40% of carbs... USDA actually encourage us to eat up to 60%!! They literally want us to refeed our fat cells daily! Now you know why USDA's guideline does not work for general health or weight loss.
So to keep your refeeds simpler, just eat like a Standard American Diet and you're set.
Learn more about Cyclical Ketosis for ketogenic dieting while training.
Martin Berkhan from Leangains.com suggest that overfeeding with carbs may offset the leptin drop but only temporarily. As soon as you get back to dieting again, leptin is lowered. He preach the idea of more frequent refeeds (post workout, perhaps 3x/wk) while still very high in carbs is not as high as once-a-week (ketogentic type) refeeds. On his refeed days/training days, fat is kept low while protein and carbs is still pretty high. On rest days, carbs is low while protein is high and fat should be moderate to low depending on perference/deadlines.
When Cheat Meals Gone Bad
The reason people implement cheat meal after a workout is because the incoming nutrients and energy supply the muscle where it's most depleted/needed. Also, it helps with long term adherance to dieting.
On the other hand, cheats are completely useless for the overweight folks on the physiological level. Overweight Dieters simply don't defend starvation (or slowed metabolism) as strongly as those who are lean. They still have plenty of "fuel" (body fat) to go around for replenishing the muscle. Overweight dieters tend to lose less lean muscle mass when they start cutting calories or non at all if they eat enough protein and train with resistance.
What also makes a cheat meals seriously counter-productive is the fact that 80% of the time, dieting trainees over-estimate their energy expenditure from exercise, thinking just because they lost 6lb from their 2 hours bootcamp workout, they believe they burned 3 lb of fat (which is equivalent to10,500kcal) or something stupid like that. So they felt safe eating a 800kcal sandwich followed by a 800kcal milk shake or hit the buffet and put down 3,000kcals in a single meal, even though they probably only burn around 600kcal (if lucky).
Cheat meals are completely different from refeeds. A cheat meal can be anything, (size/macronutrient-ratio) unlike refeed where its focus is getting enough carbs and calories to normalize leptin sensitivity and production. Fat people generally produce plenty leptin.
A cheat meal is mentally rewarding from hardcore dieting but serve very little physiological purpose unless it's after a workout at a sensible portion with the right macronutrient.
Refeeds... what it is and what it's not.
1. Refeeds are appropriate for bodybuilding and athletes eating low carbs/calories before a contest/leaning out phase 1-2x a week. (cycling)
2. Serve to reboot leptin (overall sympathetic nervous system output) to normalize metabolism and hunger. The fatter you are, the less you need it. Men above 12-14% bf, female above 20% don't need to do this. Know your bf%.
3. Portion and frequency of refeeds depend on how long and hard you've been dieting. 200-250g of carbs once a week on LC or ketosis diets for leaning out or 100-150g 2-3x/week post workout for strength training.
If you get plenty carbs post workout and you're not eating less than 100g of carbs on non-training days. you don't need refeeds.
4. Ketosis/Low Carbs is generally not great for endurance athletes (esp. during training season) but if you're chunky and only train recreationally, you can be on ketosis (assuming at a negative energy balance) and not worry so much about refeeds or performance drop as long as you get a nice portion of carbs post workout.
5. Cheat Meals are great for the overweight population eating low carbs/calories long-term for psychological reasons but if you're super committed to lose fat or just super obese/diseased, you don't need cheats.
Seeing your weight loss and improved blood tests periodically should be mentally rewarding enough and the fuel that's still around your body will "refeed" you. No major leptin problem there.
6. If you're not on VLC, ketogenic diet, or a protein-sparing fat loss diet, refeeds are unnecessary. (pointed out in #3)
7. Don't let either cheat meals or refeeds to become a binge. Eat just enough to do what it's suppose to do... fix cravings, curve hunger, reset metabolism, deal with social events & fuel workouts.
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The time-to-completion for your half marathon is going to drastically reduce at a body weight 10-15lbs lighter than you are now (assuming you're chunky and can afford to lose some fat).
Just go run with a 15 lbs vast for a couple miles, see how you feel, drop it, then run again, then you'll know exactly what I mean.
BODY WEIGHT TO LEG-POWER RATIO IS CRITICAL FOR ENDURANCE RUNNING.
If you've been training for a couple years at around the same weight, 3 more months of training til contest time is not going to help you that much.
Once you shed the fat, you'll have plenty time to retrained the little lost in mitochondria/capillary from dieting.
To sum up... You should work your training around your diet when you're trying to lose body fat. That's your priority right now because it's the most beneficial variable you can play with.
Like I said, if you've been training for a while, 2 month of detraining or reduced volume is not going to make a big difference. As long as you perform some resistance training, you'll preserve the muscle. You'll get your endurance back when you start eating at maintenance again.
While volume may stay the same or reduce slightly, up the intensity by running faster, longer, further, while reduce training frequency to optimize post-workout recovery. Try sprinting 2x a week. 10sets per session. 30-40yards each. that'd sufficient enough to keep your muscle on a diet.
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"when you're at your bodyfat % (pretty low for an average female), your bodyweight will go up and down much more drastically than male or bigger females. Same with how you look in the mirror, water retention will mask any fat loss/body definition you've accomplished up to 4 weeks or longer if you never let your body to take a break and recover. You could be at a state of 'overreaching'. The masking of fat loss is possibly water retention.
