Cheat days and refeed days can be extremely helpful for anyone who is trying to cut weight. While there are quite some big differences between cheat days and refeed days, many people do not really know them. In fact, many assume that they are both the same. While they are not the same, they are both extremely helpful when you want to cut weight and have a sudden switch to a healthier lifestyle. This switch can be very difficult to adapt to (I guess anyone who tried it will agree). That’s especially true when you want to start reducing portion sizes to consume fewer calories AND give up on your favorite foods. That’s when cheat days and refeed days are most helpful. While pretty similar, there’s still a huge difference.
So, when it comes to cutting, let’s be honest – it is hard to keep to. Not only that, but when you’re following a new healthy plan and you’re barely seeing any results, or not the results you would want, it can become extremely frustrating, and it could become even harder. That’s when the refeed days come into play.
Simply explained, a refeed day (or refeed meal) is a planned increase in calories. If we talk about a refeed meal, it is one meal, if we talk about refeed days, we’re talking about this increase for an entire day, obviously. A lot of people opt for the refeed days once a week, or once every other week. This is when they give their bodies a break from calorie restrictions.
When you follow a strict nutrition plan long-term, it is natural to start dreaming about unhealthy foodstuffs. So, we’re going to talk about how to get the most out of your healthy diet with refeed days.
Why is it so hard to keep dieting?
The stricter you are with your diet, especially when you work for a low body fat percentage, the more certain food cravings can become a real challenge to resist. But why? Why do we crave food so much? Why is it so hard to keep on dieting with a calorie deficit?
It is important to understand that these types of cravings are normal and natural. Experiencing them doesn’t mean that your diet plan is not sustainable. Yet, this is the result of your body’s natural defense mechanism – survival. Your body tries to avoid death from not eating enough. So, each time you do not consume enough calories (when the body doesn’t get enough energy) to sustain the current size, various processes in the body start to take place.
When you’re feeling true hunger with those deep stomach growls, that’s your body “telling” you that it is time to fill the fuel reserves (fat cells). Your body is smart enough to know where’s most energy, that’s why calorie-dense and quick-energy forms of foods are most craved at such moments. As you continue with this path, attempting to continue reducing body fat, your body will find its way to respond to this lack of food. It will start downregulating (decreasing) hormones that suppress the hunger feeling – leptin levels. The more you keep this path, the lower the levels, thus, the hungrier you are.
While you could feel fine with yourself eating less, the leptin hormone will “tell” your body to consume more (for more energy reserves). This will increase hunger more and more, making it more and more tempting to snack on your favorite foods. That’s when cheat days and refeed days are so helpful.
What Are Refeed Days?
Refeed days can be (and usually are) actual “diet” saviors when it comes to keeping you on track in a cutting diet. They are mostly helpful when the idea of demolishing a box of cookies and/or a huge pizza becomes more and more realistic. This is because during the refeed days (it could be a single refeed meal, but some people go for actual refeed days), you will intentionally allow yourself to overconsume calories!
Yeah, in terms of calories, you’re derailing your calorie deficit, which, as we all know, is what matters during cutting cycles. Nonetheless, the food that you choose does matter a lot too! That’s why, during refeed days you’re paying attention to the foods you consume! When in a calorie deficit, your hormone levels will decrease, and the hunger will go up. This is why you will start feeling lethargic and tired, and you may even hit a weight loss plateau.
All of this can be solved with refeed days. You’re consuming more calories so your body can get what it needs, but you eat the right type of food so you’ll stay on track with your goals.
Cheat Days vs Refeed Days
When talking about a cheat day (or cheat meal) vs a refeed day (or refeed meal), they are very similar, but not quite identical. It is important to understand their differences when it comes to maximizing your gym time and keeping a healthy lifestyle. In fact, there’s a considerable difference between them.
When we talk about cheat days, the name alone sounds like you’re doing something naughty. Well, it is because you actually are. You are basically “cheating” during the day or meal because you’re relaxed about what you eat. During cheat days or meals, you do not pay attention to the macros or calorie intake. It basically allows you to eat whatever you want in whatever amounts you want. So, the cheat days (or meals) are basically off-limits. Anything you can think – you can have it.
Refeed days are not as liberal. While you can overconsume calories, you still pay attention to macros. Usually, during refeed days (or meals), you’re paying attention to carbohydrates. Since carbs are the main and quick energy forms, you usually tend to consume more carbs than you usually do, so the extra calories you eat come from complex, quality carbs. You do not eat extra carbohydrates from baked and heavily processed foodstuffs such as donuts or cookies.
So, in the end, both cheat days and refeed days are designed to help deal with those cravings and curb the urge to demolish a huge amount of unhealthy foods. Yet, refeed days can help deal with these issues in a healthy manner, as it allows you to eat more of the right macronutrients, especially when it comes to carbohydrates. Cheat days, on the other hand, allow you to eat everything in sight – uncontrolled and unplanned days of eating with unlimited quantity.
Why Would I Go For Refeed Days Then?
At first, refeed days may not make much sense. When you want to overconsume calories, you want to eat your favorite foods. So, we either go for cheat days, or we’re dieting. Still, we do not realize that we crave those foods because of the hormones. So, refeed days can maximize your dieting efficiency.
As you know, going on a total binge-fest with cheat days, you know it wouldn’t do any good for your goals. However, a temporary calorie surplus during refeed days can really help kick your weight loss once again. That’s because when you’ve been in a calorie deficit for a while now, your weight loss may slow down or even completely plateau. As you’re lowering your calorie intake for a calorie deficit diet and attempting to lose fat, your hormones will start changing too. When it happens, your body will naturally start to look for ways to limit weight loss. That’s why your body decreases the hormone suppressing hunger – leptin.
Leptin is produced by fat cells. This means that when there are fewer and fewer fat stores, there are less and less leptin levels, meaning that hunger increases. When there are enough fat stores, leptin will encourage calorie burn and help balance your appetite. However, when this hormone gets low, your brain receives signals that it is in a state of calorie deprivation, and you need to start eating. This way, your body tells you to eat more and start burning fewer calories as a survival mechanism. This is known as adaptive thermogenesis. You deal with it with refeed days as you consume more calories and carbs, but you do not completely derail your efforts as you do with cheat days.
Explaining Adaptive Thermogenesis
When you continue on your long term path to reduce your body fat percentage, adaptive thermogenesis can set in, which will basically tell your body to eat more and burn less. That’s basically a protective process against starvation, altering your metabolism and attempting to increase your energy intake while decreasing energy output. This will slow down weight loss progress.
This effect becomes more and more pronounced the deeper you’re into the cutting cycle. As a result, the food cravings will increase, and the rate at which you burn calories will decrease. It is because your body releases various hormones, and stops releasing other hormones.
Refeed Days Can Help Your Cutting!
One of the biggest problems when it comes to losing weight and burning fat during the cutting cycle is to control those hunger pangs. As you push for low body fat levels, the hunger pangs are becoming worse and worse. But as said, there are ways to deal with those hunger pangs, and refeed days are a great way to do so. As you allow yourself to occasionally have some foods you crave, it will increase fullness. Therefore, it encourages fat cells to release more leptin. That’s why a refeed day or meal is so helpful – this is basically the way it works. As you’re incorporating refeed days (or a refeed meal) properly planned into your schedule, you consume more energy, making your leptin levels increase, and suppressing your appetite.
That’s very helpful because a sudden change in calories and foods you eat during cutting cycles will increase cravings. Yet, that sudden increase in calories during refeed days will significantly reduce cravings for unhealthy foodstuffs such as baked goods and cookies. That’s why refeed days can be so helpful when it is hard for you to stay on track long term.
Besides that, as said, it will help prevent a plateau in weight loss. A temporary increase in calorie intake of the right macronutrients can help a lot stay away from your body reducing the calorie output, so you could continue seeing results.
The Downsides of Refeed Days
There seem to be a lot of benefits when talking about refeed days, but pretty much as with anything else, there are also some disadvantages. Check the cons below:
- Easy to get carried away. Similar to cheat meals, it is easy to get carried away. Your self control is very important whenever you allow yourself to eat more. It can be tempting to go overboard with your refeed diet.
- It is still a “diet” mentality. Unlike cheat meals, you cannot eat whatever you want. You still focus on the right macronutrients and on healthy foods. You just allow yourself to eat more. But you still can’t demolish a box of cookies, candies, cake, or other heavily processed foods.
- More research is necessary. Some researchers argue the topic of adaptive thermogenesis, suggesting that it may not be as effective. Still, it is highly effective when it comes to reducing your cravings.
How often can I have a refeed day/meal?
It depends on your goals, gender, body fat, height and weight, and so on. For example, those who have higher body fat percentages should have fewer refeed days. Such as once every 2 weeks or so. Usually, if we talk about men with over 10% body fat. If you’re over 20% of body fat, may try even less frequently. Yet, if you’re less than 10% body fat, you may attempt having 1-2 refeed days a week. Women can have more refeed days as they naturally need higher body fat percentages. In the end, as said, it significantly depends on your current body fat percentage, your goals, the way you feel, and so on.
Conclusion
In the end, refeed days are designed to give your body (and mentality) a break from a strict calorie deficit. This temporary break has the potential to enhance your calorie output efficiency, enhance your relationship with food, prevent a plateau in weight loss, and prevent binge eating (by enhancing the relationship with food). In short, it keeps you on track with your body fat goals, and in fact, can be more effective due to adaptive thermogenesis. While still more research is necessary, most people suggest that refeed days are very helpful.
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