I would like everyones opinion concerning refeeds vs. cheat in terms of effectiveness on reseting your metabolism, and keeping the thyroid in check.

First, lets define refeed and cheat. This is my view of each:

Refeed - Clean foods (Chicken breasts, oatmeal, veggies, etc) for the day focusing on adding calories (500 to 1000 + BMR) while keeping macro nutrients in tact (PCF - 40/40/20.)

Cheat - All out blitz. Keep calories reasonable (500 to 2000 + BMR), but do not watch macro nutrients.

Since I started cutting I have been using a cheat meal each week...a large cheat meal ;) (1 large works Pizza and a order of garlic bread) I am still seeing fantastic progress in terms of weight loss (no lbm :claphigh: )

But, I am worried that this will affect my fat loss in the near future as I approach 10% BF.

My current thought is to keep with my so called "Pizza meal" until I start seeing a fat loss slow down, and then switch to a refeed day.

Opinions?

I've thought a lot about this too. What you are doing is exchanging preferred phytochemicals for increased nutrients. The empty calories you would get out of having Dairy Queen Blizzards won't help you in the slightest.

So then, are you reaching your FDA requirements for nutrients on the average day? I love refeeds because I am able to eat foods like pork liver at my convenience to get my iron count back up - something I rely on a multivitamin for on weekdays.

A program such as Diet Power will help you see if you are reaching your FDA requirements. I'm a heavy custom spreadsheet user, but throwing a couple weeks into Diet Power is not such a bad idea.

Yeah, don't fix what isn't broke. If you stop losing weight, switch to a refeed.

My thoughts exactly. :D

Yeah, don't fix what isn't broke. If you stop losing weight, switch to a refeed.

It has been proven that a cheat / refeed does help, and serves a purpose, but I can't help but wonder if a structured refeed would be better then a cheat. On the other hand, perhaps it doesn't matter...

My thoughts exactly. :D



It has been proven that a cheat / refeed does help, and serves a purpose, but I can't help but wonder if a structured refeed would be better then a cheat. On the other hand, perhaps it doesn't matter...
True, but a cheat day is psychologically helpful. If you don't mind eating clean food every day, then you can switch to the refeed.

Why not combine the two? Have one cheat meal one week (or whatever interval) and then the next a refeed. See which works best for you.