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- Joined
- Mar 29, 2011
- Messages
- 471
I wanted to share this as well, it's a basic down and dirty explanation of why cheat meals, skiploading, carbloading, refeeds or whatever you call it WORK. Some people give me shit about this.. they don't under stand. I got the skinny 6'2 175lb ripped trainer at the gym telling me I don't need to be loading up on carbs like that if I just keep it consistent. He goes through phases where he will cut up more, but really he hasn't changed in the 3 years I've known him. That shit just bothers me... ANyways, I wrote up this little guy for a facebook post. I resourced a bit of info from Lyle Mcdonald on this.
If you want to be big and grow this is a very short run down of why you don't want to be shredded all year and why you want to diet quickly, which is why dieting tends to need a bit of suffering.
There is a hormone called leptin. When you are underrating(dieting), levels go down, and ghrelin goes up. Ghrelin signals hunger so you will eat. Leptin seems to signal the rest of the body of your current level of bodyfat and how much you are eating. When leptin gets low from undereating there are numerous negative feedback loops that are triggered to prevent you from losing fat. Losing fat is a liability to your survival in your body's eyes. Thyroid hormone t3/t4 uptake is impaired, stress hormone cortisol is increased(this can be catabolic), Protein synthesis is reduced(muscle building). Leptin seems to be influenced by the presence of glucose more than fat. So when you are undereating and reducing carbohydrates, you will be able to oxidize fat cells more efficiently, but only for so long until those negative feedback mechanisms begin.
This is where Refeed days come in. I.e. SKIPLOADING, SHITLOADING, CARBLOADING, whatever you may call it. Since undereating causes a drop in leptin, to remedy this, we OVEREAT, but only for a relatively short duration. Being that glucose is the main factor triggering leptin along with the anti-catabolic effects of insulin, we chose to reload on higher amounts of carbohydrates. Given enough time this will reset many of the negative feedbacks. We reload the liver and muscle cells with glycogen, soak up some water weight, but then it's right back on the diet. Now you are at the body composition you left off at, but now you have reset all the shit that was holding you back from further fatloss. Give a couple days for your glycogen stores to get low again, water to fall off, and then see ADDITIONAL progress made that very week.
So you can see why dieting is hard. The body does not want to do it. You can also see why trying to stay shredded will NEVER allow you to put on substantial muscle. I also hope some of you now understand why cheat meals/carb loads/shitloads are necessary.
If you want to be big and grow this is a very short run down of why you don't want to be shredded all year and why you want to diet quickly, which is why dieting tends to need a bit of suffering.
There is a hormone called leptin. When you are underrating(dieting), levels go down, and ghrelin goes up. Ghrelin signals hunger so you will eat. Leptin seems to signal the rest of the body of your current level of bodyfat and how much you are eating. When leptin gets low from undereating there are numerous negative feedback loops that are triggered to prevent you from losing fat. Losing fat is a liability to your survival in your body's eyes. Thyroid hormone t3/t4 uptake is impaired, stress hormone cortisol is increased(this can be catabolic), Protein synthesis is reduced(muscle building). Leptin seems to be influenced by the presence of glucose more than fat. So when you are undereating and reducing carbohydrates, you will be able to oxidize fat cells more efficiently, but only for so long until those negative feedback mechanisms begin.
This is where Refeed days come in. I.e. SKIPLOADING, SHITLOADING, CARBLOADING, whatever you may call it. Since undereating causes a drop in leptin, to remedy this, we OVEREAT, but only for a relatively short duration. Being that glucose is the main factor triggering leptin along with the anti-catabolic effects of insulin, we chose to reload on higher amounts of carbohydrates. Given enough time this will reset many of the negative feedbacks. We reload the liver and muscle cells with glycogen, soak up some water weight, but then it's right back on the diet. Now you are at the body composition you left off at, but now you have reset all the shit that was holding you back from further fatloss. Give a couple days for your glycogen stores to get low again, water to fall off, and then see ADDITIONAL progress made that very week.
So you can see why dieting is hard. The body does not want to do it. You can also see why trying to stay shredded will NEVER allow you to put on substantial muscle. I also hope some of you now understand why cheat meals/carb loads/shitloads are necessary.
