# Sticky  Re-Feed & Re-Lose



## Fadi

Thought I'd share an article I wrote and presented on other forums back in 2009. I hope it would be of some benefit to the more serious bodybuilders on UK-M.

*Leptin- The Fat Regulating Hormone*

When you diet for a bodybuilding competition, your main aim apart from having the proportioned beef is to make sure that that beef is well primed. Chiselled, cut, shredded, ripped, call it what you will, the beef has to be 95% lean or leaner. Now that's an anatomy book ultra-sharp razor look. So you're happy dieting along when weight and fat loss come to a screeching halt.









What caused it? Some bodybuilders continue to loose, but instead of looking sharper, they begin to look flatter. Why? Two questions that need to be answered before we proceed. What caused the stoppage in weight and fat loss? It was the fat regulating hormone leptin. It sounds like some sort of tea you drink, but this is no tea. This is what testosterone is to a bodybuilder wanting to gain muscle mass, the only difference is that this powerhouse of a hormone deals with fat loss. Without testosterone you can't build substantial muscles, and similarly, without leptin you cannot shed the fat off to show those built muscles to their maximum ability.

Now to the second question. Bodybuilders who continue to lose weight yet look flatter instead of sharper are mainly loosing muscles instead of fat, and what's left of their muscles has been deflated by a lack of muscle glycogen. The ratio has shifted to where the body is now cannibalising itself for its own survival. This should be a wakeup call to any dieting bodybuilder, that the balance of the macros as well as the total caloric intake is not right. However since this article is about re-feeds, I'll get back to talking about our powerful friend leptin.



Leptin is mainly made by our fat cells, their number as well as their size has an effect on the rate of its release, (this will become clearer soon). A small amount of leptin comes from our muscles, (nothing to write home about though). So why is leptin made and released into our blood stream? Leptin presence in our blood stream helps us with regulating our appetite, gives us that hunger feelings, as well as regulating our food intake and how fast we burn it for fuel. So the lower leptin levels fall, the higher our appetite and cravings become for all the goodies we were having when we weren't dieting. Take heart in the knowledge that this is not some weakness on your part that you're craving the goodies; it's not all in your head no. This is the real deal built in physiological defense mechanism our body uses to stay alive. After all, its survival and therefore your survival; and *not* coming in ripped for a bodybuilding contest is its ultimate and only goal. So now we've established that less blood circulating leptin = to more cravings and as we shall soon see, a slower metabolism. A higher level of leptin therefore, signifies a faster metabolism where fat loss can occur. Take home message so far: don't let your leptin levels go too low, or at least recognise their effect if or when they do.

So as you persevere with your low, and with some bodybuilders, ultra-low caloric intake, your leptin begins to act on your master gland the hypothalamus, which in turn tells your brain to control your appetite up or down. In the case of our near starving bodybuilder, the message sent throughout the body would be to trigger a *voracious* appetite as well as slow the body's metabolism down to a crawl, where little or no fat loss will take place. It sort of defeats the purpose of what our bodybuilder has set out to achieve, doesn't it! It's only when leptin levels return to within a normal and acceptable range that the strong cravings for food as well as the painful hunger pangs go away.

Well then, how would our well-meaning bodybuilder raise his or her leptin levels so as to kick start the fat burning process again? Some will go all out on a binging craze where they will demolish any food in sight. As I will explain shortly, this would not be in the best interest of our bodybuilding friend. You see leptin is a fussy and a highly selective fat regulating hormone. It likes and has an affinity to high blood glucose levels. What this means is that our bodybuilder would be served better if he or she consume the majority of their calories from good sources of carbohydrates. Protein, fats, and fructose do not play a major part in boosting leptin levels. Also, fats are best kept to a low level during this high insulin periods so as to prevent any of them from been driven away into adipose tissue. Protein is best reduced to 1g per lb. of bodyweight and fructose kept low since they have no major impact upon leptin levels.

Refeeding intensity and duration depends on few factors, namely: how hard you've been dieting and at what percentage fat level you're at. The leaner you are and the harder you've been dieting, the longer and more intense the refeeding would have to be. Calories should be higher than your caloric maintenance level and the duration should span from 12 hours and up. Don't forget, your main aim is to raise your leptin levels. If your body fat level is at 10% or lower, refeeding should be done about twice a week. If on the other hand your fat levels are between 10-15%, refeeding ought to be done once a week to once every 10 days or so. This is not an exact art and everyone responds differently. In a nutshell, this is not different from a gym workout where if you incorporate high intensity, then by necessity the volume has to drop. On the other hand, if the intensity is low to medium, then one can afford to raise the volume. You may choose to refeed for a whole week, where the more moderate approach in eating would apply.

OK, so you may gain the smallest amount of fat due to the refeed. However, looking at the benefits ahead of you should far outweigh any fat gained during that small period. So what exactly awaits you that make this whole body tricking so worth it? For starters, your dead metabolism will be revving back up like a muscled supercharged V8 machine. Your hormone profile will be back in balance once more.

For the gentlemen in you, that means the almighty testosterone would be back on track to serve your muscles well, with fully reloaded muscles full of skin bursting glycogen, and on another front, to lend a mighty blow to the muscle demolishing king of all, the Cortisol hormone.

For the ladies in you, a raise in Leptin spells a return to your reproduction hormones where your regular monthly cycle is back on track. The stoppage of this monthly cycle should never become an issue to our sisters in the sport, and regular refeeds should be employed so as to prevent such an occurrence from ever taking place. Any disregard to this issue will result in decreased bone density and further accentuate any risk of osteoporosis.

Here're two sample meals; one made up of high carbohydrate low fat low protein (HC-LFLP), whilst the other is made up of LC-HFHP. I've put up the link in order for you to check the whole study with its final results.

*HC-LFLP*
BW 60kg.
Cal 600
Carb 70% 105g
Fat 15% 10g
Pro 15% 22.5g
Rice with roast pork:
Cooked rice 300g
Roast pork 30g
½ egg
Sweet sauce, 2 tsp.
1-2 small cucumber
1-2 spring onion

Look how different this 600 calorie meal is compared with the first one (above).

*LC-HFHP*
BW 60kg.
Cal 600
Carb 20% 30g
Fat 50% 33.3g
Pro 30% 45g
Rice with fried fish:
Cooked rice 90g
Fried fish, 180g
Sweet chilli sauce 2 tsp.

Now check this out for some deeper analysis/ for the difference in the levels of blood glucose, insulin, and changes in leptin concentrations in response to HC-LFLP and/or LC-HFHP meals as presented above. http://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/seameo/2006_37_4/25-3770N.pdf

Okay, I know this is not the time but, since many bodybuilders are always talking about bulking up to add some serious beef, I advise you to take heed that leptin becomes more and more desensitised in delivering its message to the brain (basically what you have is a leptin resistance similar to an insulin resistance), where even though the hormone is available, it's no longer recognised by the cell receptors it calls "home". Result? Fat, plus other health issues! Solution? When bulking, eat *real* food! Bulking is *not, *or should not be your magic ticket to KFC and MacDonald!









Oh nearly forgot&#8230;, just as you give yourself ample time to trim down, please give yourself ample time to increase your weight. A majestic Boeing 747-400 takes its time to line up with the runway&#8230;. for that *perfect* landing!

Finally, refeeds should not be interpreted as a wild card in the gym, where the temptation to raise the volume and intensity would be detrimental. Failing to control one's self by going all out would really be defeating the whole purpose of this powerful tool we have at our disposal as bodybuilders. Always look forward to the week ahead after your refeed, because that's where visual improvements would be realised and felt and where euphoria won't be far behind.

I wish you a safe landing Champions...

Cheers

Neuron. 1999 Aug; 23(4):775-86.
Leptin Differentially Regulates NPY and POMC Neurons Projecting to the Lateral
Hypothalamic Area Neuron, Volume 23, Issue 4, 1 August 1999, Pages 775-786.
Amongst others.

Fadi.


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## dtlv

@Fadi I'm pinning this, as it deserves to be read by everyone.


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## PRODON

Fadi. Well bloody done. U sir are now a valuable asset to my brain. I like u


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## David81

@Fadi first of all, great article. Based on your text, it seems carb cycling could be a good strategy to burn some BF up. Does my thought makes any sense according to what you wrote?


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## Fadi

David81 said:


> @Fadi first of all, great article. Based on your text, it seems carb cycling could be a good strategy to burn some BF up. Does my thought makes any sense according to what you wrote?


 Thank you for giving us all, the opportunity to take this thread to the next level.

Your thought does not just make "any" sense ... no; your thoughtful strategy as mentioned in your post makes *perfect* sense Sir, and I simply can't thank you enough for your contribution into this thread.

Questioning and reasoning are key to acquiring high quality knowledge, as millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

So to complete the picture now, let's see if we can probe deeper into the how and not just the why of carb cycling ok. For that, I'd like you to check out Mike Matthews's well written article on this particularly specialised subject: The Science of Carb Cycling: How It Works and How to Do It Right (2019)


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## David81

Fadi said:


> Questioning and reasoning are key to acquiring high quality knowledge, as millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.


 We share the same ideology. I believe that questioning is the combustible of progression, and it doesn't matter from who it comes from, be an illiterate, be a post doctor.



Fadi said:


> So to complete the picture now, let's see if we can probe deeper into the how and not just the why of carb cycling ok. For that, I'd like you to check out Mike Matthews's well written article on this particularly specialised subject: The Science of Carb Cycling: How It Works and How to Do It Right (2019)


 Thanks. I'll surely read it.


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## David81

Fadi said:


> So to complete the picture now, let's see if we can probe deeper into the how and not just the why of carb cycling ok. For that, I'd like you to check out Mike Matthews's well written article on this particularly specialised subject: The Science of Carb Cycling: How It Works and How to Do It Right (2019)


 Interesting reading. IMHO, the writer could be a little more of a gentlement when referring to different points of view (mainly when he talks about people who defends low carb diet). This kind of comportment leads do a little discredit (this is the effect on myself).

Besides that, it's a nice text.

When I previously mentioned carb cycling, I meant under the refeed bias, according to your text and considering the leptin issue.

Thanks for all.


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## Thorndan

@Fadi

when I googled leptin Boosting and dieting. All sites I came across say that carbs should be low and protein/fats high?


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