Refeed……still not perfect….but now improving each time!

Sleep last night….awful. Bodyweight today…..with the disclaimer that I didn’t drink as much water overnight as I have in the past……was down 1kg from yesterday…..to 69.4kg….which matches my “low point”. WTF???

So…..my first thought today was…..I will try to keep refeed caloric intake the same….right around 3k calories…..but I will increase the caloric intake on each of the three days between refeeds by 10% per day.

Today’s depletion workout was one I was really excited to do (try?). I jogged 8 minutes…..then did very heavy leg press / dumbell bench press supersets…..then blew out any remaining glycogen with high rep leg extensions, pushups, leg raises…..then did 16 minutes high intensity non weight bearing cardio (bike)….then jogged 10 minutes. In-cred-i-ble feeeeeeeeeling!!! What a workout!!!!

I went to the restaurant with some food in hand. I brought a few chocolates, a banana, some rambutan fruit, and some pumpkin…..ahhhhhhhh….and a shit ton of seaweed / konjac noodles.

The dinner portion went according to plan…..all seafood for protein (oops….some snails, too!)….half raw. Tons of veggies (650 grams mix of broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, green pepper, and mushroom)…..some “dipping sauces” (olive pesto, tomato based seafood sauce)……and two big plates of my noodles (one with a basil pesto sauce and mushrooms, the other with a Thai chili / oil sauce).

Dessert….I decided to weigh everything, write it all down….but not count calories until after I was done. Risky…but I wanted to see how it would compare to last week’s total…..which I pegged at about 3,105 calories based on feeding the data into some online nutrition profile software.

This is where a big caveat is in order. It’s impossible for me to be precise, since this is all preprepared food at a restaurant. Weight? Yes….I know it to the gram (I bring a scale). But even things like the veggies….which were mostly grilled with either butter or oil……how do I know how much oil to plug in to my food total? And since it’s the fat that is the biggest variable and biggest unknown…..there could be a swing of several HUNDRED calories if I estimate wrong. For this reason…..I am ultra conservative. As an example…..I plugged in a total of 65 grams of butter / olive oil for today’s meal. To be fair….that needs to cover most of the pesto sauce, the chili / oil sauce……but there should be more than enough left over to cover whatever amount the veggies soaked up when they were grilled. No? And just that 65 grams of oil / butter is more than 20% of my total estimated caloric intake today. Again, I think I’m being very conservative. Same with dessert. I plugged in 100 grams of caramel sauce…….just to cover any of the sugar that I might not have accounted for in the other sweets I ate. I truly believe that the 100 grams overstates it…..but I’ll leave it in.

OK….so with those disclaimers / explanations……onward! (And since I’m equally conservative in my estimates each refeed….there is still a good deal of value in looking at comparisons of different refeeds.)

Well…..in the end….today’s refeed came in HIGHER than my last one. I wouldn’t have thought that. Total, though, was only 70 calories higher…..3,175…..which is interesting….since I didn’t “count calories” until post meal both times……and they both came in so close in terms of total calories. It’s as if that is the amount my body “wants to eat”. Cool to see…..but I had hoped to reduce things to about 2,800 calories…..and could have (again!)….since I didn’t really get any “joy” out of the last “bowl of stuff” I ate tonight.

Once again….the noodles reeeeeeeeeeeally help me manage total calories. Even dessert. I start with a big bowl of noodles….(they are tasteles)…..and then top them with whatever I’m gonna’ eat in the way of sweets. I ate less chocolate, less ice cream, less nuts / seeds, less dairy, less caffeine, less Omega-6, less starch) tonight than last refeed. All good. But….weirdly, (or not)…..I ended up eating about 50 MORE grams of total carbs (sugars were the same….and less fructose tonight….WOOHOO!!). I ate less fat and protein tonight. A better outcome would have been to have had the protein and fat come in where they did tonight…..and have total carbs and sugars come in without that last 50 grams…..which is….200 calories. Would have been perfect!! That’s now my goal for next time. Based on the data I have (and will continue to accumulate)….I think I can do it!!!

Total carbs tonight was 280 grams (sugars 99 grams)…..of which at least 55 was fiber….so in no way was it a total carb overload. But, that said….it’s still 50 grams more carbs than last refeed….and the last refeed…..while I admit I was SHOCKED by it…..ended up being REEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY a success in terms of total net impact.

I reeeeeeeeeeally hope that the extra carbs don’t cause cravings (last refeed….none)…..and I hope that I can add the 10% per day for the all meat days coming up (3 days)….and even with that and these damn extra 50 grams of carbs…….can still end up with a net impact of looking, feeling, and weighing something good. Weight is least important….since simple things like water consumption or bowel movements (I had two this morning before weigh in….and as stated earlier drank less water overnight) can cause wild swings in the day to day weigh in’s. Having said that…..on the morning of my next refeed (meaning before the meal)…..I think I will feel good as long as I am at 70.4 kg or less……long term maintenance being 70kg.

So…..all in all…..I’d say this was my best 4 day cycle so far…..although I still need to dial in a weeeeeeeeee bit more to get the refeed to just under 3k calories.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…..as for the macros…..tonight’s meal was 53% fat, 34% carb, 13% protein…..and the breakdown of fats was: 192 total grams….of which 64.4 saturated, 90.1 monounsaturated, and 18.6 polyunsaturated. Really….damn good! But, could be better (and was last refeed!)…..I can hit 55% fat, 30% carbs, 15% protein……lol!!….that’s not very far from tonight’s results, so I may be beating myself up too much……but one more key thing…….the total calories should be 2,900 instead of 3,175. That’s where there’s “work to do” still.

I’m up for it!!!

That’s all….off to bed……gotta’ say….I do feel more “stuffed” than last refeed (I ate more volume….some of which was more noodles)…..but no caffeine rush (I ate almost zero non-white chocolate tonight!), which I’m glad for……but more thirst (due to more sodium tonight than last time maybe?)…..and a bit of a sugar craving right now (5 hours after ending the meal)……not a strong craving by any means…but it’s there (’cause of those last 50 “extra” grams of carbs…..drat!).

Ahhhhhhhhh……last thing. 2 times in a row now…….ate NOTHING once I left the restaurant….nuttin’ at all but water once I got home…..NICE!!!!

Total Fat

192

g

296%

Saturated Fat

~64.4

g

~322%

4:00

~2517

mg

6:00

~1459

mg

8:00

~975

mg

10:00

~2024

mg

12:00

~2572

mg

13:00

~0.0

mg

14:00

~7637

mg

15:00

~0.1

mg

16:00

~32181

mg

17:00

~149

mg

18:00

~12836

mg

19:00

~0.0

mg

20:00

~206

mg

22:00

~57.1

mg

24:00:00

~0.1

mg

Monounsaturated Fat

90.1

g

14:01

~0.2

mg

15:01

~0.0

mg

16:1 undifferentiated

~2915

mg

16:1 c

~252

mg

16:1 t

~0.6

mg

17:01

~57.9

mg

18:1 undifferentiated

~84449

mg

18:1 c

~5774

mg

18:1 t

~746

mg

20:01

~380

mg

22:1 undifferentiated

~17.8

mg

22:1 c

~0.0

mg

22:1 t

~0.0

mg

24:1 c

~0.0

mg

Polyunsaturated Fat

18.6

g