Understanding Bodybuilding Refeeds: Mechanisms, Benefits, and Strategies

why we do refeeds how they work the mechanisms behind them and how we can kind of approach them but bodybuilding

will not make sense a lot of times on paper believe me when I tell you that I've prepped thousands of people refeeds

super saturation days my goal is always always always always to reach a cealing limit so again guys very important we

need that thyroid to be firing and functioning T4 to T3 conversion we need to keep reverse T3 down cuz liver is the

biggest fat burning organ [Music] all right guys Welcome To The Kingdom

built podcast another special episode and today we're going to be talking about another topic that was highly

requested which was refeeds and a lot of people that follow me know that I call refeeds a specific form of refeed super

saturation day so so we're going to get into some Essentials and Basics not a huge deep dive into it because this

video could literally go on for hours if it's requested to dive deeper we definitely can so guys we know that uh

metabolic adaptation can happen in a caloric restriction setting so specifically when an individual is in a

fat loss stage and they're in a caloric deficit uh because that's how you have fat loss occur is having the weekly uh

caloric intake average in a deficit right so essentially what will happen during that time is something called

metabolic adaptation it's your metabolism adapting to the energy intake throughout the days and the weeks aka

the calorie intake as you continue to diet your body is a wonderful thing created by God and it knows what to do

to survive in those settings so we are designed to as the energy intake slows down and gets lowered in a caloric

deficit so will the thyroid hormones and the regulation and thyroid conversion of T4 specifically to

T3 will downgrade and reverse T3 will actually go higher now when that happens and you have higher levels of reverse T3

so an excess amount of reverse T3 can make it challenging for an active form to bind to The receptors to carry out

the functionality of which it needs to the active being your free T3 the T4 to T3 conversion that is a necessity for

proper thyroid functionality and to be able to have all the benefits of your thyroid functioning at the highest level

uh to put it in a simplistic form so I've taken down a few notes of uh what what refeeds do why we need refeeds the

mechanisms behind the body of the refeeds how do we approach refeeds Etc Etc so during this podcast I'm going to

use an example of a competitor uh getting ready for a bodybuilding show classic physique men's physique whatever

the case may be and in this said competitor we're going to start this guy out at 16 to 20 weeks out typical

contest prep setting and if you're not a competitor you can put yourself before a photo shoot or wedding or a Beach

vacation so on and so forth so we're really not going to get into the modalities of cardio uh the efficacies

of the types of cardos that you can do your training volume training split so on and so forth we're simply going to be

talking about why we do refeeds how they work the mechanisms behind them and how we can kind of approach them so

typically in a contest prep setting uh said competitor would be a little higher in body fat meaning that uh he's not as

insulin sensitive as he will be as he grows close to the show uh so the partitioning of the nutrients uh

specifically in the form of carbohydrates are uh a little lowered and uh how they are adapting and how

they're being moved throughout the body in in an optimal rate of course we know as we get leaner body fat uh that drops

off partitioning will always improve insulin sensitivity will always go higher and a lot of times more times

than not a lot of people can experience some hypoglycemia uh during those last couple

weeks because they are just running through uh the type of foods that they're eating specifically if they are

lower fiber containing foods and there is no uh dietary fats added to it but I digress let's get back to the uh said

competitor dieting down so in that setting typically a refeed is not needed uh because body fat is a little bit

higher because caloric intake on a baseline is higher because energy levels are definitely higher uh they have the

ability to start dieting and dieting and more of an aggressive form and fashion so I always tell you my guys listen in

the beginning um you know if especially if we are at a higher body fat level uh which typically I don't really push my

guys to get very high in body fat I'm just not a huge fan of gaining a lot of body fat in the progression season now

when you're a young man that's a different setting uh there's a time and a place to definitely ACR some body fat

in a caloric Surplus that's uh going to be very important in the early stages of your development to grow properly but as

you get older and more developed and you reach a higher level we can definitely maintain a or physique this is going to

help with lipid profile cardiovascular health of course they correlate together insulin sensitivity they correlate

together as well and uh overall gut health brain functionality and the quality of sleep just to name a few then

we can get into obviously your training output is a lot more efficient your uh ability to go harder and longer in sets

is going to be that much better so in the beginning of a contest prep setting as I said you don't necessarily need

need to implement High days or refeeds now everybody is a case-by casee scenario this is not a one-size shoe

fits all but typically uh we're kind of going based off the average scenario so you don't necessarily need to have

refeeds or high days now as the diet progresses and as metabolic adaptation will happen T4 to T3 conversion will

downregulate so leptin is a hormone that is secreted by your fat cells that will send a signal to your brain telling you

that you are well fed now in a metabolic adaptation also known as choric restrictive diet where the metabolism

adapts to what you are doing there will be a slowing of the leptin being released which means you will need to

eat more to get that signal to the brain this is very important for adheren consistently over a long term and a long

period of time which is why a lot of you will experience as you diet into the show even on these refeed days or cheap

meals or higher days the hunger is almost insatiable it's very hard uh to actually feel full but now you know why

because the leptin uh has decreased and the signal that it's giving off to the brain that you're wellfed is also

decreased so very important to understand that dietary carbohydrates will play a role in replenishing that

much more than dietary fats was which is the reason why we will now get into into what do we do and structure into the

refeed or super saturation as I call it depending on which way we're going or I'm going with a client so as the

athlete diets down and continues to get leaner and insulin sensitivity goes up and fat cells are obviously shrinking

metabolic adaptation is happening due to the chloric restriction and we could also look for other signs you know there

is going to definitely be a decrease in gym performance now one day 2 days is not a huge key factor in saying I I need

a refeed but once you get to about 3 to 4 days or so and gym performance is coming down and sleep also decreasing

the quality of your sleep and your mood so obviously there's a huge correlation in your neurotransmitters and Ne neurom

modulators dopamine uh being one of the biggest ones is uh going to throw off a lot of things going on neurologically so

you'll see your mood decrease as well these are all signs along with if progression has halted and or you have

reached a point where muscle glycogen is so depleted that we're actually going reverse of where we want to go so

usually I see 4 days being the hardest you can push someone until that starts to occur once they are at a specific

level of body fat then you're able to implement those refeeds again or as I call Super saturation days now we

understand that one day in this setting of a feed is not necessarily going to give you that huge burst of T4 to T3

conversion it's just simply not enough time you're going to get more of a muscle glycogen fill a better

performance the next day to 48 hours you're obviously going to get a better look the next day and from a

psychological standpoint you're going to have more dopamine being released so you're going to be in a better mood

you're going to feel better and typically cortisol will drop down seratonin will go up you will sleep

better that night as well so anytime you're sleeping better you're recovering better cortisol is dropped uh we are

definitely helping the process of lipolysis over this period of time that we are utilizing these refeeds and we

are utilizing them for that functionality so on paper from a scientific standpoint you're not

necessarily getting that um net positive of T4 to T3 conversion in a 24-hour period uh but

that's okay because on paper bodybuilding doesn't make sense all the time so you have to utilize things that

make sense in an anecdote setting so what is working for the said client is what you roll with you can't always go

off scientific literature it's definitely good to know these things and understand the mechanisms behind them

but bodybuilding will not make sense a lot of times on paper believe me when I tell you that I've prepped thousands of

people since 2006 and I've seen some of the most absurd cases where it absolutely would not make sense if you

showed you know any type of scientist or someone with a doctorate uh in nutrition or biochemistry or Kinesiology or

exercise science that has studied the human physiology doesn't always necessarily understand how these

mechanisms work in a bodybuilder uh and of course we know there's not long-term studies with uh you know a huge clinical

controlled study of a bodybuilder or bodybuilders or competitors essentially at a very low level of body fat that are

200 plus pound in a you know contest prep uh body fat levels it just hasn't occurred so this

is where a little bit of Bro Science will definitely come in and experience will definitely Trump just understanding

only mechanisms behind how these things work and the cascading effect right again it's great to know these things so

I'm trying to wrap this up but my mind kind of starts to wander and I always want to make sure that I help the

audience that's listening kind of understand especially if it's coaches out there understand why we do what we

do so real quick caveat cuz we're talking about thyroid regulation now reverse T3 is a very under checked and

overlooked thyroid function on blood panels if your reverse T3 is high you again like I explained in the beginning

it's it's binding up basically the active version of the thyroid of T3 to do what it needs to do in an optimal way

so you will see a lot of down regul ation happening in your metabolism and you will see progress halter so make

sure you're always getting those labs pulled including that reverse T3 to see where those levels are at now if it is

high there could be you know any form of issues going on we could be talking about gut issues because T4 to T3

conversion 20% of that will start in your gut you could be talking about a mineral or micronutrient deficiency

pottassium B12 iodine selenium zinc all these are going to help with thyroid functionality I

mean there's there's so many different things that can correlate into that not you know including also liver so anytime

you have elevated liver enzymes which a lot of competitors do and can uh you're going to blunt uh the production of T4

to T3 conversion as well so again Guys these are all levels that you need to check throughout the uh man through the

year to be quite honest with you I could I could say contest prep setting or you know caloric deficit dieting for an

event a wedding a photo shoot but they should be checked regularly I check these levels every 8 to 10 weeks it's

very very important uh because I want to be sharp as attack I want to have cognition I want to have memory word

recall I mean there's a lot for me to do and a lot on my plate so I have to make sure that uh my thyroid is functioning

properly so that I have the energy uh to actually achieve these goals and the sharpness in my brain so I want to make

sure all these levels are directly correlating together they're cascading in there's conversion happening and uh

everything is functioning at the most optimal level and so do you if you are in this phase of a caloric deficit and

we have reached metabolic adaptation we want to make sure that we do everything we can before you guys start to

self-prescribe pharmacology in the form of T3 therapy or T4 therapy Armor Thyroid therapy if you want to call it

these things always start with your micronutrients first your selenium your iodine and your zinc you need to cover

those bases copper is also another one that's very overlooked as well so again big caveat let's get back to the refeeds

how do we structure them why we're doing them so now you know some of the setting of why we do them and uh what it changes

in metabolic adaptation so that we can continue progress right because we want uh fat loss to happen there's a

difference between fat burning and fat loss we want that lipolysis that fat loss to start happening and continue to

happen and hang on to as much muscle tissue as we can that's the whole goal of what we're trying to achieve so with

refeeds and super saturation days as I said 4 days is usually the max you can push somebody until they hit that limit

and then we need to implement in the form of a carbohydrate heavy carb laddin uh menu for the day uh to really get all

these things fire incorrectly so the way that I like to set it up whether it's a lifestyle guy or a competitor is of

course we want to utilize the foods that they're used to we want to utilize foods that they know that we want to utilize

foods that we know don't cause a systemic inflammatory response uh we want to use foods that are really going

to cause gastric emptying to happen very fast as well because it is a high volume of food to get in a lot of carbohydrates

you know I've had guys at up to, 1500 2,000 G of carbohydrates on super saturation days so we're doing a

combination of foods I will just give an example you know we are utilizing things like my buddy Sean Vasquez at riceing

grinds cream of rice in there uh we're utilizing uh you know green bananas because green bananas will have

resistant starch to feed the good gut bacteria and create more butyrate in the system so remember we're always trying

to get some positives out of these refeeds too um so we're going to use that we're going to definitely throw in

some fiber in in the form of low sugar berries as well or low sugar oatmeal uh maybe even some whole grains in there

but typically I'll air on the side of more fermented sourdough bread uh I love sourdough and and high volume it's very

easy to get down and it's a very dense carbohydrate uh typically uh 55 56 Gram on the scale of sour dough before you

toast it's about 30 35 grams of carbs phenomenal carbohydrate uh to utilize in a refeed setting I'll also use some

cereal as well now over the years I've changed my perspective because again I'm you know and and this is different for

everybody some people I still have used kids cereal but I'll air for me especially on the on the side of uh like

an arrowhead buckwheat Maple buckwheat cereal uh digests very easy no systemic inflammation very dense in carbohydrates

cinnamon raisin Ezekiel cereal cuz about half a cup dry is 40 G of carb so an extremely dense

carbohydrate um so let's see what else we got we mentioned the sourdough we mentioned the kids cereal we mentioned

of course we have jasmine rice in there that's kind of a typical thing uh but there's only so much rice you can take

in right so then we may even go into white rice pasta another great form in addition to add in we have lowfat sorbet

phenomenal to add in lowfat sorbet of course quality Sushi low fat Sushi you know no cream cheese no fried very low

in avocado uh adding into the rolls and or low amounts of salmon so we're going for the shrimp we're going for the tuna

we're going for the super white tuna the albacore tuna and uh we're eating a lot of sushi in the form of either ngiri or

sushi rolls very easy to get down and I you everybody listening to this doesn't like sushi but that's a great phenomenal

choice to add in and then of course we have some carbohydr hydrates in the form of liquids right so vitargo S2 highly

Branch cyclic dextrin are good even organic pomegranate juice organic apple juice now these are very very high

quality organic single ingredient juices and they're timed around uh the training or you can even get an organic

applesauce applesauce is great CU it has pectin in it so very very good for the uh GI you have very dense uh dried

fruits in the form of dates mol dates are great additions into refeeds and flavored rice cakes you know just to

kind of give you guys a little overview and also raw local honey so if you can get an organic raw local honey

phenomenal for your immune system phenomenal for histamine levels in phenomenal way to get a lot of

carbohydrates and a very small volume of food now what makes my super saturation days different than a refeed is we will

get to a peak concentration level of carbohydrates where we eventually have to add in uh some quote unquote dirtier

foods which can come in the form of homemade grass-fed bison burgers with sourdough bread if we're using cheese

we're definitely going to go for grass-fed cheese again I don't want a systemic inflammatory response after

this refeed I want this to be a positive and produce the results into the next day that we're looking for sweet potato

fries homemade you know then we can go into homemade desserts you know muffins sour sourdough cookies carrot cake uh

again I said lowfat sorbet we could even make homemade uh sub sandwiches you know with meat in it double chicken there's

there's recipes for homemade pasta uh bison ground bison into white rice noodles and organic low sodium tomato

sauce with uh Texas toast from sourdough bread uh you know and and then we may need to add in some foods that are even

dirtier than that higher fat contents as well this is an individual that's obviously processing and running through

food so fast and this is also uh equating in the fact that cardio has been cut to next to nothing fat burners

are cut next to nothing so then we need to make sure that we're bringing in these modalities we're bringing in these

Foods we're bringing in an employing all these things that we need to to hold on to lean tissue and make sure we're

controlling everything that we need to control cuz that's what it's all about is variable control in all these uh

little Avenues and areas of refeeds or super saturations all right so how do we structure that we went over the forms of

carbohydrates which is mostly responsible for helping leptin T4 to T3 conversion lowering reverse T3 of course

refilling glycogen and doing everything we need to do for performance to increase over the next 48 to 72 hours

before the drop off happens again now what I like to do because carbs are protein sparing is I definitely and I've

been doing this since 2006 I will cut protein essentially in half on those days it's just not necessary it's just

going to slow down gastric emptying the goal at the end of the day is to be able to take in the amount of carbs needed to

get all these benefits gastric emptying is at an optimal rate so you're actually uh feeling good throughout the day uh

you're not stuffed to the Max and you know bloated and full we're eating the foods that work best for the body uh so

protein is lowered down because again carbohydrates are protein sparing so it's not need for that day and then we

have the high amount of carbohydrates with fats being at Trace next to nothing minimal the focus gentlemen and the

focus audience my friends is going to be carbohydrates on these days until we need to employ all the other things

again if we're getting too fast if we're dropping off too fast and the body is not able to hold on to what we're

putting into it from a macronutrient perspective so that's when variations and variables will come in and change

specifically talking about the majority average person that is utilizing these refeeds to continue to move in a

positive Forward Motion uh so that's how I would structure it and I would also structure it up to 6 to 8 to 9 meals

throughout the day so meal frequency is even higher meal volume is lower in the form of dietary fats being next to

nothing protein and half but carbohydrates obviously being increased how much we can touch on that but meal

fre frequency is a lot higher and I like this because I like to take in smaller amounts throughout the day again for

better absorption and gastric emptying and a positive effect it just makes the refeed that much easier and what I've

noticed anecdotally is if someone is very very hungry that dopamine is flowing through the entire day and it

just sets them up for a phenomenal day their gym performance is great their mood is elevated which helps their

family friends and loved ones they're just drien and determined to do whatever it takes because of this massive release

of dopamine cortisol again like I said is dropped and sleep is that much more improved uh throughout the night

especially if they've been struggling the last couple weeks so that is a small synopsis of how I would set up the day

now how many carbohydrates do you need is going to be based off you as the individual and based off if you have a

coach what your coach has you doing typically what I would do uh as an example is if I have set individual on a

baseline day of 225 g of carbs and on an off low menu of 100 to 75 gram of carbs my goal is to get that person into a

cealing capacity on these refeed days so I will take them up anywhere from if they were at 225 to 500 or 750 or a

th000 depending on where we're at and how I know the body's response and what I mean mean by the body's response is

not only how it responds to the amount of food how the gym performance is but you check their weight over the next 72

hours to to four to 5 days and you see how fast the set individual get back to their Baseline weight before the refeed

now once you grasp this and you start to fully understand with all variables controlled how fast an individual can

return back to Baseline it makes these refeeds to set these up in such a phenomenal way that it's

literally uh like clockwork for a lack of better terms and it becomes almost easy and simplistic to be able to set

them up know what's going to happen essentially we don't always go by the scale but it is a good gauge to always

see what's going on based off that equated with the best look those two coincide together typically especially

on show day but I digress again getting all over the place I always like to dive a little bit deeper and overe explain

things again so that the audience at home can understand what I'm talking about so refeeds super saturation days

my goal is always always always always to reach a ceiling limit that we possibly can reach and even break

through that ceiling so to speak where I don't care if the individual the next day gains 3 to four to 5 pounds I'm not

concerned about that and a lot of people may disagree cuz they would say law of thermodynamics calories in calories out

over the course of the week and I said in the beginning a big role in lipolysis and fat loss over that week is being in

an average caloric deficit but again we're talking about someone that's not average but someone that's phenomenal

that's getting in shape getting in these body fat levels that are not the norm that are off the textbooks in the form

of how many carbohydrates you can set up and how it works and how it how it runs essentially you can't always go by the

textbook so you have to find what works best for you and what I try to do is titrate it up as the diet goes on so

these individuals are eating their highest carb days or refeeds or super saturations by the end of the prep is

always the goal it's always the goal so I want to be able to get into an almost overfed State on these days so that we

can train as hard as possible over the course of the next two to four days we can get back into pushing the calories

low getting the performance in the gym getting that dopamine released so that

they have that drive even though we're we are process driven over motivation it's important to understand that not

all individuals click with that mindset so we need to understand the mechanisms of the neurom modulator from dopamine

and how that works so I'm setting someone up from a physiological standpoint into a psychological

standpoint for the best results over the course of the next 4 to 6 days or when we do this again again it is not outside

of the norm that I may have someone run these high days twice a week heck I've had people do three it all depends on

the individual and this is why it's important to get Labs pulled throughout the contest prep or the diet to see

what's going on from that hormonal standpoint right so again guys very important we need that thyroid to be

firing and functioning T4 to T3 conversion we need to keep reverse T3 down uh into an optimal range and we can

do these things by making sure that we have our liver detoxified as much as possible cuz liver is the biggest fat

burning organ very important we also need to make sure that we're managing stress as much as possible because

managing stress and the release of cortisol is definitely definitely not only putting you in What's called the

sympathetic nervous system fight or flight it will downregulate that T4 to T3 conversion and it's very easy to be

in this state of mind throughout a contest prep or a diet a caloric deficit because you are constantly hungry you're

food focused for the most part your energy output is higher than normal with cardio with posing with steps with

training so of course cortisol naturally is going to be higher so then we need to bring in specific modalities to fix that

and we could use anything in the form of riola Rosa ashwagandha phosphole Serene is a phenomenal supplement to also use

to regulate cortisol I've talked about aodin not a Modi in but a modin uh to be able to basically block cortisol uh

which will help you sleep as well at night very good product as well not many people speak on it but a phenomenal Tool

uh to use in a caloric deficit uh for contest prep setting or an event prep uh at night to specifically help sleep as

well phenomenal phenomenal stuff so uh there's a few supplements right there uh some people react well to ashwagandha

some people don't so I I usually don't uh recommend it too too much and of course magnesium magnesium buys

glycinate uh so magnesium is phenomenal 3 and8 is very good for brain cognitive function magnesium levels being optimal

are going to be very important for the body internally just to function at at a most optimal rate in regards to cortisol

and trying to regulate staying into parasympathetic rest and digest rather than fight ORF flight sympathetic that's

also going to reduce that T4 to T3 conversion increase reverse T3 so we are uh really really uh harnessing on to

that metabolic adaptation even more so these are variables that we need to make sure that we are controlling uh to the

best of our ability uh so we've structured the refeed we've set up the types of food that we're eating and

there's much more Foods guys listen there's there's definitely more foods you can utilize but we'd be spending

hours on this video uh we've talked about liver detoxification for optimal thyroid Stress Management for optimal

thyroid we've talked about why leptin uh will will decrease uh during the diet and why you are hungry all the time and

how the refeeds will help increase leptin levels so that you don't have that feeling of not being wellfed so

adheren is easier uh to continue on for the amount of time cuz guys remember at the end of the day getting in shape like

this is very very hard for you know so from a psychological standpoint you can't look at these refeeds just because

you don't feel good um that you need a refeed it's not necessarily the case and more times than not most people don't

but we're talking about the people in the settings that do how we can utilize them how we can manage them to our best

optimal ability and control these variables so that we can continue with fat loss over the said period of time

and retain as much muscle tissue and continue having proper healthy thyroid functionality so that we can move

forward and doing all these things guys so again not a full Deep dive but covered some good sub subjects I hope

you guys enjoyed if you guys have any more questions or comments comment down below hit the Subscribe button and that

Bell notification to be notified when my next video will drop guys thank you so much I hope you enjoyed this quick

overview of refeeds God bless