What is a Refeed Day, and Do I Need One to Lean Out?

If you’ve ever wondered, “What is a refeed day?” and if you need one to reach your body composition or performance goals, you’re in the right place.

Refeed days can be used for many physical reasons like fat loss, muscle gain, and hunger management, but there are also psychological reasons a refeed day may be worth a shot.

We’re providing general guidelines to help you decide if and when to implement a refeed day in your nutrition plan. That being said, keep in mind that nutrition is not one-size-fits-all. Getting specialized support (especially if you have specific sports performance goals or want to lean out) is a great way to reach your goals as safely, sustainably, and quickly as possible.

Let’s get right into it…

What is a Refeed Day?

A refeed day is most commonly employed in a calorie deficit and is characterized by an increased consumption of calories—usually coming from carbohydrates—for a short period of time [1].

Long-term dieting can depress hormone production, and this decreased hormone production can lead to a slower basal metabolic rate, increased hunger, decreased energy, and a lower sex drive. In women, depressed hormone production can result in adverse changes to the menstrual cycle.

The intent of the increased carbohydrates is to provide the body with enough short-term energy to restore (or at least improve) hormonal balance. The human endocrine (hormone) system is sensitive to the short-term energy that carbohydrates provide [1]. Increased carbohydrates can also help to alleviate some of these negative adaptations that occur during dieting.

Refeeds also work to top off glycogen levels in muscle tissue which can mitigate decreases in performance and muscle loss while in a calorie deficit.

Do I Need to Add a Refeed Day to My Nutrition Program?

Refeeds can last anywhere from 24 hours to 3+ days. Whether or not you need a refeed day (and the length of that refeed) is nuanced and depends on various factors. We can break this down into a few different categories:

1. History of dieting
2. Current body composition
3. Training volume and intensity
4. Psychological factors

History of Dieting

If you have a long history of dieting and have spent immense amounts of time at low-calorie intakes, it is more likely that you’ve negatively impacted your metabolism.

In these cases, you can use a refeed day to reverse some of the metabolic damage from chronic dieting—a few 24-hour refeed days throughout the week or a longer period of consecutive refeeding could be helpful. You can learn more about negative adaptations from dieting and things to consider when adding calories in this article.

Current Body Composition

The leaner you are, the more likely it is that you’ll need a refeed day to stay lean and feel your best. With low body fat levels, you burn glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrates in the muscle) for energy at a higher rate than body fat [1]. This requires replenishing energy stores by eating more carbohydrates to top off your tank.

When you get below 15% body fat for males and 23% for females, a refeed becomes a helpful strategy that can work to mitigate some of the negative hormonal adaptations occurring at these leanness levels [2].

Because women’s bodies are generally more reactive to low body fat levels due to their bodies protecting reproductive health, refeeds for leaner females may be more important than leaner males. A regular menstrual cycle is a necessary part of female health. Leaner females, without refeed days, run the risk of losing that cycle and should consult a doctor if this happens.

Training Frequency, Intensity, and Goals

The harder you train, the more you may need a refeed day. Training load and intensity accumulate over the course of a week.

Oftentimes, hard-training individuals are unable to eat the volume of food on a daily basis needed to replenish energy stores. Focusing on more carbs consumed on a particular day can reverse some of that fatigue accumulation.

Be mindful that you usually need to be leaner to utilize a refeed to replenish training deficits. If you have more body fat to lose will tap into your stored energy in the form of body fat to make up the difference, and you generally don’t need a refeed as often.

If your main goal is to improve performance, it is also worth considering how a calorie deficit may not be the “best” way to achieve this goal. A coach can help ensure your expectations are realistic given their plan, adherence, and goals.

Refeed Days for Psychological Health

Even if you don’t need a refeed day for physical reasons, there are psychological benefits to higher-calorie days.

If you begin to feel “restricted” at lower calorie levels, a day with a few more macros to play with can help with overall consistency. A refeed could allow you to work in a higher-carb treat in moderation and build a healthier relationship with food.

If you consider employing a refeed day for psychological reasons, it is important to clearly determine your goal around this period of increased calorie intake. Refeed days are a great way to have a “break,” but you still need to land within their higher targets to stay on track toward your goals.

In general, we do not recommend employing a refeed day if you’re still working through all-or-nothing mindsets around food intake. Tackle those food relationships first!

What Should I Eat on a Refeed Day?

Food quality on refeed days is extremely important.

As mentioned above, a refeed day can give you a bit of wiggle room to enjoy a treat that would be tougher to fit into a “normal” day of eating in a deficit, but you will get the biggest hormonal and physical benefit from your refeed day if a majority of the excess carbohydrates come from whole foods.

Here are some examples:

• Starchier vegetables like squash, potato, beets, turnip, etc.
• Fruit like apples, pears, pineapple, and mango
• Denser grains like rice, quinoa, and whole wheat bread/pasta

Refeed Days and Fat Loss

Can you use refeed days to lose fat? Yes!

Refeeds actually tend to work most successfully if you have fat loss goals. A refeed does three specific things to aid in fat loss, and for the right person, they work wonders.

1. From a psychological perspective, a day with increased calories gives you a greater degree of freedom. This increased freedom will improve compliance in the long term.

2. From a hormonal standpoint, refeeds support endocrine health, and endocrine health will promote a healthy metabolism. A healthy metabolism will ensure that you don’t have to dive too far into a deficit to achieve results. The more you eat while losing weight, the better off you will be. Losing weight at 1500 calories is much easier than losing weight at 1200 calories.

3. Lastly, a refeed day will enable you to work harder in the gym, allowing you to build a more muscular body composition. When you say you want to lose weight, what this almost always means is that you want to lose fat and have a leaner body composition. Replenishing glycogen stores will allow you to lift heavier and recover stronger. The same things that build muscle during a surplus are the same things that PRESERVE muscle during a cut. 

How Much and How Often Should You Refeed?

So, you’ve decided to try adding at least one refeed day to your program. Now the questions become, how often should I prescribe a refeed day for myself, and how many additional carbs do I need?

How Much Do I Need to Eat?

Most refeeds bring you back up to around maintenance calorie intake or slightly above [2]. Setting macros and determining “maintenance” calories is best handled by a pro, but you can give it a shot for free with our macro calculator!

Remember, these calories almost always come from carbohydrates. So, if you are eating 1,700 calories and calculate your maintenance to be around 2,100 calories/day, this would be about 100 extra grams of carbs on a refeed day.

2,100 calories - 1,700 calories = 400 calories
400 calories / 4 cals per gram of carbohydrates = 100g carbohydrates

This may be a great place to start if you are training intensely. If you’re not an avid athlete, you could start a bit lower and monitor changes in body composition, mood, energy, sleep, etc. and adjust from there. You could also try splitting the 100g carbohydrates into two 50g refeeds throughout the week.

If you need a refeed day for psychological reasons, you could start around 50g once per week to allow enough wiggle room to fit in a serving of carb-dense food somewhere in your day without going overboard.

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all!

How Often Should I Have a Refeed Day?

Individuals with lower body fat percentages generally need to refeed more often than those with higher BF percentages. On top of that, women tend to need to refeed days more often than men [1,2].

1-2x refeeds per week is a great place to start for people with weight loss goals. From here, do your best to take your refeed: 

• On a training day
• On the day(s) of the week, you notice high hunger and/or fatigue

And, it is extremely important to use your extra calories for whole foods as much as possible if you want to get the biggest benefit from your refeed day and continue working towards fat loss goals.

A refeed is an intermediate-level macro-tracking strategy aimed at maintaining hormonal balance, energy, and compliance. Specific people will benefit from refeed days once they’ve established consistency with a static set of macros. For the right person, refeeds can be used to make fat loss phases more effective and comfortable!

If you want some support deciding if a refeed day is the best plan for you, your body, and your goals, consider hiring a WAG Coach. We’ve worked with over 30,000 people and are experts when it comes to fat loss, muscle gain, and performance improvements. 

References:

Resources:

1. Trexler, E. T., Smith-Ryan, A. E., & Norton, L. E. (2014). Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: implications for the athlete. J Int Soc Sports Nutr., 11(7). Doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-11-7
2. Peos, J. J., Norton, L. E., Helms, E. R., Galpin, A, J., Fournier, P. (2019). Intermittent dieting: Theoretical considerations for the athlete. Sports (Basel), 7(1): 22. doi: 10.3390/sports7010022