Leap Day...End of Month Weigh-In

For those of you who have been watching how my "refeed" is going, I want to FIRST place a "disclaimer" here, right from the start so there's NO misunderstandings.

The PURPOSE of a refeed is to reset your Leptin levels back to as normal a level as possible, since Leptin basically controls what most folks call "starvation mode." The slowing down of all of your body's metabolic functions to the point where you can no longer lose weight on a typical low carb or low calorie diet.

Low carb diets deplete liver and muscle glycogen storage, and if you've been dieting for any length of time, especially at Induction levels, the body is going to reach a point when it stops letting go of it's fat reserves. So when you THEN do a Refeed, the body will begin to "USE" those carbs for energy purposes, rather than storing them. At least, initially.

Which is WHY I was able to eat Pizza for Valentine's Day, plus high carbs on Friday and Saturday without gaining any weight. It was a SURE SIGN that "yes" I was in Starvation Mode.
Which means that a "SINGLE" Refeed isn't going to convince the body of anything.

Yes, Leptin levels generally return to a normalized level, even with a single refeed, which is probably why my excess of hunger has now disappeared. But it's going to take "more" refeeds on a consistent basis to convince the body that it's okay to start letting go of its fat reserves.

Because at the moment, since I went 13-1/2 months at Induction level of carbs, with only 2 high carb meals during all of that time, (plus add in my already low calorie level due to being bedridden and partially bedridden for 3 years before that) and you end up with the fact that my body doesn't BELIEVE that "extra" food (a good caloric and higher carb level) is going to be forthcoming consistently.

So as far as weight/fat loss is concerned, I'm basically still in a holding mode. Stuck at my "typical" size 16 Setpoint level (which is the same irregardless of the type of diet I'm on, I had the same thing happen to me on Weight Watcher's). Which for me...leaves me bouncing between 175 and 180 pounds.

So keep that in mind, when you're reading the rest of this post. Because the goal in all of this is to HEAL the metabolism as much as possible, as well as get the rest of my extra fat storage to let go.

My weigh-in this morning was 178.6 pounds.

So I haven't had a good month weight/fat-loss wise because I'm up 2 pounds since February 1st. No weight/fat loss at all this month. Let alone since the Refeed. The excess hunger is gone, so that's GOOD. But whether that's because of raised Leptin levels due to the Refeed or because I'm not down to my previous 175 pounds where it first began yet, I can't say.

What I can say is that I am at a higher weight than I was on Weight Watchers when I started having this problem, and ended up quiting because I couldn't endure the hunger it would take to bust through the Setpoint. So at least I can console myself with the fact that I'm carrying around a lot more muscle mass, despite my "forced" sedentary lifestyle now, than I was then.

Since I fall into what Lyle McDonald calls Category 2 (25% to 34% body fat) I've been doing "one" free meal per week since the Refeed. But haven't been brave enough to do the weekly refeed he also suggests on top of that for my body fat range, since I haven't recovered from the last one. It was only this morning that I ran onto the info over at Low Carb Friends (in the current Refeed thread under Other Plans) about how the body reacts to a first time Refeed if you've been extremely low in carbs for any length of time.

That really rung TRUE to me, which is why I placed that info at the beginning of this post. Because I'm "sure" there are lots of folks who have TRIED doing this Refeed thing, took a long time to recover from that first attempt as I have, and quit because they THOUGHT it wasn't working.

So even though I've basically MAINTAINED my weight within a couple of pounds and my body fat range within 1% since I started doing this, I'm not ready to give up on the idea just yet.

I think I'm going to give it a full month -- maybe 7 weeks, until my birthday -- and actually DO the PSMF diet, with a couple of healthier modifications along with it, rather than doing the Refeeds/Atkins that I'm doing right now, before I make any "drastic" decisions like GIVING UP and just going to maintenance.

Now PLEASE "don't flame me" for my decision. Because as I've said before, even when I was doing Kimkins, I wasn't really doing it according to plan. So I WON'T be trying to live on egg whites and the fat only found within lean meats -- which is basically what the PSMF diet recommends. I'll be using WHOLE EGGS, olive oil in my homemade lower-fat Caesar salad dressing, and maybe a bit of coconut oil to scramble my eggs in, since I've heard that "can" raise the metabolism. So what I'm going to do is "closer" to Refeeds/Protein Power than it is to PSMF.

What I LIKE about what I've read about the PSMF "so far" is the higher protein content, 1.5 grams per pound of lean body mass, (if you aren't as depleted as I am you can use 1 or 1.25), a minimum of 2 low-fat dairy servings daily, (most folks use 1/2 cup non-fat cottage cheese and either 1 ounce of non-fat cheddar -- which isn't available in our area -- or 1 oz string/mozarella) and UNLIMITED veggies. Which means no more Fitday, and no more COUNTING.

So it's pretty close to what I've been doing myself already. Just cutting out the excesses. Eating lower fat than what Atkins currently recommends, but not lower than what Protein Power recommends, and eating CLEAN. NO junk carbs and keeping "most" processed foods to a minimum, except for a few condiments. And eating lots of GREEN veggies, since they're low in calories, whenever you're hungry.

Plus I'll be taking 6 grams of fish oil supplements for my EFAs.

At least, that's my current plan, beginning MONDAY -- but subject to change without notice if needed LOL.