I was wondering if all of you out there have any info on these feeding days to stop stalls? I wanted to hear from people that have had success as well as those who haven't. I have been stalled for 6 weeks now and I was wondering if this might help me? how many carbs am I suppose to eat on a feeding day?

I've heard that many people have had success with them, but I'd be petrified to try it. I can only imagine that after a giant carb-fest I would feel just horrible (physically, if not emotionally). And the second reason would be that I would be afraid that it wouldn't work and I'd end up with 5 extra pounds.

My general rule for now is that I won't even attempt it until I've had at least a 6 week stall, have examined my food intake carefully, and have tried everything thing else first. Of course, by that point of not budging, I might be ready for a few donuts. LOL.

~Angi~

I recently had a carb binge day because I realized I gained 4lbs. due to carb creep. I decided to eat up the last of the semi legal goodies that had been doing me in (a whole grapefruit, 1/2 apple w/tons real peanut butter, SF chocolates, LC cookies and ice cream), and since I knew it would be enough to knock me out of ketosis I figured I might as well make it really worth it so I threw in some Taco Bell. I felt extatic all day, it totally improved my morale because I'd been battling every day with restricted foods and portion control. Releasing myself for a day totally satisfied me. I've been on induction since then (three days) without a single desire to cheat any more, even when I went out to dinner. I did have a tummy ache the next day, and I gained a lb, but I lost it already and it was totally worth it having freedom for a day. I plan to do this every couple months when the restrictions start getting to me rather than fighting the slow, agonizing, loosing battle with carb creep.

'Reversal diet'
concept?
The refeed is maybe another name for it- check out the thread on the next page[2] I started called reversal diet?
It has the info you need to make this choice.

You might also want to have a read through this thread, posted in our Tips and Stalls forum .. Refeeding questions?. The information might be helpful for you.


Doreen

I've been doing a lot of research on this today. In one thread Karen, (who I privately call our "gift"), suggested reading a book called "Mastering Leptin". Has anyone read this book?

Also, here' s an interesting clipping from my research on another thread:

Atkins does discuss using a brief period of high-carb eating, it's in DANDR, in the chapter on "Permanent Slimness in the Real World". He calls it a Reversal Diet, and same as for the re-feeds, it is high carb, but very very low fat. He recommends eating complex carbs from whole grains, fruits, vegetables .. keep the fiber intake high. No meats, oils, cream or cheese .. it's meant to be the polar opposite of LC. He also recommends doing this for no more than a few days at a time, then BOOM, right back to low-carbing by the book. Note that this is mentioned in the Maintenance chapter, not Induction or Ongoing Weight Loss. It's intended as a means of dealing with cravings, not as a weight loss jumpstarter.

He states:

Quote:
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Please note that the reversal diet itself is an austere program; it is not a balanced diet, and it most certainly not taking a break from dieting for a while. When you try to interpose a period of balanced dieting, the result is all too often a rapid regain of weight. The lesson you must learn is that if you "go off the diet", you don't go off into a vacuum, you go onto another diet. Make sure the other diet is also one in which you are in control.
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Doreen


I did a "refeed" on Sunday. Beer, french fries, etc. Oh, yeah, and a PINT of low carb ice cream. I made a mistake by not educating myself first. I thought I just had to stay away from sugar. I went up almost 5 pounds. What a mistake.

I have carbed up a bit a few weekends...

Keeps me sane, and got me past a stall.

I have also done this unintentionally and as soon as I got back into ketosis (like this week), I lost a pound or two. So I think sometimes it does work...

I myself once splurged and had garlic bread and tater tots and some other high carb foods, but not too many high calorie sweets. I woke up with a terrible carb hangover but found I also got knocked out of my stall and lost another 4 pounds. I jumped right back into Atkins not to get too used to the bad food again. Just this past weekend I did the same thing with all these 4th of July parties going on and have not gained any more weight, but see that I have lost a couple more pounds.

So, I think that everyone is VERY different, for some people it may help others it may not. But don't go overboard and get used to eating those high carb foods on a regular basis again!!! Use CONTROL!!!

Good Luck

I don't do it with carbs, but I notice I naturaly do it with calories. Every 4-6 days or so I suddenly get alot more hungry and end up eating sometimes as many as twice my normal calorie intake. The next day my appitite is back to normal. I don't notice any weight gain on those days. Basicaly my weight is a pattern of lose one pound, gan .5 pound, lose 1 ect. Maybe sometimes depending on activities or what not we just need more carbs or calories.

I broke my diet this past weekend, I ate a hashbrown, a large blizzard from DQ, some popcorn at the movies and some candy. I started Atkins again on Monday after gaining 2 pounds from my food fest and today I weighed in and I have lost 2.8 pounds. Was this from "refeeding"?

If that is the case, I will have to do that about once a month to keep my sanity.

This is all so confusing to me. I guess the wise thing is to not try to make sense out of it.

heh.. yes i agree, and it depends on the person... Everyones body is different.

I picked up the new Curves book at SAMS. It has a whole chapter about this. It talks about a sluggish metabolism causing stalls. Years of yo-yo dieting (that certainly is me!) is a major cause.

When they talk about adding food, they want it to be good carbs and not a sugar or white flour blow-out. The suggestion is to eat a lot for a few days. You WILL put on pounds. Then, return to induction until you get the added weight back off. Doing this a few times (they say) will boost your metabolism and that each time you do it, it should take longer to gain the weight. I'm not sure if this makes a lot of sense to me. I haven't tried it, but they say many of their clients at Curves have done it and it works fine. Anybody know anything more about it? I'm only about a third of the way through the book. Maybe I'll have more information when I am finished.

Kathy

Find out if you're carb sensitive before you try this. When I start eating cabrs I experience extreme reactions and go into serious carb coma the day after. It also takes me several days to kick the carb cravings and get back into induction, so for me, refeeding is definitely not an option.

Get to know what your triggers are then make your decision.