Rice Cakes and Heavy Weights

What is happening guys?!?!

Winter is here again!! So apart from wayyyy to many Christmas songs on the radio already, what else can my little ears hear…. In my best Arnie voice…. ‘it’s winter I'm bulking’

Ok so when the boys the in staff room say this they know what there doing and lets be honest there normally having an extra potato with their lunch. Bulk on brother!

When I see members leaving the gym Krispy Kreme in hand also saying ‘I’m Bulking’ haha slooooowww down there schwarzenegger .. lets get some facts straight.

Winter is not the time to get fat. I for one love this season, no bikinis and big coats for cover doesn't mean I am going on a weight gaining mission what it does mean is I can ease up (ease up I repeat, not stop) on some of my fat burning cardio and concentrate on lifting some heavy heavy weights 😊 I can enjoy a few more carby meals and all in all feel pretty damn strong, with the aim of building up some muscle whilst my body is well hidden so I can cut it in as summer creeps in.

Which brings me to todays subject. The purpose of the Carb Refeed. … or cheat meal or unfortunately as some of my clients are familiar with the cheat meal that turned into the cheat weekend … oh and now its Thursday...... epic fail.

I for one don't really cheat, this is not me getting on my high horse, being allergic to life means I am left with limited cheat items.. so I reefed.... the aim of the reefed especially for those who are on  low carb diets through out the week is to raise your leptin levels, by upping your calorific intake by 30-50% over 12 hours or so. I normally do this by getting down and dirty on a Friday  with some rice cakes, a jar of cashew butter and some big boy bananas. jazzy.

Leptin.

Why do we need to raise this baby?

Leptins main function in the body is to regulate both hunger and energy expenditure.

As leptin levels drop the greater your food cravings become

Also if leptin levels are not raised on a regular basis this can cause your metabolism to slow.

How to raise your game…

So most people use their reefed or cheat to binge on every processed item in sight, sugar and pizza everywhere. unfortunately this may not always be the best practice as leptin responds better to good sources of carbs to be turned into glucose as apposed to refeeding on simple sugars, protein and fats.

Refeeding or cheating may make you feel temporarily a bit heavy (mostly water retention) but in the long run will give your metabolism the boost it needs to shift those excess pounds.

Much Love

Linda xxx