So basically meal prep is nothing more than the good old concept of pre-cooking for the whole week. For you, this means: cook one day, enjoy several days to come. Now, the rest of the week you're free to just eat the prepared dishes and have something delicious ready every meal to look forward to.

So no more excuses: off to the kitchen - meal prepping is the way to go!

Why you should become a Meal Prepper now

The concept saves a lot of time and ensures that you always have healthy dishes on board even in stressful moments. The days when you then thoughtlessly reached for frozen pizza and pasta with ready-made sauce are finally over. This is how meal prep also helps you lose weight. Not only do you end up sticking to your diet, but you hit your macros all the time and you don't have to think about weighing the food for every meal. At the same time, you have your micros under full control. Saving time, and making it easy on yourself will benefit you in the long run.

The easiest way is to cook double the serving every Night and take the rest with you the next day. The downside to this: Every day we have to spend time cooking and weighing the food.

The pros among the meal preppers take their time on weekends. That means: You go out shopping on a saturday and you spend time on sunday for prepping.

I like to cook for 3 days at a time, but this is totally up to you.

The goal for us is to reduce the chances of screwing up the diet. We want to create a path of least resistance, because we know that willpower will be weakend during our weight loss journey. When hunger rises, our will power will fall. Just like electricity that takes the shortes path to the goal, we humans tend to take the easiest solution to solve a problem.

Humans are gifted with the power of will. No other creature on this planet can control themselves and their own brain like we do. Take monogamy as an example. Monogamy is actually, from a biological standpoint un-natural for humans. We are ment to mate with multiple males and multiple women. Women need to mate with multiple men to get the best seed to win, while men need to find the most amount of women to give their seeds to in order to repopulate. This sounds all strange and all, but the point is, we as humans choose to be faithful even though nature does not want us to. 

What does this have to do with meal prepping? The point I'm making is that when we diet, our willpower weakens. We become short sighted and we might eat food we shouldn't because we cave to our flaws as humans.

By preparing the food, we make it easy NOT to fail, and the bi-product of sticking to the program is success. 

What is Refeed Day?

Basically, a refeed day is a very special strategy within a diet. Actually, the basic principle of diets stems from reducing calories to the point where the body uses more than it consumes, which can lead to stress. On this day, we simply turn the principle around and fill up the carbohydrates to a point where the calories reach the TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) or slightly above.

NOTICE: Unfortunately, this is not a day when you are allowed to eat and drink everything without remorse.

By eating less calories, the body is able to address and break down its own reserves - body fat. However, It makes no sense to bet on this shortfall of carbohydrates and calories in the long run. The body recognizes this reduction in intake and quickly gets used to the state in which it throttles and adjust the need for energy. For many, this makes itself clear, in a stagnation of the weight loss and in an increased risk of relapse. This leads to general frustration. Re-feeds might be the trick to solve this.

Did you assume re-feed days and cheat days were one and the same? Wrong. There are clear differences between these two terms. Re-feed days can rather be understood as a day to replenish the reserves. This has nothing to do with eating more than whats actually healthy.

This attitude has a significant impact on fat Loss. In the course of fat burning, the Organism consumes Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins. On a re-feed day, you get the opportunity to replenish the body, and reach a more balanced hormonal state.

What are the Goals of Refeed Days?

Based on science, a short increase in calories results in a more intensive release of Leptin. This is a hormone that is responsible for regulating energy Intake and feeling full and satiated. If body fat levels drop, the amount of Leptin is also reduced.

Actually, this creates hunger. The desire to eat more and the feeling that you just don't get full up anymore, comes from this. So with a refeed day, the goal of staying on the ball and maintaining motivation for the diet gets easier. Your hormones relax more the coming days and you'll be able to think clearer.

How many Carbohydrates can you eat on Refeed Day?

This is different for everyone, but here we will use "John" as an example:

John's TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = 2500 calories

John's current calorie intake (cutting) = 1995 calories (500 calorie deficit)

John's current macronutrient split = 170g protein, 160g carbohydrates and 75g fat which = 1995 calories

Now this is what John's re-feed day would look like:

Protein = 170g

Carbohydrates = 365g

Fat = 75g

Total calories = 2815 (which is 315 calories over John's TDEE, putting him into a slight calorie surplus for this day)

Now I usually recommend that you leave protein and fat intake the same as what they are throughout the diet, but you can drop protein and also drop fat down somewhat to consume more calories from carbohydrates if you wish. However, this is not needed and I don't usually do this myself unless I am doing an "aggressive re-feed" which comes in much later on down the track.

Another point I would also like to mention is the leaner you are, the more "aggressive" your re-feed day should be. A 300 calories surplus is what I advise in most cases for most people, but when super lean (close to stepping on stage) fat loss becomes harder and harder and your T3 and leptin levels may end up very low. In this case you may have to increase your carbs a lot more than 100%, sometimes putting you into a 600-800 calorie surplus for that day.

But you should not let yourself go too much overboard, so that you never go more than double in calories for that dat. For example, If you have taken 1800 kcal a day as part of the diet, it should not be more than 3600 kcal on the re-feed day. 

How often should you take a Refeed Day?

In principle, refeed days are determined by your level of body fat. 

Here are some guide lines we go by when it comes to implementing a re-feed day. 

- If you are above 20% body fat: Re-feed one every month.

- If you are between 15% and 20% body fat: Re-feed once every 2 weeks.

- If you are between 8% and %15 body fat: Re-feed once every week.

- If you are below 8% body fat - Re-feed twice per week.

The leaner you are the lower your T3 and leptin levels will be so the more frequent you should include re-feed days into your diet.

Difference Refeed Day and Cheat Day

In direct contrast, cheat day refers to a day when it's allowed to cheat and eat whatever you fancy. Here, it makes a difference how often these days are put in and to what effect. In contrast to the scientific evidence of the Refeed Days and the associated replenishment of the Leptin Mirror, cheating depends can have benefits for the mental state.

Also, since cheat days are days in which no food is tracked, and foods outside of the normal routine are consumed. A caloric surplus is assumed and expected, regardless of whether or not a person is trying to lose or gain weight.

In contrast, on a re-feed day, we track the calories and macronutrients. We want the best effect from the day as we can possibly get, so we aim to keep the calories coming mainly from cabohydrates, unlike in a cheat day where typically the "cheat" foods consist of high amounts of both fats and carbohydrates. The spike in fat on a cheat day can easily lead to a high spike in calories, although the observed food might not look as much as it turns out to be in total calories.

Reefed Day: This Is how it goes

The carbohydrates are able to increase the Leptin over the next 24-48 Hours. This means that for the next couple of days, you will have more energy during the day, you will feel better, and you will perform better. This higher performance will turn to better workouts and clearer minds. The result of that is higher energy expenditure for the coming days.

In turn, this means, by increasing the calories one day, we burn more the next days. 

One step backwords, two steps foreward. 

What can I eat on a re-feed day?

Any carbs of your choice are fine, as long as they are not fructose because fructose is digested in the liver and will not give the same effect. Both low G.I complex or high G.I simple carbohydrates are absolutely acceptable in your diet. Fructose (fruits) has less of an impact on leptin, but fructose is not all bad, just don't overdo the fructose.

Some good choises:

- Rice

- Oats

- Low fat ice-cream

- Potatoes

- Cereals

- Pancakes

- Candy

- Pasta

- Popcorn (not movie popcorn with loads of fat)

OR ANYTHING THAT IS HIGH IN CARBOHYDRATES!

Weight loss is not only about creating caloric deficiency always, as the weight you lose every week may not be the same. 

You may reach a point when you will notice hardly any weight loss for week/weeks followed by sudden loss, which is more than you expectations (>1.5kg). This kind of loss is also known as whoosh effect.

​

The main reason behind this erratic and unpredictable loss is water retention. When you lose fat, body releases water and fat loss will be visible only when excess water is flushed out of the body.

Prolonged caloric deficiency may cause water retention. It triggers cortisol secretion (stress hormone), which has few unwanted effects in the body including water retention. It's produced by the adrenals in response to stress and low blood sugar levels.

Almost every cell has receptors for cortisol so its effects are myriad and include influencing blood sugar and fluid retention levels, the metabolism of food, the central nervous system, and more.

Lot of work out, lack of sleep, electrolyte imbalance, low protein diet can also be the reasons behind increased cortisol secretion. 

It's advisable to take a meal break in-between if you are on very low caloric diet. Try to eat potassium rich and low sodium meals. Get time to relax, sleep and drink adequate water.

What researchers discovered is they were seeing the effects of dramatic increases and decreases in water retention. In the world of bodybuilding, this is known as the “whoosh effect.”

​So what can cause the stess hormone to be released? Here are some common reasons.

1. Doing large amounts of exercise. And particularly large amounts of cardio, which can chronically elevate cortisol levels.
2. Not losing weight over the last several weeks. Despite the large calorie deficit and strenuous exercise routine. (And this is because, like the subjects of the Minnesota Experiment, they were losing fat but it was obscured by increased water retention.)
3. Not paying attention to sodium and potassium intake. When they started logging it they realized that potassium intake was generally low and sodium intake was all over the place.
4. Not drinking enough water. You can get a fair amount of water through the food you eat but not enough.

How to get rid of the water weight:

1. Do a refeed day. Read more above.

2. Catch up on sleep. 

High-quality sleep is getting scarcer and scarcer these days thanks to ever-increasing obesity rates, work hours, TV watching, video game playing, and other distractions that keep us up at night.

Well, when your body is asleep, it might look inactive, but that’s far from the case.

It’s very busy repairing tissue and producing hormones—functions that are especially important if you’re subjecting your body to increased lev­els of stress every day through dieting and exercising.

Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, you don’t get as much sleep as you should.

I’m not going to point fingers here–I’m often just as guilty as the rest of us–but if you’re dealing with cortisol issues, it’s time to spend more time with Morpheus.

3. Cut back on the workouts.

Do a deload week in the gym. Taking a short break from heavy lifting can be surprisingly restorative.
Do no cardio for the week. No, this isn’t going to make you fat.
 

Intense exercise puts a lot of stress on the body and it needs time to recover...

This isn’t just muscular stress, either. The nervous system is also heavily involved and, if you try to demand too much of it, eventually it just can’t keep up.

So, here’s the long story short:

If you’re in a calorie deficit and you’re doing more than 4 to 6 hours of weightlifting and 1 to 2 hours of moderate-to-high-intensity cardio per week - cut back.

And if you’re doing that and also dealing with issues like water retention and general fatigue, I can basically guarantee that you’re going too hard for too long.

To sum up:

Chill out, relax a little, cut back in the gym, sleep more, dink more water and have a re-feed.

“That which gets measured gets improved.”

Today, I’m going to convince you that the MOST important thing you can do for your health and fitness involves a pencil and paper:

Write everything down!

How to track ACCURATLY :

1. First thing in the morning at the same time.

2. Right after you take a leak, but try not to go #2 (you may do this if you go #2 every day in the morning..).

3. At the end of the week, sum up all the numbers and divide by number of days tracked (best is 7, but least is 3).

For instance, let's say we want to track Bobs weight. 

Here is Bobs weights across 7 days, 7 am, after a leak.

MO: 82 kg

TU: 82.1 Kg

WE: 81.2 Kg

TH: 81 Kg

FR: 81.3 Kg

SA: 80.3

SU: 81

Bobs weight this week was: 568.9 / 7(days) = 81,3 Kg.

Next week, if Bob weighs in at 79.8, we know Bob lost 0.5 Kg that week. 

Here is the best ways to track yourself OTHER than a scale

Take a before picture – My favorite method.  Stand in front of a mirror with your and take a picture.  Then turn to the side and take another picture of your profile view. You might not like what you see. You might not want to look at it again, and you probably won’t want to show it to anybody.  THAT’S FINE.  

This picture holds you accountable and you can always look back and see the progress.

Take a round of pictures every week at the same time to see progress week by week! This is what i recommend all my clients that I work with in the gym as well.

Just take the picture, hide it in a folder on your computer, and add to it once a week. You live with yourself (duh), so it’s tough to notice changes on a day-to-day basis.  However, if you have two months of week-to-week photos to look back on, you’ll be able to tell if your body is transitioning in the right way.

How do you know if you are stronger in the gym? 

Do you know exactly what you’re going to do and how long it should take you?  Or are you one of those that keep coming back to the same weights, lift the same repetitions and go throught the same motions week after week? In order to succeed on any journey, one needs to know where one should go from and where one wants to go - otherwise you end up lost. If you’re serious about getting in shape, you need to start tracking your workouts:

• If you did 3 sets of 10 push ups last week for a total of 30 push ups, you need to be able to do 31 total push ups this week to be stronger.
• If you did squats with 100 kg last week, this week you better be squatting 101 kg or more
• If you did 10 pull ups last week, you know you need to get to 11 this week if you want to be stronger.

Have a plan, know what kind of results you need to get in order to be better today than you were yesterday, and then GET THERE!  

“Appearance is a consequence of fitness.”

​If you are focusing on getting stronger and faster, taking a more active role in how you eat, and you are consistently tracking your progress to make sure you are heading in the right direction, you WILL get the results you’re after.

HERE ARE 6 WAYS TO PROGRESS:

1. Add reps to last set
2. Add reps to all sets
3. Add weight to all sets
4. Add sets
5. Add incremental weights to all sets (50/51.25/52.5)
6. Add drop sets

Here is how I recommend you track and progress

We want to use bench press as an example. This varies depending on your experience in the gym, and it gets harder to progress the stronger you get. It's fair to say we can go from 50 to 100 kg in bench press pretty fast, but going from 100 to 150 is another ballpark. 

Anyways, lets take benchpress at 50 kg as an example.

Week 1:

50 kg

10/10/10 

Week 2:

10/10/11

Week 3:

10/11/11

Week 4:

11/11/11

Week 5:

55 kg

10/10/9

Week 6:

10/10/10

So on and so on.... You get the point.

Also. We could add a set instead. 

So for week 5, let's say we do 11/11/11/11 instead of 55kg.

Or we add a dropset instead.

EXPERIMENT WITH IT!