A refeed day is a planned, short-term increase in calories, mostly from carbs, taken in the middle of a fat-loss phase. Used well, it sharpens performance, restores hormones, and breaks up the psychological grind of dieting. Used badly, it's just a cheat day with a fancier name.
What a refeed actually does
Sustained calorie deficits reduce leptin (the satiety hormone), shift thyroid output, and tank training quality. A 12-48 hour bump in calories, particularly carbs, which replenish muscle glycogen and spike leptin acutely, reverses some of that. Done weekly or bi-weekly, refeeds can make a long cut tolerable.
Who benefits most
- Lean people on long cuts (sub-15% body fat for men, sub-22% for women).
- People training hard 4+ times a week in a sustained deficit.
- Anyone whose dieting fatigue is starting to wreck adherence.
Beginners and people 4 weeks into a cut don't need them yet.
How to structure a refeed
- Calories: Eat at maintenance or slightly above (TDEE +0 to +200 kcal). Use the TDEE calculator.
- Carbs: Push to 4-6 g/kg of bodyweight. For a 75 kg lifter that's 300-450 g.
- Protein: Hold the line, same daily protein as on cut days.
- Fat: Drop fat low (40-60 g) to make room for the carbs.
- Timing: Schedule on the hardest training day of the week.
Refeed vs cheat day vs diet break
A refeed is structured and macro-controlled. A cheat day is a free-for-all that often blows the deficit for the entire week. A diet break is 7-14 consecutive days at maintenance, used every 8-12 weeks. All three can work, refeeds are the most surgical.
What to expect after a refeed
Scale weight will jump 2-4 lb the next morning. That is water and glycogen, not fat. It'll come back off across the next 3-5 days. Don't panic, don't compensate with an extra-aggressive deficit afterward.
Sample refeed day
For a 75 kg lifter cutting at 1,900 kcal: refeed at 2,650 kcal with 160 g protein, 50 g fat, 380 g carbs. That's oats and fruit at breakfast, rice and chicken at lunch, sushi and edamame at dinner, and a bowl of cereal with milk before bed. Train your hardest session in between.
Use the macro calculator to switch between cut and refeed numbers in seconds.