I’ve been reading some exercise and nutrition articles and I’ve seen this term mentioned but I can’t quite figure out what it entails. Eating more? Eating two meals in a row? Regurgitating the previous meal? It sounds so intriguiging…
I believe it refers to the process of turning around an eating disorder, getting the sufferer to start eating normally again.
It depends on the context. My first thought was as it relates to a cyclic ketogenic diet, where someone eats very low-carb six days a week and then high carb for the last day.
This is my understanding as well. During a “cutting phase” a bodybuilder or athlete’s diet will result in a net caloric deficiency when compared with their daily caloric expenditure. This will result in weight loss, but extended use will force the body into a “starvation mode” in which it will drop the metabolism and try to maintain body fat levels. Since the whole point of the diet is to maintain muscle and cut fat, a refeed day/meal will be incorporated as a way of telling the body, “Don’t worry, we’re not starving, keep dropping that fat.” One this day the diet will usually result in slight caloric excess. As ultrafilter stated, on a cyclic ketogenic diet (or Timed Ketogenic Diet), the refeed will typically be a high carb day.