Team Gorman Refeeds - The When/Why/How Part 1

Team Gorman Refeeds, The When/Why/How Part 1

by John Gorman

John is the owner of Team Gorman and sponsored NRGX representative

We have changed a lot of things in the last 5 years on how we approach carding up with our clients.  Way back in the day, in 2007 we used the Bodyopus carb up of 2-3 days, then moved to a Lyle Mcdonal approach that's similar as well basically eating ever 2 hours a certain amount of carbs based on depletion and lean body mass.  It was/is more work than most people will do, so that was abandoned and better ways were sought out.  We have used the 1 cheat meal a week method, but that doesnt generally satisfy a client or restore enough carbs unless the cheat meal is rather big, which if not set up right can have a negative side as well (which I get to later).

Back in 2009 we were having clients count carbs and load up with a certain amount of carbs every hour on the hour once a week.  It worked well, but it was too hard to figure out exactly what amount they needed each week as it would seem to always change.  Later we moved to refeed “meals” and had clients eat a certain amount of meals, starting post-workout so they would soak up the carbs like a sponge.  The thing was it would have a 2 step forward, 1 step back result with a lot of clients that seemed to eat themselves too full. 

We use other methods of carbing up that are outside the norm- such as doing a Sh$%load (basically junk food that isnt fat restricted, things like donuts, candy bars, or eating out places, pizza, etc etc).  In my experience that has decent affect as well, but the weight seemed to stick to clients much longer than a regular carb up so only for extreme ectomorphs/hardgainers do I use that protocol.

In 2010 we moved on to more of an hour gauge process- eat till comfortable full for a certain amount of hours, dont count carbs, but do it PWO. This process (minus starting post-workout) of eating carbs and not counting them but listening to your body was made famous by Skip Hill with his skiploading technique. It's seems pretty simple on the surface  and he outlines it on his Team Skip DVD Longevity (which is free by the way, located here:http://www.teamskip.net/longevitydvd/ ) basically you just eat till you are comfortable full and when you are ready to eat again you eat all high gi carbs the entire process. I have tried having clients eating a version of this way post-workout and it's worked well as long as it was post workout for us, and for shorter periods of time such as 1-3 hours. I had clients taking slintrol or ALA to help shuttle carbs into the cell, and would also have clients load up on creatine and/or alternate glutamine if it applied as well. The prob I found with this scenario is that I would have to lower carbs and fats down to VERY low levels through the week to diet some people down, my clients would be dragging rear end and really suffering, and for those clients that dont compete, this just wasnt working as well for them and the high gi carbs for hours on end just wasnt a good fit for us. Add to the fact that it's somewhat similar to what Skip does (the loading of high gi-carbs for a certain amount of hours without counting them) and I decided we needed to find a better way for our clients and to not be mistaken for trying to do a “Skip” protocol with loading. People may wonder if we do a “Skipload” but we do not, that's Skip's baby and we do things different such as doing it after a workout, using GDA's, smaller time frames, etc etc. But it was enough it raised concern and Skip was here before us, so this year I decided we needed to move further away from that so no one was confused, plus I had another idea in mind. 

What I have found that works very well after trying a bunch of different ways to carb load over the years is what I have here:  to change the carb sources as you do the carb load/refeed.  For example, say you are starting with refeed meals once a week after training your weakest bodypart- start the refeed off with Refeed Meal 1:  high gi carbs that are lower in fat (usually less than 3-5 grams of fat) and eat until your body tells you that you are finished.  Eat things like kids cereal with skim milk, low fat poptarts, pancakes and syrup without added fats, white breads, etc etc things that digest VERY rapidly.  Yes you can even drink soda here as well.  Here you will want to take a glucose disposal agent/GDA with first bite of carbs such as NRGX Glycomaxx.

When you are starting to get hungry again (usually 1-2 hours later) move to Refeed Meal Number 2, but change the carbs to things that are not so fast acting, thinks like french toast with whole wheat bread, pasta, sushi, baked sweet or white potato fries, etc etc.  Use carbs that are going to digest at a decent rate but not cause a super high insulin spike like foods in meal 1 do.  At this meal you will also want to take a GDA with first bite of carbs as well.

I have been trying this with clients over the past 4 months and it's worked much better than any of the other methods I have used in the past.  The problem I was finding is that for people that are not at very low bodyfat levels, they couldnt handle the larger insulin spikes that a longer refeed would give them since when they are not super lean the fat cell attracts insulin like a magnet if not careful and even GDA's can help push carbs into the fat cell at times.  This process gives a nice big insulin spike postworkout when insulin sensitivity is set up to handle it, but as the muscle cell fills up insulin sensitivity changes- and if not careful more big spikes in insulin fill the fat cell and it becomes a 2 step forward 1 step back approach. 

There will come a time though when bodyfat gets lower and you'll want to increase your meals.  As bodyfat gets lower, add another high gi meal to your refeeds, so it could look like this:

• Workout
• Refeed meal 1: high gi low fat
• Refeed meal 2:  same as meal 1
• Refeed meal 3:  Medium/Lower gi carbs than meal 1

At the end of the day it takes some practice but it works wonders for my clients, esp the ones who are not ultra lean.  When a client gets to very low fat bodyfat levels, they will need longer periods of high gi carbs due to being lean changing your insulin sensitivity to handle more insulin, but for the majority of our regular clients just looking to get in shape and lose bodyfat, or even bodybuilders/figure gals who are starting the transition from offseason to contest prep this method works the best for us.

One last thing to note that is VERY important- if you refeed earlier or mid day, and you still have time left that you are awake and will need to eat regular meals of your meal plan, EAT ONLY THE PROTEIN IN YOUR MEALS LEAVE OUT THE CARBS AND/OR FATS. Why, it's my theory and experience that says when you are carb loaded you have plenty of energy, and eating MORE carbs or fats which are a fuel source, will quickly store as fat. Fat will especially store rapidly because it's 9 calories per gram. So, if you have the refeed there is not need for more energy sources later on that day from carbs or fats, the risk of storing them is too high. 

To sum it all up, try this:

• Refeed once a week
• Start carbing up Postworkout after your weakest bodypart is trained
• Refeed Meal 1:  Use High Gi carbs such as pancakes and syrup, poptarts, kids cereal, white bread, etc etc.  Take one GDA with first bite of carbs such as NRGX Glycomaxx.
• Refeed Meal 2:  Use Medium and even lower gi carbs that digest at a decent rate such as French toast with whole wheat bread, pasta, sushi, baked sweet or white potato fries, etc etc.  Use 1 GDA with first bite of carbs here as well.

In part 2, I will go over the refeed for offseason purposes, bringing up weak bodyparts and doing twice-a-week refeeds, and the workings and different ways to use GDA's such as NRGX Glycomaxx along with a refeed to get the best super saturation possible without spilling into the fat cell as easily.

To learn more about Team Gorman's popular approach to muscle gain and fat loss and how to apply Glyco MaXX to your plan, visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/teamgorman