Everything You Need to Know About Carb Refeeds (+ Carb Refeed Calculator)

What Is a Carb Refeed?

In short, a carb refeed is a short-term, strategic increase in carbohydrate intake designed to restore glycogen and rebalance hormones such as leptin and thyroid during a dieting phase.

What the Hell Is Glycogen?

Think of glycogen as a reserve energy pack your body carries around — ready to fuel you whenever you train or move at moderate to high intensity.

Here’s how it works:

• When you eat carbs (say late at night while Netflix and chill is in full swing), those carbs break down into glucose, which enters your bloodstream for immediate energy.
• But because you’re not doing much, your body cleverly converts that unused glucose into glycogen for storage.
• This glycogen is stored in your muscles (mainly) and liver (minor) — how much you can store depends on your muscle mass and training status (hence the calculator below built on your personal stats).
• Next morning, you eat breakfast and go train. Your body first burns the glucose circulating in your blood, then switches to glycogen — converting it back into glucose for energy.
• After training, your post-workout meal (ideally carb-heavy) replenishes those glycogen stores, ready for next time.

Your glycogen is constantly fluctuating — depleting during exercise, refilling when you eat.

Why Do You Need a Carb Refeed?

Here’s the problem: When you’re in a calorie deficit, you’re never fully refilling your glycogen stores.

Over time, this leads to:

• Tanked energy levels
• Poor training performance
• Skyrocketing hunger

That hunger spike happens because leptin (your “I’m full” hormone) drops, while ghrelin (your hunger hormone) rises — making you crave everything in sight.

This is where most people cave, go on a massive binge, and undo weeks of hard work. Sure, they replenish glycogen, but they also gain fat — because those binges combine carbs and high fat.

Your body can only convert carbohydrates into glycogen — not fat.

So when people binge on pizza, chocolate, and crisps, they’re loading unnecessary calories from fat while topping up glycogen — the worst combo.

A structured carb refeed, however, avoids this. You can eat thousands of calories over maintenance without gaining fat, provided those calories are almost entirely from carbs.

Here’s why:

If your daily burn is ~2,500 kcal and you eat an extra 2,000 kcal from carbs, your body first checks your glycogen stores.

• If they’re depleted, that glucose is converted into glycogen — not fat.
• If glycogen stores are already full, only then does it start converting carbs to fat.

That’s why a clean, structured refeed beats a fat-heavy binge every single time.

When Should You Refeed?

Now, this is where most people (and even some coaches) get it wrong. Weekly or bi-weekly refeeds make little sense in most cases.

If you’re constantly needing them, it means:

• Your calorie deficit is too deep,
• Your carbs are too low, or
• Your training output is too high.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to raise your overall weekly calories slightly so you perform better, recover faster, and don’t crash midweek? Exactly.

For years I’d see pro bodybuilders cutting on 2,300 kcal while I was struggling on 3,000. I thought they were just tougher than me. Nope — turns out, they were sneaking in bi-weekly refeeds and not counting them in their weekly average. In reality, we were eating roughly the same amount!

A refeed should be done sparingly — roughly every 9–14 days minimum, depending on your deficit and training load.

Those with very low carb intake will deplete faster and need refeeds sooner; those eating moderately can go longer. There’s no exact schedule — instead, you should learn to spot the signs.

Signs You Need a Carb Refeed

1. 🍕 1. Intense, Insatiable Hunger

   Not “I could eat a snack” hunger — we’re talking “order the Domino’s and raid the cupboards” hunger. When food starts occupying every thought, your body is screaming for glycogen.

2. ⚡ 2. Low Energy & Poor Training Performance

   When glycogen is low, workouts feel like hell. You’ll feel sluggish, moody, and unmotivated. If you used to train like a beast and now can barely push through — you’re likely depleted. And those who brag about training fasted? Their glycogen is already topped up — that’s why they can.

3. 💪 3. Flat, Deflated Muscles

   This is my biggest tell. When glycogen drops, your muscles hold less water (each gram of glycogen stores 3–4 g of water). You can store anywhere from 500–1,200 g of glycogen — so imagine being 2.5 litres of water down. That’s why you look “flat” in the mirror.

Once you’ve done a few refeeds and tracked your body’s responses, you’ll learn exactly when you’re due for one.

How to Structure a Carb Refeed

1. 💧 1. Water First

   If you know you can hold an extra 1.5–2.5 litres of water during a refeed, make sure to drink more than usual — otherwise you’ll feel drained and thirsty fast.

2. 🥣 2. Plan Ahead

   The last thing you want is a chaotic, untracked refeed. If you’re aiming for 3,000–7,000 kcal (yes, that’s normal), fat can creep in fast. So pre-plan your meals, log them in the Team RH app, and get your shopping done in advance.

3. 🍭 3. Start with High-GI Foods

   Kick off your refeed with fast-digesting, sugary carbs — cereals, white rice, fruit juice, honey, jam, crumpets, etc. These spike blood glucose and insulin, helping replenish glycogen quickly and making you feel human again.

   After that, move onto complex carbs like oats, pasta, potatoes, or rice to sustain glycogen refill through the rest of the day.

4. 🏃♂️ 4. Endurance Athletes — Take Note

   If you’re refeeding for a long event, test it beforehand. Sudden fibre or sugar increases can cause digestive issues — either constipation or the opposite (💩). Stick to foods your body knows well and practise your hydration strategy.

   If consuming all your carbs in one day feels impossible, you can spread it over 48 hours — but remember it takes around 18–24 hours to fully refill glycogen.

5. 🧈 5. Keep Fat Low

   High-fat foods slow digestion and interfere with glycogen uptake. Avoid nuts, cheese, fried food, creamy sauces, or high-fat cereals.

   Example:

   • ✅ Crumpet with jam = perfect.
   • ❌ Jordans Country Crisp = 11g fat per 100g — that adds up fast.

⚠️ About the Calculator

This calculator will be within a 95% accuracy of what you need, if it's off were talking a couple of grams of carbs. Remember if you're doing an endurance refeed you will need a normal refeed after your endurance event as you will be completely depleted.