What is a Calorie Shifting Diet?

Calorie shifting is a weight loss method embraced by several diet plans available today. These diets suggest people are able to lose weight on other diets, by reducing carbohydrates or calorie intake, but then quickly gain the weight back because their metabolism adjusts to the lowered calorie intake, and slows down accordingly.

Here is how calorie shifting works; because you are supplied with a menu of healthy, balanced meals, to be eaten at specific hours of the day, your metabolism never gets used to any eating routine.

This is important because it was discovered diets requiring you to omit certain foods (low carb, low fat, and low calorie diets) cause your metabolism to slow down. So you may lose weight with these diets in the beginning, but you’ll find it becomes harder and harder to lose more. And with time it is also difficult to maintain what you’ve already lost, because your metabolism has slowed. Calorie shifting insures this won’t happen to you.

And it’s not just calories you shift. You also alternate types of food — in both their amounts and content. This method keeps your metabolism revved up. The result is that you lose weight steadily. Your body doesn’t go into starvation mode, which means it not going to start storing fats. You’ll continue to lose weight, just as you should when you reduce your caloric intake.

At its most basic, calorie shifting is used to fool the dieter’s metabolism into believing food is plentiful. This is accomplished by rotating both food types and amounts. You eat specific foods at certain times of day, and then rotate those food choices so that the metabolism doesn’t adjust to a specific diet routine. Neither you or your metabolism get bored on this diet.

The authors of this type diet point out this is a crucial point in not gaining weight back lost weight when dieters go off the diet. Keeping your metabolism guessing at how much fuel or energy will be available at any given time keep it running efficiently all through the dieting period. So when you reach your desired weight and go off the diet, it will be at peak efficiency.

As a result, when they incorporate other foods back into their diet, it doesn’t flood an already slowed metabolism with an overload of calories, carbs, or fats that it can’t handle.

One of the great things about a calorie shifting diet is that it does not deprive the body of any important food group, like in low carb diets or low fat diets. You continue to eat normal foods in a normal way. Low carb and low fat diets do not prepare your body to cope for the long haul. Leaving you ill prepared when and if you reach your goal weight.

It is possible to lose quite a lot of weight in a short time while on this diet, but only if you are willing to put in commitment. Otherwise, aim for a loss of 1 to 2lb of weight each week as this is the optimal and healthiest amount.

Be warned though, there are some problems inherent with diets where you consume less than 1200 calories a day. When you take in 1000 or 900 calories a day, some people begin to feel faint, dizzy or nauseous, even if you take in higher amounts on other days. So be aware you should use some caution with this very effective and popular diet plan.

To sum it all up for you, calorie shifting works by ‘tricking’ your metabolism into believing that you’re not even dieting when in fact you are. Following a varying calorie intake from day to day will keep your body guessing. Your metabolism won’t slow because it expects a certain amount of fuel to be burned.

Instead the fluctuating calorie amounts will keep your metabolism running on high, burning that unwanted body fat while you enjoy a variety of food selections. Changing the kinds of food, the nutrients and the calories you eat every few days will keep your body guessing, ensuring a continuous and fast weight loss, and help to avoid the yo-yo affect when you’ve reached your weight loss goal and go off the diet.

If you’ve followed every diet plan known to man and are still looking for a way to lose weight, it may be that your diets are failing you. It’s time to give calorie shifting a try. What have you got to lose besides a lot of ugly weight?

About the Author – B.J. Gordey

Click the link to learn about the most famous calorie shifting diet, the Idiot Proof Diet. B.J. Gordey helps people find their perfect diet and gives healthy diet tips.