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Calorie Shifting Diet Programs

While traditional dieting methods involving a static intake of daily calories are effective in the short-term, eventually your body will "catch on" to the plan, down regulating metabolism and putting the brakes on your weight loss efforts. The solution to this dieting quandary is adherence to a calorie shifting plan.

  1. Dieting and Metabolism

    • Although many people conceive of metabolism as a static process, this is not the case. Your metabolism can be increased or decreased depending on many different variables, with one of these variables being the number of calories you consume during the day. Where caloric intake is higher than metabolic level, metabolism speeds up. Conversely, where caloric intake is lower than metabolic level (as on a diet), metabolism slows down.

    Calorie Shifting and Diet

    • Calorie shifting merely refers to the process of constantly fluctuating your daily caloric intake so that your metabolism never adjusts to the lower caloric level of your diet. This is done by including one or two days per week of higher than average caloric intake. These higher caloric days confuse the body into believing that metabolic slowdown is not necessary.

    Calorie Shifting Example

    • Although your caloric needs will probably differ, a basic caloric shifting diet would look like this: on Sunday and Monday, consume your "normal" dieting intake of 1,800 calories per day. On Tuesday, boost that amount to 2,300, effectuating a metabolic increase and preventing your body from adjusting to the diet. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will return you to your 1,800 calorie diet. On Saturday, boost intake again to 2,300 calories to jump start the process all over again.

    Benefits

    • The main benefit to a caloric shifting diet is that you will be able to lose weight at a steady pace for a longer period before your body finally "catches on" to what you are planning. Although weight loss will be slightly slowly than a traditional diet (as you have multiple higher calorie days during the week), that loss in speed will be made up across the longer effective duration of the calorie shifting diet.

    Drawbacks

    • The primary drawback to the calorie shifting diet is that it requires a high level of micromanagement. While on a normal diet you can get yourself set into a routine of daily eating--that same routine will not really work for a calorie shifting diet, as you must constantly concern yourself with whether today is a high or low calorie day, deciding on the proper food intake to effectuate the plan. However, if you are willing to put up with the excessive attention to detail, a calorie shifting diet can certainly take you towards your ideal physique.

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