How to Calorie Shift...Is Calorie Shifting Good for the Body?

First of all, I am not a fan of calorie shifting....if you maintain an organic diet and eat like you should eat all the while then there is really no need to calorie shift or to make yourself have a calorie shift diet plan. But if you really want to know the ins and outs of how to calorie shift, then this article can be your guide.

All of that said, a calorie shifting diet is nothing more than tricking your body into believing that you aren't starving whenever you go on a crash diet.

Here is the non-scientific gist of it:

A friend of yours claims to be losing weight on one of those fad diets...could be anything....Could be the south beach diet or the zone diet or low carb diet...whatever....so you try it...
At first you are dropping weight like crazy and life is good. Then something weird happens. You stop dropping weight and this is despite the fact that you are eating less than your body requires on a daily basis...

In fact, rather than lose weight, you find your body is gaining weight instead...What has happened? To be real frank with you, thousands of years of evolution has happened to you...

Your body thinks you are starving so it shifts down into starvation mode. It starts to protect the precious calorie stores that it has. It remembers that once upon a time, if it just went on business as usual, that you would starve...because thousands of years ago there weren't weird lose weight diets..in fact, most of us starved on a daily basis...

And here is where calorie shifting comes into play. Basically, by rotating different foods into your diet, you can trick or fool your body into thinking that it is business as usual and you are fine. The body never shifts into starvation mode and your metabolism continues to run unchanged.

Calorie shifting is a great pick me up if you find that your diet is stagnating. This said, calorie shifting diet plans are designed for people who are already eating healthy diets. In other words, if you are a binger who goes on a starvation diet to drop a couple pounds, then a calorie shift is not going to do much for you.

If you intend on using a calorie shifting plan to help invigorate your diet, then this is how you would do it.....

Get a baseline of how many calories are in your diet first- You want to get your body in the habit of what to expect. For instance, if you are currently eating roughly 2,000 calories a day, you need to eat that amount (give or take) for at least a month. This will give you a baseline to work with....

Once you have established a baseline, trick your body by eating more calories than you would normally eat 2 times a week- For example, if you eat 2,000 calories a day, eat 300 or so more calories 2 days a week.

Now, reduce the amount of calories 2 days on the second week by 500 calories- This will give you a 1,000 calorie deficit for the week...

Week three, increase your caloric intake by 400 calories

Week four, decrease it by 600 calories...

The idea is to keep your body guessing as to what is going to happen next.

Another variation to calorie shifting is to have a cheat day once a week where you allow yourself to eat anything you want. This will not only help you break up the monotony of a strict diet but will also confuse your body by adding a bunch of calories a day....

...and yes, believe it or not, if you have a decent diet plan throughout the week, you should lose weight EVEN if you gorge yourself on your cheat day...