Diet Plateau Avoided By Calorie Shifting

Most people associate the word calorie with something "awful", as it is common knowledge that eating excess calories leads to excess fat. Hence, the conclusion is that cutting way back on calories each day is the fastest way to lose weight. This means, when a person who usually eats 2,500 calories per day decides to cut back to 1,500 calories per day, the saved 1,000 calories are consumed by the body fat reserves resulting in a weight loss.

This calculation is quite easy to understand but unfortunately it doesn't really work like this.

Experience shows that cutting calories too drastically, for instance by skipping meals or starving yourself, the body gets used to the calorie reduction and you quickly experience what is called a "diet plateau". After an initial steady weight loss, suddenly the scale refuses to drop any lower - no matter how little you are eating.

During the first weeks of the diet, the body's response to the reduced calorie intake is very encouraging. Calorie intake is low, whereas the body metabolism is high. During this time, the body is subject to new changes in terms of food intake. The result is an instant, steady weight reduction, even though most of this reduction is due to the loss of water. Then suddenly, the body is switching to the "survival mode", slowing down the metabolism for getting used to the calorie reduction. This is the point when Diet Plateau sets in. The body is "tuned" to the new conditions and has settled down to adjust by burning fewer calories. The diet program and the exercise regime don't produce the expected results any more and it is getting harder and harder to lose more weight. This is a very dangerous point as most of the people give up and slipping back to where they started.

How to avoid a Diet Plateau?

Many of the popular diets and dietary supplements on the market help people lose a lot of weight quickly but what they are losing is basically water and almost no fat. Apart from the explained metabolic change, this is one of the reasons for running into a Diet Plateau. Another problem of these diets is the "rebound" effect. Most of the weight that was lost initially-—and sometimes even more-—is gained back as rapidly as it disappeared.

But there is good news. You can avoid and overcome a diet plateau. A proven way is to trick your body into thinking that you need more energy to stay alive while eating less. The result is that you body will burn more calories than you consume. But as your body is designed as a smart "survival machine" and easily can get used to new environmental conditions, it will automatically adjust itself to burn less calories for your daily activities. The trick is to use a unique eating system called Calorie Shifting Diet to confuse your body in a healthy way.

As the Calorie Shifting idea is unusual and goes against many dieting rules and standards, it has been dismissed by many people being a scam. But the most important behind all this: it works and anyone who tries this diet quickly finds out how shocking the weight loss effect is. It's just something you have to try to believe.

Here are the basic rules of the Calorie Shifting Diet:

• Stop eating once you are satisfied – do not eat until you are too full
• Eat exactly 4 meals a day, leaving a gap of 2.5 to 3 hours between each meal
• You have a choice to eat any of the 4 meals in any order throughout the day.
• Eat only the foods prescribed to you according the calorie shifting meal plan
• Eat each day different food, from meats to fruits and vegetables.
• Change the calorie uptake each day randomly in order to avoid that the metabolism gets used to the diet.
• Take a 3-day break from the diet on days 12 through 14 of your diet, before you may resume the diet again. This is important to give your body a chance to rest from the rapid weight loss that you will be experiencing.
• Stick to the calorie shifting plan – be honest to yourself

Your body will receive different calories each day. One day you will consume 1500 calories and the next could be 1100 calories, derived from different types of food. This way your body does not establish any eating habit, it keeps burning calories and maintains high rate of metabolism even when you are eating less. The result is a faster weight loss, avoiding the feared Diet Plateau and the Rebound effects.