Calorie Shifting Diet

A calorie shifting diet is one of the latest (but maybe not the greatest) ways to lose weight fast. 

The idea behind this type of diet is to keep your metabolism guessing by shifting calories with each meal or day. 

This is not a low calorie diet that will put you at risk of slowing down your metabolism but rather has a healthy calorie intake level for the week. 

This plan boasts that you can lose 9 pounds every 11 days.

Although these results are highly unlikely for the common person, this method may allow you to lose weight faster than other weight loss plans.

To learn more about this diet and if it's right for you, keep reading.

How Calore Shifting Diets Work

In simple terms, calorie shifting diets shift your calories with each meal or with each day. 

This diet method is also referred to as a zig zag diet. 

When shifting calories by the day you would take your total daily calorie intake for weight loss and divide it into 4 meals per day. 

Each day you would eat different types of foods at different times of the day. 

For instance, if you have a high fiber low protein breakfast one day, the next day you might shift it to a high protein, low fat breakfast. 

Another example would be if you have 400 calories for lunch one day the next it might only be 200 calories or 600 calories.

So in essence, you are shifting your daily calories and nutrients across the different meals each day. 

If you select a weekly calorie shifting diet you would take your total weekly calorie intake for weight loss and mix these calories up each day. 

For instance, if your total weekly calorie intake is 11,200 calories, or 1,600 calories a day, you would change each daily calorie intake to come out to the total for the week. 

When you zig zag the calories in the week one day you would consume only 1,200 calories but the next you might consume 2,000 calories.

Why Calorie Shifting Diets Work

The most popular diet that promotes calorie shifting is the Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet.  As stated earlier, this particular diet claims you can lose 9 pounds in 11 days. 

Although this seems a bit far fetched, by using the Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet you can shift your calories and generally lose weight faster than traditional weight loss plans. 

Other diet plans include the QOD, or every other day diet, by John Daugirdas.  This diet shifts calories by the day and promotes altering between eating regular meals every other day with the opposite days of fasting.  On the fasting days you may only consume as low as 300 to 400 calories. 

This reduction on the fasting days seems a bit extreme and would be very difficult to function and sustain this type of dieting.

Another diet using the zig zag method is the Johnson Diet. 

This also uses calorie shifting per day by eating what ever you want one day and the next reducing calories by 20% to 35% from the day before.

If you are looking to try calorie shifting, be sure to know your calorie intake needs for the day and/or week using this calculator. 

Although you may lose weight faster, be sure you don’t put your health at risk by reducing calories too low for any given day. 

Your best bet would be to start with a daily shifting of calories versus an every other day of shifting.


Additional Articles

Calories Definition
Learn more about what a calorie is by reading this article.

Calories from Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates
Each of these macronutrients is what makes up a calorie. Check out this article to see exactly how fat, protein and carbs effect the total calories so you can make healthier food selections.

Low Carb Diet Benefits
Thinking about trying a low carb diet? Be sure to read this article to see all the benefits from this type of weight loss plan.