The Shifting Calories Theory Review
It's a well known fact that when you consume less calories and begin to lose weight, your metabolism naturally adjusts lower to conserve energy. However, the only way to lose weight is to create a caloric deficit, and this can be achieved through a combination of diet and exercise. It's a simple concept - if you consume more calories than you burn you're not going to lose weight.
So exactly how much of a calorie deficit should you follow to lose weight and burn fat? In a weight loss article by natural bodybuilder and writer Tom Venuto, he stated that there are several levels of caloric deficits when attempting to lose weight:
15-20% below maintenance calories = conservative deficit
20-25% below maintenance calories = moderate deficit
25-30% below maintenance calories = aggressive deficit
31-40% below maintenance calories = very aggressive deficit (risky)
50%+ below maintenance calories = semi starvation/starvation (potentially dangerous and unhealthy)
The above can give you a good guideline on the level of calorie deficit for weight loss. Regardless of your level of calorie deficit, your metabolism will adjust to the new levels you've set for yourself, and you will find weight loss to become increasingly difficult - even if you constantly increased your caloric deficit, and it is not wise to go 50%+ calorie deficit, as this is starvation and can have potentially dangerous effects to your health.
Why Diets Fail and How Calorie Shifting Plan for Weight Loss Fits In
To get rid of body fat, you need to tap into long term stores of energy - body fat, and the only way to do this is with a calorie deficit. The key reason why many diets fail, or begin to fail after some initial progress is because of your body's natural tendency to maintain homeostasis. "Human homeostasis refers to the body's ability to regulate physiologically its inner environment to ensure its stability in response to fluctuations in the outside environment". [1] As you reduce your calorie intake, and begin to lose weight, to maintain homeostasis, your body naturally adjusts its metabolism downwards to match your new level of calorie consumption, making it more difficult to lose weight.
When you lose weight, body fat is not the only thing that is lost. Other sources of energy such as carbohydrates and proteins are also burned as energy during your weight loss. During this process, you can also end up losing some lean muscle mass as well, which is the least desirable effect of a weight loss program. Unlike body fat, your muscles expend energy, thus help you burn off calories. As you lose muscles, your metabolic rate also decreases making weight loss more difficult. Conversely, if you gain some lean muscle mass, you will naturally burn more calories, which is why maintaining muscle mass is one of the most important aspects of a successful weight loss program. You could say that the more muscle you carry, the more calories you burn, and the easier it is for you to burn off fat and lose weight. This is why weight training is almost an essential part of a good weight loss program to help you preserve muscle mass.
Your body doesn't like change. It prefers to keep everything consistent and predictable. As you reduce you calorie intake, you body will catch on quickly that it is consuming reduced amounts of calories, and as a survival response, it will lower its metabolism to accommodate for the reduced calorie intake.
The theory behind calorie shifting is that if you constantly change your calorie intake from day to day, you can "trick" your body and confuse it, so that it does not lower its metabolism. By alternating days with high and low calorie intake, while still creating an overall calorie deficit, the idea of shifting calories is that this prevents your body from lowering metabolism, and keeps your weight loss on-going.
>> Click here to learn more about the Fat Loss for Idiots Diet and be on your way to successful weight loss.
|
BB4U Recommends: Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat |
| To truly succeed at losing body fat and most important of all, keeping that fat off, you need a plan - a program to help you succeed. If you're looking for an effective fat loss program, look no further. With Tom's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program, and you could achieve the results you desire. BB4U highly recommendsTom Venuto's "Burn the Fat" program. Just take a look at Tom's photo above. Tom's straight forward approach to burning fat and building muscle will help you build muscle, lose fat, and keep the fat off. |
|
|
Calorie Shifting Plan for Weight Loss
Calorie shifting is simply just a theory - it's not a diet, and there's no clinical evidence to support its effectiveness. However, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that calorie shifting works for weight loss, and a popular diet program based on the calorie shifting plan (Fat Loss for Idiots), has had many users who have reported successful weight loss results.
How exactly does calorie shifting work?
First of all you need to know how much calories you need on a daily basis. Depending on your goals, below a general rule of thumb for figuring out your calorie needs:
- For fat loss - Your body weight x 11 to 13 = the range of your calorie intake
- For maintenance – Your body weight x 13 to 15 = the range of your calorie intake
- For weight gain – Your body weight x 16 to 18 = the range of your calorie intake.
So if you weigh 150 pounds, for maintenance, you need:
150 x 13 = 1950 calories
150 x 14 = 2100 calories
150 x 15 = 2250 calories
Using the mid range (14 multiplier), your maintenance calories per day is 2100, and on a weekly basis, this is 14,700 calories. If your goal is to lose one pound per week, you would set a goal to have a calorie deficit of 3,500 (a 23.8% calorie deficit) per week, meaning that you would aim to consume:
14,700 - 3,500 = 11,200 calories per week.
Divide this by seven days, and you get 1600 calories per day. If you were to consume 1600 calorie per day on a consistent basis, you body will quickly pickup on this, and lower its metabolism to match the reduced calorie intake. However, if you were to constantly change your daily calorie intake, you can still maintain a calorie deficit on a weekly basis. Instead of spreading this 11,200 calories evenly over the seven days, you can have high calorie days mixed in with low calories days while still aiming to consume 11,200 calories over the entire week, which still creates a calorie deficit to help with weight loss. With calorie shifting, you can consume calories on a daily basis like this:
- Monday - 1515
- Tuesday - 1925
- Wednesday - 1425
- Thursday - 1470
- Friday - 1900
- Saturday - 1465
- Sunday - 1500
- Total - 11,200
With this calorie shifting plan, you consume the same amount of 11,200 calories per week creating a deficit of 3,500 calories. The major difference here is that there are days where you consume low calories, and there are days where you consume higher amount of calories.
If you've had limited success in the past with weight loss, consider trying the calorie shifting diet plan. You may find it helpful with your weight loss efforts. If you plan on following the calorie shifting theory to help with your weight loss, make sure to have a full understanding and grasp of this diet. To help make your diet and weight loss a lasting success, take a look at the Fat Loss for Idiots diet plan. The main concept of the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet is based on the Calorie Shifting theory. This diet plan is an easy to read and follow weight loss plan that can help you succeed at getting rid of the unwanted fat. To learn more about how the Fat Loss for Idiots diet can help you lose weight, click the link below:
>> Click here to learn more about the Fat Loss for Idiots Diet and be on your way to successful weight loss. |