Strenghts and Drawbacks of the Calorie Shifting Diet

During the past years, the Calorie Shifting Diet, originally developed as "Fat Loss 4 Idiots" Diet and now also promoted in an improved version as "Beyond Calories Weight Loss Diet", has been evolved as one of the most popular diet plans today. The diet advocates a theory called Shifting Calorie or Calorie Shifting. The idea behind this Calorie Shifting approach is to increase our metabolism rate by stimulating our bodies to burn additional fat through giving signals that the calorie level is low.

Based on personal experience and discussions with other users of this Beyond Calories Diet (see following publications at this blog), this is my oppinion on drawbacks and strengths of Calorie Shifting:

Drawbacks:

1. Without Commitment And Determination no Success
The Beyond Calories Diet claims to be the easiest solution for fast and sustainable weight loss but according to my experience, without commitment and determination you’ll never have the desired success. Even though, the diet is quite easy to implement and to follow, it’s up to you to comply with your diet plan or not. This diet is not just like a weight loss pill treatment where you throw in your drug and forget about the rest.

2. Claim of Losing 9lbs in 11 days is very difficult to achieve (if not impossible).
The diet claims that one will be able to lose as much as 9 lbs in 11 days. Many people might be attracted by this number whilst others will be alerted that it sounds dubiously.

The weight loss success depends basically on the consequent application of the diet plan, the reduction of daily calorie intake and also physical activities - sorry, but unfortunately this is true :-(

From my personal experience, I decided to reduce my daily calorie uptake by 500 calories (accumulating to 3500 cal less per week) to achieve an average of 1900 cal per day. For a convenient planning of my daily diet plan, I used the Online Menu Planner that came with the "Beyond Calories Diet" handbook. This diet was published originally (and I understand is patented) by a program called "Fat Loss 4 Idiots" (strange name, however...). With this "smooth" strategy and only reducing a relatively small calorie amount (I hate starving!), I was able to loose 8 pounds in the first month, 5 pounds in the second and again 6 pounds in the third one. The significant weight loss in the first week might be result of a dehyration of my body rather than a weight loss due to fat burning. The overall result of this exercise was a total weight reduction of 19 pounds in three months, for me a great success. I achieved this weight loss almost without starving or increasing my physical activities. I am sure that reducing more calories would have resulted in a faster weight loss. 

I talked to 5 friends and relatives also applying the Calorie Shifting diet plan more or less strictly. As a conclusion, the reported weight loss during one month was between 7 and 15 pounds, correlating basically with the average calorie reduction applied by every person. The general opinion of the Beyond Calories Diet was very positive and all of the interviewed persons wanted to continue with the diet. It is important to mention that most of the interviewed dieters felt better and healthier during the diet. Some started doing exercise which they did not do during many years. 

I personally feel that the claim of losing 9 lbs in 11 days is likely not an exaggeration but this drastic weight loss should be seen as an upper limit rather than the rule. I don´t think that this would be possible without starving, unfortunately. 

3. No Permanent Weight Loss if not Continued
I recognized that once I stopped following the Calorie Shifting diet and tried to enter in my previous “routine” again, my weight started to increase again. Therefore, even though this diet plan does work and all people who used it really lose weight, it is not more than a temporary solution if you don’t adjust your lifestyle after dropping the extra pounds. Anyway, after experiencing the diet and adopting to the new eating habits, you’ll recognize how easy it is to continue with this diet and you will do it almost automatically.

4. Other Potential Drawbacks

• There are no clinical studies presented on the official website
• The Calorie Shifting diet does not apply any appetite suppressants (which are not natural)
• There no formal fitness regimen addressed on the official website
• The diet requires that you change quite drastically your daily eating habits. Not everybody may be ready to manage this.

Strenghts :

1. Simple Diet Plan

Calorie Shifting is a simple and unique weight loss diet that is learned via the official website with low start-up and no follow-up costs. I purchased/tried several other diet programs but this one really is different from each and every other diet program I know. The diet book contains loads of information about weight loss techniques and reading the book you recognize how easy it is to follow this diet.

2. Healthy Diet Plan
Most of the people I talked to (and including myself) prefer a weight loss method that doesn’t use appetite suppressants or other expensive food supplements. As the Calorie Shifting diet does not exclude any food group, in contrast to other diets like the low carb, low fat, low cal etc., you don’t need to worry about unbalanced alimentation. This is probably the most healthy diet plan you’ll ever find.

3. Highly Effective Diet without Starving Yourself
Even though the claim of losing 9lbs in 11 days is rather difficult to achieve, experience shows people using this diet are losing weight very rapidly. It is in particular useful for people with a low metabolism who tried already other diet plans without success (including myself). With some more physical activities, it should be no problem to lose between 7 and 8 lbs in two weeks without too big effort and, most important – without starving yourself.

4. Avoiding the feared Weight Loss Plateau and Rebound Effect
Weight Loss Plateau is a stage when after initial weight loss you are not losing pounds any more, independent on the consumed calories. The Calorie Shifting Diet is a proven method to overcome this Weight Loss Plateau and to avoid the feared rebound of lost weight. 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 Weight Loss Plateau and the Rebound effects.

This is the main reason why this diet is that successful. It targets your metabolism rate as the root of most weight problems, instead of simply reducing the calorie intake.

5. Online Diet Generator
When purchasing the Beyond Calories diet handbook, you’ll get access to an online diet generator. I found this tool very helpful and used it a lot for defining my daily menus. The diet generator creates 11 days of basic meal plans based on your food preferences.

As a conclusion, for most people the strengths of the Calorie Shifting Diet by far outweigh the drawbacks. This is the reason why this healthy diet is considered as one of the best and most powerful weight loss methods currently available.

16 Simple (and Sexy) Ways to Lose 50 Pounds a Year

For many people, losing weight seems like an impossible task. "I don't have the willpower!" they say.


But it doesn't have to be that hard as this example from Leo Babuata shows who lost 50 pounds in a year following these 16 simple rules.

The basic rule of weight loss is that you take in fewer calories than you burn -- and if you want to turn a positive calorie balance into the calorie deficit you need to lose weight, just make some smart choices in what you eat and drink, and how you burn calories.

The second rule of weight loss is that if you take in 3,500 fewer calories than you burn, you'll (generally) lose a pound of fat. So if you can have a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day, you'll burn a pound of fat a week (7 times 500 is 3,500), which is about 50 pounds a year.

If you have been maintaining the same weight for a little while, you are taking in the same amount of calories as you're burning. So you just need to choose a few of the options below to lose 50 pounds in a year. However, if you've been gaining weight, you'll need to choose a few more of the options below to go into calorie deficit.

Remember that 50 pounds a year is only about 4 pounds a month, so you won't notice a huge drop in the first month. Be patient, stick with it, and you'll start to see weight loss in the following months.

Also remember that with any of the changes below, it's hardest for the first few days. After that, you get used to it, and it gets easier.

• Drink water. If you typically drink lots of juice or soda or alcohol, replacing these calorie-filled drinks with water will cut a few hundred calories a day.
• Exercise for 15-20 minutes. If you have a weight problem, chances are you also have a problem with regular exercise. That's probably because you tried to do too much. Just commit to 15 minutes a day. That's not hard at all. And don't do anything intense, especially for the first month. Take it easy -- do a few crunches, a few push ups, jog in place for a few minutes. If you do this every day, you'll burn 100-150 calories, depending on your size and metabolism. 
• Replace a fatty snack with veggies. Potato chips, fries, anything that's greasy -- those are laden with calories. Fat is the most calorie-filled food type there is. If you eat a snack like this every day, replace it with cut-up carrots, broccoli, celery, or a salad (with low-fat dressing, not anything fatty).
• Have sex daily. One of the best exercises there is. Of course, you'll need to do it beyond your usual three minutes. If you can get 15 minutes of sex in a day, you can burn 150 calories. You also might need to find a willing partner. The exercise in the item above might help with that. 
• Replace a sugary snack with fruits. If you eat Twinkies, Ding Dongs, donuts, candy bars, a carton of ice cream ... you know you need to cut those out. Try fruit instead. Berries are my favorite. 
• Eat a healthy breakfast. If you eat eggs and bacon, or something covered in syrup, or anything else sweet or fatty, replace it with something healthier. Steel-cut oatmeal with blueberries, ground flaxseed and almonds is a great choice that is delicious. Also try whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk or soy milk.
• Walk, and use the stairs. Park 5-7 minutes away from work, which adds up to about 10-15 minutes of walking a day, to and from work (in addition to the exercise mentioned above). Use the stairs instead of the elevator. That's about 100 calories total. 
• Use non-fat milk in your latte. If you use half-and-half in your latte, using non-fat milk will save you about 250 calories. 
• Skip butter. If you put butter on your toast, your roll, and your baked potato, you can save 200-300 calories a day if you skip the butter. 
• Plan snacks, don't snack randomly. Munching on little things here and there, throughout the day, can add up to hundreds of calories. Instead, plan on a midmorning and mid afternoon snack, and make at least one of them healthy. Don't snack in between snacks. 
• Go with red pasta sauce, not white. Marinara sauce instead of Alfredo will save you a couple hundred calories. Skip the meat too. 
• Eat baked chicken, not fried. Fried chicken contains a lot of fat absorbed from frying oil, as well as the fatty skin. Skip the skin, and bake the chicken. Herb it up good, with some pepper, and it tastes great. 
• Skip seconds, and eat slower. If you go back for an extra piece of meat and buttered bread, you're adding another few hundred calories. Instead, eat slowly, and you'll get full faster. Also, even if feel hungry after the first helping, wait for 20 minutes. Often, the feeling of hunger will go away. 
• Air-pop popcorn. Movie popcorn is full of oil and butter. Tons of fat. Instead, air-pop the popcorn. You can put salt on it, but not butter. 
• Go for pretzels, not peanuts. Nuts contain tons of calories. Instead, snack on mini-pretzels (not the soft kind), which can satisfy the salt craving without all of the fat. 
• Skip the muffin. Muffins are just cake, if you buy them at a coffee shop, donut shop, or grocery store. You can make your own muffins that don't contain all that fat and sugar, but instead, try eating the healthy breakfasts mentioned above.

--snip---
My tip: combine these steps with the calorie shifting method (explained in detail at this blog) and you'll get a very powerful and sustainable weight loss method.
--snip----

Article Source: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/08/easy-and-sexy-ways-to-lose-50-pounds.html

Calorie Shifting Plan - Maximized Weight Loss

The Calorie Shifting Plan – or simply called Calorie Shifting – ensures a faster and easier weight loss than any other diet plan I know of. You don’t have to go hungry, it doesn’t require calculations, and you don’t have to exercise rigorously. It works really great, but you have to be cautious not to take it too relaxed. The plan still has to be followed rigorously in order to be successful.

Nevertheless, I received emails from people asking for an even faster weight loss. For them, a weight loss of 9 pounds in 11 days is magnificent, but as they have a real problem with their extra pounds, more would be even better! This motivated me to write this article, including a few tips to take full advantage of the Calorie Shifting Plan.

So here are a few tips to improve weight loss using Calorie Shifting.

1. Set your goal rationally! Most of the people fail to achieve their target weight because they want something that even God will fail to confer. If you want to lose 15 pounds of weight in just 7 days, then I am sorry. No weight loss regimen has been discovered so far that will offer such an immense reduction of weight; unless, of course, you choose to operate out whole of your abdomen. Calorie shifting diet will give you 9 pound reduction in just 11 days.

2. Calorie Shifting works best when the diet is accompanied with an exercise program that avoids the reduction of muscle mass and favors the consumption of fat as energy resource. This exercise program preferably is a cardio exercise performed in the morning and even better before having breakfast. At that moment of the day the carbs stored from your last meal will be almost depleted and your body will be burning your fat instead.

3. Don't skip any of the 4 meals that you have to take daily. Moreover, you must take the tea-time snacks. These meal plans are formulated as per your need and they follow the calorie shifting protocol. Skipping a meal will break the rule and will not help you in successful weight reduction.

4. You must take at least 2.5 to 3 liters of water daily if you are staying in temperate countries. This amount of water will help to flush out the toxins that may produce during the weight loss regimen. Many people are simply not drinking enough water or replacing water by sugar saturated soft drinks. Try to avoid very sweet drinks, even when they made with dietetic sugar substitutes. The best drink still is fresh water!

5. Don't trust others! Prepare all the meals by your own hands. Don't let others to do job for you. Say for example, if the diet generator says 'Chicken sandwich' for a meal, don't go to the 'Subway' for a pack. Cook it in your kitchen. All the nutritious values will remain as it is.

6. Avoid refined sugar whenever possible unless it is on the menu. Sugar substitutes can bring about their own set of problems, but we need to solve the weight loss problem first.

7. You need adequate sleep! No matter whichever weight loss regimen you adopt, if you are not sleeping at least 8 hours a day, they will definitely fail. Sleeplessness will create anxiety and depression. It will slow down the normal metabolic processes. It severely hampers your daily routine and you will not be attracted to the weight loss regimen.

8. A lot depends on how you prepare the food. When the daily menu includes chicken, for instance, it doesn’t define how to prepare it. As far as the calorie shifting theory goes, you are free to have fried chicken. But using your good sense it is clear that by taking in all of that extra grease is not really good for your weight loss aspirations! So take as much of the grease off and bake or broil your chicken. The breast is the best piece for low fat and high protein, but don’t restrict yourself to that unless you want to.

9. Change the menu plan as you feel so! Boredom with similar menus may drag you out from the weight loss journey. So, as soon as you feel weary, grab your computer and use the online diet generator to bring out a whole new bunch of fresh meal plans.

10. Use professional advise if you experience problems with the Calorie Shifting Diet. Most recommended program and inventor of the calorie shifting system is the improved “Fat Loss 4 Idiots”, called "Beyond Calories". Beyond Calories is an online book that shows you how to increase the number of meals you eat to get rid of even more pounds. It works by using H.S. foods to lose the extra weight. H. S. foods are High Satiety foods, that is foods which naturally make you feel full after you eat a small portion of them. In fact, Beyond Calories not only goes into great detail with lots of tips, tricks and secrets, but it gives very detailed examples of results that have been achieved and exactly how to make it work in your particular case. This program comes together with a very helpful on-line diet generator you should use to program your daily or weekly diet.

If strictly using the rules and in combination with cardio exercises, the Calorie Shifting Plan is a faster weight loss method than most other diet plans. Using common sense in the application of the diet and the combination of your menus, and by other tips and tricks explained in the new exciting book titled "Beyond Calories", will maximize your weight loss results.