You may have heard of a new approach to dieting and weight loss commonly known as shifting calories. Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about this concept:

What does it mean to shift calories?

Low-fat, low-carbohydrate, and low-calorie diets each have pinpointed one specific dietary element as the culprit that causes weight gain, which if you reduce from your diet, while result in weight loss.

On the other hand, shifting calories involves simply "shifting" the type of calories that you eat daily to different times of day. You are not eating less food and you are not sacrificing carbohydrates, calories, or even fats. In fact, you will be eating four meals a day with no quantity restriction on the quantity of the food that you eat and during any given meal over the course of a week, you will be eating from every food group.

How does shifting calories result in weight loss?

Suppose you are following a low-calorie diet. Initially you will lose a significant amount of weight. However, over time, your weight loss actually slows down and plateaus. This is because your body has a built-in "survival mechanism" that recognizes that it is being fed less loss, and thus, it goes into "starvation" mode. This results in your body's metabolism slowing down to preserve energy. So even though you may be eating less, eventually your body will compensate and consume the food more slowly, thus effectively negating the effects of the drastic reduction in calories.

In contrast, when you shift calories, you will be triggering a metabolic response in your body that induces rapid weight loss. You are not reducing your food intake, nor are you cutting out any carbohydrates, fats, or sugars from your diet. Instead, you are increasing your body's metabolic rate by feeding it different types of calories at different meals in such a way that causes your body to burn calories more rapidly. Your body is not going into starvation mode. Your body responds to the digestion of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibers, and sugars differently. So, in effect, you are able to trigger weight loss naturally, by manipulating your body's metabolic response to what foods you eat and when, without the aid of any pills, supplements, or without sacrificing any of the food you eat. Your are shifting calories from meal to meal, across several days.

You may wonder then what is the difference between the calorie shifting diet and a low-carbohydrate diet, since the latter is known to yield rapid weight loss results as well.

Why should I follow a calorie shifting diet plan instead of one of the other dieting methods?

The plain and simple truth is that the number one reason why most people fail to remain on a diet and end up quitting early is because they lose their motivation. They feel deprived. Despite being committed to losing weight, you might find it very difficult to follow a particular type of diet for more than a few days or weeks because it involves fighting your cravings and resisting temptation.

When it comes to shifting calories, however, you will be eating four full meals a day. You will be eating as much as you want until you feel satisfied. You will be eating food from all four major food groups on a rotational basis every day in eleven-day cycles. Thus, deprivation is no longer a factor and losing your motivation to diet. What could be better than to eat as much of every food as you want, but just be disciplined about when you can eat each type of food?

How much weight loss will I achieve? How rapidly will I lose weight?

Typically, you can expect to lose as many as 9 pounds for every eleven days that you follow this diet.

How do you maintain your goal weight once you have reached it?

Most doctors recommend against following the low-fat, low-carbohydrate, or low-calorie diets for too long, since your body needs to be well nourished. In a similar fashion, shifting calories is not something you would do on a long-term, lifetime basis to maintain weight loss. It is simply an alternative means to achieving rapid weight loss results that involves no restriction in calories or in the types of foods that you eat.

But once you reach your goal weight, then the age old, timeless advice of good healthy eating guidelines plus a regular exercise regime should be followed, in order to maintain your weight. After all, these are the things you should have been doing that prevented the weight gain in the first place!