You may have heard of a new diet plan known as the calorie shifting diet plan. Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about this diet:

What is the calorie shifting diet plan?

The calorie shifting diet plan is an alternative to other mainstream "reduction diets" such as the "low-fat", "low-carbohydrate" and "low-calorie" diets. Rather than reducing any of these elements from your diet, you are simply "shifting" the type of calories that you eat on a daily basis to different times of day and over the course of a week. So you are not eating less food and you are not sacrificing from any of the four major food groups. In fact, you will be eating four meals a day with no restriction on the quantity of the food that you eat. You will be following a menu that varies daily over an eleven-day cycle.

How does the calorie shifting diet plan work?

When you follow a diet such as a low-calorie diet, you will lose a good amount of weight initially, but over time, your rate of weight loss decreases. This is because your body senses that it is being fed less, and thus, it goes into "starvation" mode and your body's metabolism automatically slows down to compensate for the reduction of food. So even though you are eating less food, your body will consume the food at a more inefficient rate, thus slowing down the rate at which your calories are burned.

In the case of the calorie shifting diet, however, you will be triggering a metabolic response in your body that induces rapid weight loss. 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.

How is the effectiveness and level of ease in following the calorie shifting diet plan?

The fact of the matter is, that most people lose their motivation to remain on the diet because they feel deprived. Though you may be committed to your weight loss goal, you might find it very difficult to follow this type of diet for an extensive period of time since it involves fighting your cravings for carbohydrate foods. With the calorie-shifting diet, you will be eating four full meals a day, and you will be eating as much as you want until you are satisfied. You will be eating something from all four major food groups on a rotational basis every day in eleven-day cycles. Thus you will feel more motivated to maintain this diet, since you need not worry about food deprivation.

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 adhere to this diet plan.

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

As with other diets that yield rapid weight loss results, the calorie shifting diet is not intended to be followed as a lifetime diet plan for maintaining your weight. Good healthy eating guidelines plus a regular exercise regime should be followed, in order to maintain your weight. (These are the things you should have been doing that prevented the weight gain in the first place!)