Calorie Shifting Research Paper

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Pages: 3

Calorie shifting involves eating a consistent number of calories every day for a month, then increasing and decreasing -- shifting -- calories the following month to rev up metabolism and weight loss.

"The idea is to keep your metabolism guessing," explains Keri M. Gans, MS, RD, CDN, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "For example, if you have been consuming 2,000 calories consistently per day for a month, but then you mix it up by dropping 500 calories two days a week and adding 200 calories another day, it should prevent your body from quickly adapting to a certain number of calories it expects to receive."

While a calorie-shifting plan can work, Gans and other experts say, eating several balanced, low-calorie meals every day is a more effective and healthful way to lose weight.

"A person can be just as successful with weight loss if they consume adequate calories to maintain a healthy body weight, engage in daily physical activity, and eat more frequently rather than allowing for long gaps between meals," Gans says.

The Pros of Calorie Shifting
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"Interestingly, this approach is similar to what people who don't struggle with their weight do naturally," says Michelle May, MD, former president of the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians, and author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. "They vary their calorie intake on a daily basis depending on their activity level, circumstances, moods, and other factors. It clearly doesn't make sense that a person would need the same number of calories every day, so a variety diet is more