The Calorie Shifting Method, also knows as Calorie-cycling or Zig-zag diet, is one of the latest solutions to come along to help people lose weight.
Metabolism and Shifting Calories

Statistics say that 95 percent of diets fail, and in most cases dieters end up weighing more than when they started. The reason cited for these weight loss failures is that when a dieter deprives her body of certain foods or cuts calorie intake considerably, it results in a slower metabolism rate as the body's biological survival mechanism kicks in. When the body thinks it is starving, it slows the metabolic rate to use fuel deposits as efficiently as possible, making them last. A slower metabolism works against weight loss goals.

Calorie shifting is a weight loss method designed to keep the metabolism running high so dieters continue to burn fat quickly.

How Calorie Shifting Works

Calorie Shifting works to trick a dieter's metabolism. This is accomplished by rotating food types and amounts. It requires eating specific foods at certain times of day, and then rotating food choices so that the metabolism doesn't adjust to a specific diet regime. Promoters of this diet say that this is the key to not gaining weight back when dieters go off the diet. Following this diet keeps a person's metabolism guessing at how much fuel or energy it will have on hand, and when dieters lose the desired weight and go off the diet, their metabolism is still running at peak efficiency. As a result, when they incorporate other foods back into their diet, it doesn't flood a slow metabolism with an overload of calories or carbs that it can't handle. This shifting of caloric intake requires changing the following every few days:

Kinds of food you eat
The nutrients
Calorie amounts
This can be accomplished by focusing your eating on carbs for a few days, then mainly protein, change your intake of fat, and mixing up the amount of calories eaten from day to day so the body can't find a metabolic set point.

The Downside

Following this rotation of varying calorie amounts is not easy. It still requires a plan to work. If you try to do this on your own, it requires the development of an expert menu based on the shifting calorie system. This is most often accomplished with the use of special software.

Diets that Use Shifting Calorie Method

The following diets claim lasting weight loss results for those who practice the Calorie Shifting Method:

Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet
Zig-zag Diet - Varies daily calories averaging 1250-1300 calories per day over the course of a week. But one day you can eat 1200 calories, on another, 1600, then 1,000 and so on making sure your daily caloric intake for the week falls into the average.
The Idiot Proof Diet
Calorie Cycling
Keep Your Body Guessing

According to those who promote the Calorie Shifting method, following a varying calorie intake from day to day will keep your body guessing. Your metabolism won't slow because it expects a certain amount of fuel to be burned. Instead the fluctuating calorie amounts will keep your metabolism running high, burning that unwanted body fat while you enjoy a variety of food selections. Change the kinds of food, the nutrients and the calories you eat every few days to keep your body guessing and avoid the yo-yo affect when you've reached your weight loss goal and go off the diet.