CALORIE SHIFTING (ZIGZAG) DIET PLAN

Our metabolism is the term to describe how our body transforms energy (think burns calories) to be able to run all its functions to keep us alive.  Our metabolic rate is the rate at which our body burns calories.  Understanding this is very important part in getting things right to maintain a healthy body and to be able to control your weight.

Our body burns calories for the energy necessary to maintain the vital involuntary activities, including breathing, maintenance of heat, heartbeat and blood circulation, and the activities of the nervous system and internal organs. Once we go beyond these functions we burn a lot more calories in walking, climbing stairs, working out, playing sport, even just carrying the shopping.

Since our metabolism varies the amount of energy used in each activity there needs to be a baseline to be able to measure the overall level of how efficiently our body is burning calories to give us this energy.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), and the closely related resting metabolic rate (RMR), is the amount of daily energy expended by humans at rest. The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs, the heart, lungs, nervous system, kidneys, liver, intestine, sex organs, muscles, and skin.  It varies depending upon physiological state. For example, it will be higher during intense exercise than it is just sitting in a chair, and is at its lowest level when you're asleep. The only time it goes to zero is when you die. As we get older our metabolism generally becomes slower as we slow up.

A certain amount of fat in the diet is healthy. EFAs (essential fatty acids) are needed for hormone regulation, electrical functions (which take place in the muscles, heart, brain and elsewhere) and other tasks. The chemical composition for fats differs from that of carbohydrates. When listed on nutritional information tables, fats are generally divided into six categories: total fats, saturated fatty acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, monounsaturated fatty acid, dietary cholesterol, and trans fatty acid. From a basal metabolic or resting metabolic perspective, more energy is needed to burn a saturated fatty acid than an unsaturated fatty acid.

Unlike fat the body has no storage deposits of protein. All of it is contained in the body as important parts of tissues, blood hormones, and enzymes.

High-fat foods and refined sugars, however, can reduce BMR since they are lower in fiber and bulk. That slows down intestinal activity and the body will absorb more calories from them before passing through the digestive system. Getting the proper amount of vitamins and minerals can help regulate BMR to keep that process efficient. 

Your basal metabolic rate is also greatly affected by the amount of muscle mass you have. The more muscle fiber, the higher your Body Mass Index as muscle, even at rest, burns significantly more calories than fat and other tissues. This is the reason that strength training is so important to a weight loss program. Aerobics and cardio exercises are good to a point, but if overdone can actually break down muscle tissues for energy which can be counter-productive to weight loss. An efficient exercise program will include both cardio and strength training.

Many people experience problems cutting calories below their BMR(base metabolic rate).   Your body still requires carbohydrates to function and to operate the brain etc.  So if you’re busy cutting calories and reducing what your body needs, where does your body get the required carbohydrates?   It cannibalizes what it needs from your muscle,  now your body is stealing carbohydrates from your muscle that you desperately need to speed up your metabolism. You are now stealing carbohydrates from these MUSCLES and slowing down your metabolism.  Here is the worst part of all of this….  Once your body cannibalizes your muscle, it now leaves a HIGHER fat content in your body!  ( With less muscle mass, your FAT % just went up!).  You are literally starving yourself fatter! Cutting major calories out is NOT an effective method of Fat or Weight loss.

In a normal calorie deficit dieting, the body would start by accepting the lower calorie intake and then move on to respond accordingly in order to protect itself. As soon as the calorie count dips below the normal recommended daily calorie intake, the body would ring off an internal alarm and the body’s natural fat burning mechanism would tend to slow down a little in order to compensate for the lack of calorie intake. This is done because it perceives that there would be an impending famine and it’s done with the intent to protect the body from starvation. So the more you cut down on calorie intake, the more your body would respond accordingly and start to slow down the fat burning ability.

Thus, initially, with the normal calorie deficit diet, you may enjoy little weight loss but as soon as your body learns to adapt to the new deficit of intake by burning less calories, you would be experience less and less results form your calorie deficit diet. So even when you are literally starving yourself, you would not experience any form of successful weight loss simply because the body has been able to learn to burn less calorie to compensate for the deficit.

Dieters have an inclination to reduce caloric intake far too much during the initial stages. Their high levels of motivation and an fervent aspiration to lose weight quickly often drives the desire to cut out too many meals almost instantly. Cutting back food intake dramatically may sound like the right idea to lose weight fast and indeed many experience a rapid drop in weight, just not a predominance of fat loss!

Every time you cut calories below your maintenance level, it’s never long before your body recognizes the deficit and adjusts your fat burning thermostat so fewer calories are burned. The larger the drop in calories and the longer the drop is maintained, the bigger the drop will be in metabolism.

When trying to reach your weight goal it's good to know what your basal metabolic rate is and that way you'll know how much you need to exceed it to achieve your desired results in the proper way. Low calorie dieting, however, should not be more than 3 days. When that comes, metabolic rate begins to fall and fat loss will be compromised.

Balance is what the human body is always after. The body is immediately able to recognize any sign of deficit in terms of food supply. As an immediate response, the body would lower the metabolic activity in order to conserve calories. A consistently deficient calorie intake will fail because the body is just too smart for such a tactic. if you eat the same number of calories each day, your metabolism adjusts for it and will slow down. In order to avoid body adaptation to a particular routine, you have to keep it guessing everytime. When trying to lose fat, the Calorie shifting or zigzag calorie rotation is a good way to keep your metabolism up.

To lose FAT weight, you must have calorie deficit, this is a fact! But you don't want a large deficit for too long a period or your metabolism will slow down and you'll hit a plateau. So you need to outsmart your body's starvation response mode by adjusting your calories before the metabolism starts to slow down. This way you spike your metabolism so the starvation mode never gets chance to kick in!

And for those of you in a plateau on your weight loss, this could be the perfect remedy for you.  Even if you’re successful at losing a few pounds when you first start the program, your body often reacts by adjusting your energy expenditure in order to revert to your previous weight, known as your “setpoint.”  Basically, your metabolism shifts –at a lower weight, you will burn less energy throughout the day, while at a higher weight you will burn more in an effort by your body to return to that setpoint.  When your body wants to return to your setpoint, you jolt it with a surplus of calories to surprise it and alter it’s response. This should help you break out of that plateau!  This is like muscle confusion for your metabolism!

It's important, as on any diet, to make sure you're eating nutritious, low calorie foods, as well as getting enough protein for muscle maintenance (go with 1 gm protein per lb of body weight, don't go TOO much lower than that or your losses will be more muscle and less fat.)

The Calorie Shifting or zigzag calorie rotation method works because it confuses the body. It is undoubtedly effective once you hit the right combination. Aside from fat loss, it also helps to jumpstart sluggish metabolisms, maintain lean muscle mass and get over fat loss plateaus.

How long you'll need to stay on a low calorie intake, and at what stage you should switch to a higher intake will depend on several factors. Everyone will have different time spans and individual caloric needs depending on factors like body size, caloric needs, body type, activity level as well as other considerations.