Calorie Shifting or Calorie Counting?

 

While it is important to understand the concept of calorie clearly for the purpose of successful loss, the different types of calorie controlling methods adopted by different dieting programs often leave us confused and bewildered. Take for example the concepts of calorie counting and calorie shifting.

Both methods would work in their own rights and lead you to loss success, provided that you follow the rules religiously. But of course the obvious question is: which method is easier and better? Well that is what this post would tell you.

It is indeed difficult to answer this question since both calorie shifting and calorie counting have their respective strong and weak points.

Calorie counting

Strong points: The main advantage of the calorie counting method is that it offers you permanent loss, albeit very slowly. If you are patient enough, you are sure to get good results from its use over time. Another big plus point is that it recommends exercise along with dieting for accelerating the loss process.

One good thing about regular exercising is that you can build strong lean muscles with their help, with in turn translates to a higher metabolic rate. When you have a strong and muscular body, coupled with high metabolism, you will be able to burn fat not only at the time of working out but also at rest. If you are wondering how your bodybuilder friend manages to keep away all the year round, this might be his secret.

Weak points: The obvious weak point of calorie counting method is that it takes a lot of patience and self-discipline on your part to follow this dieting method for your whole life. Just imagine counting the calorie contents of each and every morsel you put in your mouth, and doing this for days, weeks, months or even years, and you would get an idea of what I mean. To be honest, most of us are too accustomed to an ‘easy-going’ lifestyle to be able to keep up with this diet for long enough.

This dieting method is extremely restrictive regarding the types of foods you are allowed to eat. Not only you are likely to get bored of eating the same old, boring foods time and again, it also makes it quite difficult for you to eat out at a fast food restaurant once in a while, because you never know how much calorie you would be putting in your mouth through the restaurant food (don’t be fooled by the calorie stats mentioned in the menu cards, as they are hardly ever accurate).

Perhaps the worst thing about this method is that it restricts your calorie intake to an abysmally low level, thereby leaving your body begging for more. If your body doesn’t get the minimum amount of calorie, it would slow down your metabolic rate and stop the fat burning process, thereby making it difficult for you to lose weight.

 

Calorie shifting

Now let’s move on to the calorie shifting method. It seems that more and more people are taking a liking to this method in the recent times and not without a reason.

Strong points: The first reason behind its popularity is that it offers you fast loss WITHOUT restricting you to a few boring foods. In fact, with this method, you can eat any type and amount of food you want subject to a certain daily calorie intake limit. The makers of the calorie shifting method of dieting believe that when your body receives foods of varying calorie contents and your daily calorie consumption differs widely, it would always keep your metabolic rate high.

As you can see, with this method, you won’t have to spend sleepless nights if ever you happen to have a fill at a fast food restaurant. This diet requires less patience on your part, and since it doesn’t recommend daily workouts, more and more people are finding it attractive.

Weak points: That said, even the calorie shifting method is not devoid of certain weaknesses. If doing calculations is something you cringe about, then this diet may not be for you as you would need to make a lot of nitty-gritty calculations to become successful with it.

For example, you would need to calculate how frequently you should eat, how and in what degree you would be alternate between different types of foods, as well as how to alternate your meal times in a way so as to derive the optimum benefits from your diet. All these calculations are sure to leave you quite confused and frustrated.

Moreover, since it doesn’t recommend workouts, you are virtually limited to losing solely with the help of dieting, which is an awfully slow process. Further you would never be able to quit your diet because if you do, you would become over all over again. Here is why-

You can remain fit and slim only if your body has a decent amount of lean muscle mass, since lean muscles keep the fat away by burning excess calories all the time, whether you diet or not. However this diet doesn’t recommend you to workout and you cannot build strong lean muscles without doing regular workouts.

Hence, even if you are lucky enough to get rid of your fat belly, it would be very difficult for you to maintain your slim body for long unless you continue dieting forever.

That said, I recommend calorie shifting in spite of its weaknesses, since it is much easier to follow and offers faster loss results than calorie counting.

Since calorie shifting places fewer restrictions on your food intake, you don’t feel deprived at any point of time. At the same time, I would also suggest that you add a daily dose of workouts with this dieting method in order to lose really fast.

Again if your are interested in a calorie shifting diet then you should check out Fat Loss for Idiots

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