- by Joey Atlas, Author of Amazon Bestseller - ‘Fatness to Fitness’
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If Counting Calories is Frustrating You? You May Want to Try Calorie Shifting
I originally wrote this article for my ‘members only’ site, BestFitnessAdvice.com - and its a strategy that has helped a handful of people make some serious improvements in their health and body - primarily from body fat reduction.
Several weeks ago I sent out a free PDF success story that was submitted to me from, Lisa, one of our members. She mentioned the impact that calorie shifting had on her success when combined with the Leg, Butt, Hip and Thigh program, with changing her body and life - and we got a ton of emails asking more about the ‘calorie shifting’ concept.
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So here it is. Enjoy it - use it - and please share your results with us…
The challenge of eating a nutrient dense, low calorie diet that promotes healthy weight and optimal fitness - while at the same time trying to keep daily caloric intake at appropriate levels for one’s goals (usually fat/weight loss) can be one the most difficult juggling acts to master. In working with many clients with various daily habits and patterns - I’ve realized that a good number of people can benefit from “shifting their calories” instead of just counting calories to accomplish healthy nutrition and weight management.
Depending on the time you wake up in the morning - starting your day with breakfast may not be the ideal way to kick off the fulfillment of your daily nutritional needs. Now, I know this goes against traditional advice, but read on to fully understand this approach as it applies to counting calories.
I’ve worked with clients in the past who have tried to eat breakfast (in many forms and variations) first thing in the morning, and they would find that doing this made them hungrier the rest of the day and it usually led to increased daily caloric intake - enough to cause long term weight gain.
There are some people who wake up relatively early and start the day with breakfast and continue to eat relatively well throughout the day. Often, these types of people, although eating healthy foods, are taking in too many calories in the span of a whole day and either have trouble losing weight or continue to gain weight.
Now, for the caloric shifting part. We will talk about meal shifting (instead of calorie shifting) to keep matters simple - but understand, a meal is made up of calories.
A simple strategy for those who find that keeping a lid on daily caloric intake is a challenge - is to push back the time that the first meal is eaten. Lets call this meal breakfast, even though some people may find it strange to call a meal eaten at 10:30 or 11 am, breakfast.
So, instead of eating your normal breakfast at 6:30 or 8 am, you don’t skip it, you just push it back a few hours - toward your normal lunch time. In effect, you are moving, most likely, 300 - 500 (maybe more) calories and taking them in at a later time, maybe 3 or 4 hours later than normal.
Here is what happens to most people who I coach with this method. They find they are not starving for a big lunch (which also gets pushed back a few hours - to about 2pm (give or take 30 minutes). Additionally, they are not ravenous by dinner time, when most people self destruct and do so until bedtime, by snacking after dinner.
So, a result of this meal shifting is a reduction in ‘overactive appetite’ - not a bad reduction, but a healthy reduction - one that is very helpful in preventing one from over-stuffing the stomach and going beyond their daily caloric needs, day after day after day. (This is how people ’slowly’ gain a lot of weight over the span of several years.)
Lets back up a little - if dinner time food raids are a challenge, then this meal shifting can help you reduce that eating urge after work and put you in a better position to control the volume of food you put on your plate and the number of calories you put in your body.
So, ‘the calorie shift’ is also helpful for people who snack every few hours once they do start eating. By delaying when you start eating in the morning - you also delay the snack intervals you enjoy - and in effect you may reduce your total daily snacks to 2 or 3 instead of 5 or 6 (including your after dinner snack). When all is said and done, by days end you will have taken in less calories than you would have, had you started with an early breakfast.
Common ’side effects’ of this strategy are increased energy, less bloating and stomach discomfort, better sleep patterns and a few others. Hmm - I wonder why?
There are several factors inside of this calorie based fat-loss strategy to be aware of. The types of foods you choose, the volume of foods you choose and the realization that you need less calories than you think you do to function optimally on a day to day basis.
I also realize that this may go against the “You’ll shut down your metabolism, by starving yourself!” crowd. But believe me, this is far from starving yourself, very far. I tell you this firsthand, because it’s how I’ve helped many people take control of their, nutrition, body weight and fitness - and it’s how I manage my own daily nutrition and my metabolism keeps burning right along.
Now, I would like for you to help me circulate this article via social media - so I can share more of these with you in the future. See the ‘Share This’ button below? Click it and you’ll see several easy ways to help me circulate this article. Digg and StumbleUpon are 2 of the easiest, and they are free to join (actually all of them are free) - just click on the link to each and the rest is simple - takes about 90 seconds…
Comments or questions? Just post them below…
Your Trainer,
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