Calorie-shifting Diets To Speed Up Your Metabolism

In the never-ending quest for the diet to end all diets, getting back to basics with counting calories may be the answer. It's simple: When the amount of calories you burn is greater than the amount of calories you eat, your body must turn to stored fat and calories for additional energy. Dieting success in calorie counting is based on metabolism, the rate at which your body burns calories. A food plan that varies, or shifts, the amount of calories eaten will affect your metabolism in a positive way compared to very low-calorie diets, which negatively affect your metabolism.

Metabolism

Your metabolism, or calorie-burning rate, is based on two main factors. Most of your calories are burned by life-sustaining processes such as digestion, respiration, circulation, waste elimination and brain functioning. Additional calories are burned with physical activities. Higher-intensity activities, including aerobic workouts and weight training, can burn an additional 300 to 500 calories. The average amount of calories burned daily can vary based on your basal metabolic rate, the amount of calories burned by bodily functions.

Factors Affecting Metabolism

Some factors affecting metabolism are uncontrollable, such as body size, gender and age. Larger, younger individuals and males burn more calories. Additional controllable factors include amount of muscle mass, activity level and eating habits. Adding muscle mass will increase metabolism. Eating smaller, more frequent meals will also increase metabolism. Dieting itself decreases metabolism, especially very low-calorie diets, according to the Mayo Clinic. Eating inadequate amounts of food decreases your energy level, resulting in a slowing down of your body processes, including the rate at which you burn calories.

Weight Loss Plateaus

Initially, a diet plan works due to lowered amounts of calories eaten. When a total of 3,500 more calories are burned compared to the amount eaten, a 1-pound weight loss will occur. The most effective way to maintain this weight is to burn 500 more calories than the amount eaten over a seven-day period. However, with continued caloric deficits over time, your metabolism begins to decline, and additional weight loss may not occur. The lower amount of calories eaten may soon equal the amount of calories burned, resulting in a weight loss plateau as no more weight may be lost.

Calorie-Shifting Plans

Diets that vary, or shift the amount of calories eaten, claim to prevent the weight loss plateau from occurring. After decreasing the amount of calories consumed to initiate weight loss, the plan directs the dieter to increase the amount of calories for a short period of time to prevent decreases in metabolic rates. After consuming lower calories for 11 days, increase the calories for the next three days. Continue the diet plan by repeating the original 11 days on and three days off.

Additional suggestions to keep your metabolism higher include exercise to add to the total amount of calories burned.