I receive emails every week from subscribers to the Calorie Shifting Diet Plan who want to know what they can substitute for an item on one of the daily menus. They either are alergic or intorerant to a certain food item, or just don’t like it.

Substitutions are permitted on the plan, and once you understand how the system works it’s usually pretty easy to do. The calorie shifting plan is based on eating from different food groups which have certain innate characteristics. Though it is not quite as simple as this, the basic groupings are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. One day you will eat foods that are high in one group, another day foods that are high in another group. This keeps the metabolism from adjusting to lowered caloriec intake levels, so that you continue to lose weight without encountering the “plateaus” that occur with conventional diet plans. The menus are arranged by nutritional experts so that you receive a balanced diet over a period of time, and this is why people shouldn’t try to create their own plan.

So if a menu item is peanuts, and you are allergic to them, cashews or walnuts will do just fine. If you don’t like sausage, bacon will work as they are both high fat, high protein items. If you can’t find garbanzo beans, try a similar bean like white beans, navy beans, etc.  Of course, the best way to substitute for items that you can’t eat or don’t like is to use the Online Diet Menu provided with the Fat Loss 4 Idiots calorie shifting plan.

Another question that I get a lot is “how do I prepare this food? Do they mean roasted or baked chicken? Should the nuts be salted or unsalted? Should I fry the potatoes or bake them?

Once again, it is the food item on the menu that matters, not how it is prepared. You could have fried chicken if you want, though I don’t personally recommend anything that is deep fried. This is because of the deadly transfat content of all deep fried foods, but that is an issue for another article. The calorie shifting plan is actually pretty versatile and forgiving, but if you aren’t seeing the fat loss rate that you expected, them you will need to make some adjustments. Remember, all weight loss is based on burning more calories each day than you take in.

In summary, substitutions for calorie shifting plan menu items are permitted as long as the food has the same basic characteristics. If you follow the plan and use common sense, you should lose 7 to 9 pounds in each 11-day cycle.

For more informative articles on the calorie shifting plan, go to http://www.calorieshiftingdietplan.org