What is Metabolic Confusion? — How It Works & How to Apply It

Have you ever noticed that when you try to lose weight, your body stops working once it reaches its ideal weight?

This happens because your body slows down your metabolic rate and keeps the temperature constant. However, with metabolic confusion, you can change your body’s BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and put it into a constant fat-burning process. 

Let’s learn more about this diet style.

Key takeaways

• Metabolic confusion approach: Alternates high and low-calorie days to keep metabolism active, avoiding metabolic slowdown and enhancing fat loss.
• Flexibility and comparison: Offers a flexible dieting approach, distinct from intermittent fasting, by focusing on calorie shifting without strict calorie counting.
• Benefits and nutritional focus: Improves insulin sensitivity and encourages nutrient-rich food intake, aligning with natural eating habits.
• Potential risks and sustainability: Requires attention to avoid prolonged calorie deficits and emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach for long-term success.

What does metabolic confusion mean?

As the name suggests, metabolic confusion is a dietary process in which you confuse (not literally) your body so that it does not slow your metabolism and not increase your appetite. According to the metabolic confusion definition, it is a restrictive diet where you change your calorie intake every day, alternatively making it higher and lower; due to this, it is also known as calorie shifting.

How is metabolic confusion supposed to work?

There are no set rules for metabolic confusion diets. You can take high-calorie and low-calorie foods every alternate day or do this every alternate week. Most people follow a weekly plan where they consume low-calorie food for 5-6 days, followed by a high-calorie diet for 1-2 days. The only requirement is to alternate your diet as a high and low-calorie one.

Though there are no formal rules, most metabolic confusion diet plans involve around 2000 calories on high-calorie days and up to 1200 calories on low-calorie days.

If you are not getting results, you can further reduce your high-calorie days to just one. You can also reduce the number of calories on your low-calorie days. 

The basic idea behind this is to change the number of calories your body needs to process. Doing this, you keep your metabolism always alert, which in turn increases your basal metabolic rate. As a result, your body becomes more capable of burning calories in a day, thus promoting fat loss.

When you are following a metabolic confusion strategy, do not focus on the number of calories but also on the quality. Consume nutrient-rich foods, especially on low-calorie days.

Is metabolic confusion the same as intermittent fasting?

Both metabolic confusion and intermittent fasting are eating styles that do not require calorie counting. In intermittent fasting, you need to eat for a short window and fast for longer periods. With long fasting hours, you create a calorie deficit in your body, thus increasing your BMR. After fasting, when you eat, the body uses that food as fuel due to high BMR and does not store it as fat. The best part is in your eating window you can eat the food of your choice without restricting yourself.

The ratio of eating and fasting hours may vary in intermittent fasting. It can be 14:10, 16:8, 18:6 and 20:4, where the first number shows fasting hours and the second shows eating hours. It depends on your capacity and which one you can opt for.

Fasting Kompanion offers you the most suitable fasting plan according to your physiological needs and health goals.

On the contrary, metabolic confusion is a calorie-shifting process where you change your calorie intake every day to give a push to your metabolism. It always keeps your metabolism on your toes and helps maintain insulin levels.

Advantages of metabolic confusion

A metabolic confusion diet is a flexible process. It allows you to eat 1200-1700 calories on low-calorie days, which is around 40-75% of what you consume every day. So, it matches your natural eating style, and you do not feel hungry.

Plus, alternate-day fasting or calorie shifting creates a major effect on insulin levels as insulin resistance can be a reason why you don’t lose weight.

The best part of this dietary style is that it does not keep you hungry. You can enjoy your favorite foods on low-calorie days as well. It does not restrict your body from any food. Also, a metabolic confusion meal plan does not restrict you from any nutritious food to maintain a calorie deficit. Mostly, calorie-deficit diets fail because they adapt to those diets easily and slow down your metabolism.

The metabolic confusion diet makes you mindful of what you are eating every day as you need to measure your calories. Gradually, this habit takes you towards a healthier lifestyle.

Disadvantages of metabolic confusion

Though metabolic confusion has many merits, it has some associated risks, too. As the diet requires you to take fewer calories some days, it can create a calorie deficit in your body over time. Further, if you do not take into account factors like age, sex, activity level and size of your body while calculating the calorie intake on high and low-calorie days, you can get into a severe calorie deficit state following this diet for a long time. It is advisable to follow a metabolic confusion diet plan for a short period.

Furthermore, if you take a high-carb diet to fulfill your calories, your body cannot touch its fat reserve, and it becomes difficult to lose weight.

Following this diet for a long period is not possible as it puts you in a state of less enjoyment and more hunger.

Can metabolic confusion help with weight loss?

Do you want to follow metabolic confusion for weight loss?

You can do it.

Proponents of the metabolic confusion diet believe that this diet keeps your metabolism always in working condition with high and low-calorie diet days. As you are eating less than defined levels on your low and high-calorie days, you are bound to lose weight over time.

Other calorie-deficit diets decrease your BMR through a process called adaptive thermogenesis. The body learns to survive on a small amount of fuel and restricts fat burning. However, in a metabolic confusion diet, the body does not get into adaptive thermogenesis as it gets a constant break from calorie deficit on high-calorie days. As a result, it does not allow your metabolism to adapt to smaller food qualities.

Once you reach your weight loss goal, you have to be on a maintenance diet to maintain your weight levels.

To sum up

Metabolic confusion offers a dynamic approach to weight management by alternating calorie intake, aiming to keep the metabolism active and encourage fat loss. Differing from intermittent fasting by focusing on calorie shifting, it promotes flexibility and aligns with natural eating habits while positively affecting insulin levels. However, be cautious of the risks of prolonged calorie deficits and aim to have balanced meals.