Welcome to Shift's weight release calculation page, designed to help you figure out how to release weight powerfully, at a rate you decide. At Shift we don't believe in losing weight (only to find it again) but rather we encourage you to release weight instead-which means letting go forever.

GET STARTED

  1. Use the weight release calculator to get your DAILY CALORIE BUDGET for weight release
  2. Get started with recording your food and exercise
  3. Watch informational videos about how weight release works
  4. Common questions and frustrations

STEP 1 - WEIGHT RELEASE CALCULATOR

Your DAILY CALORIE BUDGET is the amount of calories you can consume (without exercise) to release weight at a rate you decide.

SEX

Height:

Weight in Pounds:

Age:

What is your weekly weight release goal?

This is your Daily Body Burn (this is how many calories your body burns in 24 hours including sedentary activity—this is your weight maintenance budget):

cals

This is your Daily Calorie Budget to achieve your weekly weight release goal:

cals

How did we arrive at this daily budget for you?
Why don't we recommend releasing more than 2 pounds per week?
What if my calorie budget falls below 1200 calories per day?
What happens to my calorie budget when I add exercise?

Step 2 - RECORD YOUR DAILY FOOD AND EXERCISE

Research shows that on average 74% of weight masters recorded their daily intake kept food and exercise records during weight release and 50% continued to do so on into maintenance.

We recommend either recording your food and calorie intake in a journal or a Free Record Keeping App that make recording a breeze.

GETTING SET UP WITH A FOOD AND EXERCISE TRACKING APP AND WEBSITE

Technology has really helped us in the world of tracking food and exercise calories. Many websites and apps exist that allow you to easily monitor your food and exercise intake with data bases that will provide you with the caloric information of all the foods you eat and exercises that you do. They also will show you how your calorie intake is adding up over the day and also the week.

We recommend Lose it!, My Net Diary or My Fitness Pal for their ease of use and great databases.
All 3 are free to join and come as an app and website. My Fitness Pal has less free offerings than the other two apps but many users are already on this platform.

WHERE TO FIND THE CALORIE TRACKING PROGRAMS
Lose it!: www.Loseit.com online or find the app in the i phone store or in the Amazon app store for non iphone users.**
My Net Diary: www.mynetdiary.com online or find the app in the i phone store or in the Amazon app store for non iphone users.**
My Fitness Pal: www.MyFitnessPal.com online or find the app in the iphone store or in the Amazon app store for non iphone users.**

**PLEASE NOTE: For all apps, please mark your activity level as “inactive” in order to get the most accurate energy expenditure. You will be adding your exercise manually. Otherwise you will get inaccurate data.

HOW TO SIGN UP
Signing up is easy. You will have to give them your height, weight and age and tell then how much weight you would like to release per week. Based on their calculator you will be given a daily calorie budget and get started. All of the sites have use videos and support to help if you need it.

WHAT IF THE CALORIE BUDGET THEY GIVE ME IN THE PROGRAM IS DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE I GOT ON YOUR CALCULATOR?
Both Lose it, My Net Diary and Fitness Pal seem to use equations that trend towards allowing for a higher daily calorie budget for weight release. Feel free to use the daily calorie budget they give you but if you are not seeing consistent results you may want to adjust your number in Lose or My Fitness Pal to the number that we give you which is derived using your resting metabolism and your daily sedentary calories.

TO ADJUST YOUR LOSE IT! DAILY CALORIE BUDGET
1) Click the “Goals” icon at the bottom of the interface
2) Click the scale graphic on next page
3) Click “Edit” on the upper right of the next page
4) Scroll down to find “Daily Calorie Budget” and adjust to the number given on the Shift Weight Release Page calculator

TO ADJUST YOUR My Net Diary DAILY CALORIE BUDGET
1) CLICK on the “My Weight Plan”. This is where you enter your current weight, height, age, rate of release, etc.
2) SET activity level to “sedentary.”
3) SCROLL down and click Weight Maintenance Calories. Click on the number and you will get a new window with several different formulas to chose from, including a “custom” option. Choose the custom option and enter your “Daily Body Burn” number from Rita’s calculator.
4) MyNetDiary will then create your calorie budget based on what you entered for your desired rate of release.
EXAMPLE: if you entered 1800 as your Weight Maintenance Calories and a weight release goal of 1 lb per week, it will set your budget at 1800 - 500 = 1300 calories/day.

TO ADJUST YOUR MY FITNESS PAL DAILY CALORIE BUDGET
1) Click the “More” icon at the bottom
2) Click the “Goals” button on next page
3) Click “Calories” and adjust to the Daily Calorie Budget given on the Shift Weight Release Page calculator

FITBIT or Apple Watch are personalized monitors that will track your daily calorie burn and they both work with Lose it to accurately keep track of how many calories you are burning. Beware that both are 10-20% inaccurate as far as the amount of calories your are burning to the higher level so keep this in mind when looking at the data.

Weekly Weight Release Planner: Please download and print this weekly planner to use during your weight release to track your weekly predicted weight release. (Highly recommended for the first 30 days of your weight mastery or more)
Weekly Weight Release Planner PDF
Weekly Weight Release Planner User Guide PDF

Step 4 - YOUR WEIGHT RELEASE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: How did we arrive at this daily calorie budget for you?

A: We took the amount of sedentary calories that you burn a day (based on your age, height and weight) and subtracted the amount of calories needed to meet your weekly weight release goal. This daily calorie budget does not include exercise.

Q: Why don't we recommend releasing more than two pounds per week?

A: Releasing weight too quickly stresses your system and also creates a diet mentality. Most long term weight releasers let go of weight at a slower pace that allowed them time to adjust their body and mind to their lifestyle change. Love, don't rush yourself down the scale.

Q: What if my daily calorie budget falls below 1200 calories per day?

A: You don't want to create a stressed out and deprived mind or body by taking your calories too low. Try adjusting your weekly weight release goal to a more modest amount or try adding exercise. Walking 30 minutes a day burns about 150 calories which you can add to your daily calorie budget.

Q: What happens to my calorie budget when I exercise?

A: When you burn calories in exercise, those calories can either be added to your daily calorie budget allowing you a larger budget for the day or those additional calories will be added to your overall net calories burned for the day.

Q: What if I go over my daily calorie budget?

A: Going over budget is not the end of the world. if your goal is to release a pound you have a 500 calorie buffer above your daily budget for weight release before you are in the weight gain zone. You can make up the additional calories on following days or be okay with going over a bit. it's consistency in the long run that releases weight long term. Don't sweat the small stuff!

Q: Can I increase my metabolism?

A: There are a lot of products out there that claim to boost your metabolism. Unfortunately most of them only raise your metabolism a few calories a day, if that! When you exercise you increase your metabolism with the calories you burn with the additional physical activity. This still is the best way to burn more calories—no magic pills...sorry!

Q: How can I eat more calories on the weekend and still reach my weight release goal?

A: One way to bank calories for the weekend would be by adding the calories burned in exercise over the week to your daily calorie budget for the weekend. The other idea would be to reduce your daily calorie budget Sunday through Thursday by about 100 calories then you can spread the extra 500 calories that you "saved" and apply them to Friday and Saturday.

RECORD KEEPING QUESTIONS

Q: Why is recording calories so important?

A: Tracking calories is the only accurate way to keep clear on your food intake and exercise output. We tend to underestimate how much we eat by 50-100%. Tracking allows us to see clearly how we are achieving our weight release goals. When we don't track it is easy to expect losses on the scale that we didn't really earn, get discouraged and give up. Tracking also allows us to see where we can improve on our eating plan. It's no wonder that 74% of weight masters tracked their food while releasing weight.

Q: Why is my daily calorie budget from Lose it different from your calculator?

A: Lose it and Fitness Pal seem to use equations that trend towards allowing for a higher daily calorie budget. Feel free to use the daily calorie budget they give you but if you are not seeing consistent results you may want to adjust your number in Lose or My Fitness Pal to the number that we give you which is derived using your resting metabolism and your daily sedentary calories.

WEIGHT RELEASE QUESTIONS

How often should I weigh myself?

Most weight masters weight themselves every day or once a week. if you weigh once a week the best day for most is Friday morning since after the weekend you may retain more fluid due to extra restaurant eating or additional calories. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning without clothing, get the data, get off and get on with your life.

Why did my weight plateau a few weeks into my weight release?

The first couple of weeks of a weight release journey will not reflect just weight loss but water loss from your body which is a natural part of the weight release process. If you burn 3500 calories in a week's time you will release 1 pound of fat/lean tissue and a bit of water but often in the beginning you release extra water weight on top of that. So the scale may say you have released 4 pounds in the first week but in reality you have only released one and will eventually need to pay the extra weight back to the scale, so to speak. Most people experience this "pay back" and think they have stopped releasing—not true—if you are still burning calories you are still releasing weight and need to keep going. The scale will eventually adjust and around week s 6-8 you will see a release more consistent with the amount of calories you are releasing on a daily basis.

What happens to my daily calorie budget when I release weight?

Because there is less of you to move around the world your budget will go down about 6 calories per pound. When you record your weight release in the Lose it or My Fitness Pal app they will adjust for this.

Why did the scale go up?

You will often see the scale pop up during a weight release journey and it will have nothing to do with actual weight gain but some sort of fluid or water retention in your body from salt, hormones, the weather, travel etc. Do not despair! If the scale is up a pound from the day before ask yourself, "Did I really eat 3500 calories over my daily body burn?" If the answer is no then the pound is water weight and should go away in a day or two.

Have a question we haven't answered? Email your question to [email protected]