Hiyah, gardensjoy, not sure who the founder of Curves is, but the idea you've mentioned is actually the basis of LC 'diet' called the CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic Diet), and there's a forum on it under the Exercise headings.

Not quite a 'diet plan' there is also a method used by bodybuilders called a 'refeed' (which is similar to the CKD but not quite) designed to achieve a specific response in the body - greater fat loss once you've reached a plateau.

The theory is that as you diet (lose fat, decrease calories etc) levels of certain hormones in your body change. The two big ones are Lepin and ghrelin. Leptin is called the "anti starvation" hormone and Ghrelin is the "hunger hormone". They are both directly related to your fat mass (the number and size of your fat cells). When you lose body fat leptin levels fall and ghrelin levels rise. Low leptin signals to your body that starvation is imminent. High ghrelin levels signal hunger. The two, together, make for a very difficult time.

By eating a specific amount of food in a specific time you change these levels and set the balance again in favour of fat burning. The foods that trigger a rise in leptin are carbs - the simpler the better. The large quantities of food you eat causes ghrelin to decrease. It's a lot more compliated than this Readers' Digest version.

The weight you gain, however, isn't 'fat' - it's water weight. Typical refeeds consist of 3000-3500 calories in 24 hours, that's only a few hundre caloried above maintenance for most. As it's mainly carbs the water weight is what is reflected on the scale a few days later.

I did a refeed this weekend. 3200 calories, 80% carbs. I 'gained' 4 lbs by Monday. It's gone this morning

If you try a search on this site you'll find a few posts about leptin and you'll find a lot of information about the CKD.

HTH
Nat