What is yo-yo dieting?
Yo-yo dieting - A friend or foe?
When weight loss is all you care about, it makes sense to follow a weight-loss diet. But whenever you go on a diet, it’s inevitable you’ll go off it sooner or later. A diet may help you lose weight, but it’s only a temporary solution to a permanent problem: your potential for overeating. When weight is all you care about, your motivation to eat less disappears along with the weight. When you’ve lost the weight (or even just some of it) you no longer have any reasons not to overeat. It’s only when weight goes back on that you start to think there’s a problem. So then you are in that familiar - and unhealthy - cycle of weight loss and gain and loss and gain, known as yo-yo dieting.
Definition of yo-yo dieting
Following a strict, restrictive diet for temporarily losing weight only to regain it is known as yo-yo dieting.
What actually happens in yo-yo dieting?
In yo-yo dieting, the first time, you will lose a significant amount of weight, and then regain a few pounds more than you lost. The second time it will be more difficult to lose weight and you won’t lose as much as the first time. The weight regain will be faster and greater than the first weight regain. In other words, it’s common for people to shift back and forth between overeating and restrictive eating. You might switch cycles over the course of weeks or months, or you might move rapidly from one cycle to the other in the same day or even in the same meal. You start out with good intentions but quickly lose control. This pattern is known as yo-yo dieting. The main issue with yo-yo dieting is that when you eat what you want, you feel guilty; when you eat what you “should,” you feel deprived. Either way, you’re almost never at peace with your choices.
What causes yo-yo dieting?
In shortest and simplest words, a diet-related hormone known as “Leptin” is the cause of yo-yo dieting. Leptin is designed to replace the body's store of fat after a period of deprivation. It is now believed that increase in leptin secretion is the genetic response to a low-calorie diet. The only way to avoid having this problem is to eat in such a way as to not upset leptin balance.
What is leptin?
Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells. Leptin is essential for survival, guiding the proper response to starvation. Problems with leptin are a major cause of the obesity epidemic. Leptin tells the brain when you need to eat to get energy.
Eating too much, eating too late in the evening or at night, snacking between meals, lack of exercise, and stress, all lead to imbalance in leptin levels and, hence, cause various dietary issues including yo-yo dieting.
Complications and risks of yo-yo dieting
Restrictive diets don’t work, in fact, when you miss out on your favorite foods, you’re more likely to go off track and this yo-yo dieting can in many cases be more harmful than being slightly overweight in the first place. Yo-yo dieting often leads to a rapid weight loss, followed by weight gain once you are bored with the diet. This ‘on the diet again, off again’ approach to slimming can be harmful. Therefore, it can lead to various health issues and complications such as:
A new study has found that "yo-yo dieting" may harm a woman's immune system. The study found that maintaining the same weight over time appears to have a positive effect on a woman's immune system,
A number of other studies have also shown that rapid weight loss can cause a strain on the heart, and extreme dieting can also cause menstrual irregularities.
What is the solution?
Expert nutritionists and dieticians now strongly discourage yo-yo dieting and advise that overweight people especially women should exercise regularly and eat nutrient-dense foods amounting to approximately 1,800 calories per day. In addition, they should also take a safe and herbal diet appetite suppressant to naturally manage their desire to eat more. Such a plan will satisfy hunger with three reasonable and short meals plus snacks, in contrast to typical weight-loss diets of 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day. This strategy will also reduce the risk for chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.
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