How to stop the yo-yo dieting clycle

Have you ever met someone who is constantly on a new diet and then off it, then back on one when not too long after?

This is called yo-yo dieting and is usually what happens to most people who try to diet. You try a diet for a little, it either works so you stop because you lost the weight you wanted to, or if doesn’t work so you stop to try another one. Then you end up gaining the weight back because the diet didn’t teach you how to eat and live healthy, just how to follow that diets rules.

This can be exhausting mentally and physically, and you can’t keep yo-yoing forever, eventually you’ll cause damage to your body. Let’s talk through why the yo-yo diet method is harmful.

First off diets don’t teach you sustainable methods to losing weight and staying healthy. They teach quick fixes that don’t last. So even if you do lose weight while on a diet, once you stop doing it you will gain the weight back. Instead of dieting you should learn long term sustainable ways to lose weight and live healthy.

These could include taking the stairs whenever possible instead of the elevator, parking farther away in parking lots, going for walks during your lunch time or after work, making healthy swaps like water instead of soda a couple times a week, packing your own lunch instead of eating out. These are habits that you can form for your lifetime, little changes that make a big difference in the long term.

Yo-yo dieting is also dangerous for your mental health. The constant losing weight and gaining weight can cause a dangerous sense of what your body actually looks like. Body dysmorphia is one of the biggest factors in why dieting is harmful, it can lead to unrealistic goals of what your body should look like that you will never reach because you end up gaining weight and losing weight back and forth.

The term yo-yo can also reference your mental status, as it leads to high highs when you are on the diet and feeling good, and really low lows when you stop it and start to gain weight again.

This constant back and forth is overall very harmful for your body as well. Our hearts are the ones most affected by this. Weight cycling caused by yo-yo dieting can lead to an increased risk of heart disease and sudden cardiac death. A recent study found that women who had lost and regained at least 10 pounds were 3.5 times more at risk to suffer sudden cardiac death than women who maintained weights.

It also can damage your muscles. As most yo-yo fad diets don’t promote gaining muscle, the constant losing weight and gaining it back only in the form of fat leads to chronic lower muscle mass and higher fat mass that is harder to reverse in the long run.

Overall fad diets are never a good idea as they do harm to your mind, body, and overall health. If you are interested in losing weight, I would recommend focusing on long term sustainable methods by forming small habits that make big changes and can be carried with your throughout your life.

Unsure of where to start? Visit your local gym for a personal trainer and reach out to a Registered Dietitian for help forming healthy habits!