Repeated weight loss trips, often called “yo-yo” or “weight cycling” diets, have gained a reputation for being bad for our health and potentially making future battles with weight even more difficult. But the latest review of decades of evidence shows that yo-yo diets are not responsible for more fat accumulation, faster muscle loss, or slower metabolism.
review, published Lancet, It aims to find out if the old adage that yo-yo dieting is bad for our health is based in science or just a point of view. To set the record straight, two prominent professors reviewed decades of research data involving both humans and animals and concluded that there is no causal evidence to show a link between weight cycling and long-term damage in people with obesity.
“Many people struggling with weight avoid trying to lose weight because they fear that ‘yo-yo’ dieting will lead to muscle loss and somehow screw up their metabolism.” Prof. Faydon Magkos explained. “Our review shows that these fears are largely unsupported. In most cases, the benefits of trying to lose weight outweigh the theoretical risks of weight cycling.”
Is Yo-Yo Dieting Bad For Your Health?
The review found no consistent evidence to suggest that weight cycling causes a disproportionate loss of lean muscle mass or a long-term depression of metabolism. Instead, most people who regain weight after yo-yo dieting return to a similar starting point and return to their previous body composition, not to an unhealthy state.
Professors point out that regaining weight reverses many of the benefits of weight loss, such as improvements in blood sugar, blood pressure and lipid levels. But this does not mean that a person is worse than before he lost weight. “Weight loss brings people back to baseline risk — not more,” Magkos explained. “There’s a big difference between losing a profit and doing damage.”
Professor Norbert Stephan added that while yo-yo diets are to blame, there are other factors at play. “When you factor in pre-existing health conditions, aging and the general effects of obesity, the potentially harmful effects of weight cycling largely disappear,” he said.
When average body weight over time is considered, weight cycling does not predict risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. High adiposity itself, rather than weight change, appears to be the main driver of such risk.
Now with people The jump to GLP-1 drugsthe effect of addition is of great interest. “The idea that ‘yo-yo dieting destroys your metabolism’ is not supported by solid evidence,” was the take-home message from both professors. “Trying—and even failing—isn’t bad for losing weight. But giving up completely can be.”
