Yo-Yo Dieting: Knowing Weight Cycling & How to Prevent It

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Losing weight is a challenge that we face every day. And then how to maintain the weight loss without regaining it all is a challenge on its own. As a physician, I hear that I lost weight before by this fad diet last time, and I got off the diet and regained it all and maybe some more. Or I get asked, last time I went on a low-calorie diet, I am doing the same this time but cannot seem to lose any weight. So numerous people go through yo-yo dieting. 

What is this yo-yo dieting? 

Yo-yo dieting or Weight cycling is a phenomenon that everybody goes through, where you gain and lose 10% of your weight at least three times in a lifetime. Especially almost 50% of women that are overweight have experienced it. When you go on a low-calorie diet, the weight loss is quick but reaches a nadir at approximately 3- 6 months, and then the weight starts climbing again. A study in 2009 reported independent of the low-carb or low-fat diet, weight gain relapse was present after 3-6 months of the diet.

What?! What do you mean the weight starts climbing? Tell me more. 

Weight is a balancing act of energy intake and energy output. We burn energy during exercising, digesting food, daily functioning of the vital organs, resting, sleeping, or breathing. Our bodies need a minimum number of calories per day to sustain our energy intake or requirements at rest to perform these functions. This minimum number of calories daily forms our basal metabolic rate (BMR). Our basal metabolic rate is dependent on numerous factors such as age, sex ( females burn fewer calories at BMR), muscle mass, current weight, and of course, genetics matter too. 

Humans evolved their bodies for survival, so the body designed its mechanisms to help us survive famine. Famine in this era occurs when we diet and cut out calories. Each restricting caloric diet helps lose weight initially. But due to the body's mechanisms to support survival, it decreases the energy used due to a decrease in body size and a reduction in food intake; there is a decrease in energy required to digest the food. And so, the weight loss journey comes to a plateau due to the reduction in the new low basal metabolic rate known as metabolic adaptation. 

Metabolic adaptation is best chronicled by New York Times in 2016, which published an article about The Biggest Loser Season 8 contestant Danny Cahill and his slow metabolic state after winning the weight loss challenge. At the beginning of season 8, he weighed 430 lbs, and at the end of the challenge, he was lean at 190 lbs. But as the years progressed, he regained 100 lbs in 6 years. The weight gain was due to the metabolic adaptation and hormones, where his body utilized 800 calories less per day after the dramatic weight loss, compared to someone his size to operate daily functions—also added more fat for the pseudo-famine caused by an extremely low-calorie diet. Metabolic adaptation and hormones try to regain the lost weight. 

So now there are hormones as well involved in weight gain? 

Yes, to name a few, leptin. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat tissues and is directly proportional to the fat tissue in your body. So more fat tissue means more leptin production, and less body fat means less leptin production. After weight loss, fewer fat cells are available, and leptin secretion is reduced, which increases food intake, and the body fights to lose fat and weight to survive starvation. Now the body starts storing more fat away, increasing body fat mass. So each time you lose weight, you gain more fat. 

So, the conclusion is not to lose weight? 

No, that is not correct. On the contrary, weight loss is necessary. Weight loss has prevented numerous disease processes from cancers [read here], high blood pressure, diabetes, and sequela, to name a few. But consistency is the solution here with a diet and exercise combination, and measuring weight daily is my recommendation as a physician. Be cautious about using an overly low-calorie diet to lose weight quickly, as it has repercussions. Losing one to two pounds per week continuously and avoiding crash diets to lose weight for that vacation or wedding is the solution.

So keep being persistent and consistent in eating a balanced meal, exercising, and weighing yourself daily. Find the balance and try to avoid the roller coaster ride.