When a person wishes to go on a diet, they may experience the ups and downs that come with the process of dieting. This is when the term “yo yo dieting” comes into play. Even though a person may lose weight after beginning a diet, they will have to work hard to keep up and maintain the progress. Yo yo dieting is also seen in individuals who are obese.
Those who are obese have more fat cells than a person who is physically fit. Their fat cells are also larger. When an obese man or woman diets, their fat cells do not decrease in numbers, they only grow smaller. This means that when food intake increases after a diet, the fat cells will return to their original state, making the overall appearance of the individual larger. This is why it is important for a person to find a diet that they will be able to stick to; they will be able to feel better and maintain their weight loss better.
Although the trend of dieting has been mostly associated with women; men also experience these ups and downs of yo yo dieting. During short-term dieting, a dieter must exercise or else half or more of the weight they lose will be due to a loss in muscles. Muscle loss will lead to a variety of problems, such as a thinner, weaken body prone to breakdowns and fatigue; weakened maintenance of weight because it is muscle than burns calories, not fat; and when weight is gained back, it is mostly fat that will stick to the body- exercise is needed to build muscles.
Another result of yo yo dieting is when the weight is gained back, a dieter who does not exercise will not only be fatter, but will appear thicker than they were before. For example, let’s say a man weighed 300 pounds and wore a 5x shirt. He diets without exercising, then loses 20 pounds. Now, let’s say that he regains the weight, but now he is puzzled as to why he now has to fit into a size 6x shirt. The reason is that
fat is lighter and less dense than muscle, so it takes more fat weight, as well as bulk, to replace the lost muscle weight. Exercise can eliminate some of these problems.
Not only is yo yo dieting a frustrating process, but it is not good for your overall health. When a person bounces from weight gain to weight loss and back to weight gain again, the immune system suffers. Studies have shown that negative health effects of yo-yo dieting can still be detected years after the fact. If a man participates in crash dieting, such as trying to lose ten pounds in ten days, they will most likely suffer from a yo yo dieting trend. If they are trying to maintain a healthy weight, they should choose a diet that promotes a healthy diet over longer periods of time. The diet should be a complete lifestyle change and not something to try for one brief moment. It has been said that if you lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, you are probably doing too much.
If you are interested in reading a little more on the subject, you should look into such books as:
The Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome: How to Heal and Stabilize Your Appetite and Weight by Doreen Virtue
How to Stop the Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome by Charles Schoelen
The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet : The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting by Rachael F. Heller
The Turbo-Protein Diet: Stop Yo-Yo Dieting Forever by Dieter Markert
The Low Carb Yo-Yo: Why Low Carb Diets Dont’ Work by Barry Sears
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