The Dangers of Yo-Yo Dieting

By Maria Khalife

Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork.  ~English Proverb
 Dieting can be both a boon and a blessing. Yes, you might lose weight, but you have to also look at what it’s costing you in your health.  If a diet promises rapid weight loss, you are almost guaranteed when you go off the diet, rapid weight gain will happen. This is called yo-yo dieting and it’s not healthy for your body, your self-esteem, and your health.

 Yo-Yo Dieting vs Healthy Dieting

You have not arrived at the place of wanting to diet overnight.  You have developed eating habits that are unwise, unhealthy, and are not working for you.  A yo-yo diet will NOT re-establish healthy eating habits that will serve you well across your lifetime.  In fact, it might even make the problem worse! Yo-yo dieting is guaranteed to put the rapid weight lost right back on.
People choose a “quick-weight-loss” (yo-yo) diet because in our fast-paced lives, instant gratification has become the norm.  For a weight-loss diet to serve you well, you must convince yourself that slow and steady is a healthier choice.

How Does a Yo-Yo Diet Affect Your Health

Most yo-yo diets are dangerously low in calories. It’s starvation, and that is dangerous.  You require fuel several times throughout the day. Lack of fuel promotes exhaustion, maybe depression, muscle loss, your blood chemistries are torqued, you experience lowered self-esteem (despite the weight loss,) and a rapid return to the unhealthy eating that made you want to lose weight quickly in the first place.

With low self-esteem in place, your binge eating returns, and the old (unhealthy) habit is right back in place.  You have not gained progress, only your weight, plus you now are at a much higher risk of manifesting diabetes, gallbladder problems, cholesterol problems and blood pressure problems.  And you can’t even say “well, I did lose weight!” because that’s right back in place.
So, What Do You Recommend Over Yo-Yo Dieting?
Remember the science classes in lower school that taught you what a healthy diet was? It might be time to re-study nutrition and learn how to lose weight in a more healthy manner.

• Re-educate Yourself.  Take a class in nutrition at your local college or on-line. Research in a bookstore or online what the latest diet fads and favorites are today. Do you understand what a carbohydrate is, how it is burned, if it is retained? And look to see if today’s fast-paced environment and demands on your time are pushing you toward fast-foods that are not as healthy.

• Give Yourself Two Years to Change.  Did that bit of advice repulse you?  You still have a yo-yo dieters mentality.  Seriously, remember that to change habits of eating and exercise and lifestyle, you have a boatload of work to do. You will have peaks and valleys. You will have good days and bad days.  Take the long view and make a long-time commitment to continue to work toward completion across a substantial period of time in order to enjoy the permanent results you want.

• Change Your Lifestyle.  Most overweight folks are too sedentary.  Take a look at how much actual activity you’re doing each day and think of ways to increase it.  You can park further from the door of where you’re visiting.  You can take the stairs vs. the elevator. You can walk around the block every evening. You can walk on your work breaks.  Find ways to become more active. If you’re really committed, join a gym and get the help of a personal trainer.

• Eat Fewer Calories. If you’ve taken a nutrition class recently, you’ll remember how the teacher pushed leafy green vegetables and fresh fruits.  Find a way to substitute high carbohydrate foods with these veggies and fruits. The world has a huge offering of diet plans.  Research them and find one that works for you, that takes you through phases of the diet, and leaves you with a truly healthy eating plan once you lose all that weight.

Let your doctor know what your eating and exercise plans are to be sure you have their blessing and approval, especially if you have medical conditions that have to be cared for. You can put your yo-yo dieting plans away forever.