Yo-yo dieting refers to losing and regaining weight. While you would think that losing weight, even if it’s only for a short time, is better than losing no weight at all, science appears to disagree.

According to the American Heart Association, being overweight in middle age raises the risk of dying from two types of heart disease: coronary heart disease, in which blood vessels are blocked by fat and other materials, and sudden cardiac death, in which the heart’s electrical system stops working suddenly.

However, it remained unclear if decreasing or gaining weight as an adult increased the risk of dying from such diseases.

Real Side effects of Yo-yo dieting

Researchers looked at 153,063 postmenopausal women who self-reported their weights to find out.

At the outset of the trial, women were asked to describe their weights as normal (BMI less than 25), overweight (BMI 25 to 29.9), or obese (BMI greater than 29.9). (a BMI greater than 30). They also shared their adult weight histories, identifying themselves as steady, steadily growing, steadily reducing, or weight cycling (if they had lost and regained 10 pounds or more). The authors explained that weight acquired and lost during pregnancy does not count as weight cycling.

For more than 11 years, researchers tracked the outcomes of their patients, recording deaths from coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death.

During the research, 2,526 fatalities from coronary heart disease and 83 deaths from sudden cardiac death were observed. The women’s beginning weights and weight histories over time were used to characterize the deaths.

Weight cycling was not linked to an increased risk of heart disease-related mortality in overweight and obese women.

The findings from the group of normal-weight women who admitted to weight cycling were the most surprising. They were 312 times more likely than women with stable weights to die of sudden cardiac death. Yo-yo dieting was also linked to a 66 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease mortality in normal-weight women, according to the study.

“Normal-weight women who said ‘yes’ to weight cycling when they were younger had an increased risk of sudden cardiac death and increased risk of coronary heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks and other serious issues,” said the authors.

Also a danger factor was the women’s weight cycling (losing and gaining 10 pounds or more).

“The more cycling, the more hazardous (to their hearts).”

Yo-yo dieting dangers

“We’ve known for years that weight cycling is just hard on the body,” explains Nicholas Rusciolelli, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Certified Cardiac Rehab Professional at SCL Health. “It causes issues with the endocrine system and body composition.”

The research was solely observational, and it didn’t look into why weight cycling is linked to poor heart health. The “overshoot theory,” as proposed by the study’s author, is one possible explanation. Weight gain can raise blood pressure, cholesterol, and body fat levels. When the person loses weight, those levels will drop, though not to the levels they were before the weight gain.

Losing and gaining weight in cycles might eventually raise these levels to harmful levels. This, according to Rusciolelli, makes sense.

“For example, somebody gains 20 pounds of weight in body fat and then they lose that 20 pounds, it’s not 20 pounds of body fat that they’re losing,” he adds. “It’s a portion of body fat, plus a portion of lean muscle mass that they’re losing. Even though the weight might get back to their baseline, their body composition has changed in a negative aspect.

“That’s especially true with yo-yo dieting because people tend to lose the weight primarily through calorie restriction or calorie restriction combined with increased aerobic activity.”

Weight cycling has a harmful impact on men as well, but  Dr. Michael Miller, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, says the yo-yo dieting affects “women more than men.”

According to Jillian Michaels – a personal trainer, a failure to exercise, and a willingness to embrace “fad diets” is one of the “key mistakes” people make when trying to shed some pounds.

“They don’t exercise and try fad diets which are extremely ineffective and often result in yo-yo dieting.

“This means they destroy their metabolism which can make them lose weight at first but eventually put it all back on and then some.”

The next biggest mistake people make, according to Jillian, is consuming “empty calories”.

These calories are frequently present in drinks that have little nutrients but are high in calories, particularly alcohol.

According to experts, women consume 2,000 calories per day and men consume 2,500 calories per day to stay healthy.

Jillian recommends opting for “whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes” in your diet, and switching “empty calorie” drinks for water.

Image Credit: Getty

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