Weight Cycling or The Yo-yo Dieting Syndrome

Yo-Yo Dieting refers to a repeated cycle of weight loss and weight gain. The medical community often refers to this as "Weight Cycling".

And Then Some

I can't remember how many times I lost five or ten pounds only to regain it—and then some. Once when I was in OA, I lost 100 pounds only to regain it a few months latter, and then some. Each time I'd lose, I'd regain the weight plus a few pounds. That's how I got to 450 pounds. I sure didn't plan to get that heavy.

A high cost

It can be a serious emotional blow to end up back where you started after shedding all those extra pounds. It was always hard on my self-esteem and after awhile, I started to lose hope. I nearly gave up the dream of ever being healthy again. This only added to my self-loathing and feelings of helplessness.

Some popular myths

Many sources claim that weight cycling changes metabolism and our lean tissue to fat tissue ratios. There is precious little evidence to support these theories and even less proof that weight cycling effects any permanent change in metabolism and body composition.

Researchers have found that after a weight cycle, those who return to their original weights have the same amount of fat and lean tissue (muscle) as they did prior to weight cycling. Most studies show that weight cycling does not affect one’s metabolic rate—the rate at which the body burns fuel (food) for energy. Based on these findings, weight cycling should not affect the success of future weight-loss efforts.

However, people on quick weight loss diets and severe calorie restrictions do run the risk of shifting their bodies into a starvation mode where the metabolism slows and calories are hoarded as fat to preserve the system. This built in system of self-preservation worked well for cave men during hard times, but not so well for the modern person trying to shed excess fat tissue and keep it off. This often leads to frustration and precipitates the yo-yo dieting syndrome.

Diets

The first and most important step in preventing my long time pattern of yo-yo dieting was to eliminate the artificial boundary between dieting and normal healthy eating— weight loss and weight maintenance. From the start, I had to consider my new healthy way of eating a lifestyle change, not a diet. Diets don't cure Binge Eating Disorder, they exacerbate it.

Diets as we commonly think of them are temporary. Calories are restricted in order to drop pounds. When the goal weight is reached, most people return to their former eating habits and activity levels. Of course, the the weight comes back. Even the popular diets with their so called "maintenance phases" do little to help a person actually live a healthier lifestyle. Who can follow a rigid eating plan for the rest of their lives? I finally had to rethink my approach to weight loss. Many eating disorders specialists suggest that the first step to a healthy diet for a person with Binge Eating Disorder is gained by first establishing a stable pattern of regular eating, irregardless of what types of foods are being consumed.

An end to the madness

20 years ago when I was first starting out in AA, I heard a lot of people at meetings say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over in the same way and expecting different results. That's exactly what I did year after year with my dieting. It truly was insane. I just kept getting fatter, sicker, more isolated, and kept sinking deeper into the pits of depression. To escape this insanity, I had to radically change my thinking and the way I was approaching weight loss. It's wasn't easy to let go of my old ideas, but for me, letting go was an indispensable and lifesaving step.

Here are the basic steps I took once I figured out that dieting was part of the problem.

1. I stopped all dieting and diet-like behavior including the OA abstinence trap".
2. Started focusing on the process (action) rather than the end goal (weight loss). My primary goal changed from weight loss to becoming a healthier person (physically, mentally, and spiritually).
3. Began keeping an accurate food and mood journal to gain more insight into why I binged.
4. Began establishing a fairly stable pattern of eating while gradually increasing activity levels.
5. Gave myself permission to recover imperfectly and tried to stop thinking in black or white, All or Nothing terms.
6. Learned all I could about the science of human nutrition.
7. Started eating primarily whole natural foods.
8. Continued to improve the nutritional characteristics of the food I was eating and established a pattern of regular moderate exercise.

Just because someone has been caught up in yo-yo dieting for years does not doom them to failure. Focusing on small lifestyle changes that can be done consistently over time will bring more success and satisfaction than any restrictive or fad diet. The idea that achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is not an event, but a lifetime process was key to putting an end to my yo-yo dieting. There are no miracles in shedding excess fat tissue—but slow steady progress toward a healthier lifestyle does work. Weight loss is not a race, it’s a process.