Going going and off diets, gaining a few extra pounds, then losing the pounds….yo-yo dieting can become increasing hard on your health.
In today’s society we seem to thing it’s completely normal to go on and come of dieting every 5 seconds – who hasn’t dropped a few pounds before a freinds reunion or a beach holiday, but stop dieting once the event is finished with and to go and gain all the weight back plus more?
But research is showing us that chronic weight cycling, especially of you start dieting at a young age, it could cause long-term damage to our bodies, not to mention out mental health too.
Psychological toll of weight cycling
At first losing weight and being on a restictive diet may not seem that difficult, but trying to keep the weight off is often nearly impossible as your body reacts to what it suspects by slowing down your metabloism and sending hunger signals to your brain.
The is normally why majority of dieters gain the weight back, plus a few extra pounds – leading to a cycle of emotional highs and lows, feeling great about yourself, then feeling like a complete failure. With that you’ve lost weight in the past can sometime put even more pressure on yourself to lose the weight again the next time around – “we think well i’ve done it before, why can’t i do it again?” Another thing, is expecting yourself to have 20 year-old body at the age of 45 is unrealistic for most people, in addition to the changes in metabolism and the loss in muscle mass as we get older, hormonal shifts caused b pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause makes weight loss much more difficult.
“The more times a person weight-cycles, then greater their risk for depression”
What happens to our bodies every time we lose and gain weight?
After weight loss, your resting metabolism decreases -meaning your body burns off fewer calories whilst we are going about our daily business of breathing, sleeping and digesting.
“Just imangine, when you drop a rubber ball when it bounces back up, it actually goes hight than when it started out .” So when you regain the weight that you’ve lost, all thoes number bounce back higher than where you were before you lost the weight. Also over time, the continuous fluctuation stresses the cardiovascular system and you usually end up in a slightly worse position than you were at baseline. Plus when you regain weight back after a diet, the weight often comes back not as muscle, instead as fat.
“At least 2/3 of dieters gain more weight back than they lost within four or five years”
Ways to care for your body without the need to diet
By eating food the makes yoour feel nourished, that you also enjoy – without the need to count out every carbs and calories you eat – may end up being he key to remain at a steady weight, as well as stabilizing both your emotions and health.
“Eating foods that make you feel nourished may be the key to remaining at a steady weight”
