How to Overcome (and Avoid) Yo-Yo Dieting

You did it! You changed up your eating habits and watched the numbers on the scale fall in response. You lost weight.

Then, life happened and you realized that following a strict diet like keto or paleo wasn’t for you, or perhaps you couldn’t commit to never looking at ice cream again. In short, what you were doing didn’t work for you over the long haul, and you went back to your previous eating habits. You gained back the weight.

Weight loss isn’t everyone’s goal, nor should it be. But for those looking to go down a pants size or two, this phenomenon — called yo-yo dieting — can be downright frustrating.

The good news is that when you consider the science, you’ll learn that the weight regain may not be entirely your fault.

Your body is just trying to reach homeostasis — that natural equilibrium where it’s at a weight that is comfortable and familiar. Fortunately, you can overcome this vicious cycle and finally reach your goal weight. After all, that’s what being resilient is all about: bouncing back in the face of adversity. Indeed, Everyday Health’s United States of Resilience survey in 2020 found that among those classified as resilient, 71 percent maintained a “Let’s do something about it” philosophy, rather than giving up and having an “It is what it is” mindset.

But first, to overcome these weight fluctuations, you have to understand the fundamentals of this common phenomenon.

What Is Yo-Yo Dieting — and How Common Is It, Really?

The clinical term for yo-yo dieting is “weight cycling,” which means gaining weight unintentionally and dieting in response, then regaining that weight once again, according to research. Then you go back on a weight loss diet, and the cycle repeats.

While fad diets make big promises, they have a dirty secret: They’re usually not designed for lasting change. The aforementioned paper notes that 80 percent of people who lose a significant amount of weight (defined as at least 10 percent of their starting body weight) regain it within a year.

The up-and-down cycle has been shown to backfire, too, ultimately pushing you further away from your goal. In a study published in March 2018 in Preventive Medicine, researchers looked at more than 10,000 middle-aged women in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health over the course of 12 years. Almost 40 percent said that they had weight cycled. Healthy or overweight women who were “frequent weight cyclers” (defined as intentionally losing 11 or more pounds at least three times) gained more weight than those who kept their weight more stable. (This was not true of women who were obese.) Frequent weight cyclers were also more likely to have turned to dangerous means of losing weight, such as laxatives, diuretics, and diet pills.

Is Yo-Yo Dieting Bad for Your Health? Here’s What the Research Suggests

There’s a debate about what yo-yoing can really do to you, healthwise.

Some people say that any success at losing weight — no matter how temporary — is a win, and data on the ill effects is mixed. For instance, a previous study published in Metabolism analyzed more than 400 overweight and inactive post-menopausal women and found that those with a history of yo-yo dieting were heavier and less healthy metabolically. But the researchers pointed out that their poorer metabolic health was due to higher body mass index (BMI) or greater body fat, not because of the weight cycling itself. More important, future attempts to lose weight were still worth it. These people were still able to reap the benefits of healthy lifestyle habits, lose weight, and see their health improve (they experienced better insulin function, for instance).

Yet recent research is shedding light on how weight fluctuations can be damaging. In a study published in December 2018 in Circulation involving data from 6.7 million people, those who had the greatest amounts of variability in their blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol numbers (which can be caused by weight swings), as well as in their BMI, had up to 2.3 times higher odds of death from any cause, compared with those who had the most even-keeled numbers. When looking at BMI specifically, those who had the greatest amount of variability had a 14 percent higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Note, though, that one limitation of this study was that the authors were not able to distinguish between people who lost weight intentionally and those who lost it unintentionally.

As for mental health, you can see how this weight loss whiplash might be psychologically draining. Indeed, the Preventive Medicine study also found that weight-cycling women were 50 percent more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms. Yet the researchers wrote that it wasn’t clear whether the mental health struggles led to weight gain or whether the stress of dieting was the cause of the depressive symptoms.

The Scientific Reason Why You’re Yo-Yo Dieting in the First Place

If you recognize yourself as being caught in this process, know that it’s okay and there’s no shame. Diets that preach restrictions often lead to “overcompensation” or binge eating. “Over time, this goes into a chronic cycle,” says registered dietitian Ginger Hultin, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the owner of Champagne Nutrition in Seattle.

The need to eat and feed yourself adequately is a matter of biology. Experts like to sum it up this way: You didn’t fail the diet — the diet failed you. “What you’re dealing with is actually biology. It’s so strong, and no amount of willpower or diet plan will let you overcome what the body is programmed to do. As soon as you restrict too much, limiting a macronutrient (carbs, fat, protein) or calories, the body rebels by slowing the metabolism,” Hultin says. In short: You don’t lose weight as quickly and you are likely to gain weight over the long term. Also, once you lose weight, your metabolism slows naturally. A smaller body requires fewer calories.

In the popular Biggest Loser diet study, researchers explained why weight can quickly rebound. When looking at 14 past participants of the extreme weight loss show, they found that their resting metabolic rate (RMR) decreased by 704 calories per day, on average. Essentially, that means their metabolism slowed down.

You would expect metabolism to slow following weight loss because their bodies were smaller. But even after weight regain, their RMR continued to be lower than what would be expected for their now-larger size. The participants lost about 128 pounds, on average, by the end of the show, but they regained about 90 pounds after six years.

Another reason for the gain? It’s important to remember the behind-the-scenes details of the competition: The participants worked out for several hours a day with a trainer and had food provided for them. Once they were on their own again, they no longer had access to those things, so it was likely more difficult for them to maintain their weight in a real-life setting.

Here’s what researchers found was key to maintaining weight loss: exercise. In a later study involving contestants from The Biggest Loser, the median weight loss was 13 percent of initial body weight after six years. But those who kept the most weight off — 25 percent of their body weight — had one defining factor: They increased their time spent exercising by a whopping 160 percent from what it was before the show. Some participants regained slightly more weight (up to 5 percent) than their starting weight — and they only increased their physical activity by 34 percent. That sounds like a tall order, and for many people, it probably is. The study authors estimate that the amount of activity needed to maintain weight loss is 80 minutes of moderate activity or 35 minutes of vigorous activity daily.

How to Get Back on Track With Your Weight Loss Plan

This back-and-forth cycle can set you up to feel like a failure if you’re set on losing weight. “It’s so frustrating,” says Hultin. “Many of my clients have a lifelong history of weight cycling, a pattern that started as children and continued into their teen and adult years,” she says.

But you can get off the roller coaster. It’s possible to break free of the fads, put in the mental work, and come out healthier and happier than before. No more thinking that you’re a failure because you couldn’t stick to a crazy fad diet.

Here’s how to begin.

Cut the restrictions. Watch out for any diet that restricts an entire food group or forces you to cut out everything that you love, says Hultin. “It’s these unrealistic plans that cause this weight cycle,” she says.

Make a mental shift. “A large part of yo-yoing is not changing the fundamental psychology behind eating,” says Tiffany Wright, PhD, aka the Skinny Coach, a weight loss expert in Los Angeles who has studied the psychological and behavioral factors that lead to overeating. Because our daily environment tends to be littered with these triggers (like the neon sign of a fast-food restaurant on your way home after a stressful day of work), losing weight is not about how much willpower you have or how well you can follow diet rules. “While most people can go on any diet for a certain amount of time, it doesn’t address the triggers or associations that lead you down a path of weight gain in the first place,” says Dr. Wright. That’s why it’s so easy to go back to your former habits.

Find help. Whether your goal is to lose weight or adopt healthier habits that will improve your health (with or without weight loss as the end goal), tap into the wisdom of someone who knows this stuff and can guide you along the way. “There’s this sense that you can do it on your own, but I think that people need help from a professional,” Wright says. “I think of this as a skill that needs to be learned, like gymnastics or cooking. It’s okay to get help.”

Consider your headspace. You have to address your relationship with food, particularly if you’ve developed fears involving it. “Is there a potential for disordered eating? I think many people walk around in that space without support,” says Hultin. Disordered eating is a broader term that doesn’t fit into typical definitions of anorexia or bulimia, but it still deserves to be taken seriously, as it can lead to health problems, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Talk to your doctor or a dietitian who can offer a referral to a therapist who specializes in eating disorders, if needed.

Look beyond the scale. Weight isn’t everything. Are your labs normal? Are you sleeping okay? Exercising appropriately? While it may seem easier to mark your progress with the scale, there are other, often overlooked changes that also impact your overall health, says Hultin.