Yo-yo Diets Haven’t Screwed Up Your Metabolism

Posted by Staff (08/21/2012 @ 7:48 pm)


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Don’t dispair if you are one of millions of dieters who have achieved weight loss success only to gain it all back, then repeat the cycle over and over again year after year.

Yo-yo dieting, as it is called, has been blamed for ruining metabolism and making it impossible for some to achieve real and permanent weight loss, however, a new study finds that this old wisdom may not be true.

The key to success is to keep a food journal and aim for healthy eating and exercise habits.

Weigh yourself weekly and don’t skip meals.

Being accountable to friends, family, doctor or trainers help.

Keeping a food and exercise journal keeps you accountable if only to yourself.

At the end of the study, which lasted a full year, researchers found something that they weren’t expecting: The yo-yo dieters fared just as well as the non-yo-yo dieters. There was no significant difference seen in the effect of diet or exercise, body fat percentage or lean muscle mass gained or lost.
“I was very surprised. People who have a history of weight cycling by definition have problems with lifestyle change for weight loss because they gain the weight back again,” McTiernan says. “I was surprised to find that, while many of them weighed more than the non-cyclers, they did just as well at losing weight with our lifestyle-change weight program as did women who did not have a weight cycling history.”

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