Over half the population of adult women will be on a diet at any given time. And for seventy percent of these women, this will not be their first diet.
It might surprise you to hear that approximately 95% of dieters regain their lost weight after between 1 and 5 years. If you are a yo–yo dieter ie. someone who loses weight and regains it in a never-ending cycle, it is likely that this will be taking its toll on your body; not only physically but emotionally and psychologically too.
It might feel like dieting is the only way you can be happy and healthy, feel good about yourself and enjoy your life; but have you ever weighed up the cost of doing so?
WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR METABOLISM?
Most people eventually end up the same weight or heavier than when they started the diet. This is because the body typically reduces the amount of energy it uses when weight is lost to preserve it, whilst at the same time, hunger increases. Hunger hormones, including ghrelin rises with weight loss and satiety hormones decrease.
And there is the ‘set-point’ theory to consider. This proposes that the body uses a natural mechanism to maintain its natural weight, rather like a ‘fat thermostat’ so that it will always go back to its ideal weight range, after restriction or over exercise. This can fluctuate during our life-time and thought to be regulated by mechanisms of our metabolism and thyroid hormones.
MUSCLE VERSUS FAT
Another complication of weight cycling (as it’s known in scientific literature) is that it’s likely to lead to a less healthy body composition. When breaking down the body into its core components – fat mass and lean body mass (organs, skin, bones, body water and muscle mass) we can have a far better understanding of the physiological changes in the body.
During weight loss, fat mass tends to reduce more than lean mass. However, when weight is regained, the proportion of fat in the body increases more than that of muscle and bones etc.
METABOLIC CHANGE AND YO-YO DIETING?
There is some evidence to indicate that weight cycling may lead to the development of conditions such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and hypertension (high blood pressure). Although more research is needed in this area as some studies have been found to refute this.
HOW IT MAKES US FEEL
I witness the emotional impact that yo-yo dieting has on my clients – and the literature back’s this up too; Poor body image, a preoccupation with how they look, feelings of failure and shame, as well as higher risk of depression and anxiety. Bingeing behaviour stems from restriction and the feeling of deprivation that dieting brings.
The diet industry would have you believe that the only way to be truly healthy is if you are slim and that the only way to enjoy life, be happy and like yourself is if you diet. My mission is to help debunk this myth and help women build a happy relationship with food and their body. It is possible to accept your body whether you are carrying excess weight or not, without dieting. It is possible to eat in a balanced way AND take joy from your food.