Research shows that chronic dieting is harmful to your body and mind. However, yo-yo dieting, where you are constantly back and forth between being on and off a diet, can be even worse for you.
Yo-yo dieting is when you either constantly bounce to different types of diets, or you are on a perpetual restrict-and-binge cycle. Your body is going through a lot of changes at a rapid pace, which is definitely not good for you.
Let´s have a look at what happens in your body and mind when you yo-yo diet.
You Give Up More Easily
Probably the most important effect yo-yo dieting has on your mindset. Due to the failed diets in the past, you can´t believe anymore that you can lose weight and keep it off.
When you went on a weight-loss diet the first time it was kind of exciting. You had a lot of motivation, and a positive attitude and you were convinced that you would succeed. But after many failed attempts you can´t summon these positive feelings anymore.
You don´t feel motivated, and you think that you are going to fail again anyway, what´s the point, why would it work this time, you can´t stick to any plan. You can´t believe that you can lose weight anymore and you might even feel like a failure.
These and similarly negative thoughts make you do the current diet half-heartedly and you don´t feel motivated to stick to your plan. Consequently, you fail again, proving to yourself that what you thought was true and you are indeed a failure and you can´t lose weight.
It´s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Now you feel bad about yourself, and you might even hate your body and turn to food for comfort (often to a lot of food because “what´s the point of trying to eat better if I don´t lose weight anyway”). Can you see how yo-yo dieting doesn´t help you lose weight and it may even make you gain weight?
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You Can´t Tell Anymore When You Are Hungry or Full
When you are on a diet you have pre-determined portions, types of food, and meal-eating windows, you don´t listen to your body and eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. When you are on a diet, you don’t rely on your hunger, but instead on numbers. How many calories, carbs, protein, etc. you can have. You can´t tell anymore when you are hungry or full.
But we are not a furnace burning the same amount of calories every day. Our appetite changes from day to day depending on our activity level, stress level, how much we slept, and our menstrual cycle. When you are on a diet some days you are not that hungry but you eat your allocated calories just because you can. On other days you starve at the end of the day but don´t let yourself eat because no more calories left for that day.
On days like this, you might not have the willpower to resist the food and you overeat to make up for all the lost and future opportunities because tomorrow you need to restrict yourself again. This is how yo-yo dieting starts.
Hormone Fluctuations From Yo-Yo Dieting
When you diet, especially back and forth between eating and restricting, your cortisol level increases. But that´s not all. The constant worrying about how much you weigh and how your body looks also increases your cortisol level. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and can actually increase your risk for heart disease and diabetes!
Research shows that our thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs, stress, relaxation, pleasure, and awareness all affect how we metabolize the food we eat. If you stress too much about eating perfectly, you cause yourself a lot of unnecessary anxiety about food and you are unable to enjoy the experience of eating anymore. This self-induced stress combined with the stress originating from everyday life challenges increases your cortisol level. Cortisol shuts down digestion, makes us feel less pleasure, and switches on fat storage. It´s the opposite of what you want when you start a diet.
You Might Have a Bigger Appetite and More Cravings
Yo-yo dieting also changes your appetite and what you crave. It may seem like you are out of control, but this is not about willpower, it is actually from dieting itself. In your body, you have two different hunger hormones – leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin is the hormone that increases your appetite, while leptin decreases your appetite, and can help you feel full.
If you are dieting, the hormone leptin often decreases, while ghrelin increases, creating an imbalance. Feel like you are constantly starving? Your diet might be the reason, and not just because you aren’t eating enough.
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Your Metabolism Adapts and Slows Down
Wonder why when you start a diet, you seem to hit a plateau quickly? This is probably the result of your metabolism slowing down because of all the feast and famine periods your body has gone through. Your body is very smart and knows what it’s doing.
But when you put it through the wringer from yo-yo diets, you are actually making it harder to lose weight thanks to your metabolism slowing down. It´s better for you if you stop undereating and overexercising, give up the diets, and start to eat a healthy balanced diet, and start to move regularly. You can find a balance when you eat and move the right amount for your own individual body, not too much, not too little, just right. When you find this balance you will be able to sustain these healthy habits for a long time.
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