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Many people struggle to maintain their ideal weight, but losing and regaining weight regularly, known as the yo-yo diet, is unlikely to help.
A new study found that women who lost at least 10 pounds, but who regained that weight within one year, were more likely to have risk factors for heart disease. The more frequent the diet of yo-yo, the worse the health of their heart.
Slightly overweight
The yo-yo diet also does not help women maintain their weight in a healthy range. The study found that yo-yo dieters were 82% less likely to achieve optimal weight.
"The weight cycle is extremely common (the range goes from zero to 20 cycles) and a history of one or more weight cycle episodes have been associated with a lower health score," said the doctor. author of the study, Brooke Aggarwal. She is an Assistant Professor of Medical Science at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
The study included nearly 500 women in the New York area. Their average age was 37 years old. Nearly two-thirds came from racial or ethnic minorities.
The average body mass index (BMI) of women in the study was 26 – slightly overweight. The BMI is a rough estimate of a person's body fat based on measurements of height and weight. According to the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. Overweight is between 25 and 29.9, and over 30 is considered obese.
Nearly three-quarters of women reported having a yo-yo diet at least once.
Yo-yo roller coaster
The researchers verified women's heart health using the American Life Association's "Life Simple 7" recommendations. These seven factors are considered a measure of the extent to which people control their risk factors for heart disease. The seven steps include eating well, exercising regularly, losing weight, quitting, and managing blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.
Women who had previously followed a yo-yo diet were 51% less likely to have a moderate total score on Life's Simple 7. They were 65% less likely to have an optimal score, revealed the study.
The more a woman had dieted and quickly regained weight, the worse her score in Simple 7's life. Women who had never been pregnant seemed to be more affected by the effects of the yo-yo diet.
"These women were probably younger, and the younger you start your yo-yo diet, the more it could be worse for you – if you go up early in the roller coaster, your cardiovascular risk is increased," said Aggarwal.
So, how could a yo-yo diet be bad for the health of your heart?
Aggarwal said this study did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. But she noted that when you lose weight, you tend to lose lean muscle, and when you regain weight, it is often fat. And, she says, it's often the fats that settle in the abdomen, which is associated with a higher risk of heart disease.
Keep the body alive
Samantha Heller is a nutritionist at NYU Langone Health in New York. She did not participate in the study, but commented on the results.
"Our bodies do not understand why we have or do not eat, our bodies know when they have enough nutrients to survive," she said. "If you follow a restricted diet and start eating again, your body can start saving what it can because it does not know when the food will come in. Your body is just trying to keep you alive, and more time, the body becomes more efficient at that. "
Heller said your body would make you find food when he thought he needed it. "Does not the food taste better when you're really hungry? It's the body that drives you to eat and keep it alive."
What this means, Heller said, is that it's best "to try to adopt a diet that we can keep forever." She suggested an essentially herbal diet, such as the Mediterranean diet.
Aggarwal said that she recommends "to make small lasting changes." Small changes do not cause a "bounce effect".
Aggarwal will present the results at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Houston. The results presented at the meetings are generally considered preliminary until they have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Image credit: iStock
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