Why Yo-Yo Dieting Doesn't Work

Surveys have shown that no more than 5% of all weight loss is maintained at the end of one year. That's not very encouraging when you consider the average American goes on a diet 3 or 4 times per year. Why are so many individuals involved in this self-defeating act? An obsession with thinness and the limited view that dieting will help you lose weight, has Americans spending vast sums on diets. But the final analysis is that "diets" don't work.

Our Attitudes Towards Dieting

The audience laughed when a comedian said the root of the word diet is "to die." It reminds one the dying urge to eat, and a life filled with missing the fun of eating and wilted celery sticks. The phrase "going on a diet" often makes you think about when it will end. Thinking about dieting makes you start craving foods you had even forgotten about. Dieting may be the socially accepted thing to do but the statistics prove that it is simply not helping.

I If diets are so effective, why do Americans continue to spend 10 billion dollars per year?

Why Diets Don't Work

Avid dieters often can less their metabolisms enough to decrease their caloric requirements. This can be done in two ways.

First, a diet of less than about 1000 (a little more for men) calories can actually cause a starvation-like state and force your body to conserve calories. The body will reduce its caloric needs to survive. Therefore, you won't lose more over the long haul on a starvation level 500 calorie diet than you would on one above about 1000 calories. The effects of starvation can be long lasting: The metabolism can stay lowered for as long as a year.

Second, binge dieting can change the body's composition. Let's say you lost 10 pounds in two weeks. much of that weight was water (5 pounds), some was fat (3 pounds), and the rest was muscle (2 pounds). When the weight is regained (as 95% will do), it comes back in the form of fat and water. Every future diet can cycle this downward trend of reduction in muscle mass until the chronic dieter can change their percentage of body fat (BMI) over time from 25% to 35-40%. Surprisingly, the scale may not show large amounts of weight change. Muscle burns up more calories than fat and their binge dieting has made them lose a large percentage of what helps them keep trim. This yo-yo effect of deprivation and regaining can hurt the body. Yo-yo dieting is more dangerous than maintaining an even weight.

What Does Work

What does help lose and maintain weight is healthy eating habits and foods choices and a more active life-style. Take a fresh look at your daily food choices and exercise—get rid of the idea that a diet is something to endure for a month after which you can go back to your old habits. Make short and long term goals to slowly change your life-style to include healthier food choices and to be more active at work and play. You'll be healthier and happier when you give up dieting and will be closer to achieving a long lasting weight loss by focusing on the quality of your diet and exercise habits.