Many weight watchers experience a weight loss and weight gain cycle which Dr Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D. from Yale University, called “Yo-yo dieting”. In “yoyo dieting” or weight cycling, weight watchers manage to achieve weight loss in the beginning but are unable to maintain the reduction, regaining the weight back after some time. They then start to lose the regained weight and the cycle begins again.

The causative factors of the “yo-yo” diet may vary although weight cycling is mainly attributed to an extreme diet plan also known as “crash diets”. When a diet plan calls for severe and drastic restriction of calorie intake such as skipping meals and even starvation, this may lead to the “yo-yo diet” effect.

There is an imbalance in nutrition when one practices unhealthy eating habits. As a result, your body adapts, like a response to a famine. The human body has a survival mechanism that slows down the body’s metabolism to keep energy as well as retain fat when starved.

Let’s take a closer look at the “yoyo diet”. At the beginning, there is weight loss when you take a drastic cut in calorie intake. After some time, your body will experience the effects of excessive dieting. Detrimental effects such as fatigue, stress and depression can take place. It would not take long for you to realise that the drastic cut in your daily calorie intake is no longer possible to maintain.