The Problem with Yo-Yo Dieting

Yo-yo dieting is where you regularly alternate between dieting and eating 'normally'. When you're on a diet, you usually consume far too few calories, thus depriving yourself of essential nutrients, whilst eating normally tends to mean you consume way more calories than your body requires. Consequently, it becomes impossible to stabilise your weight, as it continually fluctuates up and down, depending on whether you are on a diet or not. Managing your weight in this way is therefore not particularly beneficial for your physical and mental health, which is why you need to get away from the notion of dieting to lose weight.

If you go on a diet to lose weight, you usually have a particular goal in mind. You may want to fit into a size 10 dress in time for your wedding or be beach-ready for your summer holiday and so you throw all you have into losing weight. You are so focused on reaching your goal that you don't mind depriving yourself of all the foods you usually indulge in. You tell yourself that you only have to do this for a few weeks or months and you'll be down to your ideal weight. However, once you reach the size you want to be, you have nothing to motivate yourself to stay that size and you have no idea of how to keep the weight off, either.

Old habits start creeping back into your routine, as you start eating more junk food and avoiding exercise. You put on a couple of pounds, but tell yourself you'll do something about it soon when, in actual fact, you continue to bury your head in the sand. If you enjoy eating and hate doing exercise, this is what your natural reaction is. You don't want to face up to your weight gain and so you don't, even though you know that being overweight makes you miserable. It is hard learning how to control your weight, though, when you've always used fad diets to help you shed the extra pounds, as you cannot see any other way.

Eventually, you realise you have to do something about your weight, but instead of going about weight loss sensibly, your inclination is to go on ridiculously low-calorie diets. Clearly, you're not doing your body any favours by regularly depriving it of calories and then switching to excessive calorie consumption. It messes with your metabolism and can make it harder for you to lose weight in future. Plus, yo-yo dieting can have a negative impact on your self-esteem, because you become defined by your weight and so whether you're slim or overweight you are never truly content.

It is therefore essential to get out of the trap of yo-yo dieting, because it won't help you maintain a healthy weight in the long run. Although you may enjoy losing weight rapidly, there is very little point in doing so if only a few weeks or months down the line you are as heavy before. You need to concentrate on taking small steps that will help you lose weight gradually and that will get you in the right frame of mind for long-term weight maintenance.