Going on a diet to lose weight, without a real medical reason, could be harmful to your physical and mental health.
- The yo-yo effect is a repetitive cycle of weight gain and loss.
- According to a new study, diets started for reasons that are not medical promote this yo-yo effect.
- Once engaged, it is very difficult to get out of the yo-yo effect.
According to health insurance47% of French adults are overweight and 17% are obese. For these patients, doctors usually recommend dieting because their weight can be dangerous for their health. For everyone else, there is usually no medical reason for weight loss. It is therefore often for aesthetic reasons that these people impose themselves on a diet.
The yo-yo effect favored by diets without medical reason
However, this could be counterproductive, according to a new study published in the journal Qualitative Health Research. The authors believe that these diets cause the yoyo effect to appear. “The yo-yo effect – gaining weight unintentionally, dieting to lose it, then gaining it back and starting the cycle again – is an integral part of American culture, particularly with fad diets and programs or medications aimed at to lose weight quickly to achieve certain beauty ideals“, explains Lynsey Romo, researcher at North Carolina State Universityin the United States, one of the authors of the study, in a communicated.
In their work, the researchers therefore wanted to understand the reasons which encouraged people who did not medically need it to follow a diet. To do this, they conducted interviews with 36 adults who had dieted without being overweight and who were victims of this yo-yo effect.
Mental health: Participants felt bad about themselves because of the yo-yo effect
On a mental level, scientists have observed the harmful effects of the yo-yo effect. Indeed, when the diet failed and people gained more weight than before, they felt worse about themselves than before they started their initial diet. So, they started again and the cycle of weight loss and gain was set in place.
“Many participants engaged in disordered weight management behaviors, such as binge eating or emotional eating, restricting foods and calories, remembering calorie counts, stressing about what they ate and the number on the scale, resorting to quick fixes (like low-carb diets or diet medications), exercising too much, and avoiding social outings with food to lose weight quicklysays Lynsey Romo. Inevitably, these eating behaviors became unsustainable and participants gained weight back, often more than they had initially lost.”
Added to this are significant social consequences. For many participants, the issue of weight became central and impacted their lives…. To this point “that it prevented them from spending time with friends, family and colleagues” For “reduce weight gain temptations such as drinking and overeating“, says Katelin Mueller, co-author of the study.
Dieting without a medical reason exposed them “to years of shame, body dissatisfaction, unhappiness, stress”
Once engaged, is it possible to exit the yo-yo effect? Yes, but it’s very difficult. Among the study participants, the majority are still affected. The researchers note that those who managed to stabilize at a good weight were more motivated by health reasons rather than physical ones.
“This study tells us that the yo-yo effect (…) can cause real damage, conclude the authors. Our results suggest that it may be harmful for people to start a diet unless it is medically necessary. Dieting to meet certain perceived societal norms inadvertently exposed participants to years of shame, body dissatisfaction, unhappiness, stress, social comparisons, and weight-related concerns. Once a diet is started, it is very difficult for many people to avoid a lifelong struggle with their weight.”
