The yo-yo effect is a well-known term in weight loss land, a large part of the people who have made a dieting attempt will have had to deal with this. The yo-yo effect means that if you follow a diet and have lost weight, as soon as you stop you will fall back into the old eating pattern and therefore quickly return to the old weight.
Sometimes it even happens that people weigh even more than before they decided to lose weight and this causes frustration. These frustrations, in turn, can lead to overeating and further weight gain. At some point this will lead to another, often extreme, dieting attempt to lose weight quickly, after which you start again.
The yo-yo effect is not only annoying because it is not possible to lose a few kilos, but it also has its effect on the body. The yo-yo effect has an adverse effect on the body’s resting metabolic rate, which is the energy a body burns, completely at rest, at a certain temperature. If someone is losing weight, their resting metabolism will decrease. The body receives less energy and adapts, the body will also use energy more efficiently. So if you suddenly start eating very few calories, your resting metabolism will be lower and less energy will be burned than before.
The yo-yo effect is what happens in your body. Every time you try to lose weight, your resting metabolism will become even lower, so that the body burns less and less energy. The moment you stop and start eating more again, the body converts all the energy it does not burn into fat. This can make you heavier than you have ever been. With each diet attempt, the body’s ability to burn fat can decrease and the body will use energy more and more efficiently, until you reach a level where losing weight becomes almost impossible.
But of course nothing is impossible and you should not lose heart because of this. It is very important, if your body is upset, to try to eat enough, healthy and regularly as soon as possible. In addition, exercise is also very important in increasing the metabolism. If you have already tried many diets and have suffered a lot from the yo-yo effect, it may be that you do not lose weight so quickly in the beginning, the body has to adapt completely to the new eating pattern. Exercise can compensate for the reduced metabolism, so it is important to exercise a lot.
It is of course better to prevent the yo-yo effect, you can do this by not going to extreme lines in one go. Try to teach yourself a healthy new diet that will last for the rest of your life. This may not be the fastest way to lose weight, but it is certainly the healthiest. Make sure you eat enough healthy products and try to snack less and leave the unhealthy things, then the kilos will follow.
This article was written by Sabine van Kan, nutritionist at the Plus slimming service. Would you like more information about losing weight for the summer? Then take a look at the slimming service Plus!