Does this scenario sound familiar. ..
You go on a diet, maybe with some friends or co-workers, and maybe you even have a challenge going to see who can lose the most weight. You are dropping lbs., so you keep at it! Eventually you hit the plateau, which everyone knows is coming and dreads. So naturally, you buckle down a little more by restricting calories and maybe increasing exercise a little more. Maybe you lose a little more weight, maybe you even reach your goal weight! Whatever the case, after a few months you’re DONE!
???
You’re tired of the caloric restriction, you’e hungry, exhausted and the willpower has just run out! Maybe you binge, or maybe you just go back to the old way of eating, but whatever the case, you definitely aren’t restricting calories anymore. Weight slowly creeps back on because you’re hungrier and you may find yourself being less active.
Fast-forward a few months and you decide it’s time to lose the weight. . . again! BUT WAIT, this time it’s harder, much harder. Last time whatever you did to lose the weight just isn’t working the same. You’re frustrated, and decide to find an even more restrictive approach because that’s all that seems to work. You go through the same cycle again. . . weight loss, stop the diet, increased hunger, weight gain, and maybe even more weight gain!
INSERT => YO-YO DIETING!
Here are 3 Reasons you Should STOP the Yo-Yo Diet Cycle:
- DAMAGES/SLOWS THE METABOLIC RATE! Yo-yo dieting affects our metabolism and our hormones in a way that can take months or even years to repair. While you may think you’re losing and gaining the same 10-15lbs. every year, you’re actually not! You see, every time you diet, you lose lean body mass AND fat, but when you regain weight, you regain ALL fat, and tend to regain fat mass in trunk!
- SET POINT WEIGHT INCREASES! Your “Set Point” is believed to be regulated by the size of the fat cells. The problem with losing weight, then putting on more fat is that when you got back to pre-diet fat mass, you’ve actually regained MORE FAT CELLS and they are smaller. Why does this matter? Leptin secretion is based on the size of the fat cells, so even though you’re eating more and putting on weight, you would still feel like you’re in a deficit and you’d be HUNGRY!
- IT’S EXHAUSTING! Restricting and being in the “diet mindset” takes a like of brain power and WILLPOWER! Avoiding food, skipping out on social events and always worrying about what and when you’ll eat makes life all about dieting and not about living and enjoying! It’s so much healthier and EASIER to find a healthy balance and get comfortable with SLOW fat loss and don’t make your entire goal based on the scale! There’s so much more to life!
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