I know how hard dieting can be: I gained so much weight when I was sick with a hormonal disease called PCOS a few years ago, and losing it was TORTURE.
The meal plans and workouts, as well as avoiding dessert, made me wonder when the cycle would ever end and I pretty much always wanted to binge on dessert and fries.
Finally, when the weight actually DID come off, I developed a new lifestyle:one that involved both the foods that were good for me AND the ones that werent so great.
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Im happy to say Ive reached a happy medium where I can have those glasses of wine AND the kale salads, and not feel guilty about any of it.
But of course, thats easier said than done. When youre inundated every day by size 2 bodies and pretty much every weight loss trend imaginable, its hard to not get sucked in. And when big occasions come along, you want to lose weight fast so you look your best for them.
If it seems like youre constantly on a diet (until youre off it again), you might have a more serious issue: You may be a yo-yo dieter.
Lauren Slayton, author of The Little Book of Thin and NYC-based nutritionist, says,
I think of yo-yo dieting as the tendency to be either all in or all out when it comes to weight loss. And of course, as your attention to nutrition goes up and down, so does your weight.
Studies have shown excessive yo-yo dieting can permanently alter your metabolism, slowing it down rapidly. In addition, constantly gaining and losing weight can have other unhealthy side effects, such as coronary heart disease, excess stress in the body and inflammation.
The question is, are you at risk?
These are the signs you could be a yo-yo dieter, along with some tips to help you finally break free of the cycle for GOOD:
Yo-yo dieters are constantly either on a diet or off it. The diets they put themselves on are often very extreme, and so, they lose a lot of weight.
The thing is, once theyve hit their goal weight, they binge. Their diets are so restrictive, they feel a sense of freedom when they go off them. This excessive caloric intake, along with the damage the dieting inflicts on their metabolism, causes them to gain weight.
Then, the cycle continues again, with the dieter losing the weight again by more restrictive means.
Paleo diet, gluten-free diet, vegan diet, spin class, Crossfit: Youve tried them ALL.
While theres nothing wrong with being on-trend and knowing what Hollywoods up to in efforts to lose weight, yo-yo dieters often find themselves running from trend to trend, looking for that quick fix.
While all these trends are definitely effective when applied consistently on a daily basis, there isnt one thatll magically give you results overnight.
Be careful youre not getting sucked into the hype.
Your restrictive diets may cause you to give up sugar one day, or all carbs the next.
This is NOT sustainable.
First of all, all food groups contain criticalnutrients that are necessary for your health and well-being. Secondly, giving up something always makes you want it more.
When you restrict yourself, youre way more likely to crave the thing you gave up. This causes you to give up, binge and then start the cycle all over again.
Yo-yo dieters tend to have an all or nothing mindset. If they dont stick to their diet perfectly, they get frustrated and start feeling like failures.
And of course, because their diets are so restrictive, they inevitably fall off the wagon.
This leads to anxiety, and the yo-yo dieter takes this as an opportunity to give up.
That is, until the next diet comes along.
Yo-yo dieters get addicted to the thrill of quick weight loss through their restrictive diets no matter how short-lived these results may be.
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While a balanced lifestyle change is obviously the best way to approach weight loss in a sustainable way, yo-yo dieters are more concerned with the here and now.
They would rather get the rush quick weight loss provides even if they have to go through hell to achieve it.
Studies show people who used to be overweight earlier on in life tend to be yo-yo dieters because they find it difficult to maintain the weight they currently have, even if its not that low.
Yo-yo dieters usually look at weight loss as a numbers game on the scale as opposed to a lifestyle they can sustain their entire lives.
As a result, they focus on cardio and the numbers dropped on the scale, as opposed to transforming the body through weights (which might make the number on the scale go UP) and nutrition.
But losing that much weight really fast means you have to lower your caloric intake to maintain that weight, and you can only rev it back up through strength training.
Nutritionist Khushboo Thadani says,
After you complete a strength training workout, for the next 24 to 48 hours, your body will have to work harder thannormal in order to repair the muscle tissues that have had stressimposed on them. As a result, your body burns more calories. Muscle is also highly metabolically active and requires more calories than fat to be maintained.
The thing is, if youre used to this pattern, it can be super hard to throw caution to the wind. It might feel so weird to start eating gluten again, or maybe youll hate weights with a vengeance.
But all hope isnt lost:Thadani has some tips to make sure you rev up your metabolism and get off the yo-yo dieting track for good.
She says,
Direct your energy towards making small changes. Choose two or three areas that are important to you and really focus on them. As you start to notice improvements in your well-being, these changes transition into habits that can last a lifetime. Build on them.
In addition, allow yourself some flexibility and recognize not every day is going to be perfect. Just because you miss a workout or eat more cake than you intended, its not the end of your healthy living journey.
Instead, treat the next meal as a fresh opportunity to nourish your body to thehighest standards and get back on track to success.
What does this mean? ALLOW YOURSELF SOME CAKE SOMETIMES. Itll keep you on track, and youll feel so much better if you dont restrict yourself.
As Slayton says,
Your eating plan should be more like a marriage than a one-night stand.
Sounds like a successful long-term relationship to me.
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Nikhita is an editor at Elite Daily. She's originally from Mumbai, India. You'll most likely find her working out, eating, reading and trying to figure out how to make this "adult" thing stop.
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6 Signs You're A Yo-Yo Dieter And How To Finally Fix It - Elite Daily
