Crash Dieting: Let’s Stop The Yo Yo Weight Gain Cycle

Have you lost weight only to put it back on?
Have you gained more weight back then you lost?
Do you continually yo yo back in forth while taking drastic measures to attempt to lose weight?
Then This Post Is For You
I really want to shed some light on this topic as there are SO many people who can fall into this category for a few reasons.
With the new year here and many people pursuing weight loss one of the most common starting places for people is to lose weight that they gained BACK after a recent diet.
I get messages about this weekly!
For those who have gone through this or are currently are experiencing this, you are not alone and IT IS VERY COMMON, especially after having rapid weight loss.
There is a reason for this and I’m going to educate you on why.
When a person diets (many times this is not a custom diet and is just a very low calorie diet with removed food groups such as cut carbs and lots of cardio or new physical activity added in) there is rapid weight loss as the individual is thrown into a major calorie deficit with lots of immediate calorie output that the body is not used to.
Depending on how long the person diets for and their body’s composition this can be for a short period of time or a long period of time. During any deficit of calories and especially in a drastic one- the body loses weight which includes everything. The metabolism lowers significantly and there is quite a bit of muscle loss.
During this time the body adapts as it always does, no matter how low of food we are eating.There is only a limited amount of loss before the weight stalls or a plateau is hit as the body adapts. Due to the low calories and the non customized adjustments this is the end of the road for the weight loss however not for the person.
Keep in mind even if the person is overweight and has more body fat to lose the body does not care nor will it let go of anymore weight without the nutrition to do so. No more food, no more weight loss.
We are now maintaining an extremely LOW daily maintenance of calories with a lowered to damaged metabolism and usually averaging plenty of cardio activity, which also lowers the metabolism and burns muscle.Let’s also not discount the cravings and unhealthy relationship that comes with rigorous dieting.
This is the perfectly made cocktail for a hot dose of rapid weight gain.
Being that living like this is unrealistic food begins to increase, either subtly or drastically depending. This could be over the course of a few days, weeks, or even busy times of the year such as a vacation or holidays like we are having right now. Either way-a human being begins to eat again. Because of the low daily intake it makes it very easy to eat above that maintenance that individuals body is used to, which then causes rapid weight gain.
Keep in mind the body at this point is in prime fat storing mode because of it’s recent abuse. It believes that it is starving because- it is! Between the lowered metabolism, the increase in food usually followed by the lowered and many times completely cut cardio/calorie output not only do we end up gaining most all of the weight back pre diet, but because the body is is prime storage/survival mode due to the above points, we gain MORE weight than we had before.
This happens all the time and is called yo yo dieting- back and forth, up and down, and it’s extremely common. Again you’re not alone if this has happened or is happening to you!
Before deciding to jump into a major calorie deficit after the holidays or cutting out major food groups to aid in rapid weight loss reconsider the slower/permanent approach as well as having a post diet/rebound or reverse diet plan.
A diet is only as good as it’s follow up plan and if there isn’t one you will continually repeat this vicious cycle, each time getting worse and worse.
If preparing to do this or are currently going through this process feel free to reach out.
There are ways to keep this weight off permanently without practicing these starvation methods!!