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The yo-yo effect is also known as yo-yo dieting. It was first coined by Dr. Kelly D. Brownell and is explained as the repeated change of body weight i.e. losing weight, gaining it back, then losing it again, experienced by many people who put themselves through different kinds of diets. During this cycle, the dieter usually achieves initial success in his goal of losing weight but then encounters many difficulties in maintaining the ideal weight that he had reached thus slowly regaining his old weight back. Once he has regained the weight, he will again embark on a diet to lose the weight that he had gained, restarting the cycle of losing weight and gaining weight.
There are many reasons why people fall into the yo-yo effect. Some people fall into the cycle because they actually like going on diets when they feel they are too fat but then like going on eating binges when they feel that they are too thin. Others fall into the cycle because they are only being forced to lose weight either by peer pressure or because of the requirements of their job, thus as soon as the pressure is off they immediately get back to their natural eating and exercise patterns. The most common of these reasons however is the fact that most dieters embark on a diet that is too extreme for their purpose. Going on an extreme diet usually produces great results in a very short period of time thus giving temporary elation to the dieter. Because of the extreme nature of the diet, however, the dieter is more often than not incapable of continuously going through with the diet. When this happens, the dieter usually feels that he has failed in his diet which causes him to fall into a state of depression which causes him to eat more than he used to even before he went on the diet. In other situations, when the dieter sees that he was so successful in losing weight so easily and in such a short period of time, he lets himself get back to his old eating habits. He is so confident that he can lose weight easily anytime he chooses to do so that is why he lets himself gain weight again.
Repeated change in body weight is not good for the body especially when it is due to the extreme decrease of food intake rather than a regulated fitness program. Food depravation to lose weight usually forces the body to lose body muscle as well as body fat because exercise is required to maintain the muscles. Once the dieter begins to gain back the lost weight, the body will now only gain the weight only in fat and not in muscle because of the body’s natural reaction to food depravation. This means that even though the dieter is back to his previous weight, he is now a lot less healthy than he was before because his muscle to fat ratio has already changed. Keeping the right muscle to fat ratio of the body is very important in staying fit and healthy.
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