How to Break the Yo-Yo Cycle of Dieting and Gaining Weight

Yo-yo dieting, also known as “weight cycling,” refers to a pattern of losing weight, gaining it all back, then trying to lose it again. It’s appropriately named because of the way your weight goes up and down like a yo-yo. 

While yo-yo dieting can make you feel frustrated, it can also do more harm than good. Long-term yo-yo dieting is associated with a higher risk of serious medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes. It can also leave you with a higher percentage of body fat, which can make it harder to lose weight with each attempt.

Breaking the cycle of yo-yo dieting involves more than a quick fix or fad diet. Our weight-management specialists at NuvidaRx Weight Loss in Tallahassee, Florida, use a comprehensive approach to help patients succeed with permanent long-term weight loss. 

We use proven weight-management strategies that are individualized to your personal needs and weight-loss goals. The effect can help you achieve weight-loss success and long-term weight maintenance without constant yo-yo dieting.

Here’s how professional weight management can help you stop the cycle of yo-yo dieting for good, so you can enjoy the benefits of successful long-term weight loss. 

Diet and exercise

Without making a serious commitment to a healthy lifestyle, you’re likely to get stuck in a cycle of yo-yo dieting. Lifestyle changes involve a combination of diet and exercise that work together for weight loss and maintenance. 

Strategies typically involve mindful eating, where you plan the amount and type of food you eat every day. Then you balance your diet with a healthy amount of exercise to create a calorie deficit. 

To achieve a calorie deficit, most people must consume at least 500 fewer calories than their bodies burn. A calorie deficit forces your body to burn stored fat to replace the calories that are missing. Weight loss results when your body burns stored fat. 

You can maintain your goal weight by balancing diet and exercise to ensure that you provide the number of calories that your body needs to burn energy with no extra calories, which can result in weight gain.

Findings from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a long-term study of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year, reinforces the role of diet and exercise for long-term weight loss. 

To lose weight, 98% of NWCR participants modified their food intake and 94% increased their physical activity, mostly by walking. To maintain long-term weight loss, participants reported sustaining a low-calorie, low-fat diet, with increased activity levels, including an hour of daily exercise.

Personalized plan

To achieve and maintain permanent weight loss, it’s important to find the right weight-management plan for your body. Considerations such as age, weight-loss goals, medical history, lifestyle, and prescribed medications can affect your weight-loss success. 

A personalized weight-management plan accommodates your unique personal characteristics so you can avoid regaining the weight you lose. 

For some patients, monitoring macronutrients, or “macros,” can be effective for reducing body fat and building muscle. If appropriate, our weight-management specialists at NuvidaRx Weight Loss guide you in implementing this approach, which involves tracking the number of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in your daily diet. 

Medical direction

Sometimes, underlying factors can contribute to your inability to lose weight or sustain weight loss. By participating in a weight-management plan, your success is guided by specialists who can determine whether your success is affected by issues such as a medical condition, prescription medication, stress, or other issues unrelated to diet and exercise. 

Having the benefit of medical supervision during weight loss and maintenance helps you adjust your weight-management plan before significant setbacks occur. A weight-management specialist can determine which part of your plan requires modification so you can remain on track and at your optimal weight. 

Meal planning

Eating a healthy diet is often easier said than done, especially when your busy schedule leaves little time for meal planning and calorie tracking. 

Our team at NuvidaRx Weight Loss gives you strategies, such as preparing a week’s worth of meals in one day, to ensure that you limit your diet to the amount and type of food that’s consistent with your weight-management plan. 

Additional facets of meal planning include proper hydration and consideration of micronutrients, such as vitamins B1, B6, B12, and C, which promote effective fat burning. When appropriate, you may benefit from nutritional supplements or B12 injections administered at our office.

Learn more about ways to establish and maintain a healthy weight without depending on yo-yo dieting. Request an appointment online or call our office today at 850-290-7307.