According to research, up to 35 percent of people will return to their starting weight within a year of completing the weight loss process, and 50 percent will regain their previous weight in five years. The yo-yo effect often affects people who have treated weight loss as a transitional period or have chosen restrictive low-calorie diets. Such behaviour does not teach you to change your eating habits, so when you return to your old way of eating, the lost kilograms also return. However, there are ways to avoid the unwanted yo-yo effect.
Consistency is key
Whenever we start a diet, we would like to see immediate results. Unfortunately, the magical effects of a miracle diet are often temporary and lead to the unwanted yo-yo effect. When it comes to successful weight loss, we should focus on being consistent. Weight reduction is a process and takes time – the recommended loss should be between 0.5 kg to a maximum of 1 kg/week (in the case of initial overweight or obesity). Thus, the basis for effective and safe weight reduction is a rational approach that will lead to gradual weight loss and a lasting change in eating habits.
Good calories
A key issue in the fight against excess weight, which can help avoid the yo-yo effect, is the appropriate calorie content of the diet. The desire to achieve quick results often leads us to follow a diet that is too low in energy – a mistake that can lead to a rapid return of the kilograms once it has been discontinued. Typically, short-term diets produce unsustainable results in the form of loss of water, glycogen deposits and food content, rather than body fat, which would be desirable. Conversely, long-term diets that are too low in calories can also contribute to the loss of muscle mass. In addition, too much restriction increases the desire to snack, and then it is much harder to persevere on a diet.
Don’t avoid protein
Restrictive diets with a large energy deficit are mostly low in protein – the body’s main building block. After a weight loss treatment, muscle mass drops and, with it, the body’s energy requirements decrease. Once you get back to your old habits, the lost weight comes back with a vengeance. In order to protect against the loss of muscle mass while dieting, it is important to cover your protein requirements in addition to a properly selected calorie intake. Protein amount should be around 1.2-1.5 g/kg of body weight or more, if the person on the diet does strength training. Although training, primarily resistance/strength one, burns fewer calories than aerobic training, it protects muscle mass and helps to maintain it at starting levels while dieting.
Learning healthy eating habits
Weight loss is not a race. The battle for a slim figure will not be won by whoever comes first, but by whoever reaches their goal and is able to maintain their new weight. If you want to crack down on excess weight, it is worth making gradual changes and thinking about how to modify your current diet to make it healthier. It is best to start with the basics, which sounds trivial at first glance but yields the best results. It is worth remembering to drink enough water throughout the day, to add vegetables or fruit to all meals, as well as to choose whole-grain cereal products and limit sweets in the daily diet.
Summary
Avoiding low-calorie, restrictive diets and opting for a balanced plan with adequate calorie content are the main factors which will allow for minimising the risk of yo-yo effect after weight loss. But there is more. The principles of good nutrition and physical activity should remain on the daily agenda forever, rather than ending when the goal is reached. Among other things, a healthy diet allows for better satiety control, and this can prove to be the key to success and maintaining the achieved weight for years to come.
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