Obesity and overweight have become a growing problem affecting 52% of the world’s adult population, a figure that is expected to continue to rise. Excessive body weight is associated with many chronic metabolic diseases, making weight loss a gold standard treatment. However, many individuals find losing weight and maintaining a healthy body weight difficult, leading to a cyclic pattern of weight loss and regain known as "yo-yo dieting." This predisposes individuals to obesity and metabolic comorbidities. This article explores the impact of yo-yo dieting on metabolism, its effects on gut health, and strategies to repair a metabolism damaged by repeated dieting cycles.
The Problem of Yo-Yo Dieting
What is Yo-Yo Dieting?
Yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling, is a common pattern for most individuals attempting to lose weight. It involves an initial period of rapid weight loss, which gradually slows, before subsequent weight regain, despite efforts to adhere to weight management strategies. This phenomenon is not limited to people with excessive weight; frequent on-off dieting also triggers weight regain in people who are not overweight or obese.
Dieting has become a popular norm for many people, including individuals with a healthy body weight, who feel the urge to lose weight to achieve their desired body image. However, as is usual with yo-yo dieting, these individuals end up gaining all or even more weight after each cycle of weight loss. Therefore, while the prevalence of obesity has been rising, yo-yo dieting requires consideration because it places individuals at greater risk of the progression to obesity and the development of associated chronic complications.
The Consequences of Weight Cycling
The link between yo-yo dieting and eventual weight gain is well established, but the mechanisms driving this response are still being explored. Weight gain following yo-yo dieting is complex and involves changes in peripheral hormones regulating energy balance and metabolic adaptation to weight loss. The gut also plays an important role in body weight regulation and could be a key factor in weight regain after yo-yo dieting.
How Yo-Yo Dieting Affects Your Metabolism
Crash Dieting and Starvation Mode
Crash dieting triggers the body to go into starvation mode. Your body protects itself by becoming extremely efficient at absorbing more calories from food. At the same time, your body also deliberately conserves stored energy and burns less of it. It’s a double whammy that results in a slowed metabolism.
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When you crash diet, other mechanisms are triggered that make it more likely your metabolism will slow, and you'll regain the weight. For example, with less energy intake, physical activity levels usually drop.
Metabolic Rate and Energy Expenditure
Regulation of energy balance involves adjustment of energy intake, energy expenditure and energy storage and is the main driver of body weight change. Energy balance is also the key concept describing the pathogenesis and prevalence of obesity and its comorbidities and is an important consideration in the development of possible treatments for weight control. Energy balance is regulated not only by the central nervous system but is also strongly influenced by various peripheral signals arising from the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and adipose tissue, collectively acting to either stimulate or restrict energy intake.
Metabolic Adaptation
During long periods of calorie restriction, your metabolism slows as your body adjusts to a reduced food intake. Adaptive thermogenesis (metabolic adaptation) is a protective process that alters the body’s metabolism to increase energy intake and decrease energy output in efforts to slow weight loss.After dieting, your daily calorie needs to maintain your weight may be lower than it was before the diet. If you resume your “normal” eating right away, you may be eating in a surplus. Even if a person is meticulously watching their food intake, they may still be eating over their calorie needs.
The body does this through a few mechanisms:
- Hormone changes: The body releases or suppresses various hormones, including ghrelin, insulin, leptin, and peptide YY, to increase hunger, which may cause you to eat more.
- Decrease in resting metabolic rate (RMR): Your body focuses its energy on vital organs to keep you alive. Less energy is dedicated to “non-essential” functions, such as hair and nail growth.
- Decrease in exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT): You may feel like you have less energy to exercise or see a notable decrease in exercise performance, meaning you’ll burn fewer calories during a workout.
- Decrease in non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): NEAT includes any energy used for daily tasks, such as walking, fidgeting, and general movement.
- Slowed digestion: During periods of calorie restriction, the body may slow down digestion to absorb as many nutrients and calories from food as possible. Plus, the thermic effect of food (TEF), or how much energy your body uses to digest food, decreases, since less food is being consumed.
Hormone Imbalances
Peripheral responses to calorie deficit promote increased hunger and a lower metabolic rate thereby enhancing susceptibility to weight relapse. This involves decreases in gut-derived-satiety peptide hormones GLP-1, PYY, and CCK, adipose-derived leptin, and the pancreas peptide hormones insulin and amylin; in contrast with increased levels of the hunger peptide hormones ghrelin and PP. There is evidence that these changes persist as individuals attempt to maintain reduced body weight, even after the cessation of active weight loss.
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The continued low energy intake and minimal fat mass indicate energy unavailability, leading to a homeostatic endocrine response aimed at conserving energy and promoting energy intake.
Gut Microbiome Disruption
There is established evidence from both human and animal studies implicating the gut in obesity development, largely due to an increase in the potentially harmful microbiota (termed ‘gut dysbiosis’). The relationship between yoyo dieting, post-obesity weight loss, and gut health has been largely overlooked. To date, only a small number of studies have explored the effect of weight regain after weight loss on the gut microbiome. These studies have indicated that yoyo dieting results not only in enhanced weight gain after dieting but also in potential long-term alterations in gut microbiota composition.
Strategies to Repair Metabolism After Yo-Yo Dieting
To break the cycle, you need to focus on practical ways you can help increase the speed of your metabolism and restore it to a healthier state. Here are some of the best ways to get your metabolism back on track.
1. Optimize Thyroid Function
Because crash and yo-yo dieting can trigger hypothyroidism, a thorough thyroid evaluation is essential to your metabolic health. This can pinpoint a previously undiagnosed case of hypothyroidism or identify the less-than-optimal treatment for your current hypothyroidism. It’s helpful to start with a thyroid blood test panel. Ensure the panel includes Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and Free T4, Free T3, and Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) Antibodies. The results will help you understand how your thyroid functions and if it may negatively affect your metabolism.
2. Eat a Healthy, Nutrient-Dense, Gut-Friendly Diet
After a crash diet or yo-yo diet cycle, you must focus on eating the healthiest, most nutrient-dense diet you can. This means choosing organic, pesticide-free, whole foods as much as possible and avoiding processed foods. Your emphasis should be on fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, good proteins (like fish and grass-fed meats), and anti-inflammatory fermented foods.
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You should also pay attention to your gut health. A healthy gut can more efficiently digest and store food, burn energy when needed, and eliminate waste. You may also want to incorporate more spicy foods into your daily diet. Capsaicin, a key ingredient found in some spicy foods like peppers, has been shown to boost metabolism.
"WHAT you eat determines HOW MUCH you need to eat to keep hunger at bay," explained Gomer. "To lose weight and keep it off without being hungrier, eat foods with a lower calorie density and with more fiber per calorie, and eliminate most beverage calories.
Diet Recommendations
- Mediterranean diet: Emphasizes eating whole foods, lean protein, and various vegetables, fruits, and legumes, and limits sugar and ultra-processed foods.
- DASH diet: Focuses on eating fruits, vegetables, and lean protein and limits salt, sugar, and fat intake.
- MIND diet: Combines aspects of the Mediterranean and DASH diets.
3. Increase Protein Intake
Many experts agree that increasing your protein can help your metabolism. You burn more calories when you eat protein compared to carbohydrates or fat. One study found that increasing dietary protein to 30 percent of your total food intake, without any increase in carbohydrates, resulted in eating around 400 fewer calories per day. The study participants did not experience increased hunger and lost weight! Protein also helps you build muscle, which helps raise your metabolic level. Various experts recommend eating at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily to support your metabolism.
4. Increase Fiber Intake
Increasing your fiber intake can help boost metabolism because fiber requires more energy to digest, process, and eliminate. Aim for around 25 grams a day of fiber from foods and fiber supplements. Fiber supplements can help you reach the goal of 25 grams per day.
5. Eat Earlier in the Day
When you eat also has an impact on your metabolism. Most experts agree that eating a protein-rich breakfast helps stoke and maintain metabolism and promote fat-burning throughout the day. You may also consider making dinner your lightest meal of the day. You can also fast from dinner until breakfast. This helps you maintain healthier leptin levels and gives your body time to access stored energy for your nighttime energy needs.
6. Stay Well Hydrated
You'll want to ensure you regularly drink water throughout the day. Studies have shown that drinking around half of a liter (16 ounces) of water boosts metabolism by up to 30 percent for around 90 minutes. Drinking 2 liters of water daily increases energy expenditure by nearly 100 calories daily. For an extra boost, make it cold water; it raises metabolism a bit more than water at room temperature.
7. Drink Coffee and Tea
Caffeine can help boost metabolism. One study showed that around 100 milligrams of caffeine - what you'd typically get in a small cup of coffee - could increase your BMR/RMR by about 3 to 4 percent. Several servings of caffeine at intervals throughout the day can boost metabolism by as much as 11 percent. Moderation is needed, however. Going overboard on caffeine can increase insulin resistance and blood glucose levels.
There’s also scientific evidence that various teas - including black, green, oolong, and goji - can slightly increase your metabolism and fat burning. Tea also provides additional hydration, which can help aid in weight loss.
8. Exercise and Strength Training
The best activity you can do to help boost your metabolism is building muscle. Increasing your muscle mass with exercise like lifting weights, resistance machines, or Pilates can increase your Basal/Resting Metabolic Rate. Strength training can also help protect your metabolism following a low-calorie diet.
- Get 30 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic (cardio) physical activity for at least 30 minutes 5 days per week, or vigorous intensity aerobic activity for 20 minutes 3 days per week.
- Perform strength training activities at least 2 days per week.
9. Increase Activity Level Carefully
Many metabolism experts recommend avoiding extended periods of intense aerobic exercise because it raises cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol wreaks havoc on your metabolism, increasing insulin and glucose levels and slowing your metabolism. If you want to do aerobic exercise, shorter periods of intensity - i.e., high-intensity interval training (HIIT) - offer many benefits of aerobic exercise with less risk of raising cortisol.
You can also increase your metabolism by increasing your NEAT. As a starting point, it can be helpful to build regular periods of standing and walking throughout the day.
10. Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is essential for your metabolism. Experts say that 7 to 9 hours per night should be your objective. "Short sleep" of less than 7 hours contributes to a long list of hormonal changes, including blood sugar and cortisol increases. Short sleep reduces the satiety hormone leptin levels, increases the hunger hormone ghrelin, and increases your risk of insulin resistance. One study found that just five days of short sleep caused an increase in food intake, leading to weight gain. Short sleep also reduces your ability to lose fat. Researchers found that dieters who got only 5.5 hours of sleep over two weeks reduced their fat loss by 55 percent!
11. Manage Stress
Active stress management is an integral part of transforming a slow metabolism. Unmanaged stress raises cortisol levels, negatively affecting glucose, insulin, and metabolism. Specifically, chronically high cortisol levels promote abdominal fat storage, contributing to insulin resistance and weight gain.
The key to stress management is devoting at least 10 minutes daily to your stress-reducing activity. What you do to manage stress depends on what methods work best for you. Meditation, breathwork, gentle yoga, tai chi, playing a musical instrument, or needlework are all valid stress-reducing activities.
12. Breathe Mindfully
The practice of mindful breathwork has two key metabolic benefits. First, diaphragmatic breathing is a natural stress reducer; a few slow, deep belly breaths can reduce cortisol levels. Specific breathing techniques have also been studied and shown to help raise metabolism. Yoga practices such as left, right, or alternating nostril breathing can increase oxygen intake and raise metabolism by as much as 37 percent.
Preventing Weight Regain After Dieting
Sustainable Lifestyle Changes
If you can avoid dieting in the first place, you’re setting yourself up for more success over time. Instead, it’s ideal to focus on adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors that you can successfully and happily do long term, such as:
- Limiting sweetened beverages and drinking mostly water or other low calorie drinks (e.g., tea, coffee)
- Eating more vegetables and fruit
- Eating more fiber, protein, and healthy fats
- Limiting eating out and following healthy practices when you do eat out, such as choosing nutritious options and limiting portion sizes
- Limiting ultra-processed foods, such as prepared foods made with refined sugar and refined flour
Manage Portion Sizes
If you notice that you’re regaining weight, you may want to check your portion sizes to ensure you’re eating the amount you intend to. To manage your portions of the different items that may be on your plate, can try the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate Method, which involves:
- Making sure half of your plate contains vegetables and fruits
- Dividing the remainder of your plate between whole grains and lean protein, and varying your sources of both
- Consuming only a small amount of dairy and dairy alternatives
The MyPlate Method also recommends eating a wide variety of each of these types, which helps increase the different nutrients you consume.
Support Overall Health
Other factors outside of what you eat can make weight regain more likely. These include sleep deprivation, which can affect your metabolism and lead to increased energy intake, and stress, which can reduce increase food cravings and distrupt the gut microbiome, making weight gain more likely. Mental health conditions like depression can also increase weight gain. This may be due to increased stress, changes to sleep time, physical activity, and dietary patterns.
To support your overall health, try:
- Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep, the recommended amount per night for most adults
- Managing stress and practicing positive coping mechanisms, such as meditation, yoga, therapy, or journaling
- Seeking treatment for any mental health conditions, such as depression or anxiety
Find a Support System
Having a support system, whether a healthcare professional, coach, friend, family member, or online community, to help encourage your lifestyle changes can make them easier to stick with longterm. You can also find support through joining an exercise class or weight loss program.