Yo-Yo dieters typically set out with the same intentions as any dieter – to lose weight and keep it off.  Unfortunately, most people who diet and manage to lose some weight, do NOT keep the weight off long-term.  An all too common cycle is to lose weight, regain it, lose it again with another diet, regain it, lose it, regain it.. and on and on..often for years. 

Adding insult to injury, often when people gain weight back after a diet, they end up gaining more than they initially lost on the diet.  The end effect is that many Yo-Yo dieters actually gain weight over time. 

If you are a Yo-Yo dieter or have seen someone dieting is this way, you may be wondering why it happens and why so many people are stuck in these cycles.   One of the main reasons is that the diets that cause the intial weight loss are not healthy to begin with.  Very often, crash diets and fad diets cause people to lose muscle weight in addition to fat weight.  This is typical of diets that rely on severe restrictions (low calorie, low carb, etc) for their effect.

When you lose muslce weight, your metabolism slows down.  A slower metablolism means less calories burned doing everyday activities.  The end result is that when you return to your regular pre-diet eating habits, you now have less muscle in your body burning calories.  With less calorie burning, all excess calories you take in end up being stored as fat, resulting in invetable weight gain.

If you want to avoid Yo-Yo dieting, you must pick a dieting program that is healthy, that is based on good science, and that does not rely on extreme restrictions for it’s effect.