The "Yo-Yo" Dieting Effect

Diets aren’t something we pay particular attention to during our military career. We aren’t exactly flush with control or choice.

But when we finish our military career, often or not with the reduced level of activity and sedentary lifestyle we end up piling on the pounds.

Sooner or later, we start experimenting with different diet styles and interventions.

The trouble is nutrition is only one component of your body transformation, focusing on one area will lead to suboptimal results.

Let’s now look into why “Yo Yo” Dieting is and how it occurs. 

Losing weight isn’t as hard as people make out, It’s keeping the weight off which is the problem. 

You have probably been in this position yourself, you have beasted yourself, hardcore dieting and when you stop you pile the weight back on. 

Then the cycle continues, hardcore dieting, stop, rebound, repeat. It can be a massive blow to your mental health. 

Hence the term “Yo-Yo”

This happens because of two main reasons.  

You have neglected making changes to your habits and you have been too restrictive both socially and nutritionally.

Habits are a reflection of oneself! We need to act like a healthy person and think differently in order to become healthy. This means putting sleep, movement and nutrition at the forefront.

Your body goes through a process of Metabolic Adaptation (not as scary as it sounds). This is needed for survival.

Metabolic Adaptation.

Being in a severe calorie restriction, aka diet, is effectively starving yourself. This is a stressor on the body.

Back in the stone age, we transitioned from fasting and feasting. This was mainly due to the changes in seasons and food availability. 

Being in a fasted or fed state isn’t bad in the short term. But if we are constantly in one state over a long period of time, our metabolism will match that state.

Too much time in the fed state leads to the body compensating and this is where diabetes can occur.

Too much time in the fasted state and your body adapts by a handful of different mechanisms.

1. NEAT- the amount you fidget and move is reduced to preserve energy
2. Your exercise intensity will drop and you won’t be able to lift as much or run as fast.
3. Your Thyroid function downregulates. T3 is the metabolically active hormone, it light’s up the cells mitochondria to do it’s job. When in a stress state the creation of T3 is reduced, making room for RT3, which is the opposite of T3 
4. Testosterone production is reduced. Why would your body want you to reproduce in a stressful environment?

When your body gets used to a certain number of calories it adapts and makes that your new base level. The harsher and longer the duration of the diet, will impact the severity of the adaptation.

Once you finish your crazy low calorie diet, the added calories that you pile on is seen as a huge surplus. Your body will then store this, as a safety measure.

For example…

You eat 1000 kcals for 4 months ,then go back to eating 2500kcal. That’s a daily surplus of 1500 kcals 

How to avoid Rebound 

There are a few things we can do to stop piling back on the pounds .

Firstly, the diet strategy we use needs to be efficient. This means enjoying the foods you like and having a moderate deficit. 

The deficit should be as minimal as possible to achieve the desired effects. So if you can lose fat or weight on a 100 kcal deficit, start with this.

Take diet breaks and reverse diet.

Diet breaks are extended periods of higher calories. Please note, this is not a hall pass to eat everything under the sun. The food should still be as healthy and nutritious and the calories should be kept at your individual maintenance level.

Reverse dieting is done at the end of a diet phase. The concept is to slowly add calories back up to your previous maintenance calories . This will minimize storage of fat 

 Lift heavy weights. In relation to your own body weight and exercise history. Doing so will help you keep as much of your lean muscle as possible. This will help keep your basal metabolic rate at a higher level than without. 

Dieting and keeping that weight off require strategy and implementation.

Focusing on changing your habits like being more active , sleeping better and cleaning up your diet.

If you are struggling and want to know what it would look like to work with me privately..

Send me a message and let’s see if we would be a good fit to work together 

Have an awesome week!

Carl