Yo Yo Dieting: 8 Reasons Why You Should Stop and What to Do Instead

As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, I’m frequently asked, “how do I stop yo yo dieting” and “how do I repair my metabolism after yo yo dieting” from people who have been weight cycling for decades. 

In this article, I will share the answer to these questions, in addition to what to do instead of yo yo dieting for people who are concerned about their weight or health. 

What is yo yo dieting?

Yo yo dieting is the act of changing your dietary patterns, often to lose weight, and then reverting to old habits and ways of eating over and over. 

Yo yo dieting, also called “weight cycling” is synonymous with All or Nothing Dieting, where you feel you either have to “eat perfectly” or “what’s the point?”. 

As such, many who engage in this eating pattern find that the ultimate outcome is gaining more weight than they ever lost, and binging on food after periods of restriction. 

This is a controversial topic that needs a lot of nuance and compassion

The most important thing to know about struggling with weight cycling is this: it is not your fault.  

Yo yo dieting occurs when at least one of the following criteria are met:

• The diet plan is overly restrictive and rigid and not sustainable for your lifestyle (Also known as: All or Nothing Dieting).
• Your nervous system is activated, either by a history of trauma or a stressful event, making it impossible to make new habit changes. 
• Your goals and motivations to change are rooted in shame of your body or your actions. 

To muck things up a bit, some studies show weight cycling is harmful, decreasing metabolism and increasing belly fat, while other studies show repeated dieting attempts aren’t detrimental.  

I imagine the difference between weight loss attempts that harm and attempts that do not, lies in what kinds of diets are attempted and the psychological impact of “backsliding”. After failed dieting attempts many feel like a failure and suffer from self-criticism.

As you read the rest of this article, remember: while weight cycling is not a moral indictment or proof that you are a failure. 

Reason #1: Restriction sets you up for food cravings 

A consequence of yo yo dieting is that you will have increased thoughts of and cravings for indulgent food. 

Termed forbidden fruit syndrome, researchers have long known that any type of restriction leads to increased thoughts of food.  

If you are struggling with food cravings that you know aren’t related to actual hunger, download the free Cravings Busting Audio Guide to stop your food obsession.

Reason #2: You may become addicted to food

During the period where you aren’t adhering to any diet, a consequence of yo yo dieting is that you may swing to the other extreme and indulge in what researchers call “highly palatable food”.

One prevailing theory about how food addiction is developed is that eating large amounts of processed, highly palatable food (think Cheetos, Oreos, Skittles, etc.) leads to changes in your gut biome, which then leads to changes in your brain anatomy that mimic those of addiction.

If you believe you may be suffering from food addiction, you will benefit from the free Cravings Busting Audio Guide, as it helps to rewire your brain so you don’t need to use food in that way anymore.

Reason #3: You might develop an eating disorder 

Frequent dieting is correlated with development of an eating disorder. To be clear, correlation isn’t causation and yet in my experience most people who have spent decades dieting have at the very least disordered eating patterns, if not a diagnosable disorder. 

As we’ve already established, a consequence of yo yo dieting is that your biology and brain chemistry are altered by this eating pattern, and when you add in the way food works to numb discomfort and a history of trauma, eating disorder development makes sense. 

For help with an active eating disorder, check out the National Eating Disorder Association for resources.

Reason #4: Your metabolism might decrease

A consequence of yo yo dieting is that your metabolism may be slowed. 

First, it’s important to realize that all weight loss slows metabolism and researchers estimate that you need to eat 60-120 calories less per day to maintain weight lost.

Furthermore, some types of dieting, especially those that are restrictive and stressful to the body can slow metabolism even more. 

Additionally, many people attempt yo yo dieting during times of life that are correlated with slower metabolisms, like after becoming sedentary at a desk job, menopause or gaining. 

The evidence doesn’t seem to support that weight cycling itself drives slowed metabolism, but other factors that occur at the same time. Nevertheless, a slowed metabolism can make weight management more difficult. 

How to repair metabolism after yo yo dieting

If you’ve ever wondered how to repair metabolism after yo-yo dieting, the answer lies in determining the root cause of metabolism slowing. As we’ve just established, yo yo dieting itself does not slow metabolism, but rather processes that happen concurrently to weight cycling.

So, for how to repair metabolism after yo yo dieting, here are some common root causes to consider and then correct:

1. Nutrient deficiencies – Many popular dieting attempts exclude whole food groups that provide important nutrients. These nutrients are often important for metabolic health. For example, people following the keto diet can become deficient in minerals important for thyroid health like selenium and iodine (among others).
   
2. Thyroid issues – The thyroid controls your metabolism, so for how to repair metabolism after yo-yo dieting, optimal thyroid functioning is imperative. Following our keto example, the reason selenium and iodine deficiencies impacts metabolism is because these nutrients are necessary for production of T3 and T4, the circulating thyroid hormone. 
   
3. Mold exposure – Mycotoxins from mold can cause leptin and insulin resistance in individuals with specific genetic profiles. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells that reduces appetite and insulin is a fat-storage hormone. The outcome of resistance to both is weight gain.
   
4. Weight Maintenance after loss – The body’s metabolic requirements decrease after weight loss by 60-120 calories a day. This means you can’t go back to old eating patterns or you’ll certainly gain weight.
   
5. Menopause – Hormone changes that occur during menopause can slow metabolism. One way to repair metabolism during menopause is via hormone replacement therapy. While controversial, I trust the opinion offered by Menopause Telehealth company CEO, Jill Angelo about hormone replacement therapy. 

Reason #5: Chronic dieting may lead to binge eating

In my clinical practice, I often see restrictive dieting lead to binge eating. 

A 2019 study in the Journal of Eating Disorders illuminates the issue further by showing that restrictive eating doesn’t lead to binging eating on its own, but occurs as a result of low self-esteem (along with other factors).

Here’s an illustration from the research paper that shows how low self-esteem can lead to what the paper called “dietary restraint”, which leads to binge eating:

If you believe you may be struggling with binge eating, use the Cravings Busting Audio Guide when you feel the urge to eat. 

Reason #6: Dieting leads to food guilt

All of the food rules of dieting set you up to feel guilt and confusion with eating. The truth is, you can make all foods fit in a healthy dietary pattern. 

You are also likely to experience shame and the anxiety and depression that results when you moralize food, thinking you are “good” or “bad” for eating something. 

Reason #7: Chronic dieting leads to self-criticism when it doesn’t work out

The diet industry is a billion-dollar industry that benefits by making you believe that your failure to get results is because YOU are a failure who didn’t try hard enough. 

So you beat yourself up mentally because you think kindness will only lead to more failure.

On top of your personal experience, you likely suffer from internalized weight stigma, where you may believe the false and discriminatory beliefs society has about people in large bodies, for example, that you are lazy or have “let yourself go”. 

And all this self-criticism and internalize weight stigma result in anxiety and depression. 

Boo!!!

Good news, you can practice kindness to yourself, even in the face of a food craving with the Cravings Busting Audio Guide. Get the guide now.

Reason #8: Yo Yo dieting disconnects you from your body, so you stop trusting yourself

The most damaging effect of weight cycling is the adversarial relationship that it sets up with your body and your sense of self:

• You believe you can’t be trusted to make healthy choices because of the times where you backslide from restriction into old patterns (which we’ve established is a normal, biological response to restriction).

• You believe your cravings and struggle to sense hunger and fullness are signs that your body is betraying you when really they are a form of protection. Your body is trying to keep you safe by keeping discomfort at bay.

The result of this disconnection between your body and yourself is fear and anxiety because food and your own responses to it are not safe. 

You keep spinning your wheels trying to solve for willpower, self-control, or the right diet, when none of these things will help you find peace. 

But it doesn’t have to stay this way!

What to do instead of yo yo dieting

By now, you realize this pattern is not a sustainable solution for weight management or health. 

So what do you do?

In order to heal the impact of weight cycling on your relationship with your body and food, you need to cultivate the Courage to Trust.

Cultivate the Courage to Trust

Cultivating the Courage to Trust means challenging the belief that your body is not trustworthy, and trusting that you are doing the best you can. 

If the best you can do is not leading to the consistent, healthy behaviors you would like, then you know you need support. 

With the Courage to Trust Method you get the support you need to:

1. Calm your nervous system so that when life’s stressors emerge you can get back to feeling safe and grounded instead of being derailed back to old habits.
   
2. Create a safe emotional environment with self-compassion that allows you to acknowledge, validate and hold space for your suffering so you don’t need food to numb.
   
3. Listen to what you need to feel good without using food for comfort and numbing.
   
4. Receive Medical Nutritional Therapy to treat or prevent diseases such as Binge Eating Disorder, Obesity, Pre-diabetes, and more with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist so you have the confidence you are doing everything you can for your health.

When you have worked through the 4 Pillars of the Courage to Trust Method, yo yo dieting will be the problem of the past and you will finally be able to trust yourself around food.