It is better to gain weight and lose weight alternately than not to lose weight at all.
Losing a few kilos is not an art, you still have to keep weight. Meanwhile, not a year passes, and 40 percent. slimming goes back to the previous body weight. Within five years, 80 percent. of them gain weight and start losing weight all over again, falling into the yo-yo trap: five kilos down and then seven up. Researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles conducted an analysis of over 30 of the most popular diets to conclude that there is no one that would protect against a weight swing. So it seems that all the effort associated with losing weight sooner or later goes to waste. In addition, it affects health. Until now, doctors were sure that people who put their bodies through continuous cycles of weight loss were more likely to develop heart disease and had a lowered immune system. It’s just not true. For health, it is better to gain weight and lose weight alternately than to stop fighting overweight or obesity at all. Such conclusions are led by the results of research conducted by Dr. Edward List from Ohio University’s Edison Biotechnology Institute. For the first time, Dr. List investigated the effects of weight fluctuations repeated regularly throughout life. The research was carried out on laboratory mice, but this is because the average life expectancy of these animals is two or three years. In humans, such observations would have to last several dozen years.
Dr. List selected two groups of mice for the study. One, fed with high-fat foods, was obese. For the latter, a diet that induced the yo-yo effect was selected – the mice were fed fatty food for a month, and low-calorie food for the next month. This dietary regimen was maintained consistently throughout their lives, while body weight, body fat and blood glucose were measured simultaneously. After more than two years, Dr. List analyzed the results of the study and was surprised to find that the yo-yo diet used in one group of mice is not as harmful to health as he had assumed. Although blood glucose was far from ideal, and with caloric nutrition, the levels were almost as high as in diabetic mice, but it dropped when the animals began to get dietary food. Overall, however, as Dr. List assessed, the health of the rodents on the yo-yo diet was better than those who had eaten fatty foods all their lives. Animals with weight fluctuations also lived a third longer than fat mice. They survived for over two years, while obese – less than a year and a half. By comparison, the life expectancy of a group of properly fed, lean mice was almost three years.
So it turns out that fluctuations in body weight can be good for health, and the yo-yo effect is not as treacherous for the health of mice as obesity or overweight itself. In humans, the mechanism is similar, says Dr. List. He claims that if we use popular slimming diets every now and then, our diet becomes similar to that of mice on a yo-yo diet. We have the same weight swing: we lose weight on a diet, and when we start to eat more calories – we gain weight again. Until now, scientists have scared us with the yo-yo effect. Previous studies have conclusively shown that people who have gone through five or more cycles of weight loss and weight loss in their lifetime have poor cardiac tests and a weakened immune system – few cells called natural killer cells that fight viral infections and destroy cancer cells. The weakness of this study, however, was that researchers compared the health of yo-yo victims to lean, rather than obese, individuals. So they did not wonder what the worse evil was – weight fluctuations or obesity. Thus, they did not answer the question of whether it is better to make further attempts to lose weight, exposing themselves to the yo-yo, or to abandon the fight against excess weight at all for fear of it. Dr. Michał Mularczyk, a weight loss internist in Warsaw, admits that yo-yo is a failure that often has to be suffered in order to finally get rid of unnecessary kilograms. It is addressed to patients who have even 20-30 weight loss and weight loss cycles behind them. However, many eventually manage to maintain a healthy weight permanently. – So no matter how many times we have lost weight, it is worth trying again – says Dr. Mularczyk. Because even from unsuccessful attempts something good can result.
The body quickly begins to feel the positive effects of weight loss. – It is enough for an obese person to lose 5-10 percent. for example, if a man weighing 90 kg loses 4,5-9 kg within a year, the disturbed metabolism begins to return to normal – says prof. Małgorzata Kozłowska-Wojciechowska, nutrition specialist from the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW). There are other benefits as well. – Increased lipid levels decrease (sometimes even returns to normal), increased blood pressure drops by up to 20 mmHg, blood glucose levels are normalized. Inflammations, which cause heart disease, which are common in overweight people, are dying out, and damage to the arteries regenerates better – says Prof. Marek Naruszewicz, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Medical University of Warsaw. Dr. List selected two groups of mice for the study. One, fed with high-fat foods, was obese. For the latter, a diet that induced the yo-yo effect was selected – the mice were fed fatty food for a month, and low-calorie food for the next month. This dietary regimen was maintained consistently throughout their lives, while body weight, body fat and blood glucose were measured simultaneously. After more than two years, Dr. List analyzed the results of the study and was surprised to find that the yo-yo diet used in one group of mice is not as harmful to health as he had assumed. Although blood glucose was far from ideal, and with caloric nutrition, the levels were almost as high as in diabetic mice, but it dropped when the animals began to get dietary food. Overall, however, as Dr. List assessed, the health of the rodents on the yo-yo diet was better than those who had eaten fatty foods all their lives. Animals with weight fluctuations also lived a third longer than fat mice. They survived for over two years, while obese – less than a year and a half. By comparison, the life expectancy of a group of properly fed, lean mice was almost three years.
Unfortunately, all positive changes in the body disappear when we gain weight again. And if we manage to lose weight again, we cannot expect the metabolism to improve just as quickly. – Each subsequent attempt to lose weight brings less and less health benefits – emphasizes prof. Kozłowska-Wojciechowska. However, it improves metabolism and at least to some extent reduces the risk of heart attacks or strokes to which obese people are exposed. People who manage to lose weight by approx. 10 percent and maintain a reduced weight for several years, have the chance to live longer by nearly four years. The method of losing weight must be chosen so that it is not torture. – It is worth making a thorough review of popular diets and choosing one that will not be a source of sacrifice and stress for us – advises Dr. Mularczyk. He considers the worst way to deny himself everything and forcing himself to eat foods you do not like just because they are low in calories. Even mice that were kept on a restrictive diet for three weeks became more prone to stress and had an unnatural urge to eat fatty foods, Dr. Tracy Bale of the University of Pennsylvania found. People react the same. Therefore, on a heavily restrictive diet, we are hungry and furious. In such a state, we will quickly give it up to return to old habits with relief. And then the yo-yo effect is guaranteed.
NEW IDEAS INSTEAD OF A MIRACLE DIET
Nutritionists have been wondering for years how to facilitate the transition to a healthier lifestyle by people who are slimming.
second Life
There, we will learn good habits as quickly as possible – according to the research of prof. Jeanne Johnston from Indiana University.
One of the two slimming groups was to follow the diet recommended by specialists and learn the principles of healthy eating under their supervision, and the other attended only virtual classes, where together with other avatars, she learned healthy habits.
Although the latter were only sitting in front of the computer, they lost about 5 kg – the same amount as those supervised by dietitians. They lost weight because after leaving the computer they repeated behaviors practiced in cyberspace.
Brain training
Let’s try to modify the secretion of ghrelin, a hormone that whets the appetite and makes you feel hungry. If the body produces more of it, we have a ravenous appetite, and eating is fun.
Psychologists at the University of Yale have shown that in order to reduce ghrelin secretion, it is enough to start deceiving the brain. The group of subjects asked to drink a drink containing 380 kcal. However, they committed a small trick. One group said that the drink contained only 140 kcal, and another – as much as 620 kcal. People who believed they had drunk a high-calorie drink had far less ghrelin in their stomachs than those who thought it was dietary. The self-suggestion itself was enough for the stomach to reduce ghrelin secretion and the feeling of hunger did not arise.
Text: Jolanta Chyłkiewicz
Also read: Eat with common sense
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Effective protection against the yo-yo effect