Overcome Weight Cycling and Yo-yo Diets
Have you successfully lost weight in the past only to regain it again and again? Many individuals struggle with yo-yo weight loss for most of their lives.
What Causes Yo-yo Dieting?
It may seem that cutting drastically on your food intake will bring quick results. However, your body sooner or later prepares itself for a decrease in calorie intake. The body will adjust to this lower calorie intake by decreasing the way it burns food for energy (metabolic rate) and conserving energy as well. The weight loss that was earlier attained starts to slow down or stop. Most individuals struggle to maintain their diet at this point. And the weight slowly starts to creep up again.
To make things worse, the decrease in metabolic rate will cause the body to live on less calorie intake. Every low-calorie dieting episode makes the body more efficient. This stringent calorie restriction causes a decrease in muscle tone. Familiar signs are sagging buns and flabby upper arms.
Alternatives to yo-yo diets
Instead of hoping for a rapid weight loss, take a more long term sustainable approach. Your goal should be for a modest weight loss. Decrease calorie intake by 200-500 calories a day depending on how much you have to lose. Consider your diet as a healthy eating plan instead of a temporary one.
Incorporate additional movements such as taking the stairs or parking far from the entry way into your daily life to increase your level of physical activity.
Plan on eating frequently throughout the day. Eating frequent smaller meals will prevent you from overeating later on.
Emotional Overeating
What if your problem is not consistently crash dieting? It’s possible that your eating has become a habit such as eating junk food when you sit down in front of the TV. Perhaps it is emotional. When you are stressed, you do not eat all day, then when you get bored, you raid the refrigerator.
Overcome emotional overeating
If food is meeting an emotional need, perhaps it’s time to examine your options. Find substitutes to eating instead. For example, instead of celebrating your birthday with cake (childhood ritual), invite your friends to play miniature golf instead. Have healthy snacks such as an apple or carrot sticks on hand. You can grab them quickly when you are too stressed to find time to eat at work. Or you can just clear your head by taking a brisk walk during your lunch break.
Control your hunger by eating multiple small meals a day. Never go hungry, because if you do, you are more likely to overeat or make poor choices. Do not eat to 100% fullness! Yes, you can train your body to be satisfied at 60% capacity. It’s okay to leave food on your plate. YOu are not helping poverty ridden countries by cleaning your plate.
You know what junk food can do to you. Therefore, just get rid of them. Instead stock your kitchen with whole-grain breads, vegetables and fruit.
Corny or not, do things to remind you to stick to your goal. Place a sign on your refrigerator that reads: Long term goals versus short term pleasure. Perhaps you can put a sign in your wallet that you see whenever you open it that reads: Food is not the boss in my life. I am stronger than the temptation of any food.
In the end, it all boils down to staying on track. Do not fall off the wagon even if you overate once (or twice).
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