6 ways in which yo-yo diet can affect your body

Read on to know about how an on and off weight loss cycle impacts the body.

Yo-yo diet is the one in which you end up gaining lost weight, or in some cases, even more, just a few months after losing weight. It is one of the biggest struggles for people to avoid getting entrapped by the yo-yo diet phenomenon post successful weight loss.

While it is difficult to continue with the disciplined and changed lifestyle to lead a healthy life, one must try to follow a doable and practical approach regarding eating habits in order to lose weight. Yo-yo dieting can lead to the gaining of fat instead of muscles, which make it harder to lose weight the next time. Here are 6 ways in which yo-yo dieting badly affects the body.

Drops blood sugar level

Skipping meals and even worse food groups can result in dropping of the blood sugar level that affects the appetite and leads to nutritional imbalance. Dipping blood sugar also leads to a strong craving for fatty and sugary food, which invariably affects the ability to pick healthier food choices. All of this increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

Affects the heart

Limiting the intake of certain food groups (low fat and healthy foods) and picking wrong food choices (sugary and fatty food) affects our heart badly. According to certain studies, fluctuating body weight is one of the risk factors for coronary heart diseases.

Affects energy level

Yo-yo dieting is mostly deficit in certain vitamins and minerals. Iron is one such nutrient intake of which is badly affected by the yo-yo dieting trend. Lack of iron intake results in anemia, low energy level, lack of concentration, and rapid heartbeat.

Affects sleep

Yo-yo dieting results in sleep deprivation as gorging on sugary foods and over-eating meals leads to sleeplessness. Your sleep is also affected due to increased production of stress hormone and mental disturbance because of a lack of self-control and low self-esteem.

Affects the gut

Yo-yo dieting is bad news for the gut as it affects the population of the microbiome, which boosts immunity and regulates the metabolism. An unhealthy gut is bad news for our health as it is required for the maintenance of body weight.

Affects metabolism

This diet pattern slows down metabolism as there is a continuous and unpredictable change in the number of calories consumed every day. This can also mess with the production of certain hormones, particularly the hunger hormone.