You’ve spent months of dieting with a Spartan discipline until you achieved your dream shape, only to gain all the weight back in not more than a few weeks.
Everyone that has tried dieting for weight loss is familiar with the yo-yo effect and we still struggle to accept reality. It makes all our effort pointless, and it even turns out that some of the harshest diets actually cause us to gain more weight afterward as a compulsory mechanism.
The yo-yo effect is not only bad for our shape but it can be harmful to our health too, especially in the long run.
The good news is, this problem too has a solution, but to be able to combat it you first need to understand its root cause.
Why Does the Yo-yo Effect Happen
During a restrictive diet, your body loses a lot of water, which is the main reason why you lose weight so fast. Unfortunately, all the water is quickly regained once you stop dieting.
The diet also slows down your metabolism, so when you start eating the same way you did before the diet, you actually gain even more weight, as your body can’t process the calorie intake.
All these processes result in a lot of stress or shock for the body which affects our health.
Fortunately, there is a way to a successful weight loss without the yo-yo effect. Now here is what you need to do.
Think Long-Term
Those 2-week diets that claim to be able to help you drastically reduce weight in the short term are actually the ones with the most massive yo-yo effect.
Even though you might be wanting to really get rid of that weight fast as the summer is approaching, short-term goals are not going to work.
Experts say that successful weight loss should be a long-term goal. You should not be expecting to lose a large amount of fat for at least 3 months.
Remember, with weight loss, slow and steady is the way to go. Just keep eating healthy and don’t look in the mirror every few hours, and with time, that excess weight will be gone for good.
Have a Sustainable Plan
Avoid highly restrictive diets if you want to lose the yo-yo effect. Instead, find a diet that can actually become a part of your lifestyle for a long period of time.
A short period of starvation is something that actually causes the body to frantically try to replenish the fat storage the moment you start eating normally again. This results in you gaining more weight than you have managed to lose.
Plan a change that happens gradually but is stable in the long term.
Protein is Key
If you do not consume enough protein during a diet, the body will start breaking down muscles in order to get essential amino acids and energy from them.
To prevent that from happening make sure you are consuming the necessary protein intake, especially if you are exercising regularly.
Otherwise, the stress on the body will additionally stimulate it to restore the lost weight during the dieting period.
Exercise During Dieting
Without proper exercise, there is no long-term weight loss. You should be aiming at integrating exercise into your daily life not only in order to look good, but for your body to be healthy too.
Find the exercises that you most enjoy so that you can easily make them a part of your daily life.
It doesn’t have to be fitness – you could take up dancing classes, group exercises, swimming, or anything that floats your boat.
Identify the Cause of Weight Gain
To combat weight gain forever, analyze what caused it in the first place. Was it excessive eating of unhealthy food due to stress?
Then you should be aiming at removing the source of stress and not so much trying to fight the problem on the surface.
Maybe you used food to distract yourself from problems or you are continuing a childhood habit of receiving sweets?
Whatever the root cause is, you should work with the emotional mechanisms that drive the bad habits if you want to lose excess weight sustainably.
Cook for Yourself
There are many foods and drinks that you can ditch forever and you will get very fast results.
If you start cooking your own meals more often than eating out or ordering food for home you will be consuming much fewer unhealthy ingredients and excess fat.
Cooking is naturally much healthier, so if you make it a habit it will be much easier to maintain a balanced weight.
There are also a lot more healthy meal options when you cook at home than when you go outside, plus you can prepare healthy meals for yourself for a much lower price than if you were ordering in a restaurant.