Dieting makes you fatter: regain all the weight you lose and more

For many years, I was a yoyo dieter. I’d put on weight, go on a diet, and then over the next year or two, the weight would creep on again. This is a common cycle for many dieters, and it can make us crazy. We start to think there’s something wrong with us – but it may not be that at all, it may be the dieting process that’s the problem.

“WHAT IF COUNTING CALORIES MAKES YOU FATTER IN THE LONG RUN?” notes that:

Mann and her colleagues also examined other kinds of studies on the long-term effects of dieting. In 14 studies that lacked control groups, but followed dieters for at least four years after a prescribed reduced-calorie diet, the average early weight loss after dieting was almost 31 pounds. But by the end of the follow-up period, on average the dieters gained back more than 24 of the pounds they had lost. In 10 studies in which nutritional scientists tracked the weight of people who put themselves on any diet of their choosing, the results were even worse. Of the 10 reports, only one described lasting weight loss, two showed no long-term effect, and the remaining seven studies found that dieting led to weight gain in the long run.

So dieting can make you fatter – your body reacts to your diet by slowing your metabolism, and this slow metabolism continues to affect you, long after the diet is over, so that in the long-term, you regain more weight than you lose. And of course, you find weight loss increasingly difficult, because your body chemistry has changed.

So what’s the answer? Stop dieting altogether? That’s not an option. However, if you’re aware that slowing your metabolism by dieting has an effect, you can take steps to counteract this. Eat more and exercise, and build up your muscle mass: get fitter as you get leaner.

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