What is Weight Cycling? 

Weight cycling refers to the repeated gaining and losing of weight, usually connected to chronic dieting. It is also known as “yo-yo dieting” and there are several associated risk factors

Why does Weight Cycling Happen?

Weight cycling is often due to restrictive diets that cause short term weight loss, followed by eventual weight regain once the diet is over. Typically, with weight cycling, folks regain more weight than they initially lost.

Strict diets can feel unsatisfying because you’re depriving yourself of certain foods. This lack of fulfillment can cause binges once the diet has ended in order to satisfy the craving, which contributes to weight regain. 

Moreover, our bodies are wired to maintain a certain set-point range. Dropping below this range through dieting signals danger to the brain, and the body’s natural instinct is to restore to its homeostatic point.

Once the weight is back on, it’s common to turn to another diet to attempt  weight loss once again. Thus, the cycle of dieting and weight fluctuation continues.

Who is Affected by Weight Cycling?

Weight cycling is estimated to impact 20-35% of men and 20-55% of women. 

This phenomenon impacts people of all body types, not just folks in larger bodies. While adults are primarily affected, the prevalence of weight cycling in younger generations has increased, likely due to the rise of diet culture promotion on social media.

How Does Weight Cycling Impact Physical Health?

Weight cycling is linked to a variety of cardiovascular issues because of the strain fluctuating weight has on the heart. Rapid fluctuations in body weight damage blood vessels as they attempt to keep up with the sudden changes, increasing the risk for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and chronic inflammation. 

Moreover, rapid weight loss can lead to muscle catabolism– the breakdown of muscle tissue for energy in times of calorie deficit. The heart is a muscle, which means it’s also subject to atrophy in this catabolic state.

Not only does weight cycling lead to cardiovascular damage, but it’s also an independent risk factor for diabetes.  The quick shifts in body weight are difficult for hormones– like insulin– to keep up with, in turn negatively impacting metabolic processes. This can lead to insulin resistance, poor blood sugar control, and if left unchecked, diabetes. 

In addition, periods of binge eating– connected to weight cycling– result in massive fluctuations of glucose in the bloodstream. It can be difficult for our insulin to handle these big influxes of carbs, which is another reason why weight cycling leads to worse blood sugar control.

How Does Weight Cycling Impact One’s Mental Health?

Weight cycling also has negative impacts on one’s mental health, connected to the mainstream diet culture messaging that idolizes thin bodies.

Those who experience weight cycling are more likely to have a negative body image and view their inability to keep the weight off as a moral failing. 

Plus, receiving compliments from friends or family when you have lost weight makes it that much more painful when you inevitably regain the weight. This reinforces the idea that being in a larger body is less desirable than a smaller body (which of course, isn’t true). 

It’s no wonder that people who have engaged in weight cycling have higher rates of depression and anxiety. It can be discouraging and frustrating to continue to regain weight after working so hard to try and lose it. This mentality traps you in the diet culture of weight-cycling while being detrimental to your physical and mental health.

How to Stop Weight Cylcing

Intuitive eating is the answer to end weight cycling. It features 10 principles focusing on rejecting diet culture and embracing your body, and is strongly associated with positive physical and mental health outcomes.

Research shows that Intuitive eating leads to better blood sugar control, decreased risk for cardiovascular disease, and higher rates of body satisfaction.

Intuitive eating teaches you to listen to your hunger cues and honor your cravings, leading to reduced binges and increased body cue connection. IE also helps you maintain a stable weight– your set weight which is associated with better health outcomes compared to weight cycling.

Intuitive eating is a path out of the harmful binge/ restrict, weight loss/ weight re-gain cycle that diets typically cause.

Ready to break free from diet culture and reshape your relationship with food in a way that best supports your health? Take the first steps by downloading our free Intuitive Eating Starter Pack here. Download my FREE Intuitive Eating Starter Pack here.