LOOKS, LIVERS AND LOVE

March/April 1988
 
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TO YOUR HEALTH

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The health risks of yo-yo diets.

When it concerns the fitness of body, mind or spirit, the editors at American Health arethere, staying on top of up-to-date research,separating fads from facts, and helping youpreserve and improve life's most precious giftyour good health. Here are just a few itemsculled from their current and upcoming issues,one of which concerns the danger of gaining backlost pounds.

Yo-Yo Dieting

We are a nation of "yo-yo" dieters with 31% of American women dieting at least once a month. Yet, Northwestern University researchers report that men who showed the greatest up-and-down weight swings also had the highest risk of sudden death from coronary heart disease. Gaining and relosing weight can also distort the weight-regulation system. The more diets you go on, the harder it is to lose weight, because—when you cut calories—your basal metabolic rate, used for routine maintenance functions like breathing and cell repair (65% to 70% of the body's total energy use), drops measurably within 24 hours and can decline a full 20% within two weeks. This is one reason dieters often reach a plateau some weeks into the diet, finding the same caloric intake no longer produces weight loss. Your body also adapts to dieting by making your body more efficient at fat storage, and this change can persist even if you regain your lost weight.

In addition, people on crash diets or ones low in protein can lose a substantial amount of muscle. Then, if they gain the weight back, they may regain less muscle and more fat. Yo-yo dieting also appears to increase the desire for fatty foods. (In animal experiments at Yale, when given a choice of carbohydrate, protein or fat, rats, after dieting, preferred fat for a period of time.) Weight cycling also tends to shift fat from the thighs or hips to the abdomen, and research has shown that fat above the waist raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes more than fat below the waist.

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