Avoiding the yo-yo effect: here's how!

Many of us have surely tried a diet at some point. Whether the keto diet, the paleo diet or intermittent fasting, the hoped-for result is always a lower body weight. But many people gain the weight back after the diet. Often you end up at a higher weight than when you started the diet. This is what's known as the yo-yo effect.

The yo-yo effect is a widespread phenomenon, but there are also solutions for it. In this article, I'll go into more detail about what exactly the yo-yo effect is and how best to avoid it after a diet.

Before we get started, let me briefly introduce myself: my name is Marco Laterza, I'm a personal trainer from Zurich. I offer my clients support in the areas of sport, nutrition and mindset. A holistic approach to health and fitness matters to me, and I want to pass this concept on to everyone. If you're interested in working together, feel free to reach out to me anytime.

What is the yo-yo effect?

Let's start with the actual definition of the yo-yo effect. When you quickly return to your original weight, or even exceed it, after a weight-loss diet, that's what's called the yo-yo effect.

This often occurs with so-called crash diets. During this period, you consume very few calories over a certain timeframe, usually several weeks to a few months. With this diet, you hope to quickly reach your dream body. After the diet, most people go back to eating normally, and the weight climbs rapidly again.

The yo-yo effect arises because such a diet puts your body into a state of alarm. Your body notices that you're consuming very few calories and tries by all means to get enough energy. To do this, it draws not only on your fat and carbohydrate reserves, but also on the protein in your body. As a result, you lose a lot of weight during this time, but not just fat, muscle too.

Due to the lower body weight and lower muscle mass, your basal metabolic rate also drops significantly. So if you go back to eating the way you did before the diet, you'll be taking in far too many calories. Your body stores the excess calories as fat reserves, and so you gain a lot of weight back again.

Essentially, the yo-yo effect is nothing more than a protective mechanism of your body. It's meant to protect against periods of famine and keep us alive, even when we don't have as much food available.

4 tips to avoid the yo-yo effect

Now you know better what the yo-yo effect actually is. But how can you avoid it? After all, you also want to maintain your weight as well as possible after a diet. Well, in the following paragraphs I'll give you 4 tips to take with you.

1. Pay attention to your calorie needs!

As already mentioned, a lower body weight logically also reduces your calorie needs. So if you want to maintain your weight after the diet, you should calculate your calorie needs. There are various calculators online that give you a good reference value.

You shouldn't trust these values 100%, though, since every body is different and some people have a higher or lower metabolism. Here's what you can do after a diet:

1. Calculate your calorie needs and stick to that for one week.
2. After the first week, weigh yourself and observe whether you've gained weight, lost weight, or maintained your weight.
3. If you've gained weight, you should lower your calorie intake slightly. If you've lost weight, you should raise your calorie intake slightly. Do this again for one week.
4. Then repeat the process. This way, you'll eventually settle at the calorie intake that works best for you to maintain your weight.

2. No crash diets!

To avoid a yo-yo effect, you should avoid crash diets entirely anyway. It might sound tempting to lose a lot of weight in a short time, but in the fewest cases does that actually bring success.

If you really want to lose weight, you should keep the calorie deficit smaller. A deficit of 300 to 500 calories can make sense here. You can also choose an even smaller deficit to lose weight over the long term. You won't lose weight as quickly, but the results will last longer.

3. Enough protein!

Especially during a diet, you risk losing muscle mass. To avoid this, you should make sure to get enough protein despite reduced calories. There are many options you can use for this, such as chicken, protein shakes, lentils, and so on. With enough protein in your diet, you'll lose less muscle and also stay full longer.

4. Enough movement!

Movement is also very important. It burns calories and boosts your metabolism. Especially after a diet, when you want to eat more, you can use movement to burn calories and avoid the yo-yo effect.

More movement doesn't mean you have to go train every single day, though. Three to four exercise sessions would definitely be recommended. But you can also just build more movement into your everyday life, for example by taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Conclusion

The yo-yo effect is seen as annoying by many people, but it's really just a natural mechanism of our body. If we approach the topic of "losing weight & dieting" correctly, we can easily avoid this effect and maintain our desired weight long term.