One thing that is all too common when it comes to dieting is the yo yo effects of it. Meaning, you lose weight, then you gain it back, then lose it again, then gain it back again.
We’ve probably done it ourselves, know people personally that have done it, and even seen millionaire celebrities like Kristie Alley and Oprah Winfrey go through this cycle over the years. I even talked about the Biggest Loser contestants that have put back on weight after the show was over.
There’s some studies that show that:
By some estimates, more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about two-thirds of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost.
The rest of the article is a decent read even though I don’t agree with some pieces of it.
I think one of the causes of yo yo dieting is the fact that a person sets a weight that they want to reach and mark that as their goal.
Which means that like a lot of things in life, when we reach that goal we think “ahhhh, I did it!” And then stop….
If you’re goal is to run a marathon, you train for it, you run it, but when you reach the finish line, do you keep running past it or do you stop? Your goal was to run in it, you finished, you reached your goal, you’re done (at least until you set your next goal).
The thing with fat loss though is that you can’t do that. You have to set that benchmark, and then make sure that you stay right around that benchmark in order for it to stick.
But let’s back up to the point before reaching the “goal weight.”
A lot of times you get on a weight loss kick, start losing weight, lose weight consistently, and then find yourself at a plateau for a couple of weeks. This is where people tend to fall off.
There are those that will be patient, make adjustments, and push through the plateau. There are others that get frustrated, and give up. They go back to their old style of eating, and then put the pounds back on, thus, just completed a round of yo-yo dieting.
When you hit a plateau, you need to be patient. Take some time away from your regular eating and exercise habits for 2-3 days and just relax. Then get right back to what you were doing. Sometimes your body needs this kind of shake up to get you back on the fat loss track.
So you push through that plateau, and you reach your goal weight. Great! Pizza for a week!!! Well, not quite. This can be the hardest part of the whole weight loss process: maintaining what you just did.
As mentioned, this is where you can either go back to your old habits, which will result in gaining weight, or you stay on the mark, watch what you eat, and keep an eye on that scale.
I like to tell people to follow the six pound rule: Keep weighing yourself once a week (and only once a week), keep your food and exercise in line, and keep your weight within six pounds of your goal weight.
If you keep your weight within six pounds of where you want to be, that’s very manageable and you can very easily get back to your goal weight fairly quickly if you need to (at the same time, six pounds isn’t that much to the point where others are going to notice or that all of a sudden those pants won’t fit but, from a psychological perspective, just knowing that you’re at your goal weight for a special event can do wonders for your mind set).
The bottom line is, have a goal weight in mind but, remember that MAIN goal is to keep it off!
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