The Damage Yo-Yo Dieting Is Doing To Your Body

The only diet that can actually be considered healthy is a balanced one. "I don't believe in diets — they aren't sustainable," Rachel Goldman, Ph.D., a psychologist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine in New York City, put simply to Freshly. And there are endless reasons why. But the most important reason why diets aren't sustainable and you should stay away from them is because food — and the nutrition it provides — is crucial. We can't restrict ourselves from certain foods groups and expect to be giving the body the nutrition it wants and needs. 

"We want to focus on foods that make us feel good... and [boost] our focus, concentration, energy, sleep, and mood," Goldman went on to explain. So if you're someone who regularly tries new diets, or is somewhat of a yo-yo dieter, you're probably not focusing on eating the foods you should be — and it could be very harmful to your body.

According to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Epidemiology and Prevention Convention, yo-yo dieting can actually increase women's risk of heart disease. While men are also affected, Dr. Michael Miller, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, explained to CNN, "Yo-yo dieting can result in fluid shifts and electrolyte changes, such as potassium, that can cause deadly heart arrhythmias in susceptible middle-aged women." Yikes!

Worse still, the research presented at the AHA Epidemiology and Prevention found that 82 percent of those women who yo-yo diet are less likely to have a healthy body mass index than those who don't. "The take-home message is that it's possible that going up and down in weight might be worse than just remaining slightly overweight," Dr. Brooke Aggarwal, senior author of the study from Columbia University Medical Center, told ABC News.