Does Yo-yo Dieting Ruin Your Metabolism?

The majority of clients I’ve worked with over the years had matter-of-factly accepted the notion that they had a “low metabolism,” possibly secondary to yo-yo dieting.

Several comprehensive reviews of the literature (including one by a National Institutes of Health expert panel), however, have concluded that the negative metabolic and body composition side-effects frequently attributed to yo-yo dieting are not supported by careful review of the data. The conclusions: yo-yo dieting does not have a lasting negative effect on resting energy expenditure (REE), or muscle tissue/lean body mass (LBM), and does not make future attempts at weight loss more difficult (at least from a physiological standpoint).(1,2) 

If your belief that you have a low metabolism is not addressed with factual information, then you essentially have an underlying expectation of failure—which may become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

In my continuing education seminar: Advanced Training in Weight Management one of the four 90-minute sections is all about metabolism. Since 1993 I have extensively studied this area of literature. For a more detailed review of all aspects of dieting and exercise on metabolic rate, see Metabolism: Facts & Fiction, (which is right out of my book, The NEW Healthy Eating & Weight Management Guide) which addresses the following:

1) Energy expenditure (defined)
2) How does energy restriction affect resting energy expenditure (REE)?
3) How does yo-yo dieting affect REE
4) How does physical activity affect REE?
5) Does adding muscle increase REE in a clinically significant way?
6) How does hypothyroidism impact REE?
7) What you need to know to maximize your success.

All the best!
-Dorene

1. National Institutes of Health National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity: Weight Cycling. J Am Med Assoc. 1994;272:1196-1202.
2. Wing R: Weight cycling in humans: A review of the literature. Ann Behav Med. 1992;14:113-119.

Comments

[Bob Bauer]

This is great information to have. But how do these myths about metabolism get started?

[Dorene Robinson RDN CDN]

Great question, Bob! It's actually a question that I have asked of several of the researchers in this field. Unfortunately, there is no for sure answer. For instance, Dr. Stephen Heymsfield (Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, and researcher at St. Lukes Roosevelt Obesity Research Center) told me that despite looking for an answer to that question he's, "unclear as to where the misinformation started." Here's my best guess, [the myth] started with someone assuming that the metabolic rate of the lean body mass (including organs) was the same as skeletal muscle.