Losing weight is difficult. In the beginning, it can feel exciting to make sweeping changes and see the scale respond. As anyone who has ever lost weight knows, that initial enthusiasm often turns to frustration as you hit the dreaded plateau. What happens next for many people is they decide to throw in the towel and eventually the pounds they lost come back, sometimes with a few extra. This is what is known as weight cycling or “yo-yo” dieting. So why does this happen and what can we do about it?
We lose weight when we expend more energy than we take in. This is the “calories in, calories out” idea that most of us are familiar with. In order to lose weight, we need to be in a deficit so that our bodies use our stored energy, or fat, for fuel. If we cut down on our portions to decrease our calorie intake, we will begin to lose weight. Some of the initial weight we lose may be water weight depending on the type of diet we are following, but eventually, we will begin to burn fat. When we burn fat, our bodies will become smaller. Smaller bodies need less energy. For example, a 200-lb woman needs more energy to carry out her daily activities than a 150-lb woman does, simply because there is more of her physical body to move. So once you get to a smaller size, you need fewer calories to maintain that size as compared to the size you were before.
Two additional details make this even more complex. When we lose fat, often we are also losing muscle mass along with fat. Losing muscle can further deplete our metabolism, so it is important to preserve our muscle while cutting calories. We can do this by eating adequate amounts of protein with our meals and by engaging in resistance training exercises. The second detail that makes losing weight so challenging is that our bodies do not want to lose weight. So, as an evolutionary adaptation, when we lose weight, our bodies compensate by increasing our appetite. This made a lot of sense in ancient times, as it would have encouraged us to look for food to stay alive. We still carry this adaptation with us today. As you are cutting calories to lose weight, your body is demanding you eat more by increasing your appetite. This can cause you to feel hungry all of the time even when you are eating reasonable amounts of food.
People often feel they have failed at diets because they have no willpower, but truly your body is just doing what has always worked for humans in the past. Our bodies have not changed as quickly as our environments. What can we do about this? Well, the first step is making sure the foods we are choosing are nourishing and satisfying. We encourage our clients to build meals with lean protein, high-fiber carbohydrates, and healthy fats. We are proponents of making the basis of your eating plan plant foods, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, and whole grains, then using lean meats, seafood, dairy and eggs to round it out. You can find many well-rounded meal ideas on our cooking blog, https://judymatusky.com/
For a personalized eating plan, make an appointment with one of our dietitians.
By Amanda Thomas, RDN, LDN, Nutritionist and Writer for Athens Nutrition