Losing weight is relatively easy. The difficulty is to maintain the results achieved, so much so that it is generally estimated that only 20% of those who have followed a diet manage not to regain weight in a short time. Often things go differently: you start a diet in view of the fateful “costume test”, planning for a few months sacrifices made more acceptable by the results obtained. And then we go back to the old habits, out of tiredness, or out of the frustration of seeing the balance needle that never goes down.
What is the yo-yo effect
“This is a very serious problem,” he comments Livio Luzi, full professor of Endocrinology at the University of Milan and director of the Department of Endocrinology, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases of the Multimedia Group. This is what is generally referred to as the “yo yo effect”: “We see it happen often: patients follow a diet and lose weight, sometimes even a lot, then take it back with interest, and the thing is repeated two, three times, until they give up “, explains Luzi:” We don’t have percentages, but we know that, even for diets that guarantee weight loss, there are few patients who maintain the results achieved after a year “.
Losing weight: a long-term goal
The problem is that the goals are achieved in the long term: “Many people with obesity come to the dietician clinic in the spring, to get back in shape before the holidays, but if they have spent years gaining those extra pounds they cannot think of losing them in the spring. three months, there are physiological times to synthesize and “break down” the fat, “recalls Luzi.
Not to mention that it is normal to lose less weight after the first few successes, and also to regain some weight if you start exercising. But diet studies hardly go long enough to point this out. “The initial phase of a diet, in which you lose weight, is motivating, you feel you have reached a goal,” he adds. Daria D’Aliacognitive behavioral psychotherapist at the AT Beck Institute in Rome, expert in eating disorders: “The difficult moment comes later, so it is important to persevere, also accepting the inevitable relapses and starting again”.
The study that explains the mechanism of recovery of lost kilos
To explain this mechanism comes a study recently published in an authoritative journal such as Obesity: researchers from California Polytechnic State University analyzed, thanks to machine learning – an artificial intelligence system that improves its performance based on data analysis – the experience of six thousand women who made it, managing to maintain for more than three years the results obtained thanks to a popular diet program, WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers.
Don’t be discouraged
Researchers’ goal: to understand what are the mechanisms that make it possible to maintain a diet and define interventions that can help those who have to lose weight. A detailed analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed a key word, “perseverance”, the ability to overcome moments of crisis and not to be discouraged when you give in to temptation: “This is precisely the mental attitude we work on. psychologists: it is important to accept the idea that there can be relapses and start from there “, explains D’Alia. To confirm what the participants in the research write by answering the psychologists’ questions: “Losing weight is a long-term goal, you have to go on day by day, continue to monitor yourself. And learn not to interpret a moment of weakness as a defeat”.
Don’t talk about diet but lifestyle
The fact is that today it is the very concept of diet that is being overcome “even if we know that the regime that works best in the long term is a slightly low-calorie Mediterranean diet”, Luzi says.
But more than diet, we should talk about lifestyle change, which does not only concern nutrition but various elements, such as sleep or stress. And above all, physical activity which is fundamental, more than the calculation of calories. One of the few studies available on diet results months later, published in 2009 on Obesitypoints out physical activity among the main factors able to guarantee the maintenance of the results obtained: they were diabetic patients, therefore with a strong motivation, but it remains a significant indication.
No to too drastic approaches
Otherwise the risk is that of “all or nothing”; a few years ago the psychologists of Drexel University followed a group of dieters for two years, with the aim of understanding who would be able to maintain the results achieved: it emerged that a notable variation in weight loss in the first weeks of diet corresponded to a less satisfactory long-term outcome. And other studies confirm that an excessively drastic approach to diet tends to be followed by a period of disinhibition leading to regaining the lost weight.
Intermittent fasting. The Study: Doesn’t Help Weight Loss
curated by Cinzia Lucchelli
“Those who go wrong and let themselves be tempted by a dessert or a festive lunch think they have failed and give up the diet,” recalls Luzi. As if having succumbed to a greedy food would nullify the results obtained, while the goal should not be to lose weight quickly by focusing on sacrifice, but to restructure one’s eating habits, even allowing oneself a few tears: “On the other hand, this extremization is an attitude typical of all addictions, and obesity is in fact a food addiction, “recalls Luzi.
Find out what lies behind the weight gain
Those who manage not to give up do so in order not to lose the results achieved, giving up feeling better, physically and psychologically. But it is important to address the factors behind weight gain, and physical inactivity plays an important role among them. But those who live in an obesogenic environment are also in difficulty: “Often people who are very overweight come from families in which everyone eats too much, or they hang out with companies of overweight people”, continues Luzi. “In this case, losing weight can be perceived by others as a kind of betrayal.”
The secret to overcoming difficulties is to admit that relapse can happen, and it must be accepted. “Blame yourself is useless, it is useful instead to work constructively, to understand what went wrong”, explains D’Alia: “Remembering that at the root of nutrition problems there is the relationship with your body, food comes later”.
Happiness? You will not believe it but it also passes by the table
by Giuseppe del Bello
And the body is at the center of the motivations that prompted the study participants to go on a diet. “The same reasons expressed by my patients”, notes the psychologist. A body that generates disgust or shame, which prevents you from moving without feeling pain or discomfort. Added to this are health problems, but also social problems. We live in a society that offers all kinds of foods as gratification, but at the same time eating little is a myth, a goal to strive for. D’Alia concludes. “This is why it is important to help people enjoy food in a healthy way, to make them understand that it is not a poison, but not a way to console themselves when we are down”.
Password: persevere. The experience of six thousand women
“The most difficult moment of a diet is the beginning, and I have no intention of going through it again: that’s what I tell myself when I need a little encouragement to maintain the results obtained”, is the testimony of one of participants in a study carried out by psychologists at California Polytechnic State University. Who used technology to collect the experiences of over 6,000 seriously overweight women who managed to maintain their results for three years following a Weight Watchers (WW) diet plan.
The survey was carried out through open questions that allowed, perhaps for the first time, to listen to their fears, motivations and the obstacles they had to face. “We must learn not to see mistakes, the moments in which we fail, as failures”, many say: “You fail only when you stop trying”.
Don’t get fat. Here are the rules for staying fit
by Donatella Zorzetto
The watchword is “perseverance”: “The ups and downs are inevitable, you have to look at the long-term goals”, reads the study published in Obesity. And then again, stay motivated, monitor your diet on a daily basis, constantly keep in mind the advantages of weight loss, and if necessary, go back to the initial situation, to focus on the progress that allowed you to feel good about yourself. To understand what it means to “feel good” just read the reasons that led the participants to go on a diet. First of all health problems, such as diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, but also the desire to be more attractive, the insistence of family members or the treating doctor or simply the desire to change.
Why do we choose one food instead of another? A matter of instinct
by Paola Emilia Cicerone
And once the goal is reached, the most appreciated results are the newfound well-being, more energy and greater self-esteem, even if in some cases problems such as unexpectedly negative reactions from some acquaintance or the need to spend to buy new clothes may emerge. Despite the wealth of data, the study has limitations, as the authors themselves admit: almost only educated women of medium-high social class participate, motivated by investing in a paid program, certainly not the social group that has greater overweight problems. Not to mention that among the authors there are two WW employees, even if the potential conflict of interest is correctly explained in the text.