At any given time, almost half of the U. S. population is trying to lose weight.
Women who yo-yo diet risk their damaging their heart health, scientists have warned.
Researchers arrived at their conclusion after carrying out a cross-sectional study on 485 women who took part in a research program for the American Heart Association.
At any given time, almost half of the U. S. population is trying to lose weight. That goal is most common among women, Dr. Brooke Aggarwal, senior author of the study and assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, told Newsweek.
“We chose to study women in particular because women are more likely than men to engage in dieting behaviors, and they are more susceptible to fat accumulation during certain time periods, such as pregnancy and menopause, and therefore may be at more at risk for weight cycling,” she explained.
The researchers wanted to learn whether a history of yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling, affected a woman’s heart health, and whether if she had been pregnant or was post-menopausal made a difference.
Weight cycling was defined as losing and gaining at least 10lbs at least once, excluding during pregnancy. The participants were scored according to the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 test, which calculates cardiovascular health according to an individual’s BMI, cholesterol and glucose levels, smoking habits and diet and exercise levels. The women were grouped according to whether they scored poorly, moderately or highly on the test.
The results revealed that most women had weight-cycled at least once, and some had done so as many as 20 times.
Those who had yo-yo dieted repeatedly were 51 percent less likely to have scored as moderate or high on the Life’s Simple 7 test, with more episodes linked to poorer scores.
