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Researchers found that people with heart diseases have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and even death associated with yo-yo diet for weight loss. The cyclical loss and gain of weight, again and again, raises health consequences that should be taken into consideration seriously by the patients.

What is the Yo-Yo Diet?

Yo-yo dieting, also called as the yo-yo effect, refers to the weight cycling that happens when a person who loses weight is successful in getting rid of the unwanted scale but fails to keep it off. The repeating cycle results to the cyclical process like the up and down movement of the yo-yo.

This usually happens to diets that are extreme and sudden. Because of this, the dieter will find a harder time in maintaining the weight loss long-term.

There have been many studies before that states the weight fluctuations from the yo-yo diet for weight loss leads to bad consequences for the health. Researchers have found a link between yo-yo diet and increased risk of heart diseases.

More Heart Problems Arise

With information gathered from the previous studies, Dr. Sripal Bangalore of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center and colleagues from the NYU Langone Medical Center found that people with pre-existing coronary heart disease (CHD) will be hugely impacted by the yo-yo effect. For about 5 years, the researchers observed 9,509 men and women with CHD aged from 35 to 75 as per the Newswise.

CHD, also known as coronary artery disease, takes lives of 370,000 people in the US every year. It is one of the most common heart diseases among men and women in the country.

Their data revealed there are 124 percent deaths linked with larger weight fluctuations compared to those with small weight changes. Meanwhile, 117 percent got heart attacks and 136 percent strokes were associated with patients who experienced the weight cycling.

The study, published in New England Journal of Medicine, clarifies that their research is only observational and does not identify the causes of the increased health risks in the yo-yo diet for weight loss. Still, the findings provide important information to make people more determined to keep excess weight off permanently as much as possible.