Once you have successfully taken off extra pounds, what's wrong with gaining a few back after your diet ends? A relapse after dieting can be bad for your short- and long-term health, but it also indicates an ineffective weight loss strategy. Diets that don't permanently control your weight can create nutritional imbalance, physical and mental health problems such as gallstones and eating disorders, and even greater overweight conditions. Managing your weight by changing your daily eating habits will help prevent relapses.
Malnutrition
Your body needs a constant supply of the right amounts of different nutrients. The cycle of weight loss and weight gain brought on by extreme dieting disrupts this balance. When you lose weight by eating more fruits and vegetables, for instance, your body grows accustomed to the additional vitamin, mineral and fiber input. Removing this supply by relapsing and eating higher-calorie foods, such as those with greater fat and sugar contents, can create unhealthy deficiencies of some nutrients along with an excess of others.
Disease Risk
Inadequate levels of some nutrients, such as iron and vitamin B, can cause health problems such as anemia. Overconsumption of fats or sugars can increase your risk for developing heart disease or Type 2 diabetes. Relapses in weight gain are typical of extreme diets that are difficult to sustain. Gallbladder disease is a common illness associated with swift weight loss. It is characterized by the formation of gallstones, which may require surgical treatment.
Eating Disorders
The mental ups and downs that accompany weight loss and rebound can result in chronic changes in your thinking and behavior with food. Your self-esteem may drop when you regain weight, and you may develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, especially if you have a history of depression or anxiety. These conditions cause or exacerbate malnutrition issues and can even threaten your life. Following a sustainable, balanced diet that gradually improves your eating habits prevents a relapse into binge eating or unhealthy food choices.
Obesity
Perhaps the worst consequence of a dieting relapse is the continuing problem of weight gain. Adding to overweight leads to obesity, a condition measured by a body mass index of 30 or more. Obese people are more likely to raise overweight children, to experience complications from surgery or childbirth and to suffer fatality from heart disease and some types of cancer.
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