Yo yo dieting often occurs when dieters attempt highly restrictive "crash" diets. Though a crash diet leads to short-term weight loss, it ultimately proves unsustainable and leads to food binging. Chronic yo yo dieters might go through several phases of food restriction followed by binging. This cycle can have a number of physiological effects on your body, affecting the levels of several hormones, and often ultimately leads to weight gain.
Hormones and Your Metabolism
Hormones play a large role in your body's metabolism. Different hormones affect how your body breaks down the foods you eat, whether these nutrients are used as fuel or stored as fat, as well as your body composition: the amount of lean muscle mass on your frame. Collectively, these factors contribute to your overall metabolic rate -- the amount of calories your body burns each day to maintain itself. Yo yo dieting alters your hormone levels, leading to a number of physiological effects on your body.
Ghrelin
One of the hormones affected by yo yo dieting is ghrelin. Under normal conditions, ghrelin plays a role in stimulating hunger. Before a meal, high ghrelin levels trigger sensations of hunger, and eating lowers the levels of the hormone in your body. When you yo-yo diet, you experience an overall increase in ghrelin levels, according to Precision Nutrition, leading to an increase in hunger. Over time, this increased ghrelin can affect your body composition, causing an increase in fat storage after a meal and ultimately promoting weight gain when you go back to your regular eating habits.
Serotonin
Dieting also has an effect on serotonin in your body, a hormone involved in signaling between nerve cells within your brain. Proper serotonin levels have proven important to mental health, and abnormally low levels can lead to depression. Going on a restrictive diet depletes serotonin in your brain, according to the University of South Florida. These low serotonin levels set you up for yo-yo dieting, since low levels of the hormone trigger intense carbohydrate cravings and promote binge eating.
Thyroid Hormones
Weight cycling -- weight loss followed by regain -- is a common side effect of the food restriction and binging associated with yo-yo dieting, and can affect your hormone levels. A study published in "Metabolism -- Clinical and Experimental" in 2002 found that women who went through weight cycling due to yo-yo dieting suffered a decrease in their levels of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. Both hormones play a role in your metabolism, and abnormally low levels of the hormones can promote weight gain, contributing to weight gain after yo-yo dieting.
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