http://www.bestherbalhealth.com/yo-yo-effect-after-a-weight-loss-diet/
Have you ever heard of the “yoyo diet effect”? You know, when we lose 20 some pounds, and then gain it all back with an extra 5 or 10? Would you happen to know someone that went through this intimately? Like the one you stare at in the mirror everyday? No worries here, we’ve all been through it, and now’s the time for revenge! That’s right.
The “Yoyo effect” has to do with our hormones, the leptin hormone mostly. Simply put, after a couple of weeks our body gets primed… for fat gain! Yep, our metabolism slows down so we burn less fat, and on top of that, we store fat more easily so if we binge out or overeat, we’ll put on the blubber quite quickly. If we have restricted our food intake for a couple of months – as most people do – then stop and eat like we used to before, we gain all that fat we lost back with a little extra added to boot.
The good news is it’s easy to restore our leptin levels back to normal: we simply have to eat a good amount of food for a few days and we can get back to fat burning mode! Yes, it is that simple. Sure, you will gain weight in those few days but overall, you’ll lose more than if you had restricted yourself for too long.
http://dietitianlavleen.com/the-yo-yo-effect/
On the other end of the equation, if we have been overeating for a while then suddenly go a restricted diet, our fat burning hormones are primed to the max! That’s why we can get good results so quickly at first.
If we know how our bodies react, we can plan ahead and use this to our benefit, and “trick” our bodies for maximum results!
Here how it goes:
Option #1: The 5 / 2 program
Option #2: The 12 / 9 program
You go on a restricted calorie diet for the number of days indicated by the first number (5 or 12), and you follow this with your normal eating routine for the duration indicated by the second number (2 or 9). You can even overeat as long as you don’t binge out and you avoid those nasty trans fats. Those days will actually help you in the long run to keep on losing weight, as every time you switch back to your reduced calorie days, your body is primed again for fast weight loss!
Not only it’s much easier to stay on track for short periods like that, you can fit this so your restricted days are during the week, while your unrestricted ones happen to be on the weekend! For option #2, you can fit in 2 weekends out of every 3, so that’s easy to do as well.
To further maximise the effect and shape your body at the same time, concentrate on fat burning exercises during the restricted days, and on muscle building exercises during the “normal” days.
I have personally noticed the first two days back on a restricted diet are the toughest. Our mind starts to play trick with us. You’ll want to justify going off the diet, that you’re doing fine already, that you’ll start dieting tomorrow or on x day… Resist and stay on course! After those 2-3 first days, it gets a LOT easier and it works again super fast so you’ll see great results once more like the first time!
To put even more fuel to the fire and get even greater results, I use fat burning supplements during the restricted days. I also use them the first one or two days back on a normal eating pattern to minimize fat gain on… and resist more easily the tendency to binge after a bout of restricted calories.