THURSDAY, Aug. 16 (HealthDay News) — So-called “yo-yo” dieting —
where people repeatedly lose weight by dieting, only to regain
the weight — may be frustrating, but it will not hurt a person’s
ability to lose weight over the long term, a new study finds.
This type of “weight cycling” does not have a negative effect on
metabolism, the study found. The findings may be significant,
the experts added, because yo-yo dieting affects up to 40
percent of the population in the Western world, and estimates
indicate that nearly half of American women are currently
dieting to lose weight. “A history of unsuccessful weight loss
should not dissuade an individual from future attempts to shed
pounds or diminish the role of a healthy diet and regular
physical activity in successful weight management,” study senior
author Dr. Anne McTiernan, a member of the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, in
Seattle, said in a center news release. The researchers randomly
divided 439 sedentary women in