How to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting and Set Sustainable Goals: Webinar Recap

So many of our Culina Health patients report a lifelong struggle with weight—often marked by periods of extreme restriction, followed by burnout, followed by a return to the pre-dieting habits that weren’t working in the first place. This cycle is often referred to as “Yo-Yo Dieting,” and it is just that: a cycle that, instead of putting you on a journey to a new destination, returns you back to square one. But does that mean you can’t change your relationship with food? Not at all! At Culina Health, we’re committed to helping our patients find sustainable ways to incorporate healthier habits into their lifestyle, lose weight, and achieve their health goals, without the restriction, without the burnout. Alex Mosman, a Registered Dietitian who specializes in sustainable weight loss recently hosted a webinar on how to stop yo-yo dieting and set sustainable goals. Watch it here or read on for takeaways!

Effects of Yo-Yo Dieting on the Body

Now that you know what yo yo dieting is (or maybe you recognize it as something you’ve tried in the past), let’s talk about how it impacts the body. There are many outcomes associated with Yo-Yo Dieting that can create lasting challenges for your health journey, including:

• Increased risk for rapid weight fluctuations, such as weight loss followed by weight regain
• Decreased ability to connect with your own body’s hunger and fullness cues 
• Decrease in metabolism 
• Increased food noise 
• Increased food rules 
• Loss of muscle 

Benefits of Sustainable Goal-Setting

At Culina Health, we believe that the antidote to the yo yo diet cycle is sustainable goal-setting and incremental progress that can have a lasting positive impact on our diet and lifestyle habits and be sustained throughout our lifetimes. Some more benefits of this approach to dietary changes include:

• Formation of healthy habits such as intuitive eating and mindful eating
• Impact on future generations and their relationships with food
• Increased energy 
• Improvement in hunger and fullness cues
• Decrease in emotional eating habits 
• Improvement in GI discomfort 
• Muscle growth 
• Improvement in bloodwork / blood pressure 
• Prevention of chronic disease 

Facing Barriers and Overcoming Challenges

There are no quick fixes when it comes to creating a lasting, positive, and health-promoting relationship with food. While creating long-term sustainable changes in your food habits might have more of a slow-and-steady progress effect than the fast action (before the burnout) of a crash diet, fad diet, or restrictive diet, remember that you’ll be developing healthy tools for life, rather than for just a short time before the cycle begins again. There are a few challenges and things to keep in mind on this journey—and we’re here for you every step of the way!

• Not seeing progress on the scale. When you are used to crash dieting or periods of intense restriction, and the temporary high that comes from more rapid weight loss, you may be disappointed at the slower movement of the scale that comes with sustainable changes. Try taking a break from weighing yourself, and focus on the very real non-scale goals—differences in energy, how your clothes fit, your labs, food freedom. 
• Relationship with food. After a lifetime of calorie-counting and fear of certain foods, it’s completely understandable that unlearning these mindsets, and adopting new ones, will take time. Remember—this isn’t your fault. It’s diet culture’s fault! And be gentle with yourself, ask for support, and get excited about the lasting impacts that this work will have on your wellbeing. The more you restrict a certain food, the less of a chance you are giving yourself to have a new relationship with it. Include foods you previously “banned” and work with a RD to decrease the moral value they may have over you.
• Comparison. Your health journey is up to you! There may be others around you incorporating different habits or stuck in their own Yo-Yo cycle. Maybe they are even losing weight rapidly. You might be tempted to return to the quick fix so you can match their results. But lasting change takes time! Remember that this is so much more than the scale. It’s whole-body health, it’s food freedom. You need to do what works best for your body.

Journal Activity: How to Set Sustainable Goals

Grab a piece of paper and follow along with us as we walk you through setting your goals for a healthier lifestyle. This is a sneak peek at what you can expect working with a Registered Dietitian!

Find your ‘why’

Outside of weight loss numbers or specific changes in your body, take a moment to write down your “why.” Why do you want to make changes in your life? What do you want to feel? Experience? What do you want to leave behind, or move toward?

Reflect on the past

Think about your past experiences Yo-Yo Dieting. What worked, what didn’t? What were the outcomes you saw? And what were your main barriers?

Lifestyle 

This journey is about so much more than food. In fact, lifestyle is the missing key that prevents many other diets from succeeding. Pick one lifestyle topic to focus on and build from there—they are all important to your overall health! What habits within that topic are not in line with your goals? Where is an easy tweak you can make for a big impact?

• Exercise
• Sleep
• Stress
• Risky behaviors (alcohol/tobacco, etc.)

Example goals

The more specific and realistic your goals, the easier it will be to meet and sustain them! Here are some examples to get you started on your own. 

Nutrition

• Eat consistently 
• Learn how to cook
• Order less takeout 
• Increase vegetables 
• Add protein to my meals and snacks
• Eat more slowly
• Stop eating when I feel full   

Exercise

• Strength train for 10 minutes 
• Walk more during the work day 
• Add 1 cardio day into my routine 

Sleep

• Limit screens 30 mins before bed 
• Read before bed 
• Aim for 8 hours of sleep per night 
• Wake up and get out of bed when my alarm goals off 

Action Plan

Take one of the goals you outlined above, and aim to implement it 2-3 times per week! Make sure your progress is visible—maybe try a habit tracker app or a DIY paper checklist with stars or fun stickers. Take time to reflect on your achievements each week—what worked, what was challenging. Once you have one habit down, it’s time to add another in! Soon enough, you’ll be reaping the benefits of these lasting changes, and you’ll be so glad they’re a part of your life.

Work With a Registered Dietitian

A Registered Dietitian is a wonderful source of support, guidance, and education on your health journey—especially when you’re working to build healthy habits and unlearn old patterns around food and dieting. RDs can help with sustainable goal setting, personalized approaches to your health, provide recipe ideas, shopping lists, and support for lifestyle changes. And the best part? Your sessions will likely be covered by your insurance provider. Get matched with a Culina Health RD today!