Frontiers | Physiological and Epigenetic Features of Yoyo Dieting and Weight Control | Genetics
“Most individuals fail in maintaining their weight loss due to weight cycling, often referred to as Yoyo dieting. Weight regain often starts within the first year, and the pre-intervention weight is reached or even surpassed in the subsequent 2 to 5 years (Anderson et al., 2001; Weiss et al., 2007). Lean individuals that were voluntarily overfed with 50% additional calories for 3 days showed decreased pre-meal hunger and increased post-meal satiety (Cornier et al., 2004). In obese individuals that underwent weight loss, overfeeding did not diminish hunger or increase satiety. This absence of compensatory changes in hunger and satiety upon overfeeding likely contributes to an increased propensity for weight regain in obese individuals that undergo weight loss (Cornier et al., 2004). Overall, only 11% of the individuals with early-onset weight re-gain can achieve a subsequent body weight loss within that first year (Wing and Phelan, 2005).”