why yo yo dieting is not good for health

[Guest guest]

This was on the DS_Insurance list and I think it bears re-posting here, esp

since some people have had their insurance companies insist they go on yet

another " diet " before they can " possibly " be approved for DS>

I, for one, and I know many of you are in the same boat ---- gave up on

medically supervised diets about doing about 15 of them and having them work

but then re-gaining what I lost plus 10 more lbs for each diet. Since I have

been on 25 diets in my lifetime, I have managed to almost double my weight

since I started dieting - that shows just how " effective " they are.

Insurance companies who require this absolutely show that they do not care in

the least about the health of their MO clients, or they would know better.

Who makes these decisions anyway?? The skinny guy who never gained an ounce

no matter what he ate in his entire life?

I also know that my cholesterol is way off the charts now - worse than it has

ever been, verified by the results of my pre-op blood work. I sure hope my

insurance company approves me for DS, because I am really starting to see my

medical necessity for this surgery!

Carole

By Anne Burke

HealthScout Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthScout) -- If you're thinking about shedding

the 10 extra pounds you lost but somehow managed to find again, you

just might want to start loving yourself the way you are.

Women who repeatedly lose weight and gain it back have less of the

good kind of cholesterol that helps reduce the risk of heart disease,

claims a new study.

Levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) -- the good cholesterol --

are particularly low in obese women who repeatedly gain and lose

weight, the study says. Even thinner yo-yo dieters, whose weight goes

up and down like the toy, also have lower HDL levels than women who

stay at the same weight, the study says.

" We have more reasons now to believe that dieting, per se, may be

harmful, " says Dr. C. Noel Bairey-Merz, medical director of the

Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at the Cedars-Sinai

Research Institute in Los Angeles.

If you're fat or overweight, don't diet because it doesn't work

anyway, Bairey-Merz says. Instead, she says get lots of exercise and

make healthy food choices, and the weight will come off.

Yo-yo dieters analyzed by Bairey-Merz and her colleagues at three

other institutions had 7 percent lower HDL levels than those who

didn't diet in cycles -- 52 milligrams per deciliter vs. 56

milligrams per deciliter.

Although small, she says the difference is important. Previous

studies have shown that each 1 milligram-per-deciliter increase in

HDL cholesterol can decrease coronary heart disease risk by 3

percent.

The findings are significant because of the scarceness of research on

the possible detrimental effects of weight cycling, says Joanne

Ikeda, co-director of the Center for Weight and Health at the

University of California, Berkeley. .

Medical professionals should not encourage weight cyclers to continue

dieting, Ikeda says.

" We should help these people adopt a healthier lifestyle and help

them be fit fat people. That in itself will help them reduce their

chronic disease risk, " she says.

Yo-yo dieters who participated in the study intentionally had taken

off at least 10 pounds at least three times in their lives.

In the United States, many of the 40 percent of adult women who diet

simply end up packing the weight back on, says n Olson, a

research associate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of

Public Health, who participated in the study.

And that has consequences, says Dr. Hodis, an associate

professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University of

Southern California.

" It's clear that this up-and-down weight losing and gaining is not a

healthy thing. If what the study found is true, this just confirms

that, " Hodis says.

The researchers looked at 485 women who had complained of chest pains

and were undergoing coronary angiography, or an X-ray examination of

the blood vessels or chambers of the heart. Twenty-seven percent said

they'd yo-yo dieted, with 19 percent having lost and gained 10 to 19

pounds; 6 percent had cycled 20 to 49 pounds, and 2 percent had

cycled 50 pounds or more.

" We had a few people who cycled 10, 20 or 30 times, " Bairey-Merz

says.

The effect of yo-yo dieting on HDL levels had nothing to do with

other factors, such as having a greater body mass index (your

height/weight ratio), abdominal fat, smoking, drinking, lack of

exercise, diabetes or race, Olson says.

Results of the study, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood

Institute, appear in the November Journal of the American College of

Cardiology.

What To Do

Eat lots of fruits and vegetables each day, says Bairey-Merz. " An

interesting offshoot when you eat those fruits and vegetables is that

you happen to lose weight, " she says.

To learn more about healthy eating habits, check the Food Guide

Pyramid online.

Or, you may want to read previous HealthScout articles on dieting.