Yo-yo dieting has its up side, say researchers

22 February 2017 - 09:15 By The Daily Telegraph
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Around nine in 10 diets end in failure.
Around nine in 10 diets end in failure.
Image: iStock

Yo-yo dieting is still beneficial for health, new research suggest, after a study showed serial slimmers live longer than those who simply remain fat.

Experts found those who dropped large amounts of weight, only to regain it later had similar life expectancies to moderate dieters.

Around nine in 10 diets end in failure, but researchers said people should not be disheartened because a cycle of weight loss and gain is still more beneficial than not dieting at all.

David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said, "A concern is that you lose the weight and you gain it back within two to five years. And if you do this repeatedly, perhaps you're harming yourself.

"We just finished a study in mice and we found that when mice who are obese keep on repeatedly losing and gaining that weight, they live longer than the mice that are allowed to stay obese.

"So we think it's probably not a bad idea to lose weight even if you are going to gain it back and redo it every few years."

• This article was originally published in The Times.

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