Dieting may lead to Serious Health Hazards - Study

Age-long belief that dieting is the best way to shed weight and keep it off in the long term has been dispelled by the researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), saying that dieting does not work in the long term and is even potentially dangerous for health.

The study published in the April edition of American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association, reveals that although people may lose significant weight during a diet, but up to two-thirds of people on diets add back more weight than they lost within five years.

The team of UCLA researchers led by Traci Mann, a psychologist at the UCLA, most comprehensively and rigorously reviewed 31 long-term studies lasting between 2 to 5 years and reached the conclusion that yo-yo dieting, or repeatedly losing and gaining weight is linked to diseases like heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back,” said lead researcher, Mann. “We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”

Diets do not work for the vast majority of slimmers, and most dieters put more weight back on, the study concluded, shattering an assumption that restraining from food for a period of time will help people lose weight, and keep it that way.

The study considered a broad array of diets and did not point to any diet in particular. Although the study did not name specific weight loss plans, it considered a broad array of popular diets, including the low carbohydrate, high protein Atkins diet and the GI diet, which is rich in slow-burning wholegrain carbohydrates.

The UCLA findings follow other research released in 2004 that showed 2.5 million Australians had tried or intended to try a low-carb diet.

In one study, researchers found that among those who were followed for more than two years, 83% eventually gained back more weight than they lost. Half of those taking part in one study put on more than 5kg extra five years later, while dieters taking part in another study actually weighed more than other volunteers who hadn't tried to lose weight.

After digging up and analyzing every study that followed people on diets for two to five years, Dr Mann says, “We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all.”

Janet Tomiyama, an UCLA graduate student of psychology and co-author of the study, says that a number of studies signify that dieting in fact is a consistent predictor of future weight gain.

So the next time you decide to loose weight, instead of choosing dieting as the best way to shed weight, go for exercise, as the latest findings suggest that exercise may well be the key factor leading to sustained weight loss.