Weight Cycling Might Effect Appetite Hormones

For many people losing weight is a cyclical process where we go on a diet, lose the weight we want, and then over time regain the weight we lost.  After we have regained the weight, many of us will start the process all over again, often several times.  Unfortunately, research has shown that this weight cycling might cause weight gain over time since many of us will often regain more weight than we lost while dieting.  However, the reasons for this weight gain over time with repeated weight loss attempts are unclear.

A new weight loss research study has explored the potential relationships between weight cycling and changes in appetite hormones and sex hormones.  For this study, the weight loss researchers recruited 159 overweight postmenopausal women.  Their history of weight loss attempts was determined with a questionnaire and blood samples were taken to measure a number of hormones.  The results of the study showed that frequent weight loss attempts were associated with:

• Higher concentrations of ghrelin, a hormone that increases appetite
• Lower concentrations of glucose and insulin
• Lower androgen (testosterone and androstenedione) concentrations

This is interesting research suggesting that frequent weight loss attempts might effect hormones involved in appetite control.  The increased ghrelin levels coupled with the lower glucose and insulin levels represents an appetite-stimulating hormone profile, which might lead to increased food intake over time.  These hormonal changes might explain part of the reason many of us regain more weight than we lost on our diets.  Weight cycling can become a vicious circle where we go on a diet to lose weight, regain more than we lost, and go on another diet.  Breaking this cycle of repeated weight loss attempts is an important step in maintaining a healthy body weight.

Once we've found a good diet plan and lost our unwanted pounds, it is important to find a good weight maintenance program.  This is essential to maintaining a healthy body weight and avoiding the weight cycling trap.  My weight maintenance plan can help you break the vicious circle of repeated weight loss attempts.  Visit us at www.drtabor.com to learn more.