One of the most discouraging things about dieting is that people don’t feel like it’s ever a permanent fix. We’ve all been through it; you put yourself on a strict regimen of diet and exercise, implementing tremendous amounts of will-power to pull out a bag of carrots when a co-worker brings treats into work, or turning down cake and ice cream at your niece’s birthday party, all so you can look good for swimsuit season.
Then, as the tan lines begin to fade so do those rock-hard abs. As we trade in our tank tops for sweaters we trade those carrots for doughnuts and before you know it we’re right back where we started from—another victim of yo-yo dieting.
But, new research says this might not be such a bad thing! A study on mice shows that ones who switched between a high-fat and low-fat diet every month in their two-year lifespan lived approximately 25 percent longer than their obese counterparts. This finding was presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Boston and rebuffs the conventional idea that off-and-on dieting can be more harmful to you than remaining obese.
Today, in America, about 34 percent of our adult population is considered to be obese. On top of this is another 34 percent who are considered overweight, meaning that 68 percent of Americans are above their healthiest body weight. A lot of things keep us back from changing our lifestyle to one of a healthier weight but the fear of failure should not be one of them. This new research should help encourage those who are overweight and are too afraid to try dieting because their lack of stamina might be hurting their health rather than improving it. The verdict is now in: reaching a healthy weight, even for a short amount of time, can help you live a longer and fuller life than remaining obese.