In people trying to lose weight, there are often repeated cycles of weight loss and regain. Weight cycling is, however, not limited to obese adults but affects people of normal weight, particularly young women, who are unhappy with their appearance. Furthermore, the onset of a pattern of weight cycling is shifting towards younger ages, owing to the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, and the pressure from the media and society for a slim image even for normal weight children. Although there is still controversy whether weight cycling promotes body fat accumulation and obesity, there is mounting evidence from large population studies for increased cardiovascular risks in response to a behavior of weight cycling. Potential mechanisms by which weight cycling contributes to cardiovascular morbidity include hypertension, visceral fat accumulation, changes in adipose tissue fatty acid composition, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Moreover, fluctuations in blood pressure, heart rate, sympathetic activity, glomerular filtration rate, blood glucose and lipids that may occur during weight cycling – with overshoots above normal values during weight regain periods – put an additional load on the cardiovascular system, and may be easily overlooked if humans or animals are studied during a state of relatively stable weight. Overshoot of those risks factors, when repeated over time, will stress the cardiovascular system and probably contribute to the overall cardiovascular morbidity of weight cycling.

https://doc.rero.ch/record/6369/files/dulloo_wcd.pdf

Weight cycling during growth and beyond as a risk factor for later cardiovascular diseases: the ‘repeated overshoot’ theory

Discourse about health that focuses predominantly on body weight is referred to as the weight-centered health paradigm (WCHP). In recent years, there has been a significant increase in critical analysis of the WCHP. This has resulted in arguments for a paradigm shift away from focusing on weight and focusing instead on health and well-being. The aim of this study was to identify, critique, and synthesize the values, claims, and assumptions of the WCHP and to develop a framework to be used as a heuristic for building competency to critique the WCHP. Qualitative content analysis of the literature was used to identify themes, relationships between themes, and structure of the framework. The resulting WCHP 3C Framework encompasses the context, critiques, and consequences of the WCHP. The context includes the promulgators and tenets of the WCHP. Critiques of the WCHP raise ideological, empirical, and technical concerns. Consequences of the WCHP include an enhanced adipophobicogenic environment, reduced health ...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244018772888

What’s Wrong With the ‘War on Obesity?’ A Narrative Review of the Weight-Centered Health Paradigm and Development of the 3C Framework to Build Critical Competency for a Paradigm Shift:

Weight cycling may cause a redistribution of body fat to the upper body fat compartments. We investigated the distribution of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) in 30 overweight women with a history of weight-cycling and age-matched controls (167 normal weight and 97 overweight subjects). Measurements of SAT were performed using an optical device, the Lipometer. The SAT topography describes the thicknesses of SAT layers at 15 anatomically well-defined body sites from neck to calf. The overweight women with a history of weight cycling had significantly thicker SAT layers on the upper body compared to the overweight controls, but even thinner SAT layers on their legs than the normal weight women. An android fat pattern was attributed to overweight females and, even more pronounced, to the weight cyclers. The majority of normal weight women showed a gynoid fat pattern. Using stepwise discriminant analysis, 89.0% of all weight cyclers and overweight controls could be classified correctly into the two groups. These findings show the importance of normal weight maintenance as a health-promoting factor.

Body fat distribution of overweight females with a history of weight cycling

Background The long-term effect of repeated intentional weight loss and weight regain on the risk of gallstone disease in men is not clear. Methods Participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study provided information on intentional weight loss during the previous 4 years in 1992. Weight cyclers were men who had intentional weight loss and weight regain. Men free of gallstone disease at baseline were followed from 1992 to 2002. On biennial questionnaires the participants reported newly diagnosed gallstone disease. Results During 264 760 person-years of follow-up we ascertained 1222 cases of symptomatic gallstones. We examined the effect of weight cycling on the risk of gallstone disease. The multivariate relative risk of weight cyclers, compared with weight maintainers, after adjusting for potential confounding variables, including body mass index, was 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-1.31) in light cyclers, 1.18 (95% CI, 0.97-1.43) in moderate cyclers, and 1.42 (95% CI, 1.11-1.81) in severe cyclers. We further examined the effect of number of cycling episodes. Among weight cyclers, the relative risk associated with having more than 1 weight cycle, compared with weight maintainers, was 1.10 (95% CI, 0.88-1.37) in light cyclers, 1.28 (95% CI, 1.03-1.59) in moderate cyclers, and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.13-2.02) in severe cyclers. Conclusions Our findings suggest that weight cycling, independent of body mass index, may increase the risk of gallstone disease in men. Larger weight fluctuation and more weight cycles are associated with greater risk.

Weight cycling and risk of gallstone disease in men.

An animal model of eating disorders associated with stressful experience in early life.

Epidemiological studies have suggested that repeated weight cycling over time may increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The mechanism involved remains poorly understood, but the change in li...

https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/ajpregu.2000.279.3.R1145

Man-Mei Sea

Papers

Weight cycling-induced alteration in fatty acid metabolism