Health
‘Yo-yo’ weight loss occurs because of this surprising reason
About 40% of American adults live with obesity — and for many, it can feel a bit like a roller-coaster ride as their weight fluctuates up and down.
The cycle of losing and regaining weight, commonly known as the yo-yo effect, could be due to a type of “metabolic memory,” in which the body remembers and strives to return to its former state of obesity, according to a new study.
“Obesity is a chronic condition with significant metabolic consequences, strongly linked to various metabolic and cardiovascular diseases,” study author Dr. Ferdinand von Meyenn, assistant professor for nutrition and metabolic epigenetics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told Fox News Digital.
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“A well-documented observation is that the body tends to defend increased body weight, making weight loss and maintenance notoriously challenging.”
Obesity is a common chronic disease in the U.S., with one in five children and two out of five adults meeting the criteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The cycle of losing and regaining weight on repeat, commonly known as the yo-yo effect, could be due to a type of “metabolic memory,” a new study found. (iStock)
The new research, published in November in the journal Nature, points to epigenetics (genetic activity) that may play a role in regaining weight after weight loss.
What is epigenetics?
“Epigenetics, which involves chemical markers that influence gene activity without altering the DNA sequence, is crucial in how cells function and respond to environmental factors,” Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told Fox News Digital.
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“These markers can be altered by lifestyle factors, such as diet, and can remain stable for years, effectively creating a cellular ‘memory’ of past states, such as obesity,” added Stanford, who was not part of the study.
It is well-known that cells keep their genetic identity as they divide. The researchers were curious about what happens to fat cells — which live on average for 10 years before the body replaces them, von Meyenn said.
The researchers investigated what happens to fat cells, which live on average for 10 years before the body replaces them. (iStock)
This differs from other cells in tissues, which divide much faster – intestinal cells, for example, generally divide every other week, he added.
Fat cells still must adapt to external stimuli and undergo epigenetic adaptations, von Meyenn noted.
The researchers set out to determine whether these changes could be reversed.
Fighting ‘memory’ in fat cells
In mouse studies, the researchers found that even after significant weight loss, their cells have a “memory” of obesity encoded in the epigenome, which controls the activity of genes, said von Meyenn.
“Our study indicates that one reason maintaining body weight after initial weight loss is difficult is that the fat cells remember their prior obese state and likely aim to return to this state,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The body tends to defend increased body weight, making weight loss and maintenance notoriously challenging.”
“This means one would have to ‘fight’ this obesogenic memory to maintain body weight.”
Based on this research, a failure to maintain weight loss after dieting is not necessarily due to lack of effort or willpower, but could also be driven by an underlying biological phenomenon, von Meyenn added.
Potential limitations
The research looked only at fatty tissue, and the genetic mechanisms were studied only in mice. Even so, the researchers said they believe that similar mechanisms also apply to humans.
Other experts cautioned, however, that the study shows only association and does not prove that epigenetic changes cause the yo-yo effect.
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“The authors pointed out that they cannot say for certain that the epigenetic modifications directly cause people to regain their lost weight, nor pinpoint which specific epigenetic markers may be driving this effect,” Petronella Ravenshear, board-certified nutritionist and author of “The Human Being Diet,” told Fox News Digital.
Florida-based Ravenshear, who was not part of the study, noted that the results should not lead people to claim, “It’s not my fault, it’s my genes!”
Plans for future research
“We will need to now expand, see how the memory can be erased and whether other cells or tissues are also affected, [such as] the brain or the liver,” von Meyenn said.
It’s possible that if people maintain a healthy weight for a year or longer after dieting, that may be enough time to erase the memory in fat cells, according to Ravenshear.
The term “diet,” in its original connotation, means “way of living” — but it is now synonymous with short-term dietary changes that are unsustainable, one expert said. (iStock)
“This discovery underscores the importance of preventing obesity, particularly in children and adolescents, to avoid establishing this epigenetic memory that complicates long-term weight management,” Stanford noted.
“Understanding these mechanisms further could lead to more effective treatments and prevention strategies, emphasizing the need for a proactive approach to weight management from an early age,” she added.
‘Way of living’
The term “diet,” in its original connotation, means “way of living” — but it is now synonymous with short-term dietary changes that are unsustainable, Ravenshear noted.
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People often regain the weight they lose when they return to the eating habits that led to weight gain in the first place, many experts agree.
Ravenshear cited Professor David Benton at Swansea University in the U.K., author of “Tackling the Obesity Crisis,” who recently shared in a Guardian interview, “The mantra is that diets fail.”
One expert recommends focusing on breaking addictions to sugar and refined carbohydrates and embracing a new way of eating. (iStock)
“They fail because to avoid regaining lost weight, you need to permanently change your diet.”
After finishing a diet, many people return to the previous lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place, he noted.
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“Frequently snacking, and eating calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods, disrupts our blood sugar, raises insulin levels and adds to inflammation – and the inflammation itself makes it harder to lose weight,” Ravenshear told Fox News Digital.
“Eating calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods disrupts our blood sugar, raises insulin levels and adds to inflammation – and the inflammation itself makes it harder to lose weight,” one expert cautioned. (iStock)
She recommends focusing on breaking addictions to sugar and refined carbohydrates and embracing a new way of eating.
The expert suggests choosing nutrient-dense whole foods, eating three meals a day, and fasting with nothing but water for five hours between meals.
The weight loss occurs as a side effect of rebalanced hormones and lowered inflammation, she noted.
Ravenshear added, “When we are getting the calories, but not the nutrients that our body and brain need, we’re always hungry because our brain drives us to keep searching for food.”
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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A new study suggests that exercise can treat depression just as effectively as therapy and antidepressants.
A Cochrane review looked at 73 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 5,000 adults with a depression diagnosis. The studies compared exercise with either other active treatments — such as therapy or medication — or with “inactive interventions,” like being placed on a wait list or in a control group.
The London-based team discovered that exercise may be “moderately effective” compared to no therapy in reducing depression symptoms, according to a press release.
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“There is probably little to no difference in depressive symptoms between people undertaking exercise and those receiving psychological therapy,” the authors noted in a study discussion on Cochrane’s website, and “there may be little to no difference in depressive symptoms between people doing exercise and those taking antidepressants.”
The analysis discovered that exercise may be “moderately effective” compared to no therapy in reducing depression symptoms. (iStock)
The review found that light- to moderate-intensity exercise was more beneficial for easing depression symptoms than vigorous exercise.
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No single type of physical activity stood out as the best, but mixed programs that included resistance training appeared to be “more effective” than just aerobic exercise.
Some forms of exercise, like yoga and stretching, were not included in the analysis, but are areas to be further researched, the review noted.
Mixed exercise programs and resistance training appeared to be “more effective” in easing depression symptoms than just aerobic exercise. (iStock)
Professor Andrew Clegg, lead author of the review, wrote in a statement that exercise “appears to be a safe and accessible option for helping to manage symptoms of depression.”
“This suggests that exercise works well for some people, but not for everyone, and finding approaches that individuals are willing and able to maintain is important,” he said.
Study limitations and risks
The researchers noted that there was a high risk of bias in some of the studies included in the review, and noted that the long-term effects of exercise on depression symptoms remain uncertain.
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Clegg noted that “larger, high-quality studies” are needed to determine which types of exercise work best and whether the benefits last over time.
The comparison between exercise and other treatments and how they benefit people’s quality of life were also “inconsistent and uncertain.”
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“Adverse events from exercise were not common,” the researchers mentioned. “The small number of participants who experienced them usually reported muscle and joint problems or worsening of depression.”
About 21 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in a recent year — equivalent to roughly 8.3% of all U.S. adults, according to the National Institutes of Health. (iStock)
“Future research should focus on improving the quality of the studies, working out which characteristics of exercise are effective for different people, and ensuring different types of people are included in the studies so that health equity issues can be considered,” they went on.
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About 21 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in a recent year — equivalent to roughly 8.3% of all U.S. adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Depression symptoms include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, anxiety, guilt or irritability, as well as loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities. Fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, appetite changes and social withdrawal are also red flags, in addition to thoughts about dying or suicidal ideations.
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The condition is most often treated by antidepressant medications and psychological therapies, such as talk therapy. Anyone who needs help should consult their doctor.
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With an aggressive new strain spreading across the country, this year’s flu season has been marked by record-high hospitalizations and reportedly intense symptoms.
As people look for ways to contain the spread, new research has found that a few simple factors can greatly reduce transmission.
Researchers from the University of Maryland Schools of Public Health and Engineering in College Park and the School of Medicine in Baltimore studied influenza spread by placing flu-positive college students in a hotel room with healthy middle-aged adult volunteers.
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The study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, is reportedly the first clinical trial investigating how the flu spreads from naturally infected people to uninfected people, according to a press release.
The participants, including 11 healthy volunteers, lived on a quarantined floor of a Baltimore-area hotel for two weeks. During that time, they simulated interactions, including having conversations, doing physical activities like yoga, and passing around objects like pens and tablets from infected people to the rest of the group.
New research has experts questioning how the flu spreads through airborne transmission. (iStock)
Researchers monitored the participant’s symptoms, performed daily nasal swabs, and collected saliva and blood samples to test for antibodies, the release stated.
The study also measured the “viral exposure” in the volunteers’ breathing air and ambient air in the activity room. The exhaled breath of the participants was measured by a machine called the Gesundheit II, invented by researcher Dr. Donald Milton and colleagues at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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At the end of the experiment, none of the healthy individuals had become infected with the flu due to a variety of factors. This included a lack of coughing, as the infected students were holding “a lot of virus in their noses” and only small amounts were “expelled into the air,” the researchers noted.
Researchers said proper ventilation was a major factor in halting flu spread in this study. (iStock)
“Our data suggests key things that increase the likelihood of flu transmission — coughing is a major one,” Dr. Jianyu Lai, post-doctoral research scientist and the study’s lead data analyst and report writer, shared in a statement.
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The other factor was ventilation and air movement, as the air in the study room was “continually mixed rapidly by a heater and dehumidifier, and so the small amounts of virus in the air were diluted,” Lai pointed out.
The researcher added that middle-aged adults are “usually less susceptible” to influenza than younger adults.
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Most researchers assume that airborne transmission is a major factor of disease spread, according to Dr. Donald Milton, professor at SPH’s Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health and a global infectious disease aerobiology expert.
“At this time of year, it seems like everyone is catching the flu virus, and yet our study showed no transmission,” he said in the same press release. “What does this say about how flu spreads and how to stop outbreaks?”
There have been 81,000 flu-related hospitalizations and more than 3,000 deaths in the U.S. this year so far, data shows. (iStock)
Milton, who was reportedly among the first experts to identify how to stop the spread of COVID-19, noted that findings from these types of trials are essential to updating international infection-control guidelines.
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“Being up close, face-to-face with other people indoors where the air isn’t moving much, seems to be the most risky thing — and it’s something we all tend to do a lot,” he said.
“At this time of year, it seems like everyone is catching the flu virus, and yet our study showed no transmission.”
“Our results suggest that portable air purifiers that stir up the air, as well as clean it, could be a big help,” Milton suggested. “But if you are really close and someone is coughing, the best way to stay safe is to wear a mask, especially the N95.”
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Approximately 11 million flu illnesses and about 5,000 deaths have occurred so far in the 2025-2026 influenza season, according to CDC data. A large share of the current flu cases are caused by the new influenza A subclade K variant.
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