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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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
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They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
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“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
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The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
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“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
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Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
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