November 15, 2016

expert reaction to conference abstract (unpublished work) on yo-yo dieting and heart disease deaths

An unpublished conference abstract discussed at the American Heart Association meeting has reported that yo-yo dieting may increase the risk of death from heart disease among postmenopausal women.

Prof. Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine, University of Glasgow, said:

“This study does not change the fact that overall evidence shows the value of intentional weight loss where lifestyle changes lead to beneficial weight change. If we look beyond this study at the totality of evidence, it shows us that if women or indeed men try to lose weight intentionally then there is no evidence from trials that this does anything other than good, even if weight gain recurs.

“This new study has limitations. It reports that in normal weight women, when weight goes up and down this is associated with increased risk of heart disease death – however, women of normal weight are less likely to be intentionally losing weight than overweight women, so this weight loss in normal weight women is much more likely to be unintentional and could be due to illnesses, and the study cannot rule that out. So, weight cycling in normal weight women may be disguising some underlying illness, and these same illnesses may also in turn increase heart disease risks.

“We cannot conclude from this study that weight cycling leads to heart disease deaths in normal weight women – it would be misleading to suggest that.”

Abstract title: ‘Risk of sudden cardiac death and coronary heart disease mortality in postmenopausal women with history of weight cycling’ by Somwail Rasla et al. This is a conference talk discussed at the American Heart Association meeting.

Declared interests

Prof. Naveed Sattar: “No COI.”