"Panel finds no major risk from 'yo-yo' dieting", NY Times, 20
Oct 94, p. A10.

After reviewing 30 years of medical data on yo-yo dieting in
both animals and in humans, no major risk was found from this
sort of dieting.  The largest risk was associated with obesity.

Webb, D., "Study on effects of yo-yo dieting is faulted", NY
Times, 26 Oct 94, p. B12.

The study was faulted because it did not take into
consideration all of the negative psychological effects that
result from yo-yo dieting.

"Weight cycling", National Task Force on the Prevention and
Treatment of Obesity, JAMA, v. 272, No. 15, pp. 1196-1202.

Background:  Past studies don't support the hypothesis that
weight cycling has adverse effects.  There has been
observational studies that show an association between
variation in body weight and increased mortality and morbidity,
but most of these studies didn't examine intentional vs
unintentional weight loss or weight cycling in obese vs normal-
weight individuals.

Objective:  To address concerns about the effects of weight
cycling and to provide guidance on the risk-to-benefit ratio of
attempts at weight loss, given current scientific knowledge.

Kind of Study:  Observational study?  Research of past studies.

Subjects: People and animals in original reports on weight
cycling from the years of 1966 through 1994.  Forty-three
English-language articles were used.

Outcome measurements:  Attempts were made to measure the
effects of weight measurements in terms of the effects of
metabolism and weight loss, on morbidity and mortality, and on
psychological well-being.

Control variables:  The control variables were different
depending on which of the 43 studies were used.

Blindness:  Subjects were not blind in most instances.

Population:  Depended on the study that was looked at.

Statistical methods used:  Each study looked at and calculated
its results in different ways.  The panel then displayed, in
chart form, what sorts of weight cycling effects each study
looked at, and then stated whether or not the study found
evidence of adverse effect due to weight cycling.

Stated conclusions:  There is not sufficient evidence to
override the benefits of moderate weight loss in obese
patients.  Therefore, obese individualist should still try to
control their body weight.  Non-obese individuals should try to
maintain a stable weight.

Nonresponse:  Depended on which study was looked at.

Difficulties of generalizing to the real world:  It is hard to
make an accurate study when each of the separate studies looked
at different factors and also collected their data in different
ways.  The studies were not standardized.

Other problems:  The psychological effects were not really
looked at in this study, and critics state that they feel that
there are many adverse psychological effects.

How does this relate to the rest of the scientific literature:
This study specifically looked at the rest of the scientific
literature on the subject.

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