It is unclear whether losing and regaining weight in adulthood also increases the risk of death from these heart diseases, so the investigators looked at this relationship among postmenopausal women. Obesity increases the risk for some of the leading causes of death in the United States, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.  NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 15, 2016 -- Repeatedly losing and regaining weight, known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, may increase the risk of death from heart disease among postmenopausal women who were of normal weight at the start of the study, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016. "Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss, but there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior," said Somwail Rasla, M.D., study lead author and internal medicine resident at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. Researchers classified self-reported weight history from 158,063 post-menopausal women into four categories: stable weight, steady gain, maintained weight loss, and weight cycling. They followed up on the participants for 11.4 years and found that women who had a normal weight at the beginning of the study but then lost and regained weight had a much higher risk of sudden cardiac death, compared with women who kept a stable weight throughout the period. Women considered overweight or obese at the start of the study, and who experienced weight cycling, presented no increase in any kind of heart disease-related death. Similarly, no increase in death occurred among women who reported that they gained weight but did not lose it or, in the opposite scenario, that they lost weight without gaining it back. Evidence in this study suggests that being overweight in midlife increases the risk of death from two types of heart disease: coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death. In the first type, coronary heart disease, the blood vessels to the heart become blocked by fat and other substances, decreasing blood flow to the heart. In the second type, sudden cardiac death, the heart's electrical system abruptly stops working, causing death. Further research needed for issuing recommendations 
 
 The researchers note some of the limitations of their study. Firstly, the research is just observational, meaning that it only shows an association between weight cycling and heart problems, but it does not establish a causal relationship. The study also relied on self-reporting, which always runs the risk of being inaccurate. Finally, the cases of cardiac death were relatively infrequent and the study included older women, so a wider-sized demographic would be needed to clarify the risks of weight cycling. "More research is needed before any recommendations can be made for clinical care regarding the risks of weight cycling, since these results apply only to postmenopausal women and not to younger-aged women or men," Dr. Rasla says. Until more research backs specific recommendations for yo-yo dieting, the American Heart Association remind us of the seven steps for reducing the risk of heart disease: manage your blood pressure, control your cholesterol, limit sugar intake, get active, eat a healthy diet, keep a normal weight, and stop smoking.
– Lots of people are trying to lose weight—24% of American men and 38% of American women—but most who succeed also gain it back quickly, reports Medical News Daily. This so-called "weight cycling" or "yo-yo effect" could end up being quite hard on the hearts of both men and women, and is significantly more common an effect in women. So report researchers at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016, where they've presented their findings. They followed 153,063 post-menopausal women for more than a decade and found normal-weight women who said they'd weight-cycled were 3.5 times more likely to die from a heart attack than women whose weights were stable. They were 66% more likely to die from coronary heart disease, reports Crossroads Today. "Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss," the study's lead author says in a press release. "But there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior." While this study has a few limitations—including that people self-reported their weight fluctuations, and that normal-weight people suddenly losing or gaining weight may be suffering from other conditions—researchers say it lays the groundwork for future research into the effects of yo-yo dieting on cardiovascular health. "You should never lose weight in a drastic fashion," the lead researcher adds. "If someone is a normal weight, keep it stable." (Here's why one woman says 'no thanks' to Oprah's latest weight loss pitch.)