Could Yo-Yo Dieting Increase Cancer Risk?

According to the first comprehensive study of it’s kind, yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling, is not linked to overall risk of developing cancer in men or women.

“Weight cycling, which consists of repeated cycles of intentional weight loss and regain, is common among individuals who try to lose weight,” explained the study’s authors.
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Some evidence suggests that weight cycling may affect biological processes that could contribute to carcinogenesis, but whether it is associated with cancer risk is unclear,” they said.

For the study, 62,792 men and 69,520 women (ages 50 to 74) enrolled in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort were evaluated for weight cycling and cancer incidence and mortality.

Weight cycling and incidence for overall cancer and for 15 different, individual cancers were measured.

The study showed that 15,333 male participants and 9984 females manifested cancer during the 17-year study-period.

Overall, researcher found that weight cycling was not linked to overall cancer risk in men (hazard ratio, 0.96) or women (hazard ratio, 0.96) after body mass index and other variables were adjusted in the Cox proportional hazard models.

The investigators noted that there was also no relationship between individual cancer and weight cycling.

“These results suggest that weight cycling, independent of body weight, is unlikely to influence subsequent cancer risk,” the authors concluded.

The complete study published in the July issue of American Journal of Epidemiology.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:
Stevens VL, Jacobs EJ, Patel AV, et al. Weight cycling and cancer incidence in a large prospective US cohort. Am J Epidemiol. 2015 July [epub ahead of print] doi:10.1093/aje/kwv073.