How do you stop yo-yo dieting after 50?
To stop yo-yo dieting after 50, stop dieting the way that caused it. Lose fat slowly, keep your muscle with protein and strength training, then deliberately learn to eat more again so you can maintain. Mavy Wellness coaches adults over 50 through this exact process, and many of its clients joined after losing the same 20 or 30 pounds several times.
Why the weight keeps coming back:
Crash diets make your body adapt. It conserves energy, like a survival mechanism in a desert.
Fast weight loss takes muscle with it, which makes regaining easier.
There's no plan for after. Most diets end at the goal weight, with no path back to normal eating.
What breaks the cycle:
Slow loss, about half a pound to one pound a week.
Reverse dieting. After fat loss, calories are added back gradually, like feeding a small campfire with small sticks instead of a big log.
Flexibility instead of all or nothing. One off plan meal doesn't end anything. Win the next meal.
Measuring more than the scale. Waist, photos, strength and how your clothes fit.
Lise, a Mavy client, had tried the quick fix diets. They worked for a while, then the weight came back. With Mavy she went from 184 to 133 pounds in about nine months, then learned to maintain on far more food than she ever ate while dieting.
What the research says. A 2016 study in the journal Obesity found that contestants who lost weight very fast on a TV weight loss show still burned fewer calories than expected six years later, and most regained much of the weight. [1] A 2011 study of athletes doing strength training found that losing weight more slowly, about 0.7% of body weight a week, led to better gains in lean mass and strength than losing twice as fast. [2]
Watch on the Forever Fit Podcast: Down 300 Lbs for Years at 52: What He Wishes He Knew About Keeping It Off (Ep. 458)
"As a physician, I deeply appreciate the strategic, nuanced approach of his 5-Phase Blueprint. The emphasis on reverse dieting is brilliant."
Angie Sadeghi, MD, Gastroenterologist and Plant-Based Health Expert, on Forever Fit
To get off the dieting roller coaster, book a call with our team at mavywellness.com.
Sources
Fothergill E et al. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after "The Biggest Loser" competition. Obesity 24(8):1612-1619. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4989512/
Garthe I et al. (2011). Effect of two different weight-loss rates on body composition and strength and power-related performance in elite athletes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 21(2):97-104.
About the author. Maxime Sigouin is the founder of Mavy Wellness (formerly FitVegan Coaching) and the author of Forever Fit, a book endorsed by physicians including Neal D. Barnard, MD, Laurie Marbas, MD, and James F. Loomis, MD. He has coached for more than six and a half years and, with his team, has coached nearly 1,300 adults over 50 on a whole food plant based diet. He hosts the Forever Fit Podcast, with more than 450 episodes.
Last updated: October 19, 2026. This page is for general education and is not medical advice. Check with your doctor before starting a new exercise or nutrition program.
