减重-反弹-减重-反弹……，体重上下波动仿佛溜溜球的轨迹，这种现象被美国减肥专家Kelly D. Brownell命名为减肥的“溜溜球效应”(yo-yo effect)，类似的说法还有“溜溜球节食”(yo-yo dieting)、“溜溜球陷阱”、“体重循环”等等。

Scientists have confirmed that the majority of overweight people who try to lose weight either by cutting calories or exercising will return to their former size.

科学家日前证实，绝大多数尝试节食或运动减肥的肥胖人群体重都会反弹。

Fewer than 10 percent of the 12million Britons who go on a diet each year succeed in losing significant amounts of weight and most of those who do put it all back on again within a year. 在英国每年的1200万节食减肥人群中，只有不到10%能成功减去大量体重，而其中绝大多数人会在一年内反弹。

The study of 25,000 people provides further evidence of the prevalence of ‘yo-yo dieting’ where slimmers get into a cycle of losing weight and regaining it.

该研究进一步印证了“溜溜球节食效应”的普遍性，它是指减肥者陷入反复减肥的恶性循环。共有2.5万人参与了此项调查。

Dr Rebecca Hardy, the council’s programme leader on body size, said: ‘Once people become overweight, they continue relentlessly upwards. They hardly ever go back down.

理事会体型研究项目负责人丽贝卡•哈代博士说：“人们一旦超重，就会不可收拾地胖下去。很难瘦回来。”

‘A few lose weight but very few get back to normal. The best policy is to prevent people becoming overweight.

“有些人可以减掉一些体重，但很少有人减到正常。最好的办法就是从开始就不要长胖。”