This new study has found that constant fluctuations in weight make it harder to maintain a healthy heart.
"Achieving a healthy weight is generally recommended as heart healthy but maintaining weight loss is difficult and fluctuations in weight may make it harder to achieve ideal cardiovascular health," said Dr Brook Aggarwal, from Columbia University in New York.
Scientists got 485 women and got them to report how many times they had lost at least 10lbs, only to regain the weight within a year.
They were then assessed using the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 scale, which looks at body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, smoking, physical activity and diet.
73 per cent of the women reported at least one episode of yo-yo weight loss, with some having as many as 20.
Researchers found that women who had yo-yo dieted at least once were 82 per cent less likely to have a healthy body mass index, and 51 per cent less likely to be rated as having moderate health or better.
The more episodes of yo-yo dieting women reported, the poorer they scored on the wellbeing scale.
And that was particularly the case in women who had never been pregnant.
"The women without a pregnancy history were likely younger and might be those who started weight-cycling at an earlier age," said Dr Aggarwal.
"We need to identify critical periods for the effect of weight fluctuation on heart disease risk over the life course to find out whether it is worse when women start on a dieting roller-coaster at an early age."
As the study's results were based on women self-reporting, Dr Aggarwal stressed that the team couldn't exactly say whether yo-yo dieting affected things like BMI and blood pressure, or whether those who don't try to control those issues had a harder time maintaining a healthy weight.
"We hope to extend the study five to ten years to confirm these results and look at long-term effects," Aggarwal said.
"However, there has been prior research that showed similar results in men, with those who weight-cycled having twice the risk of cardiovascular death in middle age."
Weight loss is hard but generally speaking, experts maintain that slow and steady wins the race.
It's about breaking unhealthy habits and aiming for a sustainably healthy weight.
If you're looking to lose weight and protect your heart, you might want to try the Mediterranean diet – which is more of a lifestyle than a hardened eating plan.
In a recent study by Sheffield Hallam University, scientists found that "at least in the short-term, the Mediterranean diet improves significantly the availability of nitric oxide in our veins and arteries – which is important to maintain the good health of our vascular system".
Dr Markos Klonizakis said: "So as far as reducing cardiovascular disease risk, our work suggests that it is probably better to look for a solution in the Mediterranean diet".
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