New Groundbreaking Vegan Documentary: The Yoyo Effect

The award-winning filmmaker behind the popular documentary on Netflix Food Choices has released a trailer for his new movie The Yoyo Effect.

Produced by Michal Siewierski, the documentary has been billed as 'the film the weight loss industry doesn't want you to see' - and will follow the filmmaker in his exciting journey into the controversial world of weight loss and dieting as he uncovers several shocking facts and confronts common misconceptions.

New disruptive ideas and cutting edge science-based evidence is presented by expert doctors like Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Angie Sadeghi and Dr. Neal Barnard who will give the viewer long-term sustainable weight-loss strategies for improved overall health.

Obesity is often a controversial and misunderstood topic but the goal of this film is to arm the viewer with the latest in science-based evidence, as well as knowledge and tools shared by world class experts.

My goal is tackle several of the pervasive and common misconceptions out there about weight loss and nutrition, expose the industry and empower the viewer with life changing knowledge that can have a profound impact in their lives. — Michal Siewierski

RiseOfTheVegan.com spoke to producer Michal Siewierski about his motivations for the movie.

RiseOfTheVegan: Why is it important that this documentary was made?

Michal: I had my own weight loss journey and it took me almost 10 years of trial and error, reading hundreds of books, close to 80 interviews with experts from various fields and producing two feature length films about nutrition to begin to grasp the understanding of what constitutes real, effective, sustainable weight loss. 

Maybe I’m a slow learner, I don’t know…. But there is so much conflicting information out there that it is hard to sip through it all and get to the truth. I decided that making this film was important to make this journey easier to people, to combine all the ground-breaking science, tips and knowledge about weight loss in one film, so it can steer people into a direction that can allow them to achieve their weight loss goals in a healthy and sustainable way by focusing on long term lifestyle change versus short term yo-yo dieting.

RiseOfTheVegan: Many people focus on fad approaches to weight-loss such as Keto/Paleo/Atkins - why is this a problem? 

Michal: There are several ways to lose weight, you can go on a fast, on an Atkins diet (or one of its many derivatives), you can count calories, drink diet shakes all day for several weeks, you can take diet supplements, and so on… And guess what… it often works! But these are not sustainable practices. People do lose weight, the problem is what happens next, they go back to eating the diet that made them fat on the first place and the weight comes right back and often with vengeance, it creates the so called “yo-yo effect”, which most people have experienced at some point in their lives. 

Michal: And there is emerging scientific evidence that shows that this yo-yo process of gaining and losing weight can potentially damage the metabolism over time, making it even harder for people to the lose weight as they continue to “yo-yo”. And the issue goes beyond the ability to fit in your favorite pair of skinny jeans, there are serious implications and risks associated with carrying excess weight. It is estimated that over 60 chronic diseases are connected in some way to obesity. It is a global pandemic and there is no end in sight.

RiseOfTheVegan: And what will people learn from this documentary? 

Michal: Most people even in the vegan/plant based world have lots of questions and are confused about weight loss, no wonder we have a growing number of overweight vegans out there. Because of that several doctors, researchers and scientists are concerned about the possible negative results of upcoming large population studies comparing the health of vegans to non vegans. Veganism is a wonderful lifestyle for ethical and environmental reasons but it is not necessarily the solution for weight loss and health if too much emphasis is given to processed, high sugar and high fat vegan foods. I was an overweight vegan for a while and it took me a long time to understand what I was doing wrong. Removing animal foods from my diet was a wonderful thing and it aligned with my new ethical and environmental values, but just that on its own was not enough to help me lose all the weight I needed to lose. I was definitely a good start, but not enough. This film contains a powerful message, for both the non-vegan and vegan crowds.

We also spoke to Dr. Angie Sadeghi (MD) a weight-loss specialist who is featured in the documentary.

RiseOfTheVegan.com: Why is this documentary important?

Dr Angie: The Yoyo Effect is an excellent documentary that presents the scientific facts the weight-loss industry doesn’t want you to know. The science is presented by the leading experts around the country in an effective way to help consumers improve their health, and most importantly avoid falling into another trap.

Dr Angie: We have an epidemic of obesity and preventable disease in this country, all due to poor dietary choices. Millions of people are dying every year due to preventable disease, but worse yet, they live a very poor quality of life in the last decade of life. The cost of medicine is rising rapidly, and our healthcare system is going broke despite raising premiums. The rate of illness, pain and suffering is exponential, and can’t be sustainable. There must be a massive shift from treating disease to preventing disease. All this change can be achieved by improving nutrition in this country. I hope the documentary shines light on this massive problem and creates a shift that improves the health of our population.

The movie is scheduled to be released in Spring 2018 and still requires some funding to complete the movie, which is currently being completed via crowdfunding (the same way the groundbreaking documentary WhatTheHealth was funded).

Current Crowdfunding Status: