The first depiction of a yo-yo is found in a painting of a young boy on a Greek vase from 500 B.C. The Mayans had their version around 700 A.D.! Napoleon used one in the early 1800s to ease stress.

Yo-yo dieting, however, is a more recent phenomenon and, it turns out, a dangerous one.

For a new study, researchers tracked 158,063 postmenopausal women over 11.4 years and found that women who were a normal weight when the study started and then lost and regained 10 pounds or more had a 66 percent increase in death risk from coronary heart disease and were three and a half times more likely to experience sudden cardiac death than women whose weight remained stable.

Interestingly, no increase in either type of death occurred among overweight or obese women who reported that kind of yo-yo weight cycling (perhaps because their risks were already increased) or among women who gained or lost weight and then remained stable (stability turns out to be key for health).

So if you're trying to take off excess weight, take your eyes off the scale and set your sights on lifestyle changes that will get you to a healthy weight and let you STAY there: Exercise regularly (10,000 steps a day or the equivalent); don't smoke; eat 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies daily, only 100 percent whole grains, and no added sugar and sugar syrups. You also can try some yo-yo tricks: Walking the dog is great exercise!