Holiday Weight Gain isn’t as bad as you think

Everyone complains about holiday weight gain, but is it as bad as we think? A study by the New England Journal of Medicine says it’s not!

Most people say the average American gains about 5 pounds over the holiday period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s day, but there is no data to support this number we throw around. Eating becomes the main focus from Thanksgiving to Christmas and everyone knows we eat more of certain foods over the holidays.

An international team of researchers decided to see if holiday overeating was associated with weight gain and just how much weight the average person gained over the holidays.

The holidays are certainly a time for overindulging.

The researchers followed almost 3000 adults in their 40s for one year. The participants weighed themselves daily. Once the results were tallied, researchers found people only gained about a pound or two over the holidays on average.

Not bad right? But what they also found was that most people retain about half of their holiday weight gain. So even if holiday weight gain is small, the pounds can add up over the years. If you’ve gained weight over the holidays, it’s back to the Military Diet for you!

Source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm200003233421206