HOLIDAY WEIGHT GAIN
A Big Fat Lie?
A festive meal every day and lots of biscuits, gingerbread, sweets, and alcohol: Losing weight at Thanksgiving or keeping your weight during the holidays can be a challenge.
But long-term weight gain during the holidays is a fat, ugly myth! Yes, you can gain as much as five pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's. But the weight gain really comes after the holidays, when people don't drop the pounds gained, according to recent study. People who were overweight or obese to begin with were more likely to gain five pounds or more, according to the study, which appeared in a March 2000 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Yet, the days between Thanksgiving and New Years are exciting times with all the festivities, family get-togethers and scrumptious dinners. A current weight loss study now shows how you can do just that and not gain a few pounds from holiday feasting.
"Daily Self-Weighing to Prevent Holiday-Associated Weight Gain in Adults" is the title of the study, which was published in the journal "Obesity - A Research Journal". The authors of the study, Sepideh Kaviani, Michelle van Dellen and Jamie A. Cooper examined 111 people and their weight history. The study participants were divided into two groups. One group had to weigh themselves daily from Thanksgiving to the start of the new year. For this everyone received a smart scale. The goal: to actually maintain the starting weight. The other group was the control group, which did not have to watch out for their weight.
Hold the weight? Then off to the scales at Thanksgiving!
The results speak for themselves: the participants who weighed themselves daily maintained their weight for the most part. Some overweight participants even managed to lose a few pounds - an average of 1.46 pounds.
For the group that did not weigh itself, things looked very different: the participants gained an average of 6 pounds. This group was able to partially lose this weight fourteen weeks after the New Year, but the control group was still 3.3 pounds heavier on average than at the start of the study.
What’s behind the secret with the scales?
So, does daily weighing alone help maintain the weight? Certainly not, after all, the scale itself is not a fat burner. But: The daily check probably helped the test subjects to pay more attention to their own weight. Study author Jamie Cooper believes that if this group was shown weight gain on the scale, they exercised a little more the next day or paid more attention to what they ate. The conclusion of the study is therefore clear: If you want to stay in shape over the holidays despite the festive dinners or even lose a few pounds, you should take a regular glance at your bathroom scale. This simple trick triggers a guilty conscience, helps hold the weight or acts as a motivator for going to the gym.
How to deal with holiday weight and still lead a happy family life, I will show you in my upcoming podcast “Avoiding holiday weight gain – 10 Tips to stay fit and keep off the holiday pounds”
I wish you a wonderful and joyous holiday season!
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I will post this blog on my Facebook group page “
Living Well Community”. Go HERE to join the conversation about holiday stress and leave your comments.
I will also post my podcast “How to cope with the seemingly inevitable holiday season stress". If you don’t want to miss it, you can subscribe HERE to my podcast series “The PJ Wellness Show”.
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www.beyondyourscale.com and click on recipes.
I can’t wait to meet you soon, and hope that you will share many more ideas how to maintain your weight during the holidays. And, of course, any tips how we can really enjoy the festivities. LET’S GO! Let's enjoy the celebrations without the usual waist line sufferings.
Still unsure? I have good news for you! I can help you kickstart your personal health goals for free - click on this
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My best,
Patrick
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