Festive cookies, cakes, and candies become all too accessible throughout the holiday season. These calorie packed treats might as well be at a snap of a finger, as they are provided in bulk at practically every holiday party and get together, club meeting, and welcoming home. You can not venture out to the local grocery/ convenience store without passing a glistening array of tempting holiday treats, and let’s not forget all the cute “Do It Yourself” holiday recipes that plague the internet and TV. With that being said, tacking on a few “holiday pounds” by the time New Years rolls around seems 100% justifiable.
It’s commonly assumed that the average American gains an average of five pounds or more between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, yet there’s little data out there to fully support this belief. On December 25th, 1995, the Cable News network reported that “The average american will gain 7 to 10 pounds before the New Year,” and a report from the Texas Medical Association claimed that “ Most studies show the average American gains 8 pounds throughout the holiday season.” However, these past claims are not backed up by credible sources, and therefore may simply be assumptions made by the media. Interestingly enough, a scientific study was recently published by the New England Journal of Medicine that measured the weight gain of 200 volunteers. The subjects were randomly chosen to ensure the participation of both sexes. Participants were chosen from several racial and ethnic groups and were from a variety of age groups (all above 18 years). Notably, the subjects were all healthy, with no serious medical conditions reported.
The study called for the participants to be examined on four separate occasions at intervals of six to eight weeks. At each visit, weight was measured to the nearest 0.01 kg on an electronic scale, wearing hospital gowns and no shoes. All participants were weighed at the same time of the day as their initial visit (taking into account meal times). Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire at each screening addressing concerns such as stress, physical activity patterns, and forms of depression (for example, winter seasonal affective disorder). Subjects were then asked to describe habit changes that occurred in between each clinical visit. Doctors than inquired about how much the participants believed they gained during the winter holiday period, and their responses were recorded.
The findings were less severe than prior beliefs. Complete data was available for 195 of the original 200 participants. The average weight gain during the holiday period was 0.82-3.35 
pounds. This is only a slight increase when compared to the pre-holiday season, where the average weight gain was 0.4-3.28 pounds. Notably, throughout the post-holiday time frame participants lost one pound on average. In addition, it was found that most participants did not have reports of extreme weight fluctuation and in 50% of all measurements the weight differed from the previous measurement by no more than 2.2 pounds.
About 15% of the participants claimed that they attempted to lose weight during the holiday period, but their weight change was not significantly different from those who reported no such attempts. Additionally, no third variables of sex, race, or socioeconomic status were found to affect the data. Lastly, the amount of weight change throughout the holiday season had no great correlation with the original BMI of the participants.
Overall, the study’s findings prove that the widely perceived notion that Americans tend to gain a significant amount of weight over the holidays wrong. For
On the bright side, dietary experts assert that there is a way around gaining even just a couple extra holiday pounds. In an article published by Susan G. Rabin titled “ 10 Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain,” doctors claim that portion control is key. As I mentioned earlier, alluring sugary treats are constantly present during the holiday season. However, indulging in a piece of pie or a cookie here and there will not cause much harm. The article touched upon some additional helpful tips to combat the season. Experts suggest eating something light before arriving at a holiday function, pacing yourself, and keeping tabs on what you consume during a holiday party in order to avoid holiday weight gain.
I don’t really see a way in which “holiday weight” is not a real thing. Our diets are extremely altered over the course of weeks, if we really take the time to think about it. Every year we are bombarded with “seasonal” flavors, that we don’t eat at other, non-holiday portions of the year. Furthermore, a lot of us indulge quite a bit during these holidays, I think that it would be subjective to a specific person’s diet.
I am interested to see if the weight gained varies throughout the location of where people live. For example, are those who live in warmer climates such as California or Arizona less likely to gain weight than those who live in the North East region of America like New York or PA? It seems like because it is so cold here, with less to do and more to eat, it is easier to gain weight than those who can hang out at the beach or go on hikes all year long. Also on that note, it seems like people are more likely to eat healthy during the summer because they hang out in swim suits more while in the winter, your attire generally consists of parkas and snow pants. I attached a link talking about other reasons for weight gain in the winter.
http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/weight-loss/the-truth-about-why-you-gain-weight-in-the-winter
Holiday weight gain is so common. I think we often use the holidays or winter in general as excuses to gain weight because it makes sense to allow ourselves to indulge more during that time period. But it actually surprised me that the weight gain isn’t as much as they originally expected. 7-10 pound does seem like a reasonable amount for the holiday season, but the actual amounts found seem small, which could be a good thing for us. Great post!