How many pounds will you keep off this year?
It is that time of year again. That time of year when we are thankful. That time of year when we get to enjoy the holidays with our friends and family. That time of year when we take our winter vacations. It is also the time of year we move less, snack, eat, and drink more, sleep less, and stress to the max! Happy Holidays, right?
Due to these factors, most of us have the perception that we pack on the pounds during the holiday season. In 2000 an interesting study on average holiday weight gain was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study revealed that we only add a little over one pound to our waistlines during the holiday season. One pound isn’t so bad right? Wrong. The researchers suggested that this pound sticks with us and is a contributing factor to obesity in our adult years. Why? More than 51% of our yearly weight gain is attributed to the 6-week holiday time frame and this gain is not reversed during the spring and summer months. What’s worse is that the average overweight person puts on five pounds during the same time frame. If you did not know already, 68.8% of Americans are overweight or obese.
The exercise physiologist in me, however, has a solution! Can you guess what it is? We recently wrapped up our annual Turkey Burn program at the Valley Health Wellness & Fitness Center, which was designed to keep people active at the start of the holiday season. Simply maintaining your exercise program during this period goes a long way in helping to offset holiday weight gain. Want to splurge a little? Put in a few more minutes at the gym or make the time you do put in just a little more challenging.
I hope everyone enjoys their time with friends and family during this season. I also challenge you to answer the question I posed above: How many pounds will you keep off this year?
By: Patrick Bos, MS, ACSM-RCEP, FMS, Fitness Manager at Valley Health Wellness & Fitness Center
References:
Yanovski JA, Yanovski SZ, Sovik KN, Nguyen TT, O’Neil PM, & Sebring NG. A Prospective Study of Holiday Weight Gain. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2000; 342: 861-67.
Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Ogden CL. Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999–2010. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2012; 307(5):491–97.
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