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The holidays are a time when family and friends gather to enjoy each other’s company — and eat! Indulgent meals, bountiful buffets, cookie swaps, holiday parties… it’s no surprise that maintaining a healthy weight can present even more challenges during the holidays than throughout the rest of the year. Each year, on average, we tend to gain a small amount of weight (about one pound per year). According to some research, most of that weight is gained over the holiday season.
Does that mean we are destined to see a bigger number when we step on the scale in January? Or can we keep the end-of-year weight gain at bay?
A study published in The BMJ sought to find out. Researchers examined the effectiveness of a brief (four to eight week) behavioral intervention to prevent weight gain over the Christmas holiday period. The researchers randomized 272 adults into one of two groups. The intervention group was given a behavioral intervention intended to increase their restraint of food and beverage consumption. The intervention involved three components: encouraging participants to regularly weigh themselves and record their weight; providing specific weight-management strategies; and providing information on how much physical activity would be needed to burn off the calories consumed in typical holiday foods and drinks. The control group received information on healthy living.
Results showed that the intervention group lost an average of 0.3 pounds, while the control group gained 0.8 pounds. This may not seem like much, but research shows that weight gains are not fully lost in the months following the holidays. Although the yearly gain is small, it can add up to an increase of 10 pounds over 10 years.
Study participants in the intervention group were encouraged to follow these 10 tips to help prevent weight gain:
Physical activity — or at least understanding how much physical activity it would take to burn off calories, and possibly considering that information when making choices about what to eat — also played a role in preventing weight gain. In the study, the researchers provided the intervention group with a chart that showed the approximate amount of activity it would take to burn the calories found in a given amount of festive foods. For example, it would take approximately 12 minutes of walking or six minutes of running to burn off the calories in five pigs in a blanket, and it would take approximately eight minutes of walking or four minutes of running to burn off the calories in 5 tablespoons of gravy.
Here are a few more tips to help you keep your weight in check without foregoing your holiday traditions.
Preventing weight gain over the holidays can be a challenge. But it is possible!
The post Yes, you can avoid weight gain over the holidays! appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.