Holiday weight rarely comes off, study shows

March 22, 2000
Web posted at: 5:17 p.m. EST (2217 GMT)

By Laura Lane

(WebMD) -- Springtime brings thoughts of bikinis and beaches -- and the dreaded realization that some of that pumpkin cheesecake, creamy eggnog and turkey stuffing we enjoyed over the holidays still clings to our thighs, hips and bellies.

Don't despair. Researchers now say they have some good news for us -- and some bad news. The good news? Most of us gain less weight over the winter holidays than we think, only one pound on average. The bad news? We never take it off.

One pound per Christmas

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Medical University of South Carolina studied 195 people, weighing them four times over the course of about six months. They found that people gain an average of about one pound (0.48 kilograms) from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day -- far less than the five pounds usually touted in the popular press.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Weighty issues

But while we may not gain as much as we think, we're also fooling ourselves with our New Year's resolutions to slim down. That extra pound, on average, still clung stubbornly to the group of 165 participants who came back to be weighed almost a year later.

Ringing in obesity

Lead researcher Jack Yanovski, M.D., Ph.D., says the study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine shows that the winter holidays are the prime season for the weight people gain as they get older. Indeed, holiday merriment is likely a contributing cause behind the country's growing problem of obesity, leading to more cases of diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis and a slew of other conditions.

"Over five to ten years, those pounds add up," says Yanovski, head of the unit on growth and obesity at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Yanovski and colleagues have not pinpointed exactly what's to blame for the gain. Perhaps we eat one too many chocolates, or maybe we skip our workouts during the party season.

One thing's for sure: People who reported being more hungry and less active during the holidays gained the most weight. And obese or overweight study participants were more likely to gain more than five pounds (2.3 kilograms), which occurred in 10 percent of the participants.

At the root of the problem, says obesity expert John Garrow, M.D., Ph.D., is that the human body is not very efficient at monitoring the amount of food it consumes. So indulging at an afternoon Christmas party won't usually reduce how much you eat later at dinner or at lunch the next day, says the former nutrition professor at St. Bartholomew's Medical College in London, who published a commentary on holiday eating in the January issue of the Lancet.

A guilt relationship with food and unrealistic weight goals are also to blame, says Susan Adams, R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. While about half of all Americans are classified as overweight or obese, they're constantly confronted with images of bone-thin models -- taunting them to lose weight. While commercial weight-loss programs insist that it can be done quickly, research shows that once people abandon their strict diets, most regain the weight that they've lost, Adams says.

Think before you eat

The holiday season, then, is a time of vulnerability, which offers a great excuse to let go of the pressure to be thin -- resulting in overeating. But it doesn't have to be "all or nothing," Adams says. "Make some choices ahead of time of what you're going to enjoy." For instance, if you love pumpkin cheesecake, stick with turkey breast for your entree and pass up the mashed potatoes.

Of course, this doesn't mean you can never feast -- a ritual humans have enjoyed since ancient times.

"It's a miserable world if no one's allowed to overeat, because it's a pleasant thing to do," Garrow says. "But the payback is that if you're going to enjoy yourself, then you need to control what you eat (later)."

Yanovski offers this simple advice: Think before you eat. "The holiday season is still an important time when people should think about the weight they'll gain that'll never be lost."

© 2000 Healtheon/WebMD. All rights reserved.

RELATEDS AT :

WebMD chat transcript: Holiday eating strategies with Martha McKittrick, R.D., C.D.E.
Binge eaters brace for the holidays

New England Journal of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
American Dietetic Association

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.