With the holiday season coming up we decided to look at weight gain during the holiday season. Most people worry about gaining weight during Novemeber and December so we are here to give you the facts.
In an article from paleoleap, people self report that they think they gain between 5- 10 pounds in the holiday season, from Thanksgiving until New Years. In reality however people only gained about 1-2 pounds. Some factors that contribute to holiday weight gain is social pressure to relax and lay around during the holidays, stress to get gifts leads to comfort eating, broken routines of people not being active as much, and emotional associations of eating in your childhood. Click here to go to paleoleap.
In real simple they wrote an article about how the extra pounds you put on over the holiday season takes up to five months to lose. Research shows that people begin gaining weight in October and November and peak 10 days after Christmas. On average people actually only gain about 1.3 pounds. The weight is usually steady until after Easter where people begin to start losing the weight. The weight gain is usually a combination of holiday foods and colder temperatures, which can lead to less outdoor activity. The solution is instead of creating a New Year's resolution to lose weight, make is a October resolution to try to to gain weight. Click here to go to realsimple.
Studies show that out of New England, America, and Japan, the japanese gain the least amount of weight during the holiday seasons. American however is in a close second averaging only 0.2 more than them. And New England gains on average about 2-3 pounds. The common denominator in these three countries is the Christmas - New Years holiday. Weight during the holidays usually fluctuate making it a lot easier to lose. Overly many people believe that over the holidays they gain 5 times as much weight as they actually do. After a studied was composed where 3,000 people's weights were monitored daily. Researchers found that people's weights maintained throughout the year until Thanksgiving, but after New Years the weight was lost quickly. Click here to go to the huffington post.