The Skinny on Holliday Weight Gain

As we come to the beginning of the holiday season, be reminded what we wrote last year:

Virtually everyone has heard the warnings concerning holiday weight gain. On average, people add about a pound to their weight over the holidays. With all of the holiday feasting, eating and sweets, the fact that it's only a pound might seem like good news. In fact it's actually hard to believe only a pound is added. Furthermore, at least in the northern hemisphere, the holiday season is also a time of cold weather making running, walking or even getting to the gym a lot harder. The bad news is that this pound that we gain generally isn't lost after the holidays. It becomes part of us. That's why the peers you see at your 25-year reunion look a lot heavier than they did at the 10-year reunion (probably by about 15 pounds).

An LA Times article refines this "one pound" rule a bit by noting that:

On average, normal-weight people gain less than half a pound on average, though people who have had success losing weight and keeping it off gain about a pound and a half.

So if you've worked hard this year to lose weight, you are in the worst position to gain it back. As the Times noted, during the holiday season you have the "means, motive and opportunity" to gain weight. This is the time of year to employ as many tricks as you can to avoid over-eating. It is also a very important time to be getting exercise. A pound is about 3,500 calories which can be plus/minus 10 hours of physical exercise, something you should be able to accomplish in the 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.