Worried About Holiday Weight Gain?

Dec. 20, 2007— -- "Did you get fatter again?" one of my clients told me she asked her husband as he put on a newly purchased pair of pants for the office.

Yes, some of us try to sneak new clothes in after the holidays so that others don't notice our latest indulgence in food. That can be one strategy.

But the bad news is that somebody is going to notice. And in the end you will no doubt realize yourself that you need to do something to prevent building more fat tissue around those most critical and desired regions of the body: for gentleman, the beloved six-pack, and for the ladies, the perfectly thin arms, hips and legs.

Nobody said it's easy to keep the pounds off at the end of the year. The holiday season is quite a tough time, with food to the left and right.

"Why don't you come to my holiday party?" your colleague asks, and all you can think is, "Oh God, what can I eat there," or "Maybe I can make an excuse not to go."

You end up going, of course, and after a glass of wine you will no doubt relax.That's when the real damage begins.

Even though the food offered will wreck your diet regimen, healthy choices are sparse at best. Suddenly, you find yourself bingeing on all the foods that are offered. After all, why stop when you've already started, right?

The general belief is that Americans gain between five and nine pounds between Halloween and New Year's Day, but that may be an exaggeration. A study conducted in 2000 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Diabetes suggested that Americans, on average, gain only about one pound during the winter holidays.

But this weight gain accumulates over the years, possibly contributing to the overall weight gain someone experiences in the course of a lifetime.

When I conduct measurements every four to five weeks to track the success of my nutrition and exercise program for individuals, I notice that it can be much more than one pound of weight gain. The most I have seen was six pounds in a period of four weeks.