Study: Holiday Weight Gains Likely to Linger

A team of researchers has found that as much as half of the weight gained over the holidays isn’t likely to be lost for months afterward.

Investigators used data obtained from wireless scales to record the daily weight change of 2924 study participants from 3 countries, and extracted data for the 12-month period from August 1, 2012 to July 31, 2013. Data were obtained from 1781 residents of the United States. Among this group, 34% were women, and 24% were obese. The authors also evaluated 760 residents of Germany. Among the German participants, 34% were female, and 19% were obese. A third group included 383 residents of Japan, of whom 26% were women while 11% were obese.
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The researchers normalized the daily weight of each participant by subtracting their starting weight at the beginning of August, and then dividing by their average weight over the course of the year. The subsequent weight-change curve was smoothed over a 7-day running average window, according to the authors, who subtracted by a linear trend and averaged over all participants in each country. The investigators also used a 2-sided test to assess any differences between participants’ maximum weight at no more than 10 days after the start of the holiday and individuals’ weights that were measured 10 days prior to the holiday.

Within the 10 days following Christmas day, participants’ weight increased in all 3 countries studied, in comparison with 10 days before Christmas day. The authors saw weight increases of 0.4% in the United States, 0.6% in Germany, and 0.5% in Japan, and observed “significant weight gain” around other major holidays in each country.

“In these 3 prosperous countries, weight gain occurs during national holidays. Although this population sample may be wealthier, better educated, and more motivated toward weight loss than average, it still provides insights for practice,” the authors wrote. “Advising a patient to have better self-control over the holidays is 1 approach. Yet, given the weight-loss patterns [seen in the study], it might be better to advise patients that, although up to half of holiday weight gain is lost shortly after the holidays, half the weight gain appears to remain until the summer months or beyond. Of course, the less one gains, the less one then has to worry about trying to lose it.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference:

Helander E, Wansink B, Chieh A. Weight gain over the holidays in three countries. N Engl J Med. 2016; 375:1200-1202