Average Holiday Weight Gain Not as High as I Thought
Travis Saunders at the Obesity Panacea blog notes that average weight gain in adults over the Thanksgiving (U.S.)–Christmas–New Years’ season seems to be on the order of 0.8 pounds or 0.37 kg.
Data are from a 2000 article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers weighed 195 Americans throughout the year. My quick search at PubMed.gov found no better or more recent studies.
I mention this because I had written somewhere that average holiday season weight gain is about five pounds (2.3 kg). I stand corrected.
PS: I still have copies of The Blue Zones to give away if you have an address in the U.S. E-mail me if you want one: steveparkermdATgmailDOTcom.
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Glad you found the info useful! I was pretty excited to see that someone had actually studied the topic, because it seems like a very salient issue for a lot of people this time of year.
Travis
December 24th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Hi, Travis.
In my own defense, I was probably remembering that when people are surveyed, many report that they gain five pounds over the holidays (which you also mention in your blog post). As so often happens, reality does not match perception.
-Steve
December 26th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I wonder how much of ‘gain’ is just GI contents. Eat 3 lbs of dense foods on Christmas day, store up associated water that’s needed for digestion (especially if you’re also then storing up water with glycogen). How much do you gain? How much is left after a few days?
I’d always thought that the ‘gain 5-10 pounds during Christmas’ was wacky, just based on 3500 cal/lb analysis.
Funny thing about Travis’ blog
I ended up on Peter’s video lecture (which I liked as an overview but my comments just would not register on youtube). Then got to a certain Sandy’s blog that said that obese people are healthier. Hehe, right 
But she has no comment feature, so that’s strange and reduces credibility. Then on to a debunker of her as a ‘denier’. but the supposed debunkers seem to have also thought it was de facto heresy to question supposed Global Warming.
Round and round
December 26th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Hi, Ken. Ain’t the Interweb wunnerful?
You’re right that some weight gain after heavy eating is gastrointestinal contents and water.
-Steve