A new study showed that holidays don’t bring only joy and happiness, they also make you fat. People from the U.S that took part in this research had a 0.2 percent increase in weight after Thanksgiving and 0.4 percent after Christmas.
Despite these result, Americans are not the only ones that are getting rounder after the holidays. German people had a rise of 0.6 percent at Christmas and 0.2 percent near Easter. In Japan, people saw their weights rise with 0.5 percent around Christmas and 0.3 percent over the Golden Week, a 4-week national holiday.
“Different countries celebrate different holidays, but many such celebration periods have one thing in common: an increased intake of favorite foods,” study author declared.
The researchers gathered data from August 2012 up to July 2013 and examined it thoroughly. To determine the difference between a period of holiday weight and a normal weight, the researchers compared the biggest weight of every person during a holiday to the one before the holiday.
The effects of the holidays were visible in every country. For the Western nations like America and Germany, Christmas was the one that brought them the most weight. For Japanese people, it was the Golden Week.
Other studies on this topic were not as relevant as this one because for the cited study used a wireless scale, while the others were based on data reported by the participants.
The author of the study mentioned that he found it surprising that Americans didn’t start to put on weight on Labor Day or the 4th of July.
The study also found that it is important to start a diet before the holiday season if you want to succeed, because if you wait until January you already gain more weight during that time.
“Make an October resolution instead of a New Year’s resolution,” joked Wansink, the author.
The extra weight was lost in time. Half of it was lost after a few days and the other half lingered until the summer, or even after it.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine this Thursday.
Do you usually gain more weight in the holidays? If you do, how do you manage to get rid of it afterwards?
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