The Holidays And Weight Loss Dieting - Still Oxymoronic To You?
By Marjet Heitzer, Thu Dec 8th
b>By Marjet Heitzer, Ph.D. The Plateau-proof Diet Foundation
Although the holidays are a time of celebration as well asreflection, they also represent a veritable nightmare.Almost as a rule, each holiday party contains a wealth of fooditems deemed untouchable to most dieters. It is no mistake thatfollowing the revelries of holiday binges come the all-forgivingNew Year's resolutions, which most likely include some of thecharacteristics such as overeating displayed during the previousweeks. This article will discuss some facts concerning weightloss maintenance during the holidays as well as some helpfulhints to get you through them.
The average person gains approximately 1.1 pounds (0.5 kg)during the holiday season (1). Furthermore, people of all sizesgain weight in December and January. Specifically, obese andnormal-sized individuals gain 1.32 pounds (0.6 kg) and 0.88pounds (0.4 kg), respectively (2). Although gaining 1.1 poundsmay seem like no big deal, for a person trying to lose weight,gaining instead of losing weight is devastating and may threatentheir desire to continue dieting. So, why do we gain weight during the holidays? As you canprobably imagine, the reasons behind holiday weight gain aresubjective, varying from person to person, as well as complex,possibly involving multiple factors such as financial and familystress along with increased social interactions surroundingfoods (i.e. holiday parties). Although occasional binge episodesduring the holiday seasons may seem harmless, there is evidencethat people suffering from periodic overeating are less likelyto continue a regimen (3). Furthermore, people, whooccasionally overeat, are more likely to have harder timecontrolling their weight. There is some evidence that self-monitoring, the systematicobservation or recording of target behaviors, may assist peopleduring the holiday, helping individuals to stay focused on theirdiet (4). In a study conducted by Baker et al., participantsthat self-monitored, writing down their total food intake dailyas well as time the food was consumed and their weight eachweek, continued to lose weight during the holiday season (4).However, the control group, participants that didn'tself-monitor, gained 500% more weight over the holiday. Perhaps,self-monitoring serves as a checkpoint between putting
a fooditem on your plate and into your mouth. Even outside of theholiday season, individuals that self-monitor, lost 64% moreweight and continued with their diet as compared to participantsthat didn't self-monitor (5). Perhaps self-monitoring provides some consistencythroughout the year. A recent study of the National WeightControl Registry, composed of people who lost significantamounts of weight and maintained their weight for 1 year, askedthe question: Does consistency in matter in weight lossmaintenance? The answer was yes, people who maintained the samediet over weekdays, weekends, and holidays were 1½ times morelikely to maintain their weight as compared to people dietedstrictly on the weekdays and non-holidays (6). So, stayingconsistent throughout the holiday season as well asself-monitoring can help you get through the upcoming season,losing weight instead of gaining it. The Plateau-Proof DietFoundation offers a free on-line weight loss log(Http://www.plateauproofdiet.com/log/register.php ) where youwill be able to record your weight loss, thus, self-monitor.
1.Garrow J 2000 Christmas factor and snacking. Lancet 355:8 2.Andersson I, Rossner S 1992 The Christmas factor in obesitytherapy. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 16:1013-5 3.Wadden TA, Bartlett S, Letizia KA, Foster GD, Stunkard AJ,Conill A 1992 Relationship of history to restingmetabolic rate, body composition, eating behavior, andsubsequent weight loss. Am J Clin Nutr 56:203S-208S 4.Baker RC, Kirschenbaum DS 1998 Weight control during theholidays: highly consistent self-monitoring as a potentiallyuseful coping mechanism. Health Psychol 17:367-70 5.Sperduto WA, Thompson HS, O'Brien RM 1986 The effect oftarget behavior monitoring on weight loss and completion rate ina behavior modification program for weight reduction. AddictBehav 11:337-40 6.Gorin AA, Phelan S, Wing RR, Hill JO 2004 Promoting long-termweight control: does consistency matter? Int J ObesRelat Metab Disord 28:278-81 About the author:Dr. Marjet Heitzer is a biomedical scientist specialized incancer and endocrine research. She is the founding editor of'Trimming America', the free journal of 'The Plateau-proof DietFoundation'. She is a strong proponent of reversing obesity andsome of its comorbidities, including type II diabetes andhypertension, with a lifestyle change that has healthy dietingat its core. http://www.plateauproofdiet.com |
