Anticipation Is Key To Preventing Holiday Weight Gain
Maintaining Your Health
on Mackinac
By Yvan Silva, M.D.

Thanksgiving! It’s the start of the holiday season that gets filled with family get-togethers, receptions, parties, and many invitations to eat and drink. All this takes up time and energy. Changes what is a common daily routine of work and family interactions. Takes away time from a regular day. From a daily exercise routine if you have one. And sets a schedule filled with temptations to overindulge while you worry about weight gain. It seems inevitable. Everybody seems to talk about it, worry about it.

Most people believe that they will gain five pounds or so during the season. But only about 10 percent of Americans really do and they belong to the group that are usually overweight to begin with. In an excellent study, the National Institutes of Health examined the eating habits and weight-gain patterns in a large group of volunteers who represented closely the population at large. They came from a mix of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, ranged in age from 19 to 82, and weighed from 95 to 306 pounds. Interestingly, the average weight gain was only 0.8 pounds during the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Overall, Americans generally gain little between September and November and remain sort of stable from March to August. Over a year, the gain ranges about 1.5 pounds. Studies have shown that many believe that they gain as much as four times than they actually do, mostly because they don’t keep regular and accurate records of their true calories intake and weight changes.

Why then are more than one-third of Americans seriously overweight? It is becoming apparent that while many do not gain all that much weight in the winter, they neglect to take it off and keep it off in the spring and the months that follow. For some who do gain weight during the winter months, it is the combination of excessive caloric intake and a sedentary state or one that does not include a regimen of regular physical exercise. It is this accumulation month after month and year after year that tends to remain permanent and most difficult to get rid of. Indeed, the last statistically significant national survey showed that over a 10-year period, the average adult American gained 10 pounds.

When you think about it, it seems obvious the way to deal with it should be most consonant with your body physiology. Your weight remains in balance with the calories you take in and the calories you expend. There is no quick fix. And such attempts at rapid weight loss can be unsuccessful or even harmful. If you want to lose two pounds of a weight gain, you will need to eat 7,000 fewer calories over a month, which would amount to cutting out 250 calories a day. That would be about three cookies less a day. Now that’s a mental exercise that could get you started on the math that is essential to a serious approach to the question. Gaining weight. Losing weight. Staying healthy.

Return to a sensible diet. Yes, you will digress, every now and then. That’s only human. Compensate for it, within a reasonable period of time. Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are important. You should keep a broad overview on your caloric intake. Calories in. That is one side of the coin. The other, and it is vital, is exercise. Regular and dedicated physical exercise. Calories out. Remember, it’s a lot easier to lose a pound or two in a week and keep it off than trying to lose 20 pounds later.

Finally, it is imperative to regard your weight as an important factor in your overall health. It becomes a risk factor beginning at an excess of 25, 30 pounds or more and increasingly so. Maintaining a healthy weight is certainly an important goal.

Dr. Silva is a professor of surgery at Wayne State University and a resident of Woodbluff on Mackinac Island.