Doesn’t it feel like you gain at least seven pounds of weight, all of it blubber? A lot of us start indulging at Thanksgiving (some at Halloween) and don’t stop the free style calorie fest until those onerous New Year’s Resolutions.  Then, because we feel guilty about indulgences, we swear we won’t touch another cookie or piece of cake or candy until we lose massive amounts of weight.  And then comes Valentine’s Day.

Some Facts

A study of holiday related weight gain published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year is slightly less than a pound.

The problem is that most of us don’t lose that extra pound that attaches itself in unwanted places and accumulates year after year. And, although the average holiday gain is only one pound, people who are already overweight tend to gain a lot more – one study found five or more pounds during the holidays.

Something To Think About

You need to eat 3,500 extra calories to gain a pound. According to the Calorie Control Council, Americans may eat more than 4,500 calories and – oh my gosh — 229 grams of fat from a combination of snacks and a traditional “turkey with all the trimmings” holiday dinner. And, that doesn’t include breakfast or leftovers!

All together, that’s more than twice times the average daily calorie intake and almost three and a half times the fat since 45 percent of the calories in the typical holiday dinner can come from fat. A scary fact: the average person may eat the equivalent of three sticks of butter during a holiday meal.

The average holiday dinner alone carries a load of 3,000 calories with many of us nibbling and noshing our way through another 1,500 calories of chips, dips and drinks and the like before and after the big meal. According to the chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise (ACE), a person who weighs 160 pounds would have to run at a moderate pace for four hours, swim for five hours, or walk 30 miles to burn off a 3,000-calorie meal. That’s a whole lot of exercise!

Where Do Extra Holiday Calories Come From?

Most extra holiday calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from unrelenting nibbling during the holiday season. It’s way too easy to add on 500 extra calories a day — which translates into a pound in a week (7 x 500 = 3500 calories, or 1 pound).

Here are some common holiday indulgences that weigh in at around 500 calories:

• 12 ounces of eggnog
• 1 piece of pecan pie
• 3 ounces of mixed nuts
• 22.5 Hershey’s Kisses
• Starbucks’ Venti Peppermint Mocha with whipped cream
• 4 glasses (5oz.) of wine
• 10 regular size candy canes
• 2-3 large Christmas cookies
• 2.5 potato latkes
• 4 fun-sized Snickers and 20 pieces of candy corn

What To Ask Yourself Before A Holiday Indulgence

— or for that matter, before indulgences any time of the year:

• Do I really, really want it or is it because it looks good, smells good, or just means Christmas (or Halloween, or thanksgiving, or Hanukkah, or Valentine’s Day?
• Is it worth the calories?
• Do I need all of it (or any of it) to be happy or satisfied?
• How will I feel after I eat it – both physically and emotionally?
• What is important to me: the food, how I feel while I’m eating it, how I feel after I eat it, what the scale might say to me tomorrow morning?

Once you’ve had the conversation with yourself eat whatever is yanking your chain and love it — or be pleased with yourself that you didn’t.  Either way, you’ve made a mindful decision.

For more holiday eating strategies check out my soon to be released ebook:  How Not To Get Fat Over The Holidays.  I’ll let you know when it’s available from Amazon, Sony Reader, Nook, and iBooks.

The post Why Is It So Easy To Gain Weight Over The Holidays? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It’s the week leading up to Labor Day weekend.  Not technically the end of summer, but it sure feels that way.

I don’t know about you, but for me the thought process seems to be:  “Oh heck, it’s the last week of summer, the holiday weekend is coming up, all of my family is going to be home, a lot of burgers, ice cream, picnic food – and then it’s nose to the grindstone” (even if it has been nose to the grindstone, as it has been for me, most of the summer).

Holidays And Vacations Often Mean Overeating

It’s the kind of holiday season mentality that starts around Thanksgiving and continues right through New Year’s Day when you swear you’ll never eat another carb again!

Or, it’s the “vacation” mentality, when all of your healthy eating promises become submerged in the deepest recesses of your brain.

Or, it’s the mentality that adds the “freshman 15 . . . or 5 . . . or 10,”  the freedom at last, away from home mentality where no food is off limits.

Four Weeks Of Overeating:  Changes That Last For Years

Some new research may make you think twice.  Amazingly, overeating for just four weeks can cause changes in body fat and weight that last for years. For four weeks people in a study limited their activity to 5,000 steps a day or less (considered a sedentary lifestyle) and increased their caloric intake by 70% (5000+ calories a day). For two years researchers periodically monitored body weight and composition in this group and compared it to another group that did not change its diet or physical activity.

How Much Weight Gain?

The overeater/under-exerciser group gained, on average, 14 pounds. Six months after they were allowed to go back to eating and exercising normally they lost, on average, 71 percent of the gained weight but only one-third of the group members had returned to within one pound of their initial weight.

After one year the overeaters were, on average,  3.3 pounds heavier than before their four week food fest. The normal eaters had no change in body weight.

The overeaters had more body fat and higher LDL (lousy) cholesterol levels one year after their four week binge.  After two and a half years, the overeaters averaged a gain of 6.8 pounds from when the study first started, but the normal eaters didn’t show any significant weight gain.

SocialDieter Tip:

Boy oh boy, the effects of gluttony are really hard to get rid of – even when those overeating habits are ditched for a healthy lifestyle.  Even short periods of overeating and under-exercising can have lasting effects and make it more difficult to lose weight and keep it off.  Keep that in mind around holiday time, vacations, and “let-down-your-hair” times leading up to holidays and vacations.  It’ll serve you well for years to come.

The post Eater Alert: Beware End Of Summer Gluttony appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.