Ahh, the crisp, cool mornings and brilliant colors of turning leaves. The harvest of fall, the parties and celebrations of the season that flow seamlessly into year-end holidays. The groaning tables laden with 7-course meals, tempting appetizers and luscious desserts.
Then come the extra pounds that are your reward for all that joyous partying.
While you may expect to pack on a few between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, would you be surprised to learn that you may, right at this moment, weigh the least that you will all year? Just add that tidbit to all the reasons you love the current season.
These are the weeks that you hit your lowest weight, according to a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found average Americans trim down to their slimmest in October and early November. Once we enter the hard-partying season of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, most of us will see our most notable weight gain of the year.
This is not just as American phenomenon. The researchers also studied German and Japanese participants, and found their largest weight gains centered around national holidays. All three groups recorded their lowest average weights just before the holiday’s kicked off.
Americans only add about 0.7 percent to their weight, or an average of about 1.32 pounds. After the holidays, Americans lose about half of that weight gain soon after the holidays. The other half stayed on into the summer, when Americans again see weight loss during warm months and on into the early fall.
While that pattern is good news for those who do not struggle with weight, researchers say their study shows now is the time to put a plan for healthy eating into motion. Keeping weight off is easier than losing it. Get a jump on staying fit over the holidays. Healthy eating and exercising during the holiday season is not easy when the weather outside is frightful and comfort food beckons. Don’t delay until New Year’s to resolve to shape up.
Researchers from the U.S., France, and Finland, tracked the weight gain of almost 3,000 people in the United States, Germany and Japan over a 12-month period for the study.
During the Christmas to New Year holiday season in Germany, the average weight gain was 1.76 pounds. The Japanese participants added their weight during the spring holidays known as Golden Week, when they weighed in at more than a pound heavier than their average.
