Janet Eats

Who knew, indeed?  Turns out the truism that we gain about 5-10 pounds at holiday time is flawed.  In fact, the average person gains about a pound.  what we gain is about one pound.

weightwatchers.com writes:

According to the most reliable to-date study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the average weight gain was a little less than one pound. The study participants who did have a major holiday weight gain, defined as 5 pounds or more, were more likely to be overweight than people who gained less.

But, this is where it gets tricky.  Even if you are one of those average Joes who gained a little less than a pound, you aren’t that likely to take it off.   So, we can start packing it on before we know it.

So, what do you do?  Interestingly, resolutions apparently work.  I have noticed around my office, that people who were overeating throughout the holidays, hands in the cookie plate, fingers wrapped around holiday-festooned chocolate kisses, are the ones who are now bummed about resolutions.   Maybe it would be more effective to think of them less in the r-word mode, and more as commitment to making incremental goals.