The standard wisdom is that "studies show" the average American gains 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. The good news is that the standard wisdom is wrong and actual studies (as published in 2016 in the New England Journal of Medicine) conclude that the actual weight gain is about 2 pounds.
The bad news is that those 2 pounds tend to stick around and add up year after year.
Still, two pounds comes to about 7,000 calories. (Its actually a bit more complicated than that, but when talking about a few pounds over the short term its a good rule of thumb.) That may sound like a lot but it really isn't. If you consider the number of calories in those holiday cookies, the Thanksgiving meal or the Christmas Party buffet you will find it pretty easy to cut back enough to hold the (waist)line on gaining weight. Do it over several weeks and you probably will not even notice. You can probably do it just by cutting out a few drinks.
So there is no need make yourself miserable being a diet fanatic while everyone else in the country is celebrating. Go ahead and enjoy. Just be a little more mindful about it.
11 December 2019
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