Are You Destined to Gain Weight After Labor Day?

As the days get shorter and the air gets crisp, something happens to our drive to keep moving and eating healthy.  

After Labor Day, summer is on its way out the door moving toward fall and winter. Do we instinctively add the extra pounds based on our genetic history of survival or is it something more?  

Based on a study conducted by the National Institute of Health in the year 2000, our weight gain that occurs in the colder months usually occurs during the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.  

A group of 165 volunteers of all weights and ages were monitored during this study. The average weight gain for each person was just under one pound. However, the weight gained was never lost from year to year, and the next year saw another gain during the same time frame.  

What is interesting about this study is that they found those that were already overweight or obese and inactive gained more than the one pound, up to five pounds. Those individuals who were average weight who were previously active prior to this time frame gained one pound or a little less. And the average weight volunteers who continued to stay active during this time frame did not gain any weight.  

"This is a 'good news/bad news' story," said Dr. Jack A. Yanovski, principal investigator for the study. "The good news is that people don't gain as much weight as we thought during the holidays. The bad news is that weight gained over the winter holidays isn't lost during the rest of the year."

According to a press release on the study, “The knowledge that people actually accumulate a large proportion of their yearly weight gain over the winter holiday season, the researchers added, may prove useful in treating overweight and obesity.”

"The cumulative effects of yearly weight gain during the fall and winter are likely to contribute to the substantial increase in body weight that frequently occurs during adulthood," the study states. "Promotion of weight stability during the fall and winter months may prove useful as a strategy to prevent age-related weight gain in the United States."

What can be taken from this study? Although this study is 11 years old, it gives us an indication that the weight gain could be greater today over this same six-week period, due the current obesity rate which is at 30 percent and rising.  

If you get moving and stay moving through the fall and winter months, you will feel better and fight off any potential weight gain. Imagine losing weight through the holiday season. Now that would be a change in the right direction.

So, if you are not currently involved in a consistent exercise program, you need to make the choice today to get on board. If you don’t want to keep getting bigger clothes every year, make this the year you get smaller clothes and keep them.