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 It also concluded that people who weigh themselves frequently seem
to lose those extra pounds faster.
The trend was seen in 1,781 Americans, 760 Germans and 383 Japanese,
all of whom used WiFi "smart scales" over a one-year period. They
had agreed to let the scale manufacturer, Withings, use the data for
research purposes. Age, gender, height, country and time zone were
collected as part of the registration process.
That system avoided limitations of previous weight studies, where
people often lie when reporting their weight or they may eat
differently knowing that they have to report to a place once a week
to be weighed. Under this system, all weights were automatically
recorded.
Within 10 days of Christmas, the average weight increased 0.4
percent among Americans and 0.6 percent among the Germans. For the
Japanese, a 0.3 percent increase came during Golden Week in May,
which includes an aggregation of four holidays.
For a 150-pound person, that's less than a pound.
But one of the authors of the study published in the New England
Journal of Medicine, Dr. Brian Wansink, told Reuters Health in a
telephone interview that the increase was so low because the people
using the scales were unusual.
The devices cost around $150 and people willing to pay that much are
probably more motivated than the average holiday reveler to keep
their weight down and lose whatever they've gained.
"We're looking at people who are a little richer, maybe a little
better educated, a little more health-conscious," said Wansink,
professor and director of the Food and Brand Lab at the Dyson School
at Cornell University.
It demonstrates that even the hyper-vigilant gain weight around the
holidays, he said.
Previous studies have shown that Americans typically gain 3 to 5
pounds over the holidays.
Increases of 0.2 percent were also seen among Germans during Easter
and among Americans during Thanksgiving.
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For Americans, the upward tick on the scales began around the
beginning of November and peaked around New Year's Day. For Germans,
it began in late November and peaked a little after New Year's Day.
The Japanese New Year's spike occurred around the same time as the
German spike.
Dr. Wansink said the results also reveal that people who weighed
themselves most often lost the extra weight more efficiently.
"People who weigh themselves three or four times a week had lost the
weight they'd gained within a month of the holiday," he said. "The
rest of the group typically took five months to get back to their
pre-holiday weight."
Doctors can urge their patients to exercise more self control over
the holidays, the researchers said. But it might be better to remind
them that those pounds can persist "until the summer months or
beyond."
"Of course," they added, "the less one gains, the less one then has
to worry about trying to lose it."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2cxt7YH New England Journal of Medicine,
online September 21, 2016.
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