Should you worry about holiday season weight gain?

When it comes to the festive season, the online fitness community seems to be divided into two camps: the Fearmongers and the Relaxers.

The Fearmongers will recommend you diet and exercise your way through Christmas, as if eating Christmas pudding is going to give you the plague or, worse, some weight gain. (Gasp!)

The Relaxers will tell you that it’s only a couple of days a year, so you can relax and have some higher-calorie food without blowing a gasket.

In this article, I’m going to cover some scientific research on weight gain over the winter holidays, its impact on the your fitness goals, and my own perspective, having coached others since 2019.

We all know this one: try to get in at least 10,000 steps per day.

However, such black-or-white, one-size-fits-all solutions are sometimes outdated or unfounded or lack the necessary nuance to be correct or helpful, which is why I’m not usually a fan of them.
 
But is this one bad? Or is there something to it?

According to research, fitness goals are some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions.
 
However, most “New Year’s resolutioners” are unsuccessful.
 
When I was working as a personal trainer in a commercial gym, I witnessed the same cycle every year. Come January 1st, the gym would be flooded with new members. By March, most of them would disappear, never to return… until the following January.
 
So, if you’ve ever set fitness resolutions that didn’t stick, you’re not the only one.
 
Of the few studies conducted on this topic, most seem to show that the majority of participants abandon their resolutions after a few months.
 
For example, in 1985, a study by Norcross and colleagues reported that 77% out of 200 participants stuck to their resolutions for a week, but only 40% were still keeping up with them after six months.
 
If you’re thinking that a 60% failure rate after six months sounds pretty grim, that’s not all.
 
In reality, if you’re volunteering for a study measuring the success rate of New Year’s resolutions, you’re likely more motivated to achieve your goals than the average person.
 
Moreover, after the participants set their resolutions on an initial phone call with the New Year’s Resolution Project staff, they received seven follow-up phone interviews for the next two years.
 
If you know someone’s going to check on your progress every few months, you’ll probably take your resolutions far more seriously than if you were left to your own devices.
 
So, in real life, New Year’s resolutions likely fail even more often than in research.
 
However, since you’re reading this blog post, you are more motivated than the average person. By applying the four steps covered in the article, you’ll have better-than-average odds of succeeding, too.
 
You’ve come to the right website.
 
Let’s start your year with a bang.

For two months, I posted weekly polls on nutrition and exercise on my Instagram stories, gathered my followers’ responses, then shared my research and own personal view. I saved this collection of bite-sized advice in a highlight called “Fitness Q&As”, and have now edited and converted it into a series of blog posts.
 
I proudly present to you the first 10 questions!
 
This week’s topics include:
 

• Nutrition and health: sugar vs salt, carbs vs fat, being healthy at every size
• Fat loss: resistance training vs cardio, fasted training, and eating during the peri-workout window
• General health: optimal weekly training frequency and eating before bed