Popular impression holds that the average American gain somewhere between 5 and 10 pound over the holiday time of year ( Thanksgiving to New Year ’s twenty-four hour period ) . A few study over the last X , though , have found that we ’re not nearly as gluttonous as we cerebrate we are .
After weighing 94 grad and undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma before and after their Thanksgiving break , researchers find that the student gained , on average , only 0.5 kilo or 1.10 pounds .
When the researchers stratify the students by sex , class standing and BMI category ( either normal or overweight / obese ) , they found that males get ahead more free weight than females ( 0.6 kg or 1.32 lb ) , alumnus students gain more weight than undergrads ( 0.8 kg or 1.76 lb ) and student classified as overweight by their by BMI make more than student with normal BMIs ( 1.0 kilogram or 2.20 lb ) .
Another study by the National Institutes of Health repeatedly weighed 195 volunteers ( mostly employees of the NIH in Maryland ) during the period of time between late September and early March .
Between belated September and mid - November , there was a mean weight unit gain of 0.18 kilogram or 0.39 lb . During the mid - November to mid - January vacation period , the mean weight gain was 0.37 kg or 0.81 lb . During the remainder of the study period , there was actually a beggarly weight personnel casualty of 0.07 kilo or 0.15 pound . Total average gain for the whole study period was 0.48 kg or 1.05 lb ( slightly less than the Oklahoma scholar had gained during Thanksgiving break alone ) . A few outlier ( about 9 % of the participant ) gained at least 2.3 kilo or 5.07 lb over the mid - November to mid - January holiday period .
The absolute majority of participants were weigh again after the initial subject period in the following September or October , where the researchers found that not only were those vacation pounds not lost , there was an extra average weight gain of 0.21 kilogram or 0.45 pound .
What are the takeaway from this research ?
