Holiday Damage...a weighty issue

Well I got a new scale for Christmas and I didn't like what it said this morning. I figured it was as inaccurate as our old one and headed to the gym.

Well, the new scale worked just fine, it matched up with the medical office style scale used at the gym.

Two days off from working out, one night of homemade pizza, and one day of binging on every sweet in sight equals 4 pounds.

I was expecting a couple pounds, but not four, so I did a little research. You can trust me or look the subject up for yourself, but here's what I found.

American Adults gain 1.05 pound during the holidays. Not bad, right? Wrong. Why? Because most will not lose that extra 1 pound and will tack on another half to full pound throughout the rest of the year, every year of their adult life. So even if you only gained that holiday pound, you're looking at a 15 pound gain from age 20 to age 35. Tack on an extra half pound each year and you're up by 22 pounds over that slim youth you were shortly after high school.

Good news. Exercise can take it off and the more active you are the less likely you are to gain the most during the holiday. Remember, the average is 1.05 pounds, so some had to gain more than that and some less. Shoot for the less.

Bad news. If you're already overweight or obese, you'll be on the upper end of the weight gain. Maybe as much as five additional pounds.

The only cure for holiday pounds seems to be to move and keep moving.

Tomorrow, or maybe tonight, an OLS episode at the gym this morning...stay tuned!