6 Surprising Reasons You Gain Weight Over the Holidays
The holiday season brings joy, connection, and celebration – but it can also sideline your fitness progress and lead to undesirable weight gain. Between the indulgent meals, stress, frequent travel, and social events, it’s easy to pack on pounds from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.
Let’s break down six common causes of holiday weight gain and actionable strategies to maintain control.
1. Excessive Sodium
Ever see the scale jump 4 pounds overnight? That’s often due to sodium-heavy meals, which cause water retention and bloating. Sodium attracts water into your tissues, creating a heavier and puffier appearance.
Restaurant dishes and holiday platters are notoriously packed with salt. Most people consume far more than the recommended daily amount of sodium (2300 mg) during social events, leading to weight gain and bloating.
High-impact Tips:
Limit high-sodium foods (ie any fast food, processed meats, fried dishes, crackers, salted nuts, chips, etc).
Balance out indulgences with potassium-rich choices like bananas, spinach, sweet potatoes, and avocados to restore fluid balance.
2. Craft Beer & Cocktail Calorie Bombs
A single high-alcohol craft beer can pack up to 300 calories. A fancy cocktail with liqueurs, syrups, creams, and flavorings packs between 200-500 calories. Enjoy a few of either while watching holiday classics, and you’re adding 1,000+ extra calories to your day. This “empty calorie” intake offers no nutritional value yet leads to unwanted fat gain.
High-impact Tips:
Swap out craft brews for lighter options like Michelob Ultra or Coors Light, each under 100 calories.
Swap out fancy cocktails for straight liquor or opt for clean, low-calorie, natural mixers (ie sparkling water, citrus juice, herbs).
Sub in a glass of red wine for around 120 calories and a dose of antioxidants.
3. The Treat Trap
Holiday gatherings are full of mindless eating opportunities—platters of cookies, candies, snacks, and treats everywhere you look. While it’s okay to indulge, limit your portions to one or two cookies at a time.
Practicing mindful eating is key: taking a moment to savor each treat, rather than automatically reaching for more while you’re standing around the table, will keep you from eating 8 cookies.
High-impact Tip:
Limit yourself to one or two treats. Enjoy them. Then move away from the treat table and distance yourself from the temptation.
4. Reduced Physical Activity
Cold, dark winter days discourage activity, leading many to abandon their walking routines. Many holiday events lead to extended periods of sitting and inactivity. This lack of movement contributes to gradual weight gain.
High-impact Tips:
Aim for 8,000-10,000 steps daily at MINIMUM.
Schedule short walks after meals to rack up mileage, regulate blood sugar, and boost your daily calorie burn to keep the weight off.
Encourage your family and friends to join you, bring the party outside!
5. Disrupted Sleep
Late-night gatherings and disrupted routines can wreck your sleep schedule and wreak havoc on your circadian rhythm. Disruptions to sleep signal the release of the hunger hormone (ghrelin) leading to increased appetite and cravings for sugary, high-fat foods while lowering your ability to control impulses.
High-impact Tips:
Prioritize a consistent sleep schedule and limit late nights to a couple of times during the season.
Maintain (or implement) a sleep supplement stack to support your consistency.
6. Increased Stress Levels
Family obligations and dynamics, travel, shopping, financial stressors, and social events can spike stress levels, which in turn drive cortisol production. High cortisol increases cravings for high-fat, sugary foods as a coping mechanism.
High-impact Tips:
Identify your biggest stress triggers and a few go-to strategies to manage them.
Try short exercise sessions, walks in nature, meditation, reading, a hot salt bath, or a quick drive to help manage cortisol levels.
Staying active not only burns calories but also reduces stress-induced eating.
Key Takeaways
Enjoying the season is important.
Treat yourself, but set limits to avoid starting the new year with unwanted weight gain or throwing off your health progress.
Embrace what you love about the holidays with mindful strategies so you start the New Year on track and energized.
Follow Emily Evans on LinkedIn for expert insights on how to navigate training, nutrition, sleep, stress, and overall wellness during the holiday season.
Looking for supplements to support your sleep? Message Jared Evans on LinkedIn for our FREE High-Performance Sleep Audit with custom recommendations.
Resources:
Yoshida, T., Yoshioka, K., Hiraoka, T., & Kondo, M. (2008). Relationship between dietary factors and body weight gain prevention based on a survey of successful weight loss maintainers. Obesity Research & Clinical Practice, 2(4), 241-251.
Tremblay, M. S., Aubert, S., Barnes, J. D., Saunders, T. J., Carson, V., Latimer-Cheung, A. E., Chaput, J. P., Choquette, L., Conner Gorber, S., & Faulkner, G. (2017). Sedentary Behavior Research Network (SBRN) – Terminology consensus project process and outcome. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), Article 75.
Frayn, K. N., & Karpe, F. (2014). Regulation of human subcutaneous adipose tissue blood flow. International Journal of Obesity, 38(S1), S19–S24.
