Real Number on Holiday Weight Gain - And A New Interview

 

This was really interesting I read a post from Alan Aragon the was very important..it started talking about his debate with Gary Taubes  - In his opening statement, Gary Taubes claimed that it's futile to track or even care about calories, because the weight gain that occurs from early adulthood to middle age comes down to a virtually undetectable caloric surplus that's the equivalent of a teaspoon of food a day. His alternative to an awareness & understanding of the components of energy balance is the unfounded idea that carbs are the bad guy, avoid them, and live happily ever after. Of course we know that's nonsense. - In Alan's rebuttal, he explained that research has shown that weight gain is concentrated in the holiday season. Since our debate, a review by Díaz-Zavala et al has been published [1]. It discusses the evidence showing that the majority of the general population's annual weight gain occurs in the holiday season, which spans from Late November (Thanksgiving) to the first week of January. - Holiday weight gain in the collective literature is approximately 0.4-0.9 kg [1]. This figure doesn't sound very substantial until you realize that a typical 20-year accumulation of holiday weight gain can amount to 8-18 kg (17.6-39.6 lb). The higher degree of excess weight, the greater the holiday weight gain. Earlier work by Yanovski et al [2] showed that major weight gain (defined as ≥2.27 kg) during the holiday season occurred in 5% of normal-weight subjects, 11% of overweight subjects, and 18% of obese subjects. - Wrapping up: the majority of the general population’s annual weight gain happens during the holiday season, not in an undetectably minuscule & linear daily fashion through the course of the year. Does this mean we should worry about all the yummy food floating around the holidays? No we don’t. However, those in the calorie denial camp might have greater cause for concern when their only solution is tightening up the carb avoidance. - REFERENCES 1) PMID 28744374 2) PMID 10727591   --- Now...I would like you to take some time to listen to this interview with TEAM4EVER Athlete Marcia   Make sure you like and comment and ask questions ;-) Lais and The Coach have a conversation with Marcia