New research tests a novel strategy for preventing holiday weight gain and proposes a psychological mechanism that explains why the strategy may work. Share on Pinterest Researchers may have identified a new way to prevent weight gain over the holiday season. More than 37% of adults in the United States are living with obesity, estimates show, and experts expect this number to increase. More than 32% of U.S. adults are also overweight. Research shows that on average, people gain between 0.4 and 1 kilogram (kg) of weight per year. Although this may be a small amount, persistent weight gain can lead to obesity over time. Most of us are familiar with the so-called holiday weight gain. During mid-November and January, adults tend to gain 0.4–1.5 kg, on average. Now, research appearing in the journal Obesity suggests that weighing ourselves every day could be an effective way to prevent weight gain. Jamie Cooper, Ph.D., who is an associate professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Georgia in Athens, led the new research.

Studying a new weight loss strategy For their study, Cooper and colleagues recruited 111 adults who were 18–65 years old. The participants weighed themselves with varying degrees of frequency between mid-November 2017 and early January 2018. The researchers asked the participants to complete three visits: one just before the holiday season, another one immediately after, and the third one 14 weeks after the intervention. Cooper and team also asked the participants to use a Likert scale to assess the frequency with which they weighed themselves. During the intervention, the researchers asked the participants to try to maintain their initial weight throughout the study period, but they did not offer them any advice on how to do this. So, each participant was free to choose whatever method they wished, whether it involved exercising or dieting. The researchers compared these participants with a control group who did not receive any instructions at all. At the end of the study period, those who weighed themselves every day and got a graphical representation of their weight changes either maintained the same weight they had at baseline or lost weight. “Maybe they exercise a little bit more the next day (after seeing a weight increase), or they watch what they are eating more carefully,” comments Cooper. “The subjects self-select how they are going to modify their behavior, which can be effective because we know that interventions are not one-size-fits-all.” In contrast, participants who did not self-weigh every day gained weight.