To avoid holiday weight gain, don't try to lose weight between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Aim to hold steady: keep your daily steps up, keep two strength sessions a week, eat protein first, go easy on the drinks, and get back to normal at your very next meal. The holidays are a handful of days, not six weeks.
Why the holidays matter more than one pound
In a well-known study in the New England Journal of Medicine, adults gained on average a little under a pound over the holiday season, and most of them hadn't lost it by the next fall (Yanovski et al., 2000). One pound sounds like nothing. But after 40, when muscle is easier to lose and a desk job keeps you sitting, a pound a year adds up to 10 pounds a decade. The people in that study who reported being more active gained less.
So the goal for the next six weeks is simple: maintain. If you come out of New Year's at the same weight, with the same strength, you're ahead of most people.
9 ways to avoid holiday weight gain
1. Aim to maintain, not lose
Trying to diet through December usually backfires. You feel deprived at every party, then overdo it. Eat at maintenance on normal days and enjoy the actual holiday meals without guilt.
2. Keep your daily steps up
Coach Dan's target for clients over 40 is more than 5,000 steps a day, and ideally 6,000 or more. Everyday movement burns more calories than most people realize, and it's the first thing to disappear when it's cold, dark and busy. Walk after the big meal. Park farther away. Take calls on your feet.
3. Don't drop your strength training
Two sessions a week is enough to keep your muscle and your progress through the holidays. Muscle keeps your metabolism up, so this is the habit to protect. If your week gets packed, shorten the sessions instead of skipping them.
4. Eat protein first
Start every plate with protein: turkey, ham, roast, shrimp, eggs. Protein fills you up and helps you keep muscle. You'll naturally eat less of the stuff that's easy to overdo.
5. Treat the holiday as a day, not a season
Thanksgiving is one day. Christmas Eve and Christmas are two. The office party is one evening. Enjoy those, then go back to your normal meals in between. Having a few go-to options for regular days, like breakfast A or B and lunch A or B, makes that easy because you don't have to think about it.
6. Go easy on the drinks
Alcohol is where a lot of holiday calories hide, and it makes late-night snacking more likely. Decide how many drinks you'll have before you get there, and have a glass of water between each one.
7. Don't skip meals to "save up"
Showing up to a party starving is how one plate turns into three. Eat a normal, protein-heavy meal earlier in the day.
8. Protect your sleep
Late nights make you hungrier and less likely to train the next day. Keep your wake-up time steady, even when bedtime moves.
9. Get back on plan at the next meal
One big meal doesn't undo your progress, and the scale jump the next morning is mostly water and salt. Don't wait for Monday or January. Your next meal is the fresh start.
Traveling? A 20-minute hotel workout
No gym needed. Do 3 rounds, resting about a minute between rounds:
- Bodyweight squats or split squats: 10 to 15 reps (each leg for split squats)
- Push-ups, on the floor or with hands on the bed or a desk: 8 to 15 reps
- Glute bridges: 15 reps
- Plank: 20 to 40 seconds
- Reverse lunges: 8 to 10 reps each leg
Then go for a walk. Stop anything that causes pain, and check with your doctor first if you have a medical condition or recent injury.
Start before January
Most people wait for January 1st, start too hard, and quit by February. If you start now, you walk into the new year already in a routine. At Fig Performance in Placentia, every client starts with a free consult and an InBody scan, so you know your real body fat and muscle before the holidays and can see what changed after. Read more in how to lose weight after 40 and how nutrition coaching works.
Fig Performance · 1284 E. Yorba Linda Blvd, Placentia, CA 92870
Call or text (714) 396-7178 · Mon–Fri, 5 AM – 8 PM; Sat, 5 AM – 12 PM
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