Holiday Spread.(weight gain)(Brief Article)

Holiday Spread

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, partygoers let loose -- and their clothes get tight. How to trim the fat from the festivity. By Judith Newman

I've found the secret to keeping weight off during the holidays. It is brilliant. It is foolproof. It is this: If I take enough Valium to cope with the tsunami of parties and relatives, my arms are too heavy to shovel all that food into my face. Please, no need to thank me. I'm here to serve. What -- heavy and relentless drug use not an appealing diet strategy? Spoilsport. In that case, we shall consider other, less entertaining solutions. Worrying about holiday weight gain is as American as turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams and apple pie. In an online poll by allure.com, nearly 40 percent of 1,628 respondents confessed that they eat more than they should at this time of year. Luckily, a 2000 study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that the majority of subjects gained only about three quarters of a pound in the holiday season. Fourteen percent, though, did gain five pounds or more. And -- fun fact! -- the more overweight the subjects were to begin with, the greater the poundage they gained. "We are seasonal animals," says Jack Yanovski, the director of the study. "Many animals, cued by the decrease in light [at that time of year], gain extra fat tissue." Apparently this is the body's way of storing energy to prepare for cold weather and depleted food sources. Tragically, humans do not hibernate. Nor does our supply of Starbucks whipped-cream mochas dry up with the first frost. So our hardwired need to store fat during colder temperatures no longer serves an evolutionary purpose. But truly, what's the big deal about a three-quarter-pound, or even five-pound, weight gain? The issue is ...