What You Need To Know About Holiday Weight Gain
If you've been working on fat loss, but you gained a little weight over the holidays, you might be feeling defeated, or stuck, or like all of your hard work over the past year was wiped away in one freaking week!!
BUT DON'T WORRY!
Most of that weight you're seeing on the scale… is just water retention. Which you can flush out! So don't stress :) and read on to find out how!
Using myself as an example, I'm up about 4 lbs since before Christmas. And while this isn't my wildest swing (8 lbs is my record after a week of vacation)- I know for a fact that the excess weight is NOT body fat… at least not all of it.
To gain 1lb of body fat, you would need to eat 3,500 calories MORE than your maintenance calories.
That means if it took about 2,000 calories per day to maintain your weight, you'd need to consume at least 5,500 calories to gain a single pound of body fat. Chances are you didn't do that.
But let's say you did… I might have with the amount of wine & delicious holiday snacks I was enjoying Chances are, though, you're not going to repeat that the next day; you're going to be pretty full. And I doubt you would do it three or four days in a row, etc.
So yes, you might be holding onto a little bit of weight. But what is it if it's not body fat? Most of it is going to be water weight.
We tend to eat more carbohydrates during the holidays & for every gram of carbohydrate you ingest, that's going to come with 3 to 4 grams of water along with it. And our bodies can hold onto that water for a while.
Additionally, if you haven't been regularly 💩, or on your normal schedule, you're probably harboring a little extra food volume in your GI tract. What a lovely way to say you might be full of sh*t, right?
Maybe the end of the year madness has you feeling stressed, and maybe that's affecting your sleep. Or maybe you got sick over the holidays or there's something going on with your hormones. All of that can add to water retention as well & show up as weight gain on the scale.
SOOOO… what do you need to do to get back on track & STOP freaking yourself out?!
Be kind, talk some sense into yourself. Know that this is mostly water weight. Remember what happens between Christmas & New Years is FAR LESS IMPORTANT than what happens between New Years & Christmas. Focus on those good holiday memories you made & keep moving forward.
Drink your water, help your body flush it out.
Eat protein with each meal, 20 to 30 grams. This is going to help you stay full & satisfied so that you're not overeating.
That's it! That's all you need to do.
Give yourself some time to get back on track & things will go back to normal in no time.
Promise!
If your goal is to get leaner and build sexy curves, I can help with that structured plan. Oh, and you won't have to give up cake either or carbs or any food you don't want to give up. Learn more about my 12 Weeks to Fitness group coaching program here.