This Thanksgiving count your blessings, but what about your calorie count?

Excessive gratitude has no known side effects, but Thanksgiving overeating is a concern that’s on many people’s mind.

In much the same way that a rotation of foods and nutrients are demonized and blamed, (fats, carbs, gluten, eggs, dairy – the villain changes the theme remains the same) Thanksgiving, holidays and celebrations are seen as weight gain disasters.

But just likes gluten can’t be blamed for all that ails us, one or two indulgent meals can’t change your fate or weight by much.

That’s not to say that the heavy feeling – and regret – people have post Thanksgiving isn’t real, and that it isn’t time to approach the overflowing holiday plate a little different.

Holiday weight gain, myth or fact?

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a 6-week festive season, in which office parties, food gifts and cookie displays at the office are interspersed between holiday meals. While one meal can only add so much, 6 weeks can open the floodgates.

A review in the journal Obesity, looked at six studies in adults, demonstrating significant weight gain over the holidays in five of them. In one of the studies following 195 people over 6 weeks, from late November to mid-January, the participants gained an average of 0.8 pounds – which they kept on one year later. Weight gain was even greater in the other four studies and ranged from 1.2 to 2 pounds!

The review examined another six studies of people trying to lose weight, and those fared no better: they gained on average 0.6 to 2 pounds. So even when the intent is to lose weight, even when people are watching their weight, the holiday season stands in their way.

Binges and steady indulgences

It’s interesting to compare holiday weight-gain studies findings to those of studies of overfeeding. In an overfeeding experiment participants were fed 1000 excess calories a day for three weeks. Not surprisingly, the participants gained more than 4.5 pounds. But they lost this excess weight within 6 weeks after the overfeeding experiment ended. Another overfeeding experiment, which lasted 100 days, resulted in greater weight gain – 18 pounds – and although much of the weight was lost when the experiment ended, the participants remained about 3 pounds over their starting point, and continued to gain weight over the years.

Another recent study, had volunteers add 1000 extra calories derived from high-calorie snacks such as chocolate, potato chips and meal replacement drinks to their regular regimen.

Five days of overfeeding had little effect on body weight and body fat, but 28 days changed body mass and fat mass: after 28 days participants gained on average 3.5 pounds of weight, of them, almost 3 pounds of fat. There were also metabolic consequences: Post-meal blood glucose levels spiked when participants overfed for 28 days and insulin levels spiked as well. These changes in insulin production and insulin clearance suggest of the emergence of insulin resistance – the body loosing its sensitivity to insulin.

These studies, each of them small, suggest that at least in healthy, young people, short-term overeating is buffered; the body regulates and shifts the excess energy so that glucose and insulin, and even weight are quite stable.

On the other hand, oversupply that lingers can take its toll and may have metabolic and long lasting consequences.

Clearly, the more you repeat a damaging behavior the more of the exposure you accumulate, but beyond that, when you repeat a behavior it becomes a habit; habits stick and are hard to break.

Do you really enjoy being stuffed?

Many people comment on how stuffed they feel after the Thanksgiving meal.

Being stuffed is not a holiday core requirement.

There’s no reason to fill your plate with the most caloric-dense of the dishes offered – if you fill half the plate with the veggies you’ll lighten your load. If you watch what you drink you can shave off hundreds of excessive empty calories – sugar and alcohol in drinks add up and go unnoticed.

There’s no reason to eat until you can’t eat another bite.

But if you enjoy the occasional binge just relax about it. Overindulgence happens. That absolutely doesn’t mean you might as well just give up. One meal or one day don’t matter, you can surely get back to your healthy routine.

Make the most of the holiday. Count your blessing, not your calories.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Dr. Ayala