Just gained 5 pounds during the holiday?

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This is about the time of year after a few days of parties and eating cookies and other holiday treats reality kicks in as we move down a belt loop and jump on that scale.  To our dismay we see numbers like 5 pounds of weight gain over this time of year.

Now the good news is if you have been dieting before the holidays some of this weight gain is exaggerated due to water weight gain.  For every gram of carbohydrates we gain that gram as well as 3 grams of water.  Now this may not sound like much but given in the US on average we consume 300 grams of carbohydrates this alone can equate to 2.7 we carry on our body.  Taking the assumption that we consume twice this during the holidays, which pretty easy considering most of those tasty treats we went back for seconds (or thirds or even more) on are typically high in starch and sugar.  This would equate to over 5 pounds from these foods alone with just over 4 lbs from the water weight alone.

The good news is after a few days of eating normally you should see this water weight drop off revealing a more reasonable national average of 1 pound of actual weight gain of the holiday and after a week of eating normally you will be right back on track where you started before the holidays.

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