There’s some bad news and some good news on the weight-change curve as you prepare to ring in the New Year.
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The bad: In no single week does our planet pack on more pounds than the one soon coming to a close. OK, depressing, but don’t linger there.
The good news: Our collective worldly weight peaks Tuesday, Jan. 3 and starts to decline, according to a Cornell Food and Brand Lab letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers tracked the weight of 10,000 owners of wireless scales, eventually focusing on 2,800 people from the United States, Germany and Japan.
“It doesn’t matter if you live in Tokyo or Topeka, your weight keeps climbing until Jan. 3,” said Brian Wansink, professor and director of the Cornell lab and author of "Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life."
In the United States, adults gained an average of 0.6 kilograms in the period between Christmas and New Year, researchers found.
Wansink says there is good news there, too.
“People who weighed themselves at least four times a week, lost half of their holiday weight by the end of January. If you don’t hide from the bad news, it won’t be bad for very long.”
