It is recommended that preventive interventions for obesity should aim to modify the environment and food system, as well as behavior-change communication through policy and regulation. Thus, it is necessary to consider prevention as the best strategy to fight obesity. įurther, once an individual achieves a weight loss, various neuroendocrine, metabolic, and behavioral mechanisms are set in motion to counteract the loss of weight, in addition to the obstacles of having a healthy lifestyle in an obesogenic environment. In spite of how promising these procedures are, a recent systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials has shown that there are few studies with this kind of design, that they have small sample sizes, that there is a possibility of adverse events following surgery, and that there is a lack of long-term evaluations (>2 years of follow-up). It has been assumed that the most efficient long-term treatment for obesity is bariatric surgery, although this surgery is limited to more severe states (body mass index > 40 or 35 with comorbidities). In the case of pharmacotherapy, results for FDA-approved drugs ranged from 5.4 to 9.8% in one year, but long-term evaluations (>2 years) are lacking. Nevertheless, weight loss over the long term (≈10 years) was 6%, which means that the results are not completely maintained. Intensive lifestyle change programs, which are considered the gold standard, reduce weight by around 8–10% in one year, resulting in multiple benefits to health. Interest in the causes and prevention of obesity has increased due to the difficulty of treatment. Obesity is one of the most important health problems worldwide, making research on its causes a priority. The holiday season seems to increase body weight in adults, even in participants seeking to lose weight and in motivated self-monitoring people, whereas in children, adolescents, and college students, very few studies were found to make accurate conclusions. Programs focused on self-monitoring during the holidays (phone calls and daily mailing) appeared to prevent weight gain, but information is limited. Among individuals with obesity who attempt to lose weight, an increase in weight was observed (0.3 to 0.9 kg, significant in some but not in all studies), as well as increase in weight in motivated self-monitoring people (0.4 to 0.6%, ). The only study found in children did not show an effect on BMI percentile (−0.4%, ) during this period. The only study in college students found an effect on body fat but not on weight (0.1 kg, ). In studies of adults, a significant weight gain was consistently observed during this period (0.4 to 0.9 kg, ).

This study aims to review the literature to determine the effects of the holidays on body weight. Several studies suggest that the holiday season, starting from the last week of November to the first or second week of January, could be critical to gaining weight.

Gain 2017