SSA Blog: Festive indulgence
Christmas marks a time of year when diet and exercise habits can fall by the wayside, often replaced by excessive eating and drinking. Celebrations and events get in the way of those regular runs, staff holidays halt gym classes and even everyday activity such as walking sometimes tail off.
The combination of over indulgences and decreased physical activity was found by Yanovski et al, in a 2000 study that more than half of the increases in body weight during adulthood take place during the Christmas holidays.
We are all familiar with the potential negative health impacts that being overweight or obese can cause, including higher risk of heart disease, links to different cancers and type 2 diabetes. Generally, people are well aware of their own weight gain and via new year’s resolutions aim to reduce it during January. Unfortunately, and all too predictably, these good intentions often fall through. So how can health professionals combat the Christmas binge without being seen as killjoys?
A new study from a team in Spain (Ramirez-Jimenez et al 2020) examined the impact of a structured exercise programme during the Christmas period in already overweight individuals. They found that three exercise sessions a week, burning just 400 calories per session (which is equivalent to walking 4.5 to 5 miles in an hour for most people) was enough to prevent any weight gain and associated cardiovascular health risks. This was achieved while allowing participants to enjoy all the usual food and drink indulgences that Christmas brings.
Research has shown that already overweight people suffer from larger weight gains during Christmas, which points to the increased need for them to engage in regular exercise during the period. Up to 63% of the UK adult population is classed as overweight (The Health Survey for England 2017). Many in this category find, exercise difficult, daunting and uncomfortable. In order to combat this, support is needed. The Spanish team recognised this and ensured that those taking part in the study worked with exercise professionals to create structure and support during the three-week trial period.
For these findings to translate into real-world action, particularly among those not accustomed to regular exercise, gyms and exercise professionals should offer increased support during the festive period, not just focusing on a January ‘back to fitness’ push. Families and friends can also take it upon themselves to help each other and try to incorporate exercise and activity sessions into the holiday period when there may be more time available.
One potential barrier to engaging in a Christmas exercise plan identified in the research is a lack of understanding of calories and how much activity is needed to burn the advised 400 per session. Increasingly accurate fitness watches and exercise tracking technology offer a simple solution here. By providing the data and tracking progress, they can help with positive behaviour change, such as goal setting and achievement reinforcement, which become important when seeking to adjust to new habits.
With just a week to go before Christmas, it is time for your festive fitness fun to begin. Sessions don’t need to be overly taxing or regimented but as with all exercise advice, doing something is always better than nothing. For most people burning 400 calories, particularly during a supervised, encouraging and engaging exercise session, is easily achievable. For those in the fitness and exercise industry, the research from Ramirez-Jimenez and colleagues has highlighted how important the Christmas period is and the need to support people through it. For the fitness tech industry, perhaps these findings are an opportunity to showcase the value of giving an early Christmas present and linking with fitness providers to create specific Christmas workout classes and support groups to maximise their effectiveness and cement positive exercise and activity habits during the most wonderful time of the year…
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