Daily Self-Monitoring During the Winter Holiday Period: A Strategy for Holiday Weight Maintenance in Reduced-Obese Older Adults?

Weight management is problematic among Americans, as the number of overweight adults has risen to two-thirds of the population (1). Without the identification of successful approaches to promote weight stability, it is predicted that 86% of American adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 (2). Body-weight influenced diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are now leading causes of death (3). Annually, adult Americans are thought to increase their body weight by 0.5-0.9 kg (4). Of this gain, 52% is believed to occur during the winter holiday period of mid-late November to early January (5). Unfortunately, obesity research specific to this high-risk period is limited. Older adults and weight-reduced individuals are thought to be highly susceptible to significant holiday body weight gains (1, 6). To date, little research has investigated effective interventions that may be used to assist in successful body weight maintenance during the winter holiday period. Therefore, our purpose was to determine if daily self-monitoring of body weight, physical activity, and step counts is a feasible and effective tool to prevent weight gain in older, weight-reduced adults during the winter holiday period. This intervention represents a holiday weight maintenance approach that may be translatable to larger, more diverse populations.