Health tips to help control weight gain during holidays

The holiday season is just around the corner, and for too many people that means 5 to 10 pounds of weight gain that will inevitably lead to a New Year’s resolution to crash-diet. Wouldn’t it make more sense to start those health and fitness resolutions at the beginning of the holidays instead of at the end?

We are not suggesting that you take all the fun out of the holidays. Rather, we want to suggest strategies to help you enjoy the holidays in ways that leave you in better health at the end of the year.

QUESTION: Can weight loss supplements help to prevent weight gain during the holidays?

ANSWER: Just last month, researchers noted that about half of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Class I drug recalls over the past 10 years have involved dietary supplements that were illegally adulterated with banned drug ingredients. To make things worse, these researchers found that many of these products were still sold online with their risky ingredients by distributor websites months or even years after being banned. Many of these were weight-loss supplements and potentially dangerous.

Second, due to questionable validity, the key research paper about green coffee bean extract promoting weight loss was recently retracted from the scientific journal where it was published almost three years ago.

This study launched big sales of green coffee-bean extract products for weight loss. Sales really boomed after Dr. Mehmet Oz called the extract a "miracle cure that can burn fat fast." It sounded too good to be true — and it was.

Q: Without a safe and reliable "magic bullet" weight-management supplement, what can be done to prevent the holiday weight gain?

A: Balance calories consumed with calories used. This is best accomplished by keeping daily eating and exercise on an even keel, so to speak. Maintaining or even incorporating some added physical activity into your holiday schedule is a must. Remember, exercise is part of maintaining or achieving a healthy body weight and level of body fat. And, walking is exercise, even if done while shopping.

» Eat breakfast. As contradictory as it might sound, weight management starts with eating breakfast. Skipping meals can increase your appetite so that when presented with high-calorie treats, most of us overindulge without realizing it.

Include lean protein foods in breakfast. People feel full longer after eating a high-protein meal compared with a high-carb meal, but that doesn’t mean pile on the bacon, sausage and Spam. An egg, cottage cheese or some of the lower-fat cheeses can add protein without too many calories.

Also, having a single, large hard-boiled egg at breakfast can meet half of your daily choline needs for just 80 calories.

Too busy to eat? There are lots of protein shakes on the market to meet your needs.

» Be strategic about buffets. Check out the fare before you enter the buffet line so you know what you are going to choose. If you have to taste everything (after all, some of these favorites are just once a year), then add a small spoonful of each item rather than the full serving spoon volume.

» Drink enough. Sometimes thirst can be confused with hunger, so keep your favorite (nonalcoholic) beverages readily available. Also, starting your evening with a nonalcoholic low-calorie beverage can help you to make wiser food and alcohol decisions later.

» Stay safe. As a present to your friends, be the designated driver and lower those calories from alcohol.

Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., and Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., are nutritionists in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii-Manoa. Dobbs also works with University Health Services.