Dr. Susan Yanovski, co-Director of the Office of Obesity Research at 
the NIDDK
Schmalfeldt: Welcome back to NIH Research Radio. Our guest in the 
studio, Dr. Susan Yanovski, co-Director of the Office of Obesity 
Research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney 
Diseases. Dr. Yanovski, welcome to NIH Research Radio.

Yanovski: Thanks. Nice to be here.

Schmalfeldt: The season is upon us. It's that time of year. 
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Christmas is close on its 
heels. And with the holidays comes the feasting. There's that standard 
American attitude we have, we're going to gain five pounds over the 
holidays, we'll work it off after the holidays. And you're here to tell 
us that's not necessarily the way it really goes, is it?

Yanovski: That's right. We had all heard the stories, the average 
American gains five pounds, seven pounds, ten pounds over the holidays, 
but we really couldn't find any research to back it up. So about five 
years ago, my husband and I decided we were actually going to see if 
this was true. We did a study and we recruited about 200 folks, most of 
them within the NIH community, and had them come in and get weighed. 
Four times over the course of the holiday season - they came in in the 
fall, then again before Thanksgiving, after the new year, again in the 
spring, and we even brought some of them back the following year to 
look at one year weight gain. We fooled them a little bit in that we 
didn't tell them that we were studying weight gain. We told them we 
were just studying how changes in vital signs occur over the year. 

Schmalfeldt:That was very clever. (Laughter) 

Yanovski: And what we found was the average person does not gain five 
pounds over the holidays. In fact, in the period between Thanksgiving 
and New Year's, they gain a little bit less than a pound. 

Schmalfeldt: Now, at first you would think, "that's wonderful, it's 
only a pound." But it really is not good news, is it?

Yanovski: No, we always say this is a "good news, bad news" story. The 
good news is the average person only gains about a pound. The bad news 
is they don't take that pound off again. In fact, over the course of a 
year, they gain even a little bit more. And so it's the kind of thing 
that you might not really notice a weight gain of a pound or so, but 
over time that's going to add up and probably contributes to the 20 or 
30 pounds people gain over adulthood. 

Schmalfeldt: So it's not a case of New Year's resolutions are going to 
fix everything or that glut of TV commercials you see from the day 
after Christmas for weight loss clinics and that sort of thing. How do 
we avoid this trap?

Yanovski: Well, it's very interesting. One of the things we looked at 
over the course of our study was who gained more weight, and also how 
did people really prevent that weight gain. And we found a couple of 
things. One is that people who were already overweight or obese to 
start with, they were more likely to gain that five pounds or more over 
the holidays, so we need to recognize that if you're already 
overweight, you're at risk and you need to be a little bit more careful 
than the average person. The other thing we found that was very 
interesting is that it wasn't how many parties you went to, how many 
calories you said you were taking in, but we found that people who said 
they were more active than usual over the holiday season, not only 
didn't they gain weight, they ended up losing a little bit of weight. 
So it sounds like if you make an effort to increase your physical 
activity over the holidays, that might be one way to prevent that 
excess weight gain. 

Schmalfeldt: Well, Dr. Yanovski, I can hear my listeners now saying, 
"That's all well and good. But it's Thanksgiving. It's Christmas. What 
do we do? I mean, it sounds like Dr. Yanovski wants us to eat carrot 
sticks instead of a turkey dinner."

Yanovski: It's OK to have the carrot cake or the turkey dinner. 
Everything is moderation. I'm not saying anything people don't already 
know in their heart of hearts. It's fine to have a slice of carrot 
cake. It's not fine to have the whole carrot cake.

Schmalfeldt: You can have a sip of egg nog, not the whole carton. 

Yanovski: Yeah. You know, at any holiday dinner there are going to be 
things that are very ordinary and things that are very special. And I 
think one of the keys is, don't eat the 500 calories worth of cheese 
cubes when you can get those any time. But if there's a very special 
pumpkin pie or stuffing or something you really enjoy, have that. Work 
it into your diet.

Schmalfeldt: Do you have some diet suggestions, other than what you 
just mentioned there? Different ways of preparing foods that folks can 
keep in mind? Is there a place on the Internet they can go to get more 
information about that sort of thing? 

Yanovski: Just go to Google and you can get recipes that are going to 
be lower in fat or lower in calories. But again, I think it's a matter 
of knowing what's special and what's not. You're going to be going to 
parties many, many times. So one thing people can do is bring a dish 
they know is healthful, like a fruit salad, to the party so they know 
they're going to have something to eat. After Thanksgiving, instead of 
them sitting around watching the football game and eating a bowl of 
mixed nuts, maybe everyone can go take a family walk after Thanksgiving 
dinner. You'll probably feel a lot better, too.

Schmalfeldt: But what about the guy, like me, for instance, who would 
say, "OK, I'm going to pretend it's Lent between now and Thanksgiving 
day, and then I'm going to stuff myself." 

Yanovski: Even one big, blowout, Thanksgiving meal isn't what's going 
to make a terrible difference in your life. Enjoy your Thanksgiving 
dinner. But remember, you don't have to eat like it's Thanksgiving 
every day between Thanksgiving and the new year.

Schmalfeldt: I understand there's the "Weight Control Information 
Network". Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yanovski: Sure. NIDDK offers the Weight Control Information Network. We 
have lots of fact-based information about obesity and weight control. 
You can go to the website. 

Schmalfeldt: That would be www.win.niddk.nih.gov. But I think if you 
Google "Weight Control Information Network" you'll find it faster than 
that, even. Lots of great ideas and tips on there for us?

Yanovski: Tips on physical activity, tips on eating more healthfully. 
One other tip I think I ought to mention to people. We may not like to 
think about it, but we've actually funded studies at NIH that show that 
people who weigh themselves frequently tend to gain less weight. And 
over a high risk time like the holiday period might be a good time to 
check in with the scale every couple of days.

Schmalfeldt: So what you're saying, Dr. Yanovski, is it's not the time 
to be Spartan, per se, as far as the things you enjoy over the 
holidays, it's a time to be sensible.

Yanovski: Yes. Sensible and a little bit selective. You'll enjoy your 
foods more and your time with family more if you're not feeling 
overstuffed.

Schmalfeldt: Great advice and once again that website for the Weight 
Control Information Network is www.win.niddk.nih.gov. Dr. Susan 
Yanovski, co-Director of the Office of Obesity Research at the National 
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, thank you so 
much for being with us today on NIH Research Radio.

Yanovski: My pleasure.

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Schmalfeldt:When we come back, Wally Akinso has a story about some new 
Spanish language materials on the web for folks seeking the latest in 
health news. That's next on NIH Research Radio.