11 Tips to Lose Weight After Christmas

After Christmas, many people begin what’s known as the ‘post-cookie operation,’ that is: losing weight after Christmas. If you’ve succumbed to the temptation of holiday sweets (nougat, marzipan, shortbread cookies, Three Kings cake, panettone…) or lavish meals and dinners, weight gain is inevitable and you’ll find yourself with a few unexpected and unwanted extra pounds. In this article we’re going to give you some tips to lose weight after Christmas.

The Christmas holidays are days when you eat and drink more than usual, even excessively. These are times when we get together with family, friends, coworkers, etc., and almost always these gatherings are around a table where food and drink are plentiful.

How to Lose Weight After Christmas?

Holiday excess translates in most cases into weight gain, and not exactly muscle mass, but fat mass. But don’t worry, it’s normal, it’s a nutritionally challenging time of year and gaining some weight is acceptable, as long as after Christmas we take care of ourselves again and return to our pre-Christmas weight.

At a minimum, in just over 15 days there can be at least half a dozen meals/dinners (Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day lunch, New Year’s Eve dinner, New Year’s Day lunch…), meals characterized by the presence of ultra-processed foods with high energy density such as:

• Chocolates, nougat, candies…
• Marzipan, shortbread cookies, Three Kings cake…
• Various alcohols (wine, champagne, liqueurs…).
• High-calorie cooking techniques.

Given all this, it’s easy to find yourself after January 6th with unwanted weight gain, and that’s when the ‘post-cookie operation’ begins for many people; tackling the task of losing weight after Christmas is a headache for many runners, but the goal isn’t complicated, though it’s important to do things right.

It’s important to set a firm commitment to take care of yourself and eat well to eliminate the weight gained during the Christmas weeks. So, what should we do to lose weight after Christmas?

11 Recommendations to Lose Weight After Christmas

1. Forget about eating leftover holiday sweets. It’s very likely you have leftover holiday sweets (nougat, shortbread cookies…) and you’re tempted to eat some, but if your goal is to get back to your desired weight, it’s better not to give in to temptation. Once you’ve reached your optimal weight, you can consume them occasionally, for example during free meals, but in small amounts, without overdoing it and only at specific times.
2. Stay hydrated with water. Leave aside packaged juices, soft drinks, wine, beer, champagne, and other types of alcohol. While you’re working on losing weight after Christmas, it’s very important to stay well hydrated with water.
3. Avoid miracle diets. Although these types of diets may allow us to lose weight quickly, they can put our health at risk, are unsustainable over time (so they’re abandoned prematurely), and are characterized by a pronounced rebound effect. Don’t resort to diets that promise great results in a short time. Losing weight after Christmas is easy if you have willpower and do things right.
4. Don’t trust detox diets. If you want to detoxify your body, drink plenty of water, eat healthily and varied without restricting any food groups, and do physical activity. Your kidneys and liver will take care of the rest. There are no foods that detoxify your body, so don’t waste money on products that are worthless and invest it in buying quality foods.
5. Set an ambitious long-term goal and small, less ambitious intermediate goals. This way you’ll constantly motivate yourself by achieving them and you’ll reach the ambitious goal of losing weight after Christmas without even realizing it. If you set a single difficult goal, you may give up before reaching it because it seems too far away. Strategy is essential!
6. Don’t weigh yourself daily. Even if you do everything perfectly, you may weigh more from one day to the next. That is, weight fluctuates constantly depending on whether you’ve been to the bathroom or not, if you have more food in your body than the previous day, depending on the clothes you’re wearing, hormonal variations, etc. Therefore, to see proper progress it’s advisable to weigh yourself 2-3 times a month. Also, remember that the best indicator to see progress isn’t the scale but your clothes: if they fit more loosely, your volume is decreasing and you’re on the right track.
7. Do daily physical activity. By this we don’t mean you should go to the gym 7 days a week (rest is also important), but that you walk more and use the car less, take the stairs instead of always using the elevator, etc. And in addition, at least 3-4 times a week do aerobic and anaerobic physical activity, that is, don’t limit yourself to just running: weights also help us lose weight and especially maintain muscle tone.
8. Eat at least 5-6 times a day with the goal of not going through long fasts that promote muscle mass loss and fat tissue creation due to the action of hormones like cortisol (during fasting) and insulin (when eating again).
9. Plan your week. If you improvise each meal, you probably won’t achieve your goals. Prepare a healthy shopping list that includes dairy, bread, meat, fish, eggs, oil, nuts, pasta, rice, legumes, fruits, vegetables, etc., which will allow you to design a varied and balanced menu.
10. Check the labeling of the foods you buy. Try to avoid foods with many ingredients or with ingredients you don’t recognize, be wary of light versions, and try to buy fresh products whenever possible.
11. See a registered Dietitian-Nutritionist. Carrying out a personalized dietary treatment isn’t simple (if it were, there wouldn’t be a 4-year university degree like the Bachelor’s in Human Nutrition and Dietetics), so if you see it as a difficult or complicated challenge, contact a qualified professional who will help you achieve your goals and guide you along the way; in addition, a dietitian-nutritionist will teach you to eat correctly, instilling healthy habits that you can maintain for life without rebound effects. To lose weight after Christmas or at any other time of year, it’s always advisable to put yourself in the hands of a nutrition specialist.

Now is the time! Any time is good to take care of yourself, lose weight, achieve goals… And don’t give up!

 

 

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