Who doesn’t eat a bit too much around the holidays? It’s hard to avoid when delicious smelling food is everywhere. A little taste of this, a little bite of that, and then there are the big holiday meals where you always eat more than you planned. Of course, you promise you’ll get back on track after the holidays. However, one thing you don’t want to do is let your exercise plans fall by the wayside. In fact, a new study shows that exercise can help you avoid some of the downsides of eating too much.
Exercise is important no matter what time of year it is but it’s even more critical that you work up a sweat around the holidays. Eating a large, calorie-dense meal, like a big plate of holiday food, can trigger a variety of unhealthy physiological changes. These undesirable changes begin soon after you finish the last bite. Not surprisingly, many of the foods that are so popular around the holidays are high in calories and high on the glycemic scale. When you eat too many of them, it causes a quick rise in blood glucose and blood lipids. This phenomenon is called postprandial dysmetabolism, which literally means unhealthy metabolic changes that take place after a meal.
What you might not realize is these dysmetabolic changes spur the production of free radicals. Free radicals, in turn, trigger inflammation that is harmful to your blood vessels. For example, post-meal inflammation adversely affects endothelial function, how the inner walls of your blood vessels respond to blood flow. In essence, inflammation makes arteries less flexible. As a result, the vessels don’t open up as readily and the risk of a clot forming goes up. Even more concerning, inflammation in blood vessels and poor endothelial function is linked with a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Your blood vessels feel the effects of overindulging right away!
If you overindulge for a longer period of time, a week or more, your body can become glucose intolerant. This means glucose has a harder time getting into cells. In response, your insulin level rises and you store more fat. If you biopsied the fat tissue, you’d see evidence of inflammation here too. So, overeating high-glycemic foods is a trigger for inflammation.
Exercise May Prevent Inflammation Due to Overeating
As you know, being inflamed isn’t a good thing. But what happens if you still overindulge during holiday week but continue to exercise? A recent study looked at this issue. A group of 4 young, healthy adults ate 30% more calories than they were accustomed to for 7 days while continuing to do aerobic exercise. The participants did at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise over the course of the week.
The results? You would normally expect worsening of glucose tolerance after a week of eating 30% more calories. Surprisingly, they found no change. Moreover, when the researchers took samples of fat tissue from the participants, they found no increase in markers for inflammation.
Can exercise protect against inflammation related to overindulging? It looks promising, although the results are preliminary. The study was small and the participants all young and healthy. Would exercise be as protective in people who are overweight or obese? Still lots of unanswered questions. Another question is whether exercise is protective over a longer period of time. Remember, this study was only a week long. It would be reassuring to see the results hold over several weeks or months of overindulgence. Warning: You probably shouldn’t try this at home, especially if you’re trying to control your weight.
Holiday Weight Gain
The other risk of overindulging around the holidays is the potential for weight gain. Yes, holiday weight gain is real. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that weight gain also occurs in other countries during holiday celebrations. In the United States, the average weight gain during the Thanksgiving holiday is 0.2% and 0.4% during the Christmas to New Year stretch. During the Japanese holiday known as Golden Week, participants gain an average of 0.3% and, in Germany, weight gain of around 0.2% is average for the Easter holiday. So, holiday weight gain is a very real phenomenon and it’s not unique to the U.S. The question is – will it happen to you and what can you do to avoid it?
Stay on Course
Chances are, you’ll eat more than usual during the festive season, but don’t let the holidays get in the way of working up a sweat. As you can see, exercise is even MORE important when you’re in holiday eating mode. So, stay on track with exercise. Yes, it’s more challenging when you have gifts to wrap and parties to go to – but don’t let that stop you. Schedule workouts first thing in the morning to increase the odds you’ll do it. Aerobic exercise may be best for vanquishing inflammation but high-intensity resistance training gives your metabolism a boost. If you’re really short on time, do an intense circuit workout work your muscles and your cardiovascular system.
Look for other ways to stay active. Don’t order everything online. Hit the malls for some fast-paced holiday shopping. Wear exercise shoes so you can move faster. Even if it’s cold, park far away and make a mad dash for the mall entrance. Even better, take a lap all the way around the parking lot before going in. Those extra bursts of activity add up.
Finally, add more movement to your holiday activities. How about ice skating or sledding if the weather cooperates? Staying active also helps you focus less on holiday cookies and other high-calorie distractions. Finally, don’t leave holiday food temptations lying around. The easier it is to access them, the more that you’ll eat them.
The Bottom Line
Exercise is your best friend around the holidays. It might seem harder to make time – but it’s worth it for your health and for keeping your waistline trim. Enjoy the holidays but keep up your healthy habits!
References:
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008 Jan 22;51(3):249-55. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2007.10.016.
Live Science. “Exercise May Prevent the Inflammation That Comes with Overeating”
N Engl J Med 2016; 375:1200-1202September 22, 2016DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1602012.
Related Articles By Cathe:
4 Reasons You Gain Weight Around the Holidays and How to Avoid It
Can Stress “Undo” the Benefits of Eating Healthy?
