You can already see it coming: the weight we all gain over the holidays is as predictable as the weight we try to take off for the summer. A few years ago researchers used WiFi-enabled “smart scales” whose buyers were aware that their weights would be used for research to track the weights of American, German, and Japanese subjects for one year. The scales are important: people frequently misreport their weight, or they change their diets when they know they’ll have to report somewhere to be weighed. By having the scale in their house and wirelessly communicating with the database, the investigators hoped to reduce this bias. For any given holiday the researchers compared the maximum weight at no more than 10 days after the start of the holiday to the weight that was measured 10 days before the holiday.

The results? In all three countries, the participants’ weight rose in the 10 days after Christmas Day, compared with the 10 days before Christmas (+0.4% in the U.S., +0.6% in Germany, and +0.5% in Japan). The raw amount of weight gained wasn’t large: only 1.3 pounds for an average American. But the researchers pointed out that since the population of this study—people who spent ~$150 on a scale—is probably wealthier and more motivated toward weight loss than average, the results of the study probably underestimate the effect on the general population. For example, the average worker gains 2-3 pounds per year (half of that between Halloween and New Year’s Day, naturally) and weights in this study had gone down to pre-holiday levels within six months or so.

So: what can we do to help our employees prevent this weight gain in the first place?

An interesting answer comes from two groups of researchers who elected to try a “weight prevention” approach rather than a traditional weight loss approach. First, investigators at the University of Georgia developed a program they called Holiday Survivor for state employees. Participants were divided into teams and were instructed by a worksite wellness professional on self-monitoring and regular weigh-ins from the end of October to mid-January. Efforts were put toward increased awareness of food intake and physical activity through self-monitoring, but the program was geared not toward teaching new knowledge, but instead to build social support for positive behaviors. Each team of four employees received points for participating in weekly program activities like a healthy potluck, a 5 km run/walk, or “lunch and learns,” and for completing weigh-ins. Individual participants also received points on two occasions for providing proof of food logs (not the logs themselves). In early January a prize ceremony was held to celebrate team and individual achievements.

In spite of the emphasis on weight maintenance, the employees lost an average of 4.4 pounds (from 196.7 in October to 192.3 pounds in January).

A second group of investigators in the U.K. randomized workers in a variety of jobs to either get a pamphlet on the dangers of holiday weight gain (without dietary advice) or to get instruction on recording their weight at least twice weekly (ideally daily), ten tips for weight management, and pictorial information about the physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) of holiday foods and drinks (that is, information such as “13 minutes of running for a can of sugared soda”). The goal was for participants to gain no more than ~1 pound of their baseline weight.

Over the holiday season the group getting the pamphlet alone gained on average 0.8 pounds, while those weighing frequently, getting tips on weight management, and informed of the PACE of holiday foods lost 0.27 pounds.

The Kansas Business Group on Health generally takes a prosaic view of traditional worksite wellness practices. We tend to believe that true health is hard to define and harder to measure, and that improvements in health are rarely as simple as old-fashioned carrot-and-stick rewards or punishment. But this strategy of proactively engaging employees to manage a known occupational hazard (the holiday season) is novel and promising. If any members have had similar luck we’d love to hear about your strategies!

As the Medical Director of the Kansas Business Group on Health I’m sometimes asked to weigh in on hot topics that might affect employers or employees. This is a reprint of a blog post from KBGH.