02/01/2007

Brits pile on the pounds after Christmas excess

Britons are starting the New Year weighing collectively over 200 million pounds more than they did before the start of the festive season, a new report has found.

According to research conducted by gym chain David Lloyd, the effect of consuming many more calories through Christmas dinners and festive treats and not exercising as frequently means that the average person will have put on 5lbs over the past few weeks.

Multiplying this by the adult population of Britain means that the collective weight gain is nearly 229,000,000 million lbs - the same weight as two cruise liners, 277 jumbo jets, 19,635 elephants or 38,124 hippos.

Nutritionist Fiona Hunter said that the weight gain was largely due to the festive season of increased eating and drinking lasting from early December until the beginning of January for many people.

She said: "Everyone always blames the Christmas dinner for our January excess, but the traditional turkey and trimmings are not the real problem.

"The weight gain is more likely to be the result of four weeks of eating and drinking more than usual combined with a dramatic drop in exercise."

(KMcA)


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