The Hidden Danger of Winter Weight Gain

Those few pounds you put on over the holidays might be doing more harm. The study, presented at the most recent American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions, showed that even a 5% increase in body weight due to excess eating leads to a 4mmHg increase in blood pressure in lean, healthy individuals. (For a 130-pound woman, a 5% increase in body weight would be 6.5 pounds.) The increase in blood pressure was specifically related to increments in deep belly (visceral) fat. “Even a few extra pounds can contribute to an increase in blood pressure if the fat accumulated is predominantly inside the abdomen,” says lead author Naima Covassin, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.