The effect of Norouz holiday on anthropometric measures and body composition

BACKGROUND: This study examined the effect of holiday season on the anthropometric measures in Shariati hospital staff. METHODS: This study was conducted in 2014 on 66 subjects, aged 21–68 years. Weight, height, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist -to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to- height ratio (WHtR) and physical activity were measured. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method and the Tanita body composition analyzer were used to analyze body composition. RESULTS: In this study, 80.3% of subjects were female and 19.7% were male. The mean age of subjects was 39.5 (SD: 9.7) years (range: 21–68). The percentage of overweight and obesity in the study population were 40.9% and 12.1%, respectively. After the holiday, participants gained 0.58 kg of weight and 0.19 units of BMI) P < 0.001). The average of WC, WHR and WHtR also increased after the holiday; however they were not statistically significant. Basal metabolic rate and fat free mass raised significantly, but the amount of fat mass decreased after the holiday. CONCLUSION: The holiday season is a critical period for weight gain and body fat. It’s highly recommended to weight daily during the holiday season and to increase their physical activity while limiting high-calorie foods.