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.