All around the world, something is about to suddenly happen to hundreds of millions of waistlines: the holidays. With Halloween around the corner, Thanksgiving soon after and then the big daddy of them all, Christmas, those extra pounds are as inevitable as they are enjoyable to acquire, according to a new study.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that Americans saw an unmistakable increase in weight during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays — by 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent on average respectively.

Americans are already largely overweight and obese, but holiday weight gain could be exacerbating the problem here in the United States. But it’s not just an American problem: the study found that Germans saw some simmilar patterns, with body weight increasing by 0.6 percent around Christmas and 0.2 percent around Easter. Japanese participants also showed weight increases: 0.5 percent over Christmas and 0.3 percent during the Golden Week, a special period in Japan that includes four holidays.

The statement adds: “In all three countries, the participants’ weight rose within 10 days after Christmas Day, as compared with 10 days before Christmas Day (weight increases of 0.4% in the United States, P<0.001; 0.6% in Germany, P<0.001; and 0.5% in Japan, P=0.005). Significant weight gain was also observed around other major holidays in each country: participants’ weight increased by 0.3% in Japan during Golden Week (P<0.001), 0.2% in Germany during the Easter holiday (P<0.001), and 0.2% in the United States during the Thanksgiving holiday (P<0.001). Overall, from the minimum annual weight (Figure 1FIGURE 1 Yearly Holiday Weight Gain.), weight increased by 0.7% (0.6 kg) in the participants from the United States and 1.0% (0.8 kg) in those from Germany during the Christmas–New Year holiday season and 0.7% (0.5 kg) in participants from Japan during Golden Week.”