Detox? Yes, please. The last crumbs of panettone are disappearing from Italian cupboards, and with them ends the period of culinary indulgence. According to Coldiretti’s estimates, in 2024, approximately 70 million kilos of pandoro and panettone, 95 million bottles of sparkling wine, and 4 million kilos of cotechino and zampone disappeared from the country’s tables, resulting in a gastronomic tour de force that led to weight gains of up to two kilos per person. And for 2026, the result will be no different.
After the holidays, for about 20 million Italians, the year will begin with a return to the scales and the decision to go on a diet. On average, the Christmas period leads to weight gains of up to two kilos per person, fueling the usual January diet rush.
This phenomenon is also confirmed by Google data, which records a peak in searches related to the words ‘diet’, ‘detox’ and ‘lose weight fast’ in the first weeks of the year.
Giuseppe Maiello, food influencer and founder of Giuseppe Healthy, invites us to change our perspective: avoiding meal replacements, not eliminating entire food categories, and gradually resuming physical activity are the three key behaviors for distinguishing real hunger from guilt and returning to good daily habits with consistency.
The real revolution after the holidays is not to remedy excesses, but to gently return to your daily habits, freeing yourself from the idea that health is something to be regained in January.
One in three Italians is preparing to start a diet to get back in shape after the holidays.
It is a phenomenon that repeats itself with the precision of a Swiss watch, year after year. And the Internet perfectly records its beat: January is the month when Google searches related to the word “diet” reach their highest peaks of the entire year. Just open Google to see graphs skyrocketing in the first weeks of January, when terms such as “detox diet,” “how to lose weight,” and “lose weight fast” become among the most searched queries by Italians. It’s as if millions of people, at the same time, decide that the time has come to make up for the excesses of the holidays.
Social media becomes a showcase for miraculous transformations, gyms see a surge in memberships, and behind the Google search screens lies a common desire: to feel good about our bodies again, perhaps within a few weeks. But is this really the way to go? And above all, do the methods we choose to get back on track after the holidays really lead us to well-being or do they take us further away from a healthy relationship with food?
January is detox month
There is something deeply human about wanting to turn over a new leaf at the start of a new year. After weeks of dinners, toasts, and family lunches, your body actually feels different. The feeling of bloating is real: we have eaten more richly than usual, often at irregular times and with less exercise. The result is widespread fatigue, a heaviness that makes us long for a return to normality. And this is a completely natural and understandable feeling.
But beneath this physical sensation there is often something more complex. In our culture, food carries an emotional weight that goes far beyond nutrition. The holidays become a time when “we allow ourselves” to stray, as if they were a brief interlude of freedom to be quickly closed. And when they end, the need to compensate, to restore order, to regain control automatically kicks in. As if the pleasure of the table were something to recover from, rather than a moment of sharing and joy to be enjoyed with lightheartedness.
January thus becomes the month of good intentions, when we promise ourselves to be more disciplined, more rigorous, more “good.” The scale becomes a judge, likes on social media a confirmation, and the diet a sort of rehabilitation program to follow in order to feel good about ourselves again.
Giuseppe Maiello, food influencer and creator of Giuseppe Healthy, explains it in these words:
“True well-being is not built through strict rules or deprivation. It is built by listening to your body day by day, learning to distinguish hunger from boredom, satiety from guilt. There is no need to punish ourselves in January for what we ate in December. We need to find a balance that makes us feel good all year round.”
Three behaviors to avoid
Yet, driven by the desire to get back into shape quickly, many people engage in behaviors that have the opposite effect. The first and most common is the temptation of meal replacement shakes and “miracle” smoothies that promise to fix everything in a few days. But replacing complete meals with liquids alone means depriving yourself of essential nutrients, losing muscle mass, and creating a complicated relationship with solid food. What is sold as a shortcut to wellness is actually a form of restriction that can leave the body weaker and more unbalanced. Our bodies are already perfectly capable of handling occasional excesses without the need for drastic measures.
Another very common mistake is to completely eliminate certain food groups. Carbohydrates suddenly become enemies to be avoided, when in fact they are valuable allies in providing constant energy to the body and brain. Completely depriving yourself of these energy sources leads to loss of concentration, fatigue, and nervous hunger that becomes impossible to ignore. The body needs all macronutrients to function at its best, and drastically eliminating one of them only creates imbalances.
Even the way you resume physical activity can become problematic. After weeks of inactivity, jumping into intense workouts with the idea of quickly “burning” accumulated calories is risky. The body is not prepared for sudden extreme exertion, and the risk of muscle pain, inflammation, or minor injuries is real. Physical activity should be resumed gradually, listening to the signals your body sends and prioritizing consistency over intensity.
The rush to see immediate results only leads to frustration and abandonment of good intentions.
The truth is that after the holidays, there is no need for extreme strategies or miracle diets. You simply need to gently return to your daily habits, without drama or guilt. Well-being is not achieved through sacrifice or punishment, but through small daily gestures of self-care, freeing yourself from the idea that health is a goal to be achieved in January after having made mistakes in December.
