CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — For many people, Thanksgiving week officially marks the start of the holiday overeating season.

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, packing on a couple of pounds isn’t uncommon. However, those couple of pounds may be symptoms of “creeping obesity.” Your weight creeping up on the scale could be more serious than you think.

“Creeping obesity is exactly what it sounds like — it’s slow, very slow, but steady weight gain that doesn’t come off,” Tracy D. Mitchell, nutritionist and author, explained on “Morning in America” Tuesday. “So, oftentimes the holidays is when this ball really gets rolling again, maybe 1, 2 maybe 3 pounds, not a big deal and nothing anyone should really worry about. But over the course of the years, those 2, 3 pounds that don’t come off can add up very quickly to 20, 30 pounds; so that’s creeping obesity.”

While 30 pounds may not seem excessive or obese, Mitchell said going to the doctor 10 years from now with excess weight can be “incredibly unhealthy,” and that’s why we should slow down and be cautious of eating intake during the holiday.

As people head into the Thanksgiving holiday, they notice there are certain foods that they eat that cause them to feel drowsy. Some people call it a “turkey coma,” but Mitchell says it’s not one particular food item you eat that makes you feel that way; it’s the amount of food you intake that does.

“A lot of people call turkey the big culprit there, but in fact it’s just the volume of food that we’re eating. It’s this, we send our blood sugar up really high, and then that blood sugar has to come crashing down, and that makes us really drowsy, tired, lethargic, sometimes bloated. All of those things, so maybe just watching the volume of what you’re eating,” she explained.

Mitchell said to avoid eating excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates to avoid belly bulging.

“Desserts, anything like that, sugary drinks, but really watch how much you’re having. Maybe limit it to just one; your body should be able to handle it,” Mitchell explained. “And the other thing that a lot of people don’t figure can cause a lot of belly bulging is caffeine. So watch the amount of caffeine that you’re taking in, especially later on in the day.”