Thanksgiving Calories: Pre-Burn or Burn them Off

I don't believe in deprivation diets. Completely avoiding the foods you love is not something you can sustain for life, and thus it dooms any diet. There are two tactics to prevent weight gain throughout the holiday eating season while still enjoying holiday feasts and treats.

1. Burn More Calories: Increase your exercise and walking levels so you are burning more calories than usual, to make up for eating the treats that you love. Start now - adding an extra 4000 steps per day for the next week will pre-burn those Thanksgiving calories. Make it a holiday tradition to go for a family walk before and after the meal.

• Thanksgiving Calorie Calculator
• Walking Calorie Calculator
• Fat-Burning Walk
• High Intensity Intervals on the Treadmill

2. Eat What You Love, But Smaller Portions: Your Thanksgiving dinner can be 3000 calories or 1500 calories while eating stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, pecan pie, potatoes and gravy, etc. It just means eating only a 1/2 cup of each rather than a full cup, and leaving the pie crust on the plate (ignore Aunt Lucy's glare and tell her the crust is great, it's the calories you are avoiding.) Enjoy each bite, savor the flavor, and put down your fork before you are bursting.
Thanksgiving Dinner Calories and Walking Calculator
Select the foods you will be eating and see how many walking steps, miles, or kilometers you must add to burn off Thanksgiving Dinner.
Wendy's Holiday Recipes: Healthy but very tasty and "good enough for guests."

CalorieCount: Calories in Thanksgiving Food
Photo © 2005 Wendy Bumgardner - yes, I cooked that meal!