By: Chris Gates

The Thanksgiving experience is standard across the board. You’re looking at family, food, football and drinks on repeat for anywhere from 1-4 days.

And you know what? Ain’t nothing wrong with that at all.

But the end result of Thanksgiving is often standard across the board as well: there’s a good chance you’ll step on the scale a few pounds heavier on the Monday after Thanksgiving as compared to the Wednesday before.

So how do we combat that?

For Starters

I don’t think restricting yourself during holidays, family gatherings, or any other type of celebration is the right move. It’s important to have a diet plan that allows you to enjoy yourself in those moments, while also working you towards your goals over the long term.

So with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I think it’s well within your right to plan to indulge a little bit, especially if you’ve been diligent and sticking to your current diet.

If you haven’t been, that’s OK, too. Now’s the time to clean things up.

Focus specifically on what you can do now, before the holiday weekend, and what you’ll do in the days and weeks afterward.

The Realities of Overeating

Under normal circumstances, a big meal or two over the weekend can cause big fluctuations in your scale weight. It doesn’t mean you stored every single calorie from that meal(s) as fat, and it doesn’t mean you need to jump on a restriction diet or do endless amounts of cardio to make up for all the “damage” you did.

Even if you did nothing to compensate for overeating during one meal, you’d likely notice your weight will first spike up in the 1-2 days following that meal. And then, as time passes and you get back to your normal diet and routine, your body weight will normalize itself pretty close to the weight you were at prior.

A whole slew of factors could be at play in this scenario that causes your weight to spike:

• Sodium
• Water retention
• Food weight
• Subsequent bowel movements (or lack thereof)
• Alcohol
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Hormones

The list goes on and on. And yes, actual calories stored as fat are part of this scenario, too. But if we’re talking one meal, the human body just can’t and won’t store several pounds of fat.

So that’s all great news, right? Binge away!

Well, let’s pump the brakes a bit. This article is based around a game plan for Thanksgiving. Like I said at the start, you should feel comfortable enjoying yourself during celebrations. That’s not an invitation to force feed yourself to the point of sickness. And with this being a holiday that often stretches over the course of several days — long weekends are the best — you should understand that a four-day free-for-all isn’t going to benefit you.

Let’s be practical here.

5 Step Plan

Enjoy yourself over the holiday weekend, and if I can recommend any one game plan for you it would be that you should dial in your nutrition in the days and weeks ahead of the holiday. Think about it… If you can get yourself in a slight calorie deficit or at least manage your weight at maintenance for 1-2 weeks prior to the holiday, you’re almost guaranteed to have a stress-free experience.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can do:

1. Be diligent in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Follow your diet plan. If you don’t have a diet plan, start tracking your nutrition to understand how many calories you currently eat, and then subtract anywhere from 300-500 a day. Be mindful of what you eat and don’t start indulging 72 hours before the holiday actually gets here. Take time now to plan out your nutrition to account for potentially overeating on Thanksgiving.
2. A helpful tool on Thanksgiving Day might be to use intermittent fasting and cut out a meal or two earlier in the day. Check out my article on how skipping breakfast can benefit your overall calorie balance. Often we can get past the hunger associated with skipping a meal by simply having a cup of coffee, or getting in some exercise.
3. To play off that last point, Thanksgiving morning is a great time to get in some exercise! Throw the football around outside, go for a walk or run, do a quick HIIT workout at home (I’ve got tons of at-home workout routines available if you’d like to try one out!) … anything that gets your blood flowing to burn a few calories.
4. This one’s important: Enjoy yourself during Thanksgiving. Focus on really maximizing the time with friends and family. No diet plan can be considered successful if it negatively impacts your family time. Don’t be miserable during a holiday.
5. On Monday, get back to being diligent. Maybe add in a little bit of cardio at the beginning of the week. Track your nutrition again. Use intermittent fasting if you enjoyed it. Don’t step on the scale — give it at least a few days. Exercise your self discipline and get back to those healthy habits.

In Conclusion

I want to be clear… I’m not advocating bingeing, force-feeding, etc. during Thanksgiving. This is all about embracing the reality that this holiday is centered around very calorie-dense foods and drinks as well as spending quality time with family and friends. You should enjoy yourself.

But there’s work you can do before and after the holiday to continue managing your weight. This will help prevent things from spinning out of control. None of those five steps require endless amounts of exhausting work. They just require some thought and planning ahead of time.

It can really be that simple. Have a good time this holiday season, and be consistent in the days prior, and the days following.

Over the course of a calendar year, we have a bunch of holidays that entertain us with food, drinks, family and fun. However, they take up so few of the regular old, run-of-the-mill 365 days of the year. Being consistent outside of holidays and special events is where the real impact is made. Enjoy yourself, and then get back on track.

Thanks for reading!

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If you are interested in coaching, and/or guidance on how to manage your nutrition and fitness to build a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, please check out my coaching page and feel free to contact me so we can talk about how we might work together.

Thanks for reading!

CGF