By: Chris Gates

Thanksgiving typically kicks off the most difficult time of year for managing your body weight.

From late November through New Year’s, you typically have more of these things than any other time of the year:

• Family get togethers
• Parties with friends
• Large meals
• Drinks galore
• And left overs galore, too

It probably leaves you wondering, how to avoid weight gain over Thanksgiving?

How can you avoid seeing the scale shoot up so much?

And how can you manage your diet to make sure you stay on track with your health and fitness goals?

As luck would have it, that’s exactly what I’m going to break down for you in this article!

We’ll talk about some of the strategies I use with my clients to ensure that Thanksgiving, and the entire holiday season, doesn’t wildly spin off track.

You’ll also learn how to make Thanksgiving as low-stress, and full of enjoyment as possible.

So if you’re ready, let’s dive in!

Learn about some of my AMAZING clients who have used strategies just like the ones in this article to build muscle, burn fat, and see amazing progress!

The Most Important Part of Thanksgiving

Before we dive into a bunch of strategies, I want to be clear with you about something.

Your Thanksgiving holiday is important.

No, I’m not going to give you a history lesson here. We’re not going to talk about the “true meaning” of why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

I just want to make it clear that this is an important holiday, and it’s one that is deeply rooted into American culture.

Virtually everybody has some sort of tradition that involves family, or friends, or both.

I’m sure you do, too.

And it’s REALLY important to allow yourself to partake in the traditions, and not feel like you have to restrict yourself or worry about the calorie count of the food you’re eating.

Don’t let the scale keep you from enjoying a really important time of year.

How to Avoid Weight Gain Over Thanksgiving? (You Can’t, And That’s OK)

OK, maybe it’s a bit strong to say “you can’t” avoid weight gain over Thanksgiving.

But I’m about 99% sure you can’t.

And here’s why.

Weight fluctuations are extremely common on your regular, run-of-the-mill days. Because there are so many things that happen in the body to cause them.

• Stress
• Hormones
• Changes to your routine
• Dietary shifts (more carbs, sodium, etc. than usual)
• Fluid intake (drinking more, or less, liquids)
• Food weight in the body
• Bad bowel movements

The list goes on and on, but as you can see I didn’t mention “eating too many calories.”

Because on a day-to-day basis, the amount of calories you eat is only one piece to the pie. It’s only one of many factors that cause your weight to go up, or go down.

When you think about Thanksgiving, when you’re probably going to eat more food and drink more alcohol than normal, it’s pretty much inevitable that the scale will go up.

And that’s OK.

You didn’t gain 5 pounds of body fat.

For the most part, you’ll eat a bunch of carbs and sodium, which will cause your body to retain some water weight.

And the cool thing about water weight is, it’s not body fat. You really don’t need to worry about it.

I want you to go into Thanksgiving understanding that you’re going to gain weight. The scale is going to go up.

And that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.

Not a damn thing.

OK. Let’s move on.

What Happens Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s?

Oftentimes, you’ll hear people say that Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or New Year’s caused them to gain a bunch of weight.

And we’ve already gone over why the scale is going to spike up, so I’m not going to rehash that.

But the truth is… A lot of people DO gain weight this time of year.

But it’s not because of what you eat on Thanksgiving.

It’s because you let Thanksgiving lead to a month-and-a-half free for all with your diet.

• Thanksgiving dinner leads to weeks of leftovers
• You’ve got parties with family
• Parties with friends
• Toss an event or two in there for work
• Then it’s time for Christmas cookies
• Seasonal beers and other alcohol enter the picture
• And obviously you HAVE to party hard for New Year’s

It’s just way too much packed into one period of time. And it’s really easy to say “screw it,” since there’s so much happening.

The holiday season is why massive amounts of people set New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.

But you can prevent your diet from spinning out of control like that.

Some careful planning ahead will make a huge difference.

How to Avoid Weight Gain Over Thanksgiving? Plan Ahead

Intentionally planning ahead for Thanksgiving can make the entire holiday experience more enjoyable and successful.

A strategy I really love to use is something called calorie cycling.

Calorie cycling allows you to view your diet across the entire week, as opposed to focusing on each individual day.

For example, if you eat 2,000 calories a day to maintain your weight (or lose weight), that’s 14,000 calories for the entire 7-day week.

And in reality, you can split up those 14,000 calories however you’d like, which can be immensely helpful for staying on track during Thanksgiving!

You might decide to slightly conserve calories Monday-Wednesday, and reallocate those calories you saved to the holiday. This helps give you a ton of flexibility, and you can really just focus on enjoying yourself.

Here’s how calorie cycling for Thanksgiving might look, using the 2,000-calorie example…

• Monday-Wednesday: 1,800 calories a day.
• Thanksgiving: 3,200 calories a day.
• Friday-Sunday: 1,800 calories a day

That totals up to your 14,000-calorie allotment for the week, which keeps you on track!

But at the same time, you’re able to enjoy yourself and indulge in a nice, big Thanksgiving dinner.

Some Additional Simple Strategies

On Thanksgiving day, you can try slightly reducing portion sizes ahead of your big meal.

It might not seem like much when you do it, but this can really make a huge difference.

Simply having a smaller breakfast and lunch that day can conserve anywhere from 300-600 calories, or even more! And once again, you can reallocate those calories to Thanksgiving dinner.

And before you sit down to eat with your family and friends, try your best to avoid mindless snacking.

Oftentimes at family gatherings, there are snacks sitting out all over the place. And honestly, very few (if any) of them are actually tied into the cultural aspect of Thanksgiving.

I don’t know many people who get geared up for Thanksgiving because it’s that one time of year where you get to eat potato chips.

Save your appetite for the meal itself.

And while you’re eating your Thanksgiving dinner, just listen to your body and be smart. Don’t eat to the point of pain or discomfort.

I remember when I used to…

1. Stuff myself
2. Lay down on the couch
3. Wait until the pain went away
4. Stuffed myself again

It kind of takes the spirit of Thanksgiving in a vastly different direction than it should. This holiday is about enjoying time with family and friends over a meal.

It’s not a date on the calendar reserved for bingeing.

How to Avoid Weight Gain Over Thanksgiving? What to Do After The Meal…

If you’re able to use some, or all, of those strategies, you’re going to have an amazing Thanksgiving.

Those will allow you to indulge, but keep your diet in line enough that you won’t spin out of control. You won’t hate yourself for the decisions you made, which leads us to the final piece to your Thanksgiving game plan…

What should you do on Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday?

In short, just get back to your regular routine.

One of the most popular and packed times of year for the gym is right after Thanksgiving. You think you need to get there first thing in the morning and burn a bunch of calories.

You had too much fun on Thanksgiving, so you need to punish yourself.

WRONG.

• Don’t dramatically slash your calories.
• You don’t have to spend hours doing cardio.
• It’s not time to eliminate all carbs.

Your weight will spike up. We already went over why.

And it will come right back down if you just get back to your regular, healthy habits.

By getting back to those habits, you’ll also re-establish your routine, which can help you avoid the month-long bender that gets people in trouble this time of year.

I Hope This Helps!

All told, Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be something you stress about.

• It’s not a holiday that’s inherently “bad.”
• You don’t have to stress and worry about the scale.
• Gaining pounds and pounds of body fat isn’t inevitable.

You’ve made it this far in this article, which means you know your weight will spike up.

It’s not a big deal.

And you know how to get that weight to go away, too.

Most importantly, you’ve got strategies to use this year to make Thanksgiving fun and keep your goals in line.

So just enjoy it!

And if you’re interested in personalized 1-on-1 online fitness coaching to help you navigate the holiday season, build muscle, burn fat, and make progress… I’d love to help!

Check out my coaching page to learn more about how online coaching works and how we can design a program for you.

Thanks for reading!

~ Chris