The average Christmas dinner totals 3,959 calories, including desserts and drinks. However, the holiday can be guilt-free with some advance planning and some carefully placed workouts. It's one day of the year when we can forget our diet and fitness goals.
People gain weight during the holidays. However, making better choices this year starts with understanding how many calories common Christmas foods contain and how much exercise is needed to burn them off.
Fitness expert and British athlete Mica Moore at Mirafit analyzed the calorie intake of traditional Christmas dinner foods and highlighted the exercises needed to burn them off and how much time it will take. So you can have your Christmas cake and eat it too.
Starters and Snacks
Most families start eating well before Christmas dinner is ready. Typical starters like smoked salmon and cheese with crackers amount to 280 calories. Make staying healthy a goal for 2024, and burn these calories in advance. Women would need a 58-minute walk to burn off this calorie count, while men could do it with 49 minutes of walking.
Go caroling, or take the kids to see the decorations in the neighborhood anytime before Christmas Day to earn a guilt-free Christmas morning first course this year.
Turkey Dinner & All the Trimmings
The actual dinner portion of Christmas dinner racks up 1,499 calories, including the turkey with all the trimmings — before dessert, so expect some more intense exercise to burn all this off. Running burns considerably more calories than walking. It's also a great way to start over with fitness goals for next year. Women will need to run for 2 hours and 1 minute, and men should aim for 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Long runs can be impractical for all but experienced athletes, especially over the holiday season. Spread the training over a few days and incorporate other exercises into the same workout, like strength training.
Opt for an outside run instead of a treadmill, and ensure you wear bright colors to stay visible to drivers when it's dark. Also, remember that muscles become tighter and more injury-prone in winter due to muscles contracting to conserve heat, so stretching properly before running is vital.
Desserts to Finish the Feast
After dinner, the feasting continues with dessert.
A sampling of traditional desserts like Christmas pudding, yule log, and mince pies totals around 1,172 calories. For men, burning off this calorie count would require an extensive 4 hours and 22 minutes of weightlifting, while women would need 5 hours and 10 minutes.
While it's unrealistic to commit to this length of exercise in one day, it's certainly feasible to spread it out over a week or two.
Lifting weights for just over an hour for four or five days will burn the calories consumed from Christmas day desserts.
Alternate between upper and lower body workouts to ensure you're targeting all areas while simultaneously allowing muscles to recover.
Drinks to Celebrate the Festivities
It wouldn't be Christmas day without mulled wine, eggnog, and even a couple of glasses of regular wine, but altogether, the combination of these drinks equates to 1,008 calories. To burn this off, women must aim for 1 hour and 24 minutes of cycling, while men must complete 1 hour and 11 minutes.
Cycling can be an excellent way for the family to get together over Christmas. Pick a route with a pit stop halfway through to rest if attempting to burn over 1000 calories in one go.
Stationary bikes at the gym are a better option for people who would rather not face the cold.
Calorie Count for Common Christmas Foods
Here's the calorie count for many common Christmas foods.
Two turkey slices: 117kcal. Three small roast potatoes: 300kcal. One serving of mashed potatoes: 88kcal. Two pigs in blankets: 550kcal. One serving of Brussels sprouts: 28kcal. Two servings of broccoli: 15kcal. One serving of parsnips: 50kcal. One serving of carrots: 23kcal. One small Yorkshire pudding: 56kcal. One serving of stuffing: 193kcal. One serving of gravy: 79kcal. One serving of smoked salmon: 117kcal. Four crackers: 80kcal. One serving of cheese: 83kcal. One serving Christmas pudding: 327kcal. One serving Christmas yule log: 427kcal. Two mince pies: 418kcal. Two glasses of wine: 516kcal. One glass of mulled wine: 227kcal. One glass of eggnog: 265kcal.
Mica Moore from Mirafit understands the athlete mindset, "Fitness enthusiasts may be determined to stay in good shape despite the high-calorie consumption. Fitness logs and calorie counting in a journal can help." The average American can benefit by thinking this way, too.
This article was produced by Face Dragons and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.