Food, friends, family, and of course, more food.
It’s what the holiday season is all about.
In the upcoming weeks you’ll no doubt find yourself bombarded with all you can eat smorgasbords and probably tell yourself something like “I’ll get back to my diet and eating right after the holidays.”
In a way, submitting to your “fate of fatness” as if you have no control over the upcoming onslaught of decadent deserts and holiday parties.
Studies do show that people tend to gain a majority (over 80%) of their weight over the year during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you have to be just another statistic.
If you’re busted your ass losing weight and improving your body composition over the last 10 months, there’s no need to relegate yourself to adding some holiday fluff just because it’s the ‘thing to do’ and unavoidable.
With some proper planning, you can mitigate any fat gain, and even shed a few pounds if you take the proper course of action starting NOW.
Not the day before Thanksgiving. Not the day after. But now, as in TODAY.
So here’s a short action item list of what you can do to ensure you’re not packing on the pounds this holiday season and how you can still have your cake (or pie) and eat it too.
It’s what the holiday season is all about.
In the upcoming weeks you’ll no doubt find yourself bombarded with all you can eat smorgasbords and probably tell yourself something like “I’ll get back to my diet and eating right after the holidays.”
In a way, submitting to your “fate of fatness” as if you have no control over the upcoming onslaught of decadent deserts and holiday parties.
Studies do show that people tend to gain a majority (over 80%) of their weight over the year during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you have to be just another statistic.
If you’re busted your ass losing weight and improving your body composition over the last 10 months, there’s no need to relegate yourself to adding some holiday fluff just because it’s the ‘thing to do’ and unavoidable.
With some proper planning, you can mitigate any fat gain, and even shed a few pounds if you take the proper course of action starting NOW.
Not the day before Thanksgiving. Not the day after. But now, as in TODAY.
So here’s a short action item list of what you can do to ensure you’re not packing on the pounds this holiday season and how you can still have your cake (or pie) and eat it too.
Start Lifting Weights
If you’re not all ready training with weights, now is the perfect time to start doing so. There are so many health benefits to getting in the gym and lifting free weights and using resistance machines, but for the sake of time and to stay within the scope of this piece, I’ll just go over the direct benefits of preventing any holiday fat gain.
-Improved nutrient partitioning: What does this mean exactly? The awesome thing about training consistently with weights is how your body’s metabolism adapts to this new stimulus and changes how your body uses and stores protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In most untrained individuals, they have a poor muscle to fat portioning ratio, meaning a surplus of carbs and fats will more than likely be stored as body fat as opposed to muscle mass. By incorporating weight lifting a few days a week, this portioning improves and favors lean muscle mass rather than body fat.
If you’re not all ready training with weights, now is the perfect time to start doing so. There are so many health benefits to getting in the gym and lifting free weights and using resistance machines, but for the sake of time and to stay within the scope of this piece, I’ll just go over the direct benefits of preventing any holiday fat gain.
-Improved nutrient partitioning: What does this mean exactly? The awesome thing about training consistently with weights is how your body’s metabolism adapts to this new stimulus and changes how your body uses and stores protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In most untrained individuals, they have a poor muscle to fat portioning ratio, meaning a surplus of carbs and fats will more than likely be stored as body fat as opposed to muscle mass. By incorporating weight lifting a few days a week, this portioning improves and favors lean muscle mass rather than body fat.
Reduce the Number of Meals You Have During the Day
You’ve probably heard somewhere down the line that eating 5-6 meals a day is the best way to lose weight and “stoke your metabolism”. The truth is out, and this is definitely not true. There is no increased benefit to eating more meals throughout the day, period. Fat loss is based on a energy (calorie) balance, which means the only way to lose weight is to expend more energy daily than you consume. Period. So whether you’re eating ONE meal a day or SEVERAL, it makes no difference to fat loss unless your calories are in order. Folks who arbitrarily eat more 4+ meals a day, who don’t track their calories, tend to eat more food through the course of the day than people who eat 2-3 larger meals during the day. One way to reduce the amount of food you’re eating is to eliminate a meal, usually breakfast. Contrary to what you’ve also been told, there is NOTHING wrong or unhealthy with holding off a few hours after you wake up to eat. Instead of scarfing down some food as soon as you’re awake or before you jet out the door, have a cup of coffee and hold off on your first meal until lunch. You may think you “need” breakfast because you’ve conditioned yourself to eating an early meal probably your whole life, but after a few days of holding off until lunch you’ll be feeling more energetic and start seeing more benefits from “skipping breakfast.”
You’ve probably heard somewhere down the line that eating 5-6 meals a day is the best way to lose weight and “stoke your metabolism”. The truth is out, and this is definitely not true. There is no increased benefit to eating more meals throughout the day, period. Fat loss is based on a energy (calorie) balance, which means the only way to lose weight is to expend more energy daily than you consume. Period. So whether you’re eating ONE meal a day or SEVERAL, it makes no difference to fat loss unless your calories are in order. Folks who arbitrarily eat more 4+ meals a day, who don’t track their calories, tend to eat more food through the course of the day than people who eat 2-3 larger meals during the day. One way to reduce the amount of food you’re eating is to eliminate a meal, usually breakfast. Contrary to what you’ve also been told, there is NOTHING wrong or unhealthy with holding off a few hours after you wake up to eat. Instead of scarfing down some food as soon as you’re awake or before you jet out the door, have a cup of coffee and hold off on your first meal until lunch. You may think you “need” breakfast because you’ve conditioned yourself to eating an early meal probably your whole life, but after a few days of holding off until lunch you’ll be feeling more energetic and start seeing more benefits from “skipping breakfast.”
Reduce your Carbohydrate Intake
You’re going to load up on carbs during Thanksgiving dinner, I don’t care what you may think. It’s going to happen. But we can use this day of carb loading to our advantage. By reducing the amount of carbs you are currently eating now, we can use the impending carbpocolypse that is Thanksgiving dinner to super-compensate our muscle cells and glycogen (carb) stores that have been depleted due to the reduced carbs over the last few weeks. So devise the plan for yourself to eat as FEW carbs as possible from here on out until your thanksgiving meal. When coupled with weight training, low carb dieting will tremendously reduce your glycogen (carbs) stored in your muscle cells and organs which will allow them to soak up the carbs like a holiday super sponge and really mitigate any fat gain you might see otherwise.
Be More Active NOW
Say NO to the elevator and start taking the stairs as often as you can. Stop searching for that upfront parking spot and walk your happy ass from the end of the parking lot. Make it a point to get out of your desk chair every hour at work to walk around for a few minutes. These things may seem insignificant right now but they have a HUGE impact on your daily energy expenditure. It’s the little things like this that add up to make a big difference.
Say NO to the elevator and start taking the stairs as often as you can. Stop searching for that upfront parking spot and walk your happy ass from the end of the parking lot. Make it a point to get out of your desk chair every hour at work to walk around for a few minutes. These things may seem insignificant right now but they have a HUGE impact on your daily energy expenditure. It’s the little things like this that add up to make a big difference.
Be Sure to Do ALL OF THESE THINGS the Day of Your Feast.
You’ll benefit most if you start doing all of these things today, but the next best thing to do is make sure you adhere to these tips Thanksgiving day. I know it’s going to be tempting to wake up and have a large breakfast before your thanksgiving dinner (people really do this???) but you’re going to have to put that on hold. Wake up, abstain from eating breakfast, hit the gym for a full body weight training session, drink lots of water, and when it’s time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with your family, then have at it!