Is it possible to maintain your weight during the holidays and still enjoy food?
The short answer is yes, you can maintain your current fitness level. Even if you notice mild weight gain within a couple of days after a festive meal, you can prevent ending up with extra weight at the end of the holiday season.
The festive period is the time to eat our favorite foods with our favorite people. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Learning how to prevent excessive weight gain on holidays without giving up on festive meals is an important part of your fitness journey!
Here are five tips to stay as fit as possible during the holidays and enjoy your meals:
1. Invite your friends and cook instead of eating outside often
Prepare your holiday meals and snacks from scratch for better control over how much you eat. You can use the NHS calorie checker to insert your ingredients and estimate the recipe’s energy content. You do not have to make “low calorie” meals your guests may not enjoy. You can have a small portion size and have more vegetables to feel full for longer! This is probably the most effective way to stick to your usual calorie intake during the holidays and avoid unnecessary weight gain!
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2. Stick to your regular healthy eating habits as many days as possible
The festive seasons lasts for six weeks, but you will not have to eat festive food with friends all the time. You can stick to your regular healthy meals for as many days as you can!
Please avoiding undereating/not eating the days between holiday meals. You may end up eating even more when you join a festive meal because of extreme calorie restriction. Also, this eating behavior does not help you to build a healthy relationship with food!
It is more than enough to eat your 5 a day, stick to your usual balanced meals and avoid stocking up holiday treats!
Greek Christmas honey cookies (melomakarona). A devine creation with 160-220 kcal per piece. Stocking them might not be the best idea, but you need to try them! Photo by mariatikka_nutr.
3. Stick to your main meal at restaurants and choose your drinks wisely
If you plan to eat outside often during the holidays, you can totally order the holiday meal you want to try. The trick to stick to this meal as much as possible. Appetizers and desserts you can have throughout the year can wait for next month. You could also share a dessert or appetizer with your friends!
Many drinks contain the calories of a small meal. Safe options include black coffee or coffee with semi- skimmed milk, sugar-free soda and up to two small glasses of dry wine, if you drink alcohol. If you avoid cocktails, sugary drinks and mixed fruit juice, you would be surprised by the weight gain you can avoid during the holidays!
4. Continue working out to prevent holiday gain weight
If you maintain or even increase your muscle mass this season, you are already closer to your goal than you think. It is true that diet is overall more important than physical activity in long term. During the holiday season though, exercise can significantly help you to maintain your current weight!
The Winter Weight Watch Study is the most recent randomized controlled trial on controlling holiday gain. The results showed that information on the types and duration of exercise you need to “burn” the energy of festive foods and drinks has contributed to prevent weight gain during the holidays !
Even if you are spending holidays abroad or you are busy with your guests, you do not need to go to the gym or workout for long. You can find 20-30 minute workout videos online free. You may choose equipment-free workouts or you can take a resistance band with you. The goal is to exercise as frequently as usual!
5. Include walking to your holiday activities.
Walking for gift and souvenir shopping, sightseeing, or to enjoy time with friends is a great way to avoid weight gain during the holidays. And it’s not just about weight gain. Even 20 minutes of walking per day can significantly reduce the heart disease risk ! Daily walking is an amazing healthy habit to maintain throughout the year and not just to avoid weight gain.
You can easily spend the calories of an appetizer or a drink without even noticing by walking 1-2 hours per day in total. Spending time outside is also a great way to distract yourself from snacking. Check this blog post from Harvard’s Medical School for more calorie burning daily activities!
Do you have any fitness tips for the holiday season? Leave a comment and let everyone know!
Mason F, Farley A, Pallan M, Sitch A, Easter C, Daley AJ. Effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention to prevent weight gain over the Christmas holiday period: randomised controlled trial. BMJ [Internet]. 2018 Dec 10 [cited 2021 Nov 23];363:k4867. Available from: https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4867
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