With Thanksgiving only a week away, I feel its necessary to do the obligatory blog post about how to deal with holiday eating. Every fitness blog known to man is going to be providing strategies on how to deal with the nutritional dilemma that we all face this time of year, ie “how do I not completely blow my diet and balloon up only to set unrealistic New Years resolutions that turn into a year long yo yo cycle that even Oprah would say is crazy?”. The problem is that most of these articles and blog posts are going to be talking about things like moderation, low fat this, and low carb that. And while certain valient efforts of sticking 100% to one’s diet even on a holiday such as Thanksgiving deserves a round of applause, for most people this is unrealistic and downright sadistic.

Enter Lockdown Mode.

We’re currently one week out, and how you eat for the next 7 days can have a fairly dramatic impact on how your body responds to your Thanksgiving feast. If you’ve been 80 or 90 percenting it, now is the time to step your game up. This doesn’t mean that you need to go nuts and start doing 2 hours of cardio a day and eat nothing but celery for the next week, but it does mean being as consistent as possible in following solid nutritional guidelines. A slight caloric defecit doesn’t hurt either. If you’ve been eating at a maintenance level of 10x per bodyweight in total calories per day, try taking that number down to 8x bodyweight. Fat loss, while depending on a number of factors, still comes down to calories in v.s. calories out. A small caloric defecit for the next week should not cause any losses in lean body mass (assuming adequate protein intake), but creating another 300-500 calorie defecit could prove to be significant and can help set you up for your holiday refeed. And don’t forget to continue with your regularly scheduled strength training and cardio sessions. The fact is that the holidays are stressful and in stressful times people tend to put off their health (“I’ll get serious in the new year”). Sure, you might have to miss a session or two, but make it your “pre” New Years resolution to get in the gym and train at least a few days a week. By doing so, you’ll stay closer to your goals, be more likely to follow through with your nutrition strategies, and allow for optimal hormonal levels to maximize the response that you get from your holiday meal.

So we should know what to do during these next 7 days – eat plenty of complete protein sources, limit carbohydrate intake to your level of activity (more for a lot of activity, less for a little), and get in some essetial fatty acids. Strength train 2-4 times, get in a few cardio sessions and take care of your pre and post workout nutrition. Really, just do the things that you should be doing all along. The next week should prepare you for the big dance, where if you do things right, you can actually speed up the fat loss process.

“What?! We can actually speed up fat loss after a day of pigging out?”

In my best Samuel L. Jackson, “correctamundo!”. You see, when we “diet” in the traditional sense and decrease caloric intake and start to lose bodyweight, our brains sense this and begin to regulate our bodyweight again by slowing down our metabolisms and altering our hormone levels. This is obviously the very short course, but I think you get the picture. This explains why people can undereat for months on end and not necessarily see favorable body composition or weight changes. It’s calories in vs. calories out, but we need to keep our checks and balances for optimal hormone regulation. Thanksgiving is going to be your check and balance point. After going into a caloric defecit for (at least) the last week, your steadily declining hormone levels are in need of a kick in the pants. By strategically overeating on Thanksgiving, you are actually upregulating the hormones that are critical for continued fat loss. And let us not forget the psychological benefit from a day of free eating. Remember, good nutrition is a lifelong practice, and allowing yourself a day now and then to kick back and relax without guilt or negative consequences can lead to greater overall adherence.

Game Day Strategty Number 1:
Let’s fast forward a week to the big day. You’ve been locking it down for the past week and now you can finally enjoy yourself. My reccomendation for this day is to treat it as a total diet break. Don’t stress over getting in a meal every 2 hours or count grams of this or that. Ensure adequate protein (eat a lot of turkey, duh), and let the pieces of pie fall where they may. This strategy will work fine for most people as long as you don’t go too overboard and eat enough for a small village. Enjoy yourself, don’t gorge yourself!

Game Day Strategy Number 2:
While many people can benefit from a big refeed, the bottom line is that once some people fall off the rails, they never seem to get back on. If this is the case for you, then I would reccomend treating Thanksgiving as a normal day. This may not sound like fun, but if you know yourself and you know that one day can revert you back to old habits then maybe its not worth it. If there was any holiday designed to meet the nutritional needs of even the most orthorexic of dieters, it’s Thanksgiving. Sure, you might have to give up pumpkin pie, but there are usually plenty of healthy options available at any family’s Thanksgiving Day feast. Plan your day accordingly, and you can be sure that you won’t miss a beat. But I’m mainly talking about people making serious lifestyle/body recomposition changes, and most people with reasonable levels of bodyfat would still benefit from a day of refeeding.

Game Day Stratgey Number 3:
Aka, the everything in moderation strategy. Ok, so let’s say that maybe you didn’t do everything to a “t” this past week and you’re feeling kind of guilty (but you still wanna party). In this case, staying within your usual daily caloric allotment, while not much fun, can allow you to enjoy some “non diet” food and keep your sanity. You can eat the typical Thanksgiving affair, you just need to have smaller portions and exert some self control. Savor your food, chew slowly, allow time for digestion, blah blah blah. This is what all of those other blog posts and articles are going to say, and while worthy advice, is just not that practical for most people. But if you’re an everything in moderation type person, then this strategy will suffice.

Wrapping It Up
So don’t let the holidays get you in the same trap as everybody else – thinking that since they’re going to blow it on at least 2 days that they might as well blow it for the rest of the year. Realize that you can still live a little and be on track to hit your body composition goals before the new year. Just like the rest of the year, plan ahead of time and allow for a little bit of wiggle room.