Holiday Weight Gain – Why One (or Five) Meals WON’T Hurt You

The holidays are here!

Mid to late November (or mid to late September for all of you holiday lovers like me) marks the start of amazing time spent with family and friends, great tunes, tons of eggnog and pecan pie, and – if you’re a college student named Nick Smoot – a month and a half of idle time spent playing call of duty and reading books 1,2,3,and 4 of Game of Thrones (just kidding…not really).

The holidays are awesome.

Seriously, they are.

And if I had to pick a time of the year I like most next to Spring and Summer, Fall and Winter would definitely be it.

However for some people – namely fitness enthusiasts hell bent on staying lean and shredded – the holidays are a much more stressful time.

I mean, how are you supposed to resist all of the made-from-scratch baked goods your mom, grandmother, and every other human being you may or may not know keeps setting on your kitchen counter?

How are you supposed to bring Tupperware containers full of chicken breast and steamed broccoli to holiday get-togethers without everyone looking at you like you’re crazy?

How are you supposed to track turkey, ham, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole in your Myfitnesspal app?

And how are you supposed to get in your scheduled arm workout/locker room selfie date when it’s snowing and the gym is closed (and you DON’T have access to a home gym)?

The short answer to all of these questions?

YOU DON’T.

You don’t resist made from scratch baked goods.

You don’t bring Tupperware containers to holiday parties and family get-togethers.

You don’t track macros on thanksgiving (or any other holiday for that matter).

And you don’t worry about missing a workout if the gym is closed (you pick up where you left off a day or two later).

Because, if you happen to eat a bit too much, or you end up being a bit less active, IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Unless you’re a competitive athlete who has a meet in the near future, it’s not going to hinder progress.

And for the people who struggle with eating during the holidays, there’s one thing you need to understand before you let all of this stuff get to your head:

 

**It’s REALLY Hard to Gain ONE Pound of body weight in a 24 Hour Period**

 

How hard?

Try 3500 calories (give or take) ABOVE your maintenance caloric intake.

Using myself as an example (a 190 lb. powerlifter who maintains his weight on about 3000 calories per day), I would need to consume 6500 calories in a day to put on 1 lb. of body weight.

6500 calories.

Now, to some of you, this may not sound like a lot of food.

So just to put it in perspective, here is a breakfast, lunch, and dinner combination – excluding nutrient dense foods that have a lot of volume for a low number of calories – that equates to 6500 calories:

 

Breakfast – (3) Hardees Double Loaded Omelet Burgers, (1) large hashbrown

 

2400 calories

 

Lunch – (1) Royal Red Robin Burger, (1) order of steak fries

1575 calories

 

Dinner – (1) Large Dominos pepperoni pizza

2400 calories

 

Total: 6375 calories (still room for a skinny cow ice cream!).

 

As you can see from the example above, 6500 calories is a lot of food.

WELL over what most people consume in a day, and – even for someone with a ferocious appetite – enough food to make them hate life for the next 48-72 hours.

Now, obviously, this is what it would take for ME to gain a pound of body weight in a day, and YOU probably aren’t going to require that same amount of calories (you’ll either need more or less).

However, 3500 calories above maintenance is still more than double the food that most people consume in a day, and there are generally a few things that happen that stop you from getting to this point:

1. You’re stomach starts to feel like someone stuck a leaf blower in it (not sure what that actually feels like, but I imagine it would be pretty excruciating). Eating any more food is really out of the question.

2. Everything starts to taste nasty. The food doesn’t ACTUALLY taste nasty, but once you get to a certain point, your brain tricks you in to thinking that everything resembles the taste of that disgusting purple stuff your mom used to make you drink when you had a stomache ache.

3. You throw up. This is rare, but it definitely happens if you’re not someone with an iron stomach.  You should NEVER get to this point.

Not only do you have to get in WAY more calories than you’re used to in order to put a pound of body weight (just ONE pound), but you have to do so while overriding every signal your body is throwing at you to STOP EATING.

Most people?

They can’t do it.

And for the people that can, one pound isn’t too hard to shed off.

So, unless you’re a competitive athlete with a meet coming up, don’t stress over eating too much during the holidays (“the holidays” being the actual holidays – not the entire season).

Go out, have fun, and enjoy yourself.

Eat what you want – not everything you want – and stop when you’re satisfied and content.

Because, at the end of the day, it’s a lot harder to put on weight (acutely) than most people think.

And for the people who struggle with all of this – who tend to eat too little and train a bit too much – it’ll probably cause more good than harm.