by Curt Kovener
I try to eat healthy throughout the year. But I suspend the rules between Thanksgiving and New Years. That is when eating, drinking and laughter with family and friends comfort me.
Thanksgiving is a time to gather in gratitude with the people we love the most. Many of us will spend much of that quality time together in the kitchen or dining room—preparing and sharing a seasonal feast. While holiday calorie counting should be put on the back burner, some mild post dining walking throughout the holidays should become a part of our holiday tradition.
KURU Footwear, a maker of comfortable support shoes, calculated how many steps you would need to “walk off” the extra calories consumed during tomorrow’s day-long noshing.
Different people have varying nutrition needs, but 2,000 calories in a day is a general baseline. KURU analyzed some of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes and found the average American could consume more like 3,400 calories on Turkey day. That’s 170% more than the recommended amount.
So how much walking would you need to do to burn off the extra calories from each dish?
•Roasted Turkey (4,259 steps)
•Stuffing (7,958 steps)
•Sweet Potato Casserole (6,187 steps)
•Mashed Potatoes (5,335 steps)
•Gravy (3,990 steps)
•Cranberry Sauce (4,685 steps)
•Pumpkin Pie (7,241 steps)
It’s reasonable and fun to indulge during the holiday, and if a long nap and some time in front of the TV is your ideal Thanksgiving that might be fine if your waistline doesn’t mind
But if you wanted to walk off your entire Thanksgiving meal, it’d take nearly 40,000 steps to do it. The number of steps in a mile varies by person, but using an average 2,500 steps per mile that would be about 16 miles of walking!
And if you decide to get in some ambling movement after dinner, or maybe later in the holiday weekend, make sure you wear some comfortable shoes.
And, remember, walking off dinner can help build up your appetite for the leftovers.