Christmas Calories

christmas-puddingDecember in Australia is the start of the Summer. Long days, lots of sunshine, trips to the beach, backyard cricket and lazing by the pool. December can also be pretty crazy with end-of-year functions for the kids at school, work, family and friends. You can often have all your weekends booked solid from the end of November through to the New Year.

All these functions and family gatherings tend to centre around food and drinks.

Keep in mind the average adult’s calorie needs for the day will be around 2000 cal for a female and 2500 cal for a male  (this will vary greatly depending on body size, activity levels etc – but is a simple example), once you have a few cocktails, some appetizers, then sit down for a main course followed by dessert and a few more cocktails – you can quickly get WAY over your daily energy needs. If this happens repeatedly across a month, you can see why the ‘silly season’ is so hazardous for your weight loss goals!gingerbread-man

Now does this mean we’re saying you should only eat salad and completely avoid your favourite treats? Not at all! We love Christmas treats as much as the next person, and it’s important that you don’t feel deprived when you’re making good nutrition habits. Abstaining and feeling deprived actually makes you MORE likely to overindulge. It’s about creating a healthy relationship with food, making good choices, and having everything in moderation.

The following video is a fun illustration of just how many calories you get in your favourite treats, and about how much exercise would be required to burn those calories. Let’s say for the average person, that running one kilometre in 5 minutes will burn about 76 calories, and one minute of burpees will burn about 10 calories. Watch and enjoy!

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