No matter how serious you are about your diet, the BIGGEST challenge of the year is Thanksgiving . . . a holiday where it’s virtually impossible to count calories. Not that you’d even want to know.
A new report looked at how many calories people are downing at the Thanksgiving table . . . and there’s good news and bad news.
The average American’s caloric intake during the Thanksgiving meal is “just” 2,092 calories, which doesn’t seem THAT bad.
According to dietary guidelines in the U.S., adults should consume anywhere between 1,600 and 3,000 calories per day, depending on a bunch of stuff . . . like age, weight, and gender. (And, maybe, addiction to desserts.)
Of course, that’s for the WHOLE day, so the Thanksgiving number is only “in range” if it’s your ONLY meal of the day . . . with no snacking, no leftovers, and no booze. (So yeah, this is the “bad news” part.)
Some people aren’t kidding themselves. This year, 14% of people are planning to eat over 3,000 calories . . . and 4% are planning to eat over 5,000 calories.
And Thursday isn’t the end of it. The average person will also be eating about 2,270 calories worth of leftovers. Nearly 40% of people said they’d eat a lot more than that . . . 27% said 3,000 calories in leftovers, while 9% said 5,000.
On average, Americans plan to eat Thanksgiving leftovers for three days after Thanksgiving . . . and 8% plan to eat them for a week or more.