Trying to lose weight during the holidays is a recipe for disaster. However, you shouldn’t just give either. Keeping up your healthy lifestyle during the holidays is REALLY hard. It’s hard to find that healthy balance between having fun, eating good food and working out and making good food choices. I’m not here to tell you to completely abstain from every holiday goodie-that’s no fun. However, here are 2 healthy food strategies that will make sure your frivolity doesn’t get out of hand.
Protein Power
- Protein makes you feel full (satiety). Carbs—such as cookies, pies and breads—don’t make you feel full, so it’s very easy to eat more of them than we should. This is why carbs are often called ‘empty’ calories, because they don’t make you feel full. By eating more protein during the holidays it will allow you to have some holiday sweets without going overboard.
- Protein is metabolically inefficient. Also called thermogenesis or the thermal effect of food (1). Why should you care? Well, of all the macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat), protein has the greatest caloric cost to digest and process. Of all the protein you eat, you can really only get 65-80% of the calories (2). Compare that with carbs which are pretty efficient weighing in at 85-95% of each gram you consume you can use. So, eating more protein makes you feel full AND you end up eating less than you think because of thermogenesis. Isn’t biology awesome?
- Protein helps with weight loss. Now you may not be trying to lose weight during the holidays, but it really comes in handy if you’re trying to maintain your weight-especially your body composition.
- So how much protein do you need? It’s recommended to get 0.8 grams per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of protein each day. More (anywhere from 1.3-2.0 gram/kilogram) if you are exercising or training (3).
Drink up during the holidays…water that is
- We often confuse thirst for hunger. If we drink more water, especially before a party or a time when we know it’s going to be tough to make good food choices, it will help us have a better gauge as to how hungry we really are.
- As our stomach extends and fills up it sends signals to our brain that it’s full and to stop sending it food. It doesn’t know if it’s full from water or food, it just knows it’s full. So fill it up with water and you’ll be full and most likely end up eating less.
- Every cell of your body needs it-we tend to drink less water during the holidays-so bump this consumption up. It does your body good!
If you liked this, you’ll love our Healthy Eating Guide. It’s finger-licking good.
References
- J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Oct;23(5):373-85. The effects of high protein diets on thermogenesis, satiety and weight loss: a critical review.
- http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-macro-manager-what-is-thermic-effect.html
- Medicine & Science in Spots & Exercise. 2009 Mar;41(3):709-731
