After Thanksgiving Workout & Nutrition Tips

Did you know that the average American consumes more than 4,500 calories and a whopping 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving?

The average holiday dinner alone can carry a load of 3,000 calories. Factor in another 1,500 calories by downing appetizers and drinks before and after the big meal.

If you overdo it at your Thanksgiving dinner, you must get back to exercise and a healthy eating plan the next day so you don’t put on unwanted body fat. Don’t waste time. Don’t procrastinate. Now it’s time to get to business! You’ll be proud of yourself afterwards!

Follow these workout and nutrition tips after Thanksgiving to kick-start your metabolism, detox your body and get you back to your energetic self in no time.

 

Focus on compound lifts: There is no better type of exercise to burn the fat off your body than doing compound workouts. These exercises involve multiple muscle groups to do the work so you are burning even more calories at once. Today is not the day to do isolation exercises. Those are good exercises to define your muscles but today is all about burning calories from your post-Thanksgiving meal.

Do your squats: It has been proven that squats burn more calories than any other type of weightlifting workout because you are recruiting practically all your leg muscles at once to perform the movement, in addition to large stimulation of your core muscles. You should find a way to incorporate squats into your routine today.

End you workout with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Research has shown that doing HIIT can burn upwards of 9X more fat than steady state cardio. Not only will you burn more calories during the workout, but you’ll also boost your metabolism higher than traditional forms of cardio by boosting EPOC levels. These high-intensity training sessions force the body to work harder to build its oxygen stores back up — for a period of 16 to 24 hours post-workout, research suggests. A great workout to do here would be sprints. Run as fast as you can for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 10-20 times and you’ll really tap into your fat burning stores.

Hot water and lemon: When you wake up, get things going on a right note by replacing your morning cup of coffee with a mug of hot water and lemon. Nutritionists swear by this combo. It will help flush out toxins and wake up your digestive tract so you can start burning even more calories. Also, make sure you are constantly drinking water during the day to flush out your system and reduce that bloated feeling.

Load up on lean protein: Stick with low-carb, high-protein meals throughout the day. You have overloaded your body with carbs and fats on Thanksgiving. Lean protein sources are not only necessary for muscle growth, but they keep us feeling full for longer periods of time and promotes healthy digestion. Eat like this the entire day, avoiding processed foods and other hard-to-digest culprits.

Add spices to your meals: Turmeric, cinnamon and chilli are just a few that can help rev things up and help balance the blood sugar and control cravings. Generally, studies have shown that eating spicy foods, specifically chilli, can temporarily increase metabolism by about 8 percent. In addition, spicy foods can also promote a feeling of fullness so your less likely to binge eat throughout the day. Whip out those bottles of hot sauce! Today is a great day to use them!

Don’t skip meals. Don’t starve yourself to “make up” for the extra calories you consumed over the holiday. This strategy never works—it only makes you overeat later in the day. Try eating small, frequent meals throughout the day so your metabolism is kept in high gear and constantly working to burn more calories.

 

I hope you follow these tips and you’ll notice quick improvement with the way you feel after Thanksgiving!

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