Before I get to the Motivational and Inspirational Quotes from this week I want to go over an important Holiday weight gain issue. This was the Thanksgiving episode. They started the show with Thanksgiving temptation. But more importantly they dropped an interesting fact.

According the The Biggest Loser, the average American consumes about 4500 calories during Thanksgiving. This is an important fact. Because so many people worry about weight gain during the Holidays or try to make a Holiday meal healthier. I say that that is a waste of time. Here’s  why….

Yes the average American may consume 4500 calories. But if you’re an average American you’ll need about 2000 calories that day. So it is only 2500 extra calories. That means you’d only gain about .7 pounds on Thanksgiving. You shouldn’t be concerned with a .7 pound weight gain on Thanksgiving. You should enjoy yourself and your friends, family and food. What you should be concerned about, and what should keep you awake at night is the extra 100 calories that you consume the 350 non-holiday days each year that lead to 10 pounds of weight gain a year.

If you eat clean everyday and exercise more days than not year round, then you won’t have anything to worry about on the Holidays. How much more fun and enjoyable will they be if that is your reality?

Let’s look at this another way. Let’s say that you consume an extra 2500 on each of the Holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. That is 10,000 extra calories. That means you’d gain about 2.8 pounds. You seriously aren’t trying to make Thanksgiving a healthy meal because your worried about gaining only 2.8 pounds are you? If so here is the solution. You need a combination of reduced calorie intake (eating) or increased calorie expenditure (moving) of about 166 calories per day to lose 2.8 pounds during the two months between Halloween and New Years Day.

If you do that, then you can pig out during the four holidays and not gain a pound.

So how do you get to a total of 166 calories?

10 minutes of exercise (jogging at 12 minutes/mile, circuit training, aerobics), for a 180 pound person will burn about 100 calories. One chocolate chip cookie is about 72 calories. Grand total 172 calories. There you go. Exercise 10 minutes/day (or add 10 minutes to your workout) and skip one cookie per day. That way you can enjoy your holidays and not gain any weight.

Now if you just go nuts and have Halloween candy around for a month, eat Thanksgiving left overs for a week, eat every bit of candy and cookies that people bring in to work or give you as gifts, then you’re going to gain a ton of weight (10-20+ pounds). If you’re going to do that then just disregard everything I’ve written above.

Gain the weight and look me up in January. I’ll help you to lose the weight then!!!

Now for the Inspirational and Motivational quotes from this weeks episode of The Biggest Loser

“You have a lot to fight for.”

“If you can’t celebrate it then you don’t think you’ve achieved anything. It make it that much easier to go back.”

“Just keep moving, don’t stop.”

“Yeah, I’m hurting, but I’m not dead.”

“Finish what you start.”

“Hold your head up high.”

“I have so much to live for now.”

“I was lying to myself, there’s no more lying.”

“This is the life, right here!”

See you next week