Most people disregard any kind of dietary restriction on Christmas Day and just go for it. Most families cook up a storm for the first meal of the day with a pre-breakfast selection pack to tide everyone over until the main event: the turkey dinner.
Then there's the booze, dessert, and snacking on a box of Celebrations before feeling peckish and digging into the roast leftovers for round two.
Nobody goes hungry on Christmas Day, that's the point. So, how many calories are we really subjecting our poor bodies to on this special holiday? Wren Kitchens conducted a survey of 2,000 people who celebrate Christmas, and the answer was 5,373.
So... yeah. A great deal. In fact, it is nearly three times the recommended daily allowance for a female and twice the recommended daily allowance for a male.
To collect the data, the company asked their respondents to list everything they usually consume on Christmas Day, including food and drink, and then distributed the grand list to everyone to score how many portions of each they personally would have on Christmas Day. The calories were then calculated.
Here are a few breakdowns of how we manage to consume so many thousands of calories:
A full English breakfast contains 424 calories.
And another 244 calories if you like yours with bucks fizz.
Your roast dinner will contain about 965 calories.
However, each glass of wine adds 129 calories to your total.
Then there are the 226 calories in each chocolate bar... of which you most likely have several.
Cheese and biscuits will add an additional 175 calories per serving.
And that turkey and stuffing sandwich you eat for dinner adds another 676 calories.
Last Thoughts
Deciding whether to keep things simple or go all out for Christmas is a decision only you can make. It is certainly possible to have a wonderful Christmas while eating less than 6,000 calories. However, you do not want to waste your day weighing mince pies and scanning barcodes.
On the other hand, waking up on January 2nd with a raging hangover and an extra inch of fat is not a pleasant experience. Finding a happy medium between the two is probably your best bet.
Accept that some weight gain is unavoidable during the holiday season, but try to limit your intake where possible. That way, you'll have a wonderful Christmas and won't have to do too much catching up in January.