Did you know that you can eat all the food on Thanksgiving and still maintain your health and fitness goals? It all takes a little planning and you can gobble the turkey without any regrets.
People are used to cutting calories to lose weight but did you know that you can also increase your calories to help build muscle? It’s called reverse dieting. The idea is that your body needs the right fuel to grow muscle. Increasing protein and eating whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, healthy carbs, and fats while increasing resistance training will help your body build muscle.
Here’s how you do it:
This week, add 100 calories to your diet, mostly in protein, and make sure you resistance train at least three days, full body with compound exercises. Do lower reps with heavier weight and focus on getting stronger and lifting as much as you can with good form.
Next week add 100 more calories, and make sure you progress your lifts by adding a bit more weight to each exercise.
The week of Thanksgiving, maintain your calories (so about 200 more than you were eating before), and on the day of Thanksgiving enjoy your meal! Don’t feel guilty about anything and make sure you don’t eat until you want to throw up!
Then after Thanksgiving, go back to your calories pre-November and get back on your meal plan. Change up your workout plan to increase reps and maybe do a split routine where you do push/pull or focus on different body parts. Make sure to add some cardio, too. You will find that the muscle you built will stay on but you will lose some fat, leaving behind a more sculpted look!
Who knew that turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing could lead to fitness gains? If you’re smart about it you can have your pumpkin pie and eat it, too.