How Many Calories Do You Consume On Christmas Day?

The average Brit believes they consume about 3000 calories on Christmas Day. Not so bad, only 500 over the recommended daily limit for a man and 1000 over for a woman. But how many do they actually consume? A staggering 7000 calories on average. That’s 3 times what you should be having. I’m not surprised by that, I have had clients come back to training in the New Year having put on a load of weight and ruined a lot of hard work. And truth is it’s not just 1 day people go overboard like that. I could be a few days, a week or even more in some cases. I’m going to show you some of the foods that are the worst offenders at Christmas time. Hopefully knowing what calorie levels are in these foods will help you be a little more selective. How many calories do you consume on Christmas Day?

I have done a Christmas Snacking blog before you can view this here. So this year I’m focusing purely on the calories for the meal based stuff.

1/ Roast potatoes – 200 calories each

The number of calories depends largely on what and how much fat/oil you cook them in. The potato itself isn’t that bad. Goose fat would probably come in even higher than 200. But the point is, if you have 3 or 4 of those that’s 600/800 calories already!

2/ Homemade Gravy – 375 calories per portion.

Again, depends on how much you have and how much of the fat you skim off it while making it. But fat makes up a large amount of the ‘cooking juices’ used to make gravy. 375 calories is an awful lot for a bit of sauce!

3/ 4 pigs in blankets – 220 cals

These a pretty much a 1 or 2 bite job, not many people would have just 1.

4/ Bread Sauce – 141 cals

5/ Stuffing Ball – 123 cals

Now I’m going to move on to the desserts/sweet stuff. Which is arguably even more shocking!

6/ Christmas pudding with custard – 600 cals

7/ Pecan Pie – 503 calories for 1/8 average pie

7/ Christmas Cake – 430 cals

8/ Yule Log – 567 per slice

9/ Mince pies – 300 cals each

These are all seriously high in calories for not that big a portion. It’s the combination of fat and sugar (2 things that do not come together in any foods naturally, they only come together when processed) that do the damage.

10/ Alcohol

I have done a blog post on Christmas Alcohol before (and in my experience most people know roughly what calories are in alcohol anyway). But a 125ml measure of wine of sparking is about 100 calories and 200+ calories for a pint of beer.

My goal is not to try and spoil everyone’s fun and stop them having treats at Christmas. It’s just to educate people as to what calories are in what foods so you have a decent idea of how many calories you are actually consuming. The fact that on average Brits eat 4000 calories more on Christmas Day than they think they do shows that an awful lot of people really don’t know how many calories are in what they are eating.

Conclusion – How Many Calories Do You Consume On Christmas Day?

So what can you do to reduce calories without missing out? Drink plenty of water, that will fill you up. Take a good portion of the lower calorie stuff like the turkey and the veg, so fill up mostly on that. Then just pick what you really like out of the higher calorie stuff in the list above and moderate the quantity of them you have. And finally don’t stuff yourself to the brim. I really don’t see why there is this pressure to overeat at Christmas. It will only leave you bloated and uncomfortable. Just eat the same quantity you normally eat, eat slowly, and enjoy it.