They say that ignorance is bliss… but this couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to thinking you can just exercise away your holiday feasts in no time. Before you grab a second helping of Patti’s Pies, thinking you’ll walk it off the next day, you should know that it might take more than one, two, or three sweat sessions to truly burn off your family dinner. Keep reading to learn how many calories are in some of your favorite holiday eats and to get an idea of how much sweat it actually takes to burn them off.
Turkey
Okay, turkey isn’t all that bad - when it’s baked. Three ounces of baked turkey breast, which is about the size of a deck of cards, is roughly 90 calories.
To burn off those calories, you can jump rope for 9 minutes straight, or take a brisk one-mile walk or jog. Don’t forget to count the gravy, too! If you decide to add gravy, that’s about 50 calories for a quarter cup, or another minute of jump rope.
If you’re trying out deep-fried turkey, however, the same 3 ounces can have about 220 calories, so you’d need closer to 25 minutes of jumping rope or 2.5 miles of a fast-paced walk or jog to burn it off.
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Collard Greens
Greens have a lot of health benefits since they’re packed with vitamins like vitamin C and K, along with a healthy amount of fiber.
But those benefits can start to go down once you soak your greens with ham hock or other fatty meat for a boost of flavor. No shade to your secret recipe, but it’s probably not as healthy as you may have hoped.
Once you add the meat, sodium and oil to your greens, you can add roughly 150 calories to your plate, per serving. If you want to sweat these calories off, you can lift weights for 30 minutes or go for a bike ride for the same amount of time.
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Smoked Ham
If you like ham with your holiday feast, you can rest easy knowing that this option is pretty low in calories and high in protein, much like turkey. Three ounces of ham is about 100 calories, which you can sweat off by running one mile or doing 20 minutes of yoga.
Dressing
Depending on your family’s secret recipe for dressing, the calories listed here may vary. A good helping of dressing, or stuffing, (1 cup) can have nearly 360 calories. To burn this off, you can hop on the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes, as long as you crank up the resistance and the incline for a serious challenge. You can get a similar calorie burn with 30 minutes on a stationary bike. Whatever moves you choose, make sure you’re pushing yourself so that you are out of breath and breaking a sweat.
Buttered Rolls
It’s really not a holiday feast until you get your hands on a few golden, hot, buttery rolls. Even though it’s easy to munch on fresh-baked rolls all holiday long, it may not be so easy to shake the calories that come with your rolls. One fluffy, buttery roll can set you back over 200 calories, give or take a few calories depending on how much butter you like to add.
To keep the rolls from turning into belly rolls, you can play a friendly game of flag football for 20 minutes, or run stairs for 15 minutes, for every roll you eat.
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Candied Yams
In researching this article, I came across recipes for “sweet potato casserole” and “baked yams.” But we’re not talking about sweet potatoes or basic yams sprinkled with brown sugar. We are talking about your grandma’s candied yams. That probably means half a bag of brown sugar and a whole bag of marshmallows to top it off. One serving of candied yams can add up to more than 400 calories, which is going to take a little more than a walk around the block to burn off after dinner.
To work off these calories in the gym, you can try an hour-long Zumba class, or an hour of circuit training, which is a mix of strength training and cardio moves.
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Sweet Potato Pie
Sweet potato pie has been a staple in most Black family holidays for generations. It was a thing long before pumpkin came into style for the cold season.
While you can’t stop tradition, just be aware that that dense delicacy can add up to 420 calories to your diet. That means on top of all the workouts you need to burn off your dinner, you can now add running a 5k to the list. You could also take a high-intensity class like kick-boxing for 45 minutes to make that pie disappear.
While you should absolutely enjoy every bite of your holiday meal and the people who pour their love into preparing them, be careful not to go too far overboard. If you have one serving of every food in this article, your meal could add up to at least 1700 calories, and that’s not including sweet tea or the wine! Try to balance out this heavy meal with high fiber veggies during the week leading up to the holiday, and think about adding some extra workouts to burn off some of these additional calories.
Sharita Jennings is a health policy attorney, ACE certified group fitness instructor and nutrition specialist. She leads fitness classes in Washington, DC and provides online coaching and tips on her site, GetFitLikeThat.com.
