When this time of year comes around, it can feel challenging to focus on holiday meal calories when there is so much else that we need to do – including eat! It’s not out of the ordinary to look down at your empty plate and wonder how much you’ve just eaten.

Holiday Meal Calories Can Feel Challenging to Measure

Since you’re not always the chef behind the dishes you’re eating, it can be challenging to keep on top of all the holiday meal calories you consume.  Sometimes, we find ourselves trying to gauge whether or not we’ve overeating by comparing our consumption to other family members.  We may have eaten more than one person, but someone else definitely ate more than we did, so we’re doing all right, right?

Though it would be impossible to accurately count every single one of the holiday meal calories you consume, it doesn’t hurt to keep a running ballpark total throughout your days. This is especially true from Thanksgiving until the end of the year, when the majority of parties, gatherings and dessert buffets are served.

Even if you’re keeping up your physical activity level – and that’s fantastic if you are! – you’re still not likely to come anywhere close to burning off the extra holiday meal calories you’re consuming if you’re not careful.

Food Tiers to Watch This Season

To give you a hand in understanding the impact of your holiday meal calories this year, we’ve created a tier system.  This helps you to compare some of the foods you’re likely to serve or be served and compares them to something you may be more familiar with in terms of calorie content.  Moreover, we’ve also provided the physical activity equivalents to one portion of those foods, so you can see what it would take to burn off what you’ve chosen to eat.

This is not at all to say that you shouldn’t enjoy your holidays to the fullest extent, including your favorite foods. That said, with this added information, you’ll be better equipped to choose which foods you want to eat and how much you’d like to have of each dish.

Tier 1: 100-120 Calories

Calorie Equivalent: McDonald’s child’s size french fries
Burn it: 12 minutes running at 6 mph, 20 minutes Zumba, 44 minutes walking at 3 mph

• Crescent roll, 1, from Pillsbury pop can, 100 Calories
• Cranberry sauce, ¼ cup, 100 Calories
• Sweet potatoes, canned, in syrup, ½ cup, 105 Calories
• Sweet potatoes, whipped, prepared from recipe, ½ cup, 120 Calories

Tier 2: 150-180 Calories

Calorie Equivalent: Original Krispy Kreme Donut
Burn it: 18 minutes running at 6 mph, 30 minutes Zumba, 1 hour, 7 minutes walking at 3 mph

• Roasted turkey, white meat, without skin, 4 oz, 150 Calories
• Green bean casserole, prepared from recipe, ½ cup, 170 Calories
• Bread stuffing, prepared from boxed recipe, ½ cup, 175 Calories
• Biscuit, 1, from Pillsbury pop can, 180 Calories

Tier 3: 190-250 Calories

Calorie Equivalent: 1 slice Pizza Hut Pepperoni Pizza (hand tossed, medium)
Burn it: 25 minutes running at 6 mph, 41 minutes Zumba, 1 hour, 33 minutes walking at 3 mph

• Roasted turkey, dark meat, with skin, 4 oz, 195 Calories
• Waldorf salad, ½ cup, 200 Calories
• Cornbread stuffing, homemade, ½ cup, 250 Calories
• Biscuit, 1, homemade, 250 Calories
• Sweet Potato casserole, prepared from recipe, ½ cup, 250 Calories