3 Ways to AVOID Weight Gain Over the Festive Season

Want to kick up your heels and enjoy the holiday season but worried about the typical weight gain of 7-10lbs (3-4.5kg) that happens between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year?

Well…it doesn’t have to be that way…

Enjoy the busy festive season with our 3 TIPS FOR AVOIDING WEIGHT GAIN and maybe even lose a few pounds with a ketogenic/low-carb diet. We share our surprising (and guilt-free) strategies for actually enjoying festive food, whether you are keto or low-carb (or neither!)

The next couple of months are filled with celebrations and cheer!!

If you’re in North America you’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving soon and in Australia, it’s the end of our school year.

This means there’s a ton of year-end speech nights, concerts, class get-togethers, family celebrations and of course, Christmas and New Year.

Many of us take advantage of the holidays to travel and take a vacation around this time too.

It’s all fun and parties…

…but what if you’re trying to lose weight?

 

Why The Festive Season Can be Challenging for Weight Loss

Some people hate this time of year, but I really love it…

I love the festive cheer, the decorations and just the fun… the excitement that’s in the air.

A lot of us have kids and so I really love to make it a special time for them.

There’s the gift buying, decorating the house and Christmas tree as well as hosting your loved ones for Christmas.

But even I have to say, it can ALSO be very stressful.

You might be hosting meals or celebrations at your home which means there’s a lot of cooking, cleaning your house, preparing for guests to arrive, or just cooking dishes to take to parties.

Many of us are looking to lose weight during this time on a keto diet (or at the very least maintaining our weight).

You’re going to NEED some strategies in place so you can handle situations that come up when you’re out celebrating.

These are my three top tips for how to keep the weight in check over this period.

 

3 WAYS TO AVOID WEIGHT GAIN OVER THE HOLIDAYS ON KETO

 

1. MAKE A COMMITMENT TO EITHER KETO OR LOW-CARB

My first tip for not gaining weight over the holiday period is to actually make a commitment to yourself to stay low carb or keto over this period.

If your goal is weight loss then commit to KETO.

If your goal is to enjoy yourself but NOT gain weight, then commit to LOW-CARB.

Whatever you do, do NOT…

– go into this casually and say, “Oh I’ll just see what happens and all. I just want to enjoy myself”

That does not work very well at all.

In fact, you’re signing yourself up for an epic fail.

If we have NO PLAN, we just eat whatever we want and pay for it later..

Yep that’s right….

In January when everyone else is starting a new diet…

How did we get back here again???

HERE’S YOUR ACTION STEP:

Commit NOW to either:

i) Stick strictly to your keto diet and stay within 20 grams net carbs per day OR:

ii) Commit to eating a low-carb diet.

If you’re eating a low-carb diet then you can relax how many carbs you’re eating each day (a little).

If you allow a little more in, you’re not completely reverting to high carb eating, but you’re still maintaining a low carb approach.

This will actually PREVENT you from gaining weight during this period.

How do you do that though?

 

HOW TO EAT LOW-CARB (NOT STRICTLY KETO)

My suggestion is to stay on track with two out of three meals each day. 

For example, stay keto for breakfast and lunch only and be more relaxed at dinner.

If you normally have Bulletproof coffee for breakfast then stick with that and then have your typical keto lunch.

Then at dinnertime, add in some potatoes or sweet potato, or you might have a small serving of dessert.

I’m NOT talking about having a Big Mac and a Thickshake here, folks!

Think about how this strategy might work for you.

Just relaxing how strict you are with keto, can really work well over this time.

You won’t gain weight, but you can still enjoy some of the delicious food around at parties and events.

So, make a commitment to yourself to remain low-carb over this period or strictly stay keto.

Which one is it going to be?

2. BE VERY CAUTIOUS & CLUED UP ABOUT ALCOHOL 

We all know that there’s a lot of alcohol around at this time of year.

We’re in the festive mood and many of us like to celebrate with a drink or two.

But…. alcohol can be a real problem with keto.

If you’ve been eating a strict keto diet for a while, you may NOT have had much alcohol for some time.

I would caution you to be VERY careful because…

And many people don’t know this…

When you eating a strict keto diet, you become far more intoxicated than when you’re eating carbs.

You might have only one drink and feel completely drunk.

Not only that, the hangover the next day is horrendous and I can tell you that from experience!! You’ll feel like you’ve been doing vodka shots all night.

Except you haven’t.

Check out our Complete Guide to Keto Alcohol by clicking the image below. And download the FREE cheatsheet.

STAYING KETO WITH ALCOHOL

If you’re staying keto, you NEED to have a plan for alcohol.

Ideally, avoid it altogether OR stick with one or two standard drinks at the absolute maximum in an evening.

If you’re all going to stick with a low-carb approach, set yourself a limit for the night.

Why It’s Important to Limit Alcohol on Keto or Low-Carb 

There’s a couple of very good reasons to limit your alcohol intake whether keto or low-carb.

Firstly, when you drink too much alcohol, we know what happens.

We start to feel rather merry and we start hoeing into the hors d’oeuvres, and the dessert buffet.

And this leads to a few more glasses of champagne and a whole lotta regret the next day.

Part 2 of this is the next-day hangover…

Then we eat junk the next day because we feel like crap and need comfort food to soothe our pain.

Yes….we’ve all been there.

Drinking too much in one night rolls over to the next day and that day is then pretty much destroyed as well.

So in summary, keep a lid on the alcohol…

My suggestion is to aim for  1-2 drinks maximum per night for women (up to 3 for men), but everyone it’s going to be very different in this regard so do make your own call on that.

 

HOW ALCOHOL STOPS FAT BURNING AND KETOSIS

New flash>>>

Drinking alcohol stops you from burning fat.

Your body will burn alcohol BEFORE fat. If there is alcohol in the body, it will use that as fuel instead of fat.

Essentially fat-burning stops while alcohol is burnt off.

This puts a delay on the whole fat burning process.

So, if you’re wanting to lose weight over the holiday season, it’s best to avoid alcohol.

 

Check out our Complete Guide to Keto Alcohol by clicking the image below. And download the FREE cheatsheet.

 

3. CREATE YOUR HOLIDAY SURVIVAL RULEBOOK

My third tip for NOT gaining weight over the holidays is to create some rules for yourself when out socially.

Think of it like you’re setting guidelines or creating your very own Keto Holiday Survival Rulebook.

I’ll explain what I mean…

Here are some examples from my own Keto Holiday Survival Rulebook…

You might say to yourself when you’re going out that no food is off-limits.

I may say, “Okay Anna, tonight we’re going to have fun and no food is off-limits to me. I can have a little bit of everything if I want to”

That is your guideline but then you then need a qualifier which says BUT:

“I will limit myself to one serving of dessert”, or it might even be half a serving of dessert

…or I might say:

“I’m going to enjoy two hors d’oeuvres tonight.”

You might be like me – a cheese and crackers fiend.

You might say, “Well, I’m going to have the cheese and crackers but I’ll just have two of them.”

 You’re just creating some little guidelines in your head, so that when you go to social occasions…

…you’re not just letting loose.

As you know after a glass or two of champagne…

…the next thing you know the whole party’s gone wild and you’re dancing on the table. I just find having a few guidelines like that in my head actually works quite well and you find you can still really enjoy yourself.

The Surprising (and Guilt-Free) Way to Enjoy the Festivities on Keto

In fact, it’s a surprising thing…

You might discover that you enjoy yourself just as much because you truly appreciate your food.

— If you’re only having two hors d’oeuvres, you’re damn well going to enjoy them!

By the time you’ve got to the 10th one, you never enjoy it as much as the first few.

TRY THIS: Set up a rule about alcohol such as…

“I’m going to have one white wine spritzer at this event”

or “I’ll have one glass of champagne”

You can even write down your guidelines.

I promise that this will just make such a difference in helping you to stay on track.

 

These 3 strategies will at the very least, help you to NOT gain weight over this period.

Then come January when you’re ready to get back into strict keto and really kick some weight-loss butt, you won’t have EXTRA weight to deal with.

With a little bit of strategic planning, you can EASILY avoid gaining five to seven pounds (3.5-5 kgs) over this period and even drop a few pounds.

All while enjoying yourself and not feeling deprived!!

Here’s to a very merry Festive Season…