Did you know that turkey meat, which contains the amino acid L-tryptophan, is really NOT the main culprit for the iconic post meal nap or drowsiness associated with Thanksgiving? It’s actually a combination of overeating, high carbohydrate (carb) intake (mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pie, & cake), alcohol consumption, stress, and hours of meal preparation.

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The purpose of this article is to give several simple but impactful strategies to promote a “healthy” muscle building Thanksgiving by not contributing to fat gain, insulin resistance, or gastrointestinal (GI) upset. This is a must read for anyone partaking in an active, performance, or weight lifting lifestyle. In this article, I’ll explain what is “healthy”, how to change some of your food choices in addition to techniques to change the preparation of your traditional foods. I will provide at least 5 food preparation approaches and 5 behavioral lifestyle changes that will allow you to enjoy Thanksgiving without it contributing to the yearly holiday fat gain and poor gut health. 

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What is Healthy Eating for Muscle, and Why Does it Matter?

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The term “healthy” means different things to different people. The Keto dieters (low carb, high fat) proclaim carbs are bad and to blame for our obesity epidemic, Dr. Dean Ornish (low fat, high carb) states fats are unhealthy allowing only 10% fat calories per day, and vegans don’t consume any animal protein, products, or by-products. Regardless of your macronutrient preference (Carbs, Protein, Fats, Alcohol, & Ketones) or choice of plant versus animal products, the best way to characterize or define healthy eating includes an evaluation of nutrients vs. calories. Does the food contain more empty sugar and saturated fat calories than nutrients, in other words, is the food calorically dense and void of nutrients or is the food nutrient dense and lower in calories?

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Macronutrients and amounts should be personalized to your lifestyle, physique goals, and exercise. However, there are some universal health guidelines everyone could follow such as whole grain complex carbs over simple refined carbs and sugars, lean high quality proteins over processed high saturated fat proteins, healthy fats (mono and poly unsaturated fats over saturated fats), and alcohol in moderation (if consumed – 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men). Lean Protein intake should be increased from the RDA of .8 grams per kg / body weight to ~2.2 grams per kg / body weight or 1 gram per lb. of body weight for muscle gain when combined with a resistance training / weight lifting routine. I eat a carbohydrate controlled high protein Mediterranean diet, which includes vegetables, herbs, nuts, beans, and moderate amounts of dairy, poultry, seafood, and eggs with fruits and red meat eaten occasionally. It’s important to wrap our heads around the broad term “healthy”. Eating healthy contributes to lean muscle gain when combined with high protein and resistance training. An understanding of these concepts will help you make better food choices on Thanksgiving. 

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How to Eat at Thanksgiving for Muscle and NOT Fat Gain Caloric State

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The first place to start includes understanding your current caloric state or intake (hypocaloric, maintenance calories, or hypercaloric). There are different Thanksgiving strategies if you are restricting calories (hypocaloric) for some event to lose body fat versus eating maintenance calories or extra calories (hypercaloric) for weight gain. In addition, this will also tell us if your weight has fluctuated (decreased, stable, or increased) over the last few weeks.   

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Food Prep

Let’s start with the turkey. If possible I would look for a free-range organic (non-GMO) vegetarian fed turkey not frozen and not treated with antibiotics. However, if this doesn’t fit your lifestyle or budget then a traditional frozen turkey will do just fine as well. Let’s stay away from any type of deep-frying and go with traditional baking or roasting in a lightly olive oil coated oven-roasting pan.

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If you plan on using any gravy then try making low-fat gravy. Boil 4 to 5 cups of fat-free chicken broth with 2 cloves of garlic, sage, and thyme then gradually add skim milk and cornstarch to thicken and let simmer.

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Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes from scratch by boiling red potatoes or sweet potatoes are ideal, however, other forms are acceptable such as commercially premade and refrigerated. The main preparation points include using skim milk for the mashed potatoes and omitting the sugar but adding the cinnamon and nutmeg to the sweet potatoes with a small amount of butter or olive oil margarine when adding to the freshly boiled potatoes during mashing.

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Whether you make your stuffing from scratch or from a box use fat-free chicken broth and water instead of turkey drippings, oil, or butter. Green bean casserole is a classic Thanksgiving green vegetable but try using 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup instead of regular cream of mushroom soup and go easy on the fried onion crisps

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I don’t like being the bearer of bad news but traditional cranberry sauce is mainly sugar and high fructose corn syrup so if needed use it very sparingly. However, you can try making your own with orange juice, zest, cranberries, honey, and agave but this still has a good amount of sugar so go easy. 

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 Pre-Thanksgiving Consumption

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This section really only pertains to those who are in the maintenance and hypercaloric state as previously mentioned. Those in the hypocaloric state (low-calorie or lower than normal caloric intake that promotes fat loss) can skip these carbohydrate recommendations since your body is already in a somewhat deprived state (low glycogen stores in muscle) promoting water and fat loss. Try limiting carbohydrates to 100-150 grams per day for 3 to 7 days before Thanksgiving. This will help deplete your glycogen stores thereby allowing your body to use your Thanksgiving consumption more efficiently for muscle-building and not fat gain. 

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Exercise Routine

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It’s important to keep consistent with your training routine especially during the weeks before Thanksgiving. Hopefully, your workout routine includes both aerobic and anaerobic exercises. A nice balance of 3 to 5 days of aerobic cardio for 30-60 min per session (treadmill, stationary bike, or stair stepper) and 3 to 5 days of anaerobic resistance weight training for 60-90 minutes per session (dumbbells, free weight, machines, and/or resistance bands) should give enough stimulus for both muscle-building and fat and glycogen burning. In addition, getting a good workout done prior to the Thanksgiving feast will help further deplete your glycogen stores and prime your body to efficiently handle the incoming carbohydrates and calories.