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Thanksgiving food binges not so bad

turkey

This weekend brings Thanksgiving, a notorious holiday of overeating. Though there are turkey trots and other races, for many it’s a weekend where little gets done beyond lounging around, but don’t let the extra calories discourage you. A little bit of exercise goes a long way in combating short over indulgences of food.

Firstly, as an active runner, you may already have a strong metabolic rate and burn calories fairly efficiently even while not exercising, but there has also been research to suggest short-lived binges of extra food aren’t so bad if paired with exercise.

Research done last year had a bunch healthy men in their 20s pretty well act really lazy for a week. They deliberately overate and didn’t move around very much, seemingly pretending it was the holidays or Thanksgiving weekend. The difference was that the lazy men were split into two groups. Half were instructed to eat 50 per cent more than usual. The others were told to eat 75 per cent more, but also run for 45 minutes at a moderate pace each day (the rest of the day there weren’t to do much). All in all, the two groups had similar caloric surpluses and were set to presumably gain some weight.

The group that exercised showed a much better response to the extra calories, even though they had eaten even more. They had better blood sugar control and their bodies had a better time dealing with the extra calories, suggesting short indulgences of binge eating might not be that bad if you’re also exercising a bit, which shouldn’t be too tough for regular runners who don’t have too much trouble getting out the door each morning anyways.

The takeaway? Don’t worry too much about big Thanksgiving meals this weekend. While they may not be good for you, so long as your also getting your runs in the extra calories don’t seem like a big deal. Your body should be able to handle them just fine, so long as it doesn’t become a habit. And who doesn’t enjoy lazing around all afternoon with family?

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