The 3,000-calorie Thanksgiving dinner -- myth or reality?
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willrun4bagels wrote: »Every year about this time a diet industry group puts out a dire warning that we're all going to eat 3,000 calories (average, anyway) on Thanksgiving dinner alone (not counting snacks and other meals) and the media laps it up unquestioningly. Nowhere have I ever found how they tallied this.
For funsies, I put together what a 3,000-calorie dinner (2,965 per USDA Supertracker) might look like:
half pound turkey, dark and light meat, skin eaten
6 ounces ham
A full cup each mashed potatoes (made w/butter & cream cheese), dressing (with meat), corn, and green beans cooked with mushroom sauce
1/2 cup giblet gravy
A dinner roll with a full tablespoon of butter
Two cups of garden salad with avocado, topped with 3 tablespoons blue cheese dressing
A slice of cranberry sauce
A slice of pecan pie with 2 tablespoons heavy whipped cream
Granted, it IS easy to eat a lot more on Thanksgiving than intended, but I think saying the "average" holiday meal is 3,000 calories is exaggerating a bit. I'm a pretty healthy eater, and I'd be physically ill if I tried to eat that much in one sitting.
If anyone knows how the 3,000-calorie dinner was originally calculated, I'm all ears.
1 slice of pie? LOL
RIGHT?? I have pie, pumpkin cheesecake, cookies, and wash it down with wine on Thanksgiving...
And I'll add 2500 calories of baklava too.
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I think I could eat 3000 including wine and dessert.0
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Sounds reasonable to me. Last year I logged 2200 calories for the day (the vast majority of that on one meal) and I was being careful. Back in the day I would have snacked on the appetizer tray all day long and I probably would have eaten stuff that I didn't really want just because it was there. I likely would have had double the gravy and double the bread. I don't plan to log this year but I'll be following my usual plan-- I will only eat what I truly want and I'll stop eating before I'm uncomfortably full.0
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It's possible on just cakes, pies, and alcoholic drinks alone.0
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I was around 2300 for dinner this evening in a quick meal, without any dessert or drinks. Given an hour or more to eat, now and add in the booze, my mommas fanstastic mandarin orange tapioca pudding, and the pumpkin pie w/ ice cream... don't even get me started on them taters. Let's shoot for 5000+?0
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Low performer.arditarose wrote: »I think I could eat 3000 including wine and dessert.
I'm shooting for 3k in pumpkin pie and pumpkin ale.
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I don't think I can eat 3000 calories in one meal. For instance, OP has both 1/2 lb. of turkey and ham on Thanksgiving. I would eat only one or the other, never both, and probably not a 1/2 lb. 1/2 lb. of turkey is a lot of turkey! I struggle to get down 4 oz. of meat at any meal. I average 1/2 cup each of potatoes and stuffing. I can't eat more than one piece of pie. Last year, I overdid and ate more like a cup of a stuffing that had meat in it. I had chest pains so awful I thought I was having a heart attack. I just don't have the capacity for that much food anymore, even on a holiday. I'd say my calories for the meal are more like 2000.0
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Every year about this time a diet industry group puts out a dire warning that we're all going to eat 3,000 calories (average, anyway) on Thanksgiving dinner alone (not counting snacks and other meals) and the media laps it up unquestioningly. Nowhere have I ever found how they tallied this.
For funsies, I put together what a 3,000-calorie dinner (2,965 per USDA Supertracker) might look like:
half pound turkey, dark and light meat, skin eaten
6 ounces ham
A full cup each mashed potatoes (made w/butter & cream cheese), dressing (with meat), corn, and green beans cooked with mushroom sauce
1/2 cup giblet gravy
A dinner roll with a full tablespoon of butter
Two cups of garden salad with avocado, topped with 3 tablespoons blue cheese dressing
A slice of cranberry sauce
A slice of pecan pie with 2 tablespoons heavy whipped cream
Granted, it IS easy to eat a lot more on Thanksgiving than intended, but I think saying the "average" holiday meal is 3,000 calories is exaggerating a bit. I'm a pretty healthy eater, and I'd be physically ill if I tried to eat that much in one sitting.
If anyone knows how the 3,000-calorie dinner was originally calculated, I'm all ears.
Can I replace the ham with more pie and the salad with some more pie? Lol seriously I can't wait.0 -
Low performer.arditarose wrote: »I think I could eat 3000 including wine and dessert.
I'm shooting for 3k in pumpkin pie and pumpkin ale.
Oh. No one calls me a low performer. It's on. I will eat SIX THOUSAND in pie and wine.0 -
SmartAlec03211988 wrote: »Went back and checked how much I ate during Thanksgiving last year: 3,483.
This made me go check mine.
Dinner cals: 761
Thanksgiving day last year total: 1876
My diary is open to my friends if they want to see, but I ate full meals... unsure why it was so low?
But yeah, OP that meal the way you described it seemed a little excessive.
Maybe it was a typo? Maybe they meant 3,000 calories for the day?0 -
Cup and some of gravy, butter in everything, pie, cookies, wine, cheeses, dinner rolls slathered in more butter... oh and portioning, what is that again? That figure sounds legit.0
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just... more pie than wine.arditarose wrote: »
Low performer.arditarose wrote: »I think I could eat 3000 including wine and dessert.
I'm shooting for 3k in pumpkin pie and pumpkin ale.
Oh. No one calls me a low performer. It's on. I will eat SIX THOUSAND in pie and wine.
Well... maybe more wine than pie actually. Pie rental. lol.
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just... more pie than wine.arditarose wrote: »
Low performer.arditarose wrote: »I think I could eat 3000 including wine and dessert.
I'm shooting for 3k in pumpkin pie and pumpkin ale.
Oh. No one calls me a low performer. It's on. I will eat SIX THOUSAND in pie and wine.
Well... maybe more wine than pie actually. Pie rental. lol.
I wonder how much pie and wine that would be...maybe like one and a half pies and a bottle of wine?0 -
Well, I have a raw vegan coconut pie I make...
6k per pie. Super easy to eat the whole thing.0 -
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Oh god no.
I do like to eat the food that my food eats from time to time. Just for perspective. Most vegan goodies are bunk, but... this one... oh man. This one. It's a coconut cream pie.0 -
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RunWinterGarden wrote: »From all of the family Thanksgiving dinners I've ever been at, with multiple families, I don't think it's an exaggeration at all and 3,000 average calories sounds about right.
For realz. (*)
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I snagged the recipe from this hipster goofball cult hippy place in SF called Cafe Gratitude. They had dishes, that didn't have names of like food, but were affirmations.
You didn't order a cold strawberry and tomato soup. You ordered a "I am Adventurous."
This coconut pie though, you could go in and buy the cream by the pint for $15 (back in 07), easily 3k calories in it, and I "accidently" ate one full pint while doing homework once...
This year though, beta testing a new recipe, pumpkin meringue pie.0 -
Dude, I think 3,000 calories is totally realistic. Last year, I tracked everything I ate to the best of my ability, and I ate pretty moderately... and I still logged about 2,700 calories. So 3,000 honestly seems about right.0
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When my family gets together for Thanskgiving ... it is a feast, visually and gastronomically. We always say we'll cut back next year and then we don't.
Usually have some appetizers around ... like shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, cheese slices and pepperoni, crackers, veggie bowl with dip, maybe some one brings a crab dip, or hummus, or a taco dip. There's always some candy around ... not much, but some. Maybe some nuts also.
Then comes dinner ...
salad
Turkey or ham, take your pick cause they are both there. Sometimes a chicken also.
stuffing, with meat in it ... two kinds, one inside the bird and one in the casserole dish.
mashed potatoes ... the regular kind made with butter and milk
yams
broccoli
brussel sprouts
corn
canned cranberry jelly
home made fresh cranberry and citrus salad
carrot/pineapple mold (made with whipped cream)
home made butter rolls --- enough for everyone to have several if they want.
butter
gravy
milk if you want it
pop if you drink it
coffee, tea, water ... take your pick
a bottle or two of wine for those that drink it
Then ... comes the dessert
pumpkin pie
apple pie
cream pie with coconut
cream pie with banana
cream chocolate pie
sometimes we have a cheese cake
maybe a dump bread like banana or blueberry bundt if someone brings it.
It's all there ... you take your pick of what and how much you want. There are usually enough left overs for each family to take a bunch of food stuffs home ... you usually go home with more food than what you brought and feast for days.
The reason we go so nuts is because we are a largish group and everyone has favorites. So those favorites are included in the choices. Some eat lots and lots, some not ... it's all good. We all feel good when we end the night and our belts didn't have to get undone.
It's what you make it.
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I had an early Thanksgiving dinner the other day. It wasn't as bad as some people's feast are, but it was about 1,400 calories for everything.0
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We don't thanksgiving in Australia, but Xmas? Sure. Wine, lollies, cheese, salami, other cold meats, dips, crackers, cherries, then the main meal (usually cold food as it's the middle of summer here) potato, pasta salad, cold chicken, ham, prawns (with seafood sauce), then pudding, icecream and custard or pavalova or trifle or other desert. I would say 3000 cals would be a very very low estimate. I can do 3000 cals in wine alone (at 750 cals a bottle).0
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lift, eat, be merry.
#gainz0 -
Lmao, 3000 sounds low when I consider the sheer amount of food my dad's sister's family prepares each year. My seemingly always hungry cousins could pound that out, no prob. It really isn't the meat, either - it's the mashed potatoes, potato salad, endless SODA, mac and cheese, cocktail weiners, desserts and various sauces/toppings that do it. Let's not even talk about the SODIUM.0
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I'm not going to bother looking up the cals cuz I don't care, it's Thanksgiving and I freaking love food. I typically eat..
The turkey with the skin, sometimes extra skin on the side
The brown sugar spiraled ham with a few heaping tablespoons of the brown sugar goodness over it
At least four deviled eggs
At least ten swedish meatballs
One cup of mashed potatoes with gravy
Two cups of stuffing (cuz, yknow, I gotta try the kind from the box and the kind that was cooked in the turkey)
One cup sweet potato casserole with the marshmallow noms on top
Half a cup cranberry sauce
Two buttered rolls
Lord knows how much "cheese stuff" (this dip my dad makes where he combines all kinds of soft cheeses together with worcestershire sauce) and celery
One cup of squash/mushrooms/whatever veggie is there
An endless amount of mixed nuts. Especially the cashews and pistachios, because I'm that person that picks out specific nuts from the bowl
I'm probably missing a few side dishes but that's the stuff I go for first.
And that is just the regular food. I'll also be putting away some alcohol, and sample each of the desserts (ambrosia, coconut cream pie, lemon meringue, chocolate meringue). I don't like pumpkin pie much so skipping over that one.
I. Can't. Wait.0 -
MyChocolateDiet wrote: »
Maybe it was a typo? Maybe they meant 3,000 calories for the day?
The claim I saw last year was that it was 3,000 for the meal ALONE, plus 1,500 calories in appetizers, plus whatever you eat at the other two meals. 3,000 for the day would be easy-peasy.
I have to confess -- appetizers on Thanksgiving are a foreign concept to me. When I was growing up, we had Thanksgiving dinner mid-day (1-ish) and we weren't supposed to eat anything before dinner because Mom didn't want us to "spoil our appetite."
And I did, indeed, as some have pointed out, forget the yams. Dang. And I did probably pile too much meat on the plate.0
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