If you’ve ever heard fitness influencers claim that their programs “help you lose weight while eating burgers and pizza”, I’m about to tell you the secret.

Knowing this little piece of information can help you prepare for the Thanksgiving feast.

It’s called flexible dieting. There are different variations of this method, but here’s a basic one that uses only calories as a variable.

Your “TDEE” (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the estimated amount of calories your body burns each day. If you eat, on average, 500 calories below your body’s TDEE, you will lose about a pound a week (on average).

Let’s say my TDEE is ~2,500. If I wanted to lose a pound during the week of Thanksgiving, I’d target an average of 2,000 calories per week.

Which means I can play around with my daily totals, as long as I hit my weekly average target. Here’s what I’d do for the week of Thanksgiving:

• Monday – 1,800 calories

• Tuesday – 1,800 calories

• Wednesday – 1,800 calories

• Thursday (🦃) – 3,000 calories

• Friday – 2,000 calories

• Saturday – 1,800 calories

• Sunday – 1,800 calories

For the entire week, this averages out to about 2,000 calories. And I get to enjoy the Thanksgiving feast with some pecan pie on Thursday, as well as a bit more room for leftovers on Friday.

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