How Much Exercise Do You Need to Burn Off Thanksgiving Dinner?

It's no secret that the heart and soul of Thanksgiving is food. While those amazing comfort foods of Thanksgiving are mighty tasty, they're also not the healthiest. With the massive amount of calories being eaten in just one sitting, how long would you have to exercise to burn off that meal?

According to The Daily Meal, the average Thanksgiving dinner will add between 2,000 and 4,000 calories to your day. For the sake of this blog, we'll split that right down the middle and say the average person eats 3,000 calories on Thanksgiving.

MORE: Watch Thanksgiving Dinner In A Blender

Also, for the sake of this hypothetical, we're going to use the national average male and female weights to figure calorie burn accoring to the CDC. Those numbers put the average male at 194.7 pounds and 164.7 pounds for the average female. With those numbers (and using this calorie burning calculator), here's how long you'd need to do each of these exercises to burn off that dinner:

(Hours:Minutes:Seconds)	Male	Female
General Aerobics	5:23:39	6:46:30
Basketball Game	4:13:30	4:59:53
Bicycling (Casual Pace)	8:35:28	10:09:45
Bicycling (Vigorous Pace)	3:23:28	4:00:42
Pushups/Sit-ups (Casual)	7:34:49	8:58:01
Pushups/Sit-ups (Vigorous)	4:13:30	4:59:53
General Dancing	7:34:49	8:58:01
Touch/Flag Football	4:13:30	4:59:53
Ice Hockey	4:13:30	4:59:53
Jogging	4:51:46	5:45:09
Cross Country Skiing (Average Pace)	4:51:46	5:45:09
Walking (Slow Pace)	13:33:53	16:02:46
Walking (Brisk Pace)	8:35:28	10:09:45
Walking Up Stairs	4:13:30	4:59:53

Pretty sobering, isn't it? Maybe I'll have a little less to eat this year. Then again, maybe not.

Filed Under: thanksgiving

Categories: Food & Drink, Health, Thanksgiving