Christmas is here, and dinner tables are filled with extra calories that need to be burned off. The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has released a message disclosing the number of calories that holiday meals contain and how much physical activity is needed to cut them.
The message says that a typical feast during the Yuletide season contains nearly 1,500 calories. However, nuts, chocolates, puddings, pies and alcohol increase a person's caloric intake which may total to 6,000 calories.
The said amount is three times higher than the daily recommendation for women and two times higher for men.
To keep the body healthy after the holiday season, the RSPH suggests that people should walk for four hours and 26 minutes to burn Christmas-linked extra calories. With elaboration, the public health officers said that a pudding with cream has 820 calories, and to burn that, you need to complete two and a half- hour of walking. About two hours and 48 minutes and two hours of walking will burn 260 calories from a mince pie and 649 calories from turkey and stuffed sandwich, respectively.
Shirley Cramer said that during the holiday season people should spend some time on exercising. "The festive season is a time for many of us to take a well-deserved break and enjoy good food and good company, so it's only natural that we treat ourselves over the holidays," she added.
The RSPH Chief Executive further noted that "our activity breakdown is a good-humored seasonal reminder of how all those extra calories do add up, so trying not to over-indulge too much and keeping active over the holidays might help a little when it comes to avoiding a nasty shock on the scales and a lot of hard work in the New Year."
Taking time to walk and exercise during the holiday season is a good way to stay healthy. In fact, doctors warn that Christmas is a season for heart troubles because "people are eating more, drinking more" and not exercising.