U-Diet

One strategy you might want to consider using this holiday season is setting a base diet that consists of enough protein-rich foods to meet your needs, as well as enough carbs and proteins for right around the workout period. This way, you know you’ve got your bases covered and won’t miss out on what’s needed to maintain muscle mass. By doing this, you’ll also have a low enough calorie level that you’ll have plenty of calories to “spend” on holiday-related foods without seeing weight gain.

The typical 175-pound male requires between 175 grams and 200 grams of protein a day and about 2,400 to 2,600 calories to maintain his body weight. Assuming you eat 200 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates both before and after the workout, you’ll have around 1,200 to 1,400 “play calories” each day. Obviously you will want to try to consume as many unprocessed foods as possible for nutritional purposes, but this should demonstrate that -- as long as you practice moderation and balance diet and workouts -- you can still fit in many holiday foods without the consequential weight gain.