Holiday trimming

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, an eight-week holiday season is about to begin, punctuated by celebrations of Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and the grand finale, New Year’s Eve.

With so many opportunities to celebrate -- plus the stress and joy of travel and family gatherings -- it’s no surprise that a National Institutes of Health study found the holiday season often adds unwanted pounds. People at a healthy weight put on only about a pound. But those who are overweight or obese add about five pounds and don’t take it off in the spring. Do the math and things look pretty scary by 2010.

So let the Lean Plate holiday challenge begin. The goal is simply to help you weigh the same on New Year’s Day as you do at Thanksgiving.

Regular tips and goals will help you stay the course. Here’s what experts recommend.

* Assemble your tool kit. Find your comfortable walking shoes, workout clothes, measuring cups and kitchen scale. Consider clearing a place to exercise in front of the TV. Or dust off that exercise bike, rowing machine or other home equipment to be sure it’s ready to use.

* Check your starting weight. Climb on the bathroom scale, scary as that can be for some. Research from the National Weight Control Registry shows that those who track their weight are more likely to maintain it.

* Find caloric balance. If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. The Dallas Dietetic Assn. offers a free, online calorie calculator good for anyone age 19 and older to determine daily levels at www.dallasdietitian.com/rd/calorie.htm. Or use this simple equation, drawn from “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook” (Human Kinetics): Take your weight in pounds, and multiply by 10. That’s your “baseline” calories. Now add 20% to 40% more for the daily activities of a sedentary lifestyle, which the majority of us lead. Bottom line: 1,800 to 2,100 calories per day.

* Track what you eat. You want to be able to enjoy some eggnog, don’t you? Jot down calories and stay in balance. To figure the calories in that turkey sandwich or pecan pie, check “The Doctor’s Pocket Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter” (Family Health Publications; $6.99) or log onto the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s free electronic database to get calories for thousands of foods at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/. It also can be downloaded to your desktop computer or PDA for free at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/srch/search.htm.

Nutridiary (www.nutridiary.com), Fitday (www.fitday.com) and Nutritiondata.com (www.nutritiondata.com) will also do the numbers for free. Healthetech (www.healthetech.com), the makers of BalanceLog, offers a free two-week trial for its program, which can be downloaded to your desktop computer or to a PDA. Ditto for Calorie King (www.calorieking.com). DietPower (www.dietpower.com) also offers a free, two-week trial for your desktop computer. There’s nothing to stop you from going from one free trial to another to compare systems.

* Take stock of your pantry. And while you’re at it, your fridge. What’s lurking there may undermine your efforts, so now’s the time to eliminate targets of opportunity. Swap high-calorie, high-fat, sugary food for great tasting healthy stuff.

Toss, share or give away cookies, chips, candy and other foods likely to tempt. Replace with good tasting, healthier alternatives: popcorn and pretzels for savory snacks. Soups for late afternoon pick-me-ups or high-volume meals that will help you feel full with fewer calories. Hot cocoa, puddings (made with skim milk and perhaps sweetened with sugar substitutes to save even more calories) are other good alternatives.

* Plan now how to boost calories burned. Enlist a partner for walks or a trip to the gym and schedule meetings now before life gets too hectic. Plan a holiday event around an activity: ice skating, caroling or chopping down a Christmas tree. Want to know how many calories these and other activities burn? Check out www.caloriesperhour.com or www.nutritiondata.com.