TL;DR: You don’t need to white-knuckle your way through the holidays. Kraken Fitness trainers in Burnaby, BC break down five behavior-based strategies that keep your progress intact without ruining the fun. Move a little every day, front-load protein, be strategic about alcohol, track something simple, and design your holiday plates around foods you actually love.
Watch: 5 Ways to Stay DIALED IN For The Holidays
Why People Gain Weight Over the Holidays
Here’s what Kraken Fitness trainers in North Burnaby, near Brentwood, see every single year. A client is making solid progress through October and November. Training consistently, nutrition dialed in, feeling good. Then the holidays hit. They take a few days off. The big dinners start. Structure disappears. And somewhere between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, weeks of hard work just… evaporates.
The average North American gains anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds over the holiday season. That’s not because people are weak or lazy. It’s because the holidays strip away the structure that was making everything work. You’re off your regular schedule. Food is everywhere. Social pressure to eat and drink ramps up. And once you miss a few workouts, the “screw it” mentality kicks in.
That all-or-nothing thinking is the real problem. Setting the bar at “I’m going to train five days a week and stay strict on my diet” during the busiest social season of the year is a setup for failure. When you inevitably miss a day or two, you feel like you’ve blown it, so you stop trying altogether. And by mid-January, you’re starting from scratch wondering what happened.
Kraken’s coaches take the opposite approach. Instead of pushing harder during the holidays, they actually pull clients back. No fat loss phases through December. More calories, not fewer. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is to come out the other side without losing ground. Here are five strategies that make that happen.
1. Incorporate Fitness Into Your Holiday Activities
The fix is not a rigid gym schedule through December. It’s weaving movement into what you’re already doing.
Nobody is saying you need to be swinging kettlebells in the snow (though if that’s your thing, go for it). The idea is simpler than that. You’re already going to be doing holiday activities. Make some of them active. Take the family out for a walk to look at Christmas lights. Shovel the driveway. Go sledding with the kids. Build a snowman. All of that counts. You’re burning calories and getting your body moving without it feeling like a workout.
Then sprinkle in some real training where it makes sense. You’re probably not going to the gym on Christmas Day. Fine. But Boxing Day? That morning is wide open for most people. Plan a session, burn off some of those extra calories, and keep the momentum going. Even two workouts a week through the holidays is enough to hold onto your progress.
The mistake Kraken’s trainers see over and over is the all-or-nothing approach. Someone who was training four days a week decides they can’t maintain that, so they drop to zero. The whole point of this strategy is to reject that binary. Some movement is always better than no movement. A 20-minute walk after dinner is better than sitting on the couch with eggnog watching football.
Don’t let bad habits snowball. A couple of missed days doesn’t have to turn into two missed weeks.
2. Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
You know the big dinners are coming. Christmas, New Year’s, holiday parties. They’re on the calendar. So plan around them instead of pretending they won’t happen.
The strategy is straightforward. If you know a big dinner is happening in the evening, front-load your day with protein. Eat lighter meals earlier. Have a high-protein breakfast or lunch so you’re not starving when the turkey and potatoes hit the table. You’re giving yourself a calorie budget for the evening by being intentional about the rest of the day.
And if you do overeat at a big dinner? Don’t panic. Just eat less the next day. You’ll probably wake up not that hungry anyway. Skip breakfast. Have a lighter lunch. Your body is naturally telling you it doesn’t need more fuel right now. Listen to it instead of force-feeding yourself out of routine.
What Kraken’s coaching team actually does with clients is more sophisticated. Starting in early December, they transition clients out of any fat loss phase and slowly increase calories week by week. Think of it like progressive training, but for your metabolism. By the time the holiday week arrives, your body has adjusted to eating more food over time instead of getting slammed with a sudden spike.
The worst move? Crash dieting in November to fit into a dress for New Year’s Eve. Eating 1,200 calories a day and then hitting an unlimited buffet on December 24th. That’s how people gain 10 pounds in a week and end up worse than where they started. A slow, planned increase in calories is always going to beat restriction followed by a binge.
3. Manage Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol is sneaky during the holidays. It’s not just the calories in the drinks themselves. It’s everything that happens after.
Getting drunk once isn’t going to wreck your progress. But drinking on multiple consecutive days? That stacks up fast. The calories compound. Your sleep quality tanks. Your HRV drops and can take a week or two to recover. And when you’re hungover, the first thing your body craves is salt and fat. So now you’re eating a second dinner at 11 PM or waking up and going straight for greasy leftovers.
Kraken’s coaches recommend picking your days. If you’re going to drink, choose specific occasions. Christmas Eve. New Year’s Eve. Maybe one holiday party. Then on those days, stick to one or two drinks. On all the other days, stay at zero. That’s a very different pattern than having “just a couple” every night for two weeks straight.
If you are going to have some drinks, a few things help. Drink earlier in the evening rather than later so your sleep isn’t as disrupted. Hydrate aggressively the next day. And plan for the fact that you’re going to want to eat more the following morning. That’s biology, not weakness. Your body is dehydrated and looking for calories and salt. Knowing that in advance means you can make a better choice about what you reach for.
The real damage from holiday drinking isn’t one big night. It’s the chain reaction. Drinks lead to bad sleep. Bad sleep leads to cravings. Cravings lead to poor food choices. Poor food choices lead to guilt. And guilt leads to more drinks. Break the chain by being intentional about when you drink and when you don’t.
4. Track Something and Stay Consistent
Maintenance is a win. Read that again. If you get through the holidays and you’re the same weight you were going in, that’s a genuine victory. Kraken’s coaches don’t expect clients to make progress through December. They expect them to hold the line.
The single best tool for holding the line is dead simple: step on the scale every morning. That’s it. You don’t need to track macros. You don’t need to log every meal. Just weigh yourself. Because that one number gives you a daily reality check. If you ate a pile of food last night and the scale shows it, you’ll naturally course-correct today. That feedback loop is everything.
The problem most people have is they step on the scale December 1st, then avoid it until mid-January. By then the damage is done and there’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve lost two weeks of data and two weeks of opportunities to make small adjustments.
If you want to track more, great. Log your meals on the days it’s easy and skip the days it’s not. Track your water. Track your steps. The point isn’t perfection. The point is staying connected to your goals so they don’t disappear in a fog of holiday chaos.
The reason this works is psychological. When you’re tracking, you’re present. You’re making conscious choices. When you stop tracking, you slip into autopilot. And autopilot during the holidays means eating whatever’s in front of you and hoping for the best.
Months of progress can disappear in two or three weeks. That’s not an exaggeration. But a daily weigh-in keeps you grounded. It’s not about the number being perfect. It’s about never losing awareness of where you stand.
5. Design Your Holiday Plate
This one is the most practical tip on the list and probably the one that makes the biggest difference at actual holiday meals.
Here’s the approach: build your plate around protein and your favorite foods. Skip everything else. If there’s bread on the table and you can eat bread any day of the year, don’t waste plate space on it. Fill that space with the turkey, the ham, the roast beef. Those are high-protein, nutrient-dense, and they’ll keep you full. Then add small portions of the holiday-specific foods you actually love. Grandma’s stuffing. Your aunt’s special dessert. Whatever actually makes the holidays special for you.
Skip the veggies at the holiday dinner. Seriously. You can eat vegetables tomorrow. Tonight, use that plate real estate for the things you genuinely look forward to all year.
And always plan for dessert. If you have a sweet tooth and you know the pumpkin pie is coming, account for it. Eat a slightly smaller main course so you have room. That’s a much better strategy than eating a huge dinner, telling yourself you won’t have dessert, and then caving and eating three slices because you tried to resist.
The whole philosophy here is enjoyment without destruction. Nobody at Kraken Fitness is telling you to bring a Tupperware container of chicken and broccoli to your family’s Christmas dinner. That’s absurd. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the people. Just be strategic about it. Pick the foods that actually matter to you, prioritize protein, and let go of the stuff you wouldn’t miss.
One more thing: fruitcake is never worth it. That’s not a nutrition tip. That’s just a fact.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much weight do people typically gain over the holidays?
The average ranges from 5 to 15 pounds, depending on how long the holiday period lasts and how far off-track things go. Most of that weight is a combination of excess calories, water retention from higher carb and sodium intake, and reduced physical activity. The good news is that with a few simple strategies, you can get through the season at the same weight you started.
Should I try to lose fat during the holidays?
Kraken’s trainers actually pull clients out of fat loss phases heading into December. Trying to restrict calories while surrounded by holiday food is a recipe for the binge-restrict cycle. A better goal is maintenance. Hold steady through the holidays, then push into fat loss in January when your routine and structure are back. Maintenance through the holidays is a legitimate win.
How much does alcohol affect fitness progress?
More than most people think, and not just because of the calories. Alcohol disrupts sleep quality, drops HRV for up to one to two weeks, increases next-day cravings for salty and fatty food, and lowers your willpower around food choices. The calories in the drinks are actually the smaller problem. The chain reaction of bad sleep, cravings, and poor decisions the next day is where the real damage happens.
What’s the easiest thing to track during the holidays?
Your weight. Step on the scale every morning. It takes five seconds, it keeps you aware of where you stand, and it gives you a daily feedback loop. You don’t need to track macros or log every meal through the holidays. Just that one daily number is enough to prevent the slow drift that turns into a 10-pound surprise in January.
How do I eat healthy at holiday dinners without being that person?
You don’t need to bring your own food or refuse everything on the table. Build your plate around protein first (turkey, ham, roast beef), add small portions of your favorite holiday-specific dishes, and skip the stuff you could eat any day of the year. Plan for dessert by eating a smaller main course. Enjoy the meal. Just be intentional about what goes on the plate.
Ready to Start the New Year Strong?
If the holidays took more than you planned, or if you just want a coach in your corner heading into the new year, Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby offers a free week trial. No commitment. No pressure. Just real coaching to see if it’s the right fit.
Listen to the Full Episode
This blog post is based on Episode 6 of the Kraken Power Podcast: “5 Ways to Stay Dialed In For The Holidays.”
- YouTube: https://youtu.be/Yntydo-LP-Q
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1sj3GJB9hxWUw7HcS5Zg2f?si=rTvSG2KOQ7-UI_PxDCpf6w
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/5-ways-to-stay-dialed-in-for-the-holidays-ep-6/id1769000945?i=1000681245082
About the Authors
Josko Kraken is the founder of Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby near Brentwood, and Brandon is co-owner. Together they co-host the Kraken Power Podcast. Between them, they bring two decades of coaching experience helping everyday people transform their health. Kraken is a coached transformation gym built for non-gym people. No intimidation, no bro-culture, no “just eat less and move more.” Just real coaching, real nutrition programming, and a system that actually works for people who’ve never felt at home in a gym.
Josko: Yo, what’s going on guys welcome back to the Kraken Power Podcast. We’re your hosts Josko and Brandon and in today’s episode we’re gonna be talking about how not to ruin your progress over the holidays. And we’re gonna give you five actionable items that you can do to not end up being like one of those North Americans who gains 5, 10, or 15 pounds throughout the holidays.
Brandon: Let’s roll the intro. Welcome back. So everyone can relate to this because this happens every single year. The holidays are here. Obviously, it’s a happy time. Everyone wants to get together with their family, everyone wants to celebrate, but everyone knows that this is a time of the year which is hard to stay on your goals. And inevitably a lot of people end up putting on a lot of weight because of the festivities, the extra food, you being off of work and you having less structure in your life. So this is what leads to a lot of people falling off the train and becoming one of those New Year’s Resolutioners where like mid-January you’re looking around and being like what has just happened? It was only like two or three weeks ago where I was getting really good progress in the gym and completely fell off and I’m looking for a complete new start.
So in this episode today we’re gonna teach you five actionable items to stay on track and make sure you’re mitigating all those losses that you would normally have. So I’m gonna bring up number one. Number one is gonna be a simple one right, we start off nice and easy. Number one is gonna be making sure that you are incorporating fitness into your holiday activities. And we’re not just saying like, okay, yeah, you’re gonna go outside and you’re gonna swing kettlebells in the snow, right? We’re saying hey, you’re gonna be doing already like a lot of Christmas activities. Like one really easy way to incorporate your walks is going out for a walk with the family and watching Christmas lights. That way you can enjoy the Christmas holidays, the festivities with everyone, and you’re still getting in those steps.
Josko: So in the past what I would do is I would say like I’m gonna work out five days a week and this time for sure I’m not gonna gain any weight or anything like that. And then what would end up happening is I don’t work out for two days and three days and then I’m like, screw it, and then it ends up just, I end up not working out at all and then I’m gaining a bunch of weight. So that’s what happens to me and it’s because I’ve set such a high bar for myself and then when I can’t do it, I have like this “screw it” mentality. And I know that a lot of people can relate to that as well because everybody always thinks that they can do so much and then when it comes down to it, they realize just how hard it actually is to just continue working out at the same rate or continue dieting at the same rate.
And that’s why with our clients we actually backtrack a little bit throughout the holidays and we say hey, we’re not gonna be going into fat loss phases right now. Like, bad idea. Even though some clients go like, I’m gonna keep doing it, it’s like no, just give yourself a little bit of a break. And yeah, still continue exercising but don’t think that you’re gonna be exercising at the same capacity as you were throughout the entire year.
Brandon: Like most people are off. But like say it’s snowing outside, you shoveling snow for an hour is definitely a really good way to get your energy up. It’s definitely a way you can strengthen your back and your leg muscles while being very productive at the same time. Just being able to go and sled in the snow with your kids or build a snowman and stuff like that. You’re doing exercise realistically. So if you can kind of plan those things in your day rather than just sitting on the couch drinking eggnog and watching football, you’re still gonna get some kind of gains or at least mitigate all the extra food and calories that you’re going to usually have.
Josko: Yeah for sure. And then also sprinkle in some real workouts in there. Maybe you’re not gonna work out on Christmas Eve, Christmas. But Boxing Day, plan for a morning workout. Even though you have a day off, go to the gym, get a good workout, use up all those calories. And therefore you’re gonna still keep the ball rolling throughout the entire holidays as opposed to just going to nothing.
Brandon: So one could say don’t let your bad habits snowball. All right, so if we’re moving on to number two, I mean you’ve kind of touched base on this a little bit. Number two is going to be making sure you’re planning your meals ahead of time. And now what we mean by this is, you know when your big dinners are gonna be happening, right? So give yourself some leeway. Like Christmas Day, you’re gonna have a huge dinner. Usually typically with most families get together you have the big roast beef, you have the ham, you have the gravy and the potatoes and everything, right? But in the morning, you have a little more free time and you have time to actually schedule things yourself. So this is where you can front-load your day with protein. You can make sure that you’re still mitigating a lot of the calories you’re gonna get later in the day by not overloading yourself throughout.
Josko: So if you know that you’re having a really big meal that day, you should be cutting back throughout the day coming up to that big meal. So that’s something that I incorporate a lot as well. And then also if you overate significantly on one day, you can under-eat the next day as well. And I’m not saying starve yourself or anything, but you’re probably gonna wake up not that hungry because you ate so much. Just skip breakfast. You’re not that hungry, so why should you be shoveling food into your face first thing in the morning after having a massive meal the night before? Just making sure that you bring down calories so that you can have more calories later on in the evening.
Brandon: Yeah, totally. And then hopefully this podcast hits your ears by early December because what we do with a lot of our clients here is we actually bring all of our clients out of their fat loss phase just momentarily to give them a little bit more flexibility because we know that’s gonna happen. But week after week what we’re trying to do with our clients is give them a little bit more calories each and every week. Just kind of like progressive training in the gym, you’re kind of feeding your metabolism over time. Like every week adding like one or two hundred more calories so by the time you actually reach the holiday week, your body’s acclimated slowly over time to eating more and more calories rather than having a big jump on the big holidays themselves.
Josko: Yeah, like a lot of people end up wanting to do a fat loss phase or something right before the holidays. They’re like eating 1,200 calories so that they can fit in a dress for New Year’s and things like that. And then they end up like December 24th all the way to New Year’s just gorging on food and then gaining a bunch of weight and not being able to fit in the dress anyway. But if you had a plan where you were eating more and more and more, then by then you probably wouldn’t have gained so much weight because your body’s just accustomed to it.
But the very next one is actually managing alcohol consumption, which is very important as well. So I don’t drink any alcohol whatsoever, and I don’t feel like there’s a need to, especially even during the holidays. But it is something that’s gonna affect you a lot, especially if you’re having a massive meal and then you’re also having some wine and maybe some beers, then obviously you’re gonna be gaining weight. So bringing down alcohol consumption and just being wary of that, sticking to maybe maximum one to two drinks in an evening would be ideal, but even more ideal than that would be to just go down to zero.
Brandon: Say you are going to indulge in a few drinks. We do have a few strategies in which you can kind of again mitigate some of the progress loss. So one of them could be, have your alcoholic drinks a little bit earlier in the day if you’re gonna do that. You’re going to not affect your sleep as much. That’s also gonna give you a little bit more time to hydrate throughout the day. And also what we always recommend to all of our clients is the days after you binging or drinking any kind of alcohol, you’re making sure you’re flushing all that out by hydrating for the days to come. Because you know, I’ve seen my Oura Ring stats and my HRV doesn’t quite reach those optimal levels for at least like another week or two. And so we’re making sure that we’re doing some kind of hydration protocol after to make sure we’re bringing that faster back up to pace.
Josko: Yeah for sure. And I think that it’s not that getting drunk is the reason why you’re gaining a bunch of weight. It’s because you’ve been drinking all throughout the entire holidays. So picking and choosing which days you’re gonna actually drink and making sure that on those days you keep the alcohol at a reasonable level.
Brandon: Yeah, that’s a good point. So it is like you’re drinking many consecutive days in a row, but it’s also the choices you make when you’ve had a few drinks too, right? So I like to, if I’m gonna drink, it’s like I’m like okay, it’s only gonna be like Christmas, it’s only gonna be New Year’s Eve, and then limiting them out rather than being like, I drank yesterday, yeah, okay, I might as well have another one today.
Josko: But also, going back, one of the other points that you made, you have to be careful with your sleep as well. Because if you’re feeling hungover in the morning, most likely you’re gonna be right away looking for something fatty and salty as soon as you wake up because you’re trying to hydrate and you’re trying to get calories in. And so salt is the best way to do it. And so that’s why people tend to want to snack on things that are salty, and then you end up having just like another dinner for the morning.
Brandon: Another dinner at like 11 or 1 AM in the morning.
Josko: Yeah, or like when you wake up in the morning just having like eggs and salty foods in the morning, leftovers. Exactly. But yeah, so that’s another reason why you want to cut down the alcohol consumption. It does make you eat a little bit more.
But then number four is just making sure that you’re staying consistent throughout the holiday. Just not forgetting about your goals is massive, right? So a lot of people, yeah sure, you’ve done such a great job throughout the entire year. But you can easily ruin months of progress in just a couple weeks. Easily. And just going back and just remembering like hey, why am I doing this, and just staying consistent throughout it. And then maybe one day you step on the scale throughout the holidays, like let’s say December 26 comes along, you step on the scale and you’re like holy crap, I gained three pounds. Like you should be looking yourself in the mirror being like no, I’m gonna dial it back a little bit over the next couple days and just get back into it.
Brandon: Yeah. And I think you made a really good point there with stepping on the scale. And all we really ask our clients to do is track to some extent. So we’re not asking our clients to track their macros or calories, proteins, carbs and fats throughout the entire holidays, right? Like a bare minimum, what you can do to track is just step on the scale every morning. Because you doing that, you’re gonna have your own initial and internal reaction to the past night’s activities and what your choices that you made, and that will hopefully help shape the ones that you’re gonna do the next day.
However, if you are like a lot of people and you step on the scale at the beginning of the month and then you step on the scale halfway into January, sometimes, or not sometimes, a lot of people are gonna be very shocked at what happened. And you don’t have that leeway or you don’t have that time for intervention to correct those things for the next day if you do it in that circumstance.
Josko: Like if you can track something, just track it. Whether it’s your weight, whether it’s maybe even tracking your food on most of the days and just skipping a couple. If you can track it, just do it. And if it’s not that burdensome for you, you should always just be tracking something to some capacity. And so the easiest thing to do is just track your weight. And it’s gonna be the thing that’s gonna just ground you, put you back into reality every single day and be like, okay, so this is the damage I’m doing.
Brandon: Yeah, totally. And I think that during this period, I think maintenance should be considered a win. Right, like if you’re stepping on the scale and you’re tracking something, don’t be down on yourself if your weight is maintaining or you go up maybe like one pound. Right, the next day, it’s like that’s a win. If you get through the holidays and you didn’t, you gained maybe like one pound, and you were able to completely enjoy yourself and you weren’t able to limit yourself and you were still able to maintain that, and now you’re switched on where you can conquer things early January. That’s a huge win.
Josko: A huge win for our clients. A huge win that you can take home at the end of it all too. So the last one here is, we kind of talked about it, but it’s how you should be designing your meals. The actual meal itself when you’re going out. And I think this is gonna be probably the most important thing for a lot of people because people end up just overdoing it.
So simply put, the best way that I found designing my meals is just to pick my favorite foods. Don’t have anything I don’t like. As crazy as that sounds, I’m not gonna, just because there’s bread, I’m not gonna eat bread because I can eat bread every single day of the year. If there’s things that I can have basically throughout the year, I’m not gonna eat it. Anything that’s fun and special will be on my plate. But also I’m going to stick to the proteins. So I’m gonna have a big portion of protein because I know that’s gonna make me feel full, that’s gonna be good for obviously muscle growth and things like that as well. But then I’m gonna skip the veggies completely and I’m gonna have just my favorite foods and just a little bit of them. So that’s personally what I do and I find that it works really well for me because the entire meal just hits the spot.
Brandon: Yeah, I always say that Thanksgiving and Christmas Day dinners are ones that you can totally do clean. Like it’s not so much, think like, I’m sure there’s lots of things available. But if you are able to choose exactly what is high in protein, a little bit lower in calories, or at least nutrient-dense, they are readily available in all of those dinners. It’s not like they’re devoid of that and it’s like oh, there’s nothing else I can eat and there’s only Brussels sprouts here. There’s usually turkey, there’s usually some kind of ham, there’s usually some kind of roast beef where that’s very high in protein and very nutrient-dense that you can focus most of your meal on.
Josko: Yeah, exactly. And then from there always keep in mind that there’s dessert coming up. Always. And if you are somebody who has a sweet tooth and you’re gonna end up eating it, then just make sure that you’re planning your meal with that in mind. You know, if you’re going to eat it, then have a smaller meal so that you can have a little bit more dessert. And as you can tell, we’re not telling you to just completely stay strict and just chicken and broccoli, bring your own food, right? You have to enjoy your holidays. But at the same time just don’t let it completely consume you and then ruin all your progress. So that’s the key takeaway.
And what every single year that I’ve implemented this strategy, I’ve come out of it not gaining any weight whatsoever. And then there were years in the past for me where I’ve gained literally 10 pounds over the holidays just because I had a “screw it” mentality. So hopefully these strategies are gonna help you out for these holidays.
Do you have anything else you want to add, Brandon?
Brandon: Yeah, just to add, it’s like just remember: fruitcake sucks. It’s not worth ruining your goals. Everyone gives fruitcake to another person when you get it.
Josko: Yeah, it’s not worth it. And then also the same thing with little chocolates and stuff is just not worth it either, especially because you can just sit there and eat like 20 Purdy’s chocolates and you’re looking at the box after, you’re like holy crap, 4,000 calories. But yeah, hopefully you guys have a great holiday season. Enjoy, indulge, but not too much. All right, we’ll see you.