What Happens to Your Body the Day After Thanksgiving

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By Ghuman

Introduction

Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, and of course, food. But what happens to your body the day after Thanksgiving? After a day of indulging in delicious food, your body may be feeling the effects. From bloating to fatigue, the day after Thanksgiving can be a difficult one. In this article, we’ll explore what happens to your body the day after Thanksgiving and how to cope with the aftermath. We’ll look at the physical and mental effects of overeating, as well as how to get back on track with healthy eating habits.

What Happens to Your Body the Day After Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, and of course, food. But after all the feasting, your body may be feeling the effects of overindulgence. From bloating to fatigue, here’s what happens to your body the day after Thanksgiving.

1. Bloating

Thanksgiving is a time for indulging in all your favorite dishes, but it can also lead to bloating. Eating too much can cause your stomach to expand, leading to uncomfortable bloating and gas. To help reduce bloating, try drinking plenty of water and avoiding carbonated beverages.

2. Fatigue

After a big meal, it’s common to feel tired and sluggish. This is because your body is working hard to digest all the food you’ve eaten. To help combat fatigue, try to get some exercise and get plenty of rest.

3. Heartburn

Eating too much can also lead to heartburn. This is because the stomach is overfilled, causing the acid to back up into the esophagus. To help reduce heartburn, try avoiding spicy and fatty foods, and eating smaller meals throughout the day.

4. Dehydration

Alcohol is often a part of Thanksgiving celebrations, and it can lead to dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it causes your body to lose more water than it takes in. To help combat dehydration, drink plenty of water and avoid alcohol.

5. Weight Gain

Thanksgiving is a time for indulging, but it can also lead to weight gain. Eating too much can cause your body to store extra calories as fat. To help avoid weight gain, try to stick to healthy portion sizes and get plenty of exercise.

Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating with family and friends, but it can also take a toll on your body. From bloating to fatigue, these are some of the effects of overindulging on Thanksgiving. To help your body recover, try to drink plenty of water, get some exercise, and get plenty of rest.

You get up the morning after the beloved Turkey Day, you would possibly discover one thing about you feels slightly off. You could really feel like you will have a headache or you could even really feel a bit bloated. So, what’s it precisely that occurs to your physique the day after Thanksgiving?

We referred to as on three of our most trusted registered dietitians to present us a couple of explanation why you could not really feel too nice the day after the feast. You are not alone—it is a very actual factor that occurs!

Listed here are 10 doable issues that would occur to your physique after overeating on Thanksgiving. And as you attempt to get again on observe, check out any of the 21 Greatest Wholesome Cooking Hacks of All Time.

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Have you ever ever woken up in the course of the evening after a day of ingesting or consuming quite a lot of sodium-filled meals reminiscent of meat supreme pizza? The identical can occur the evening following an enormous Thanksgiving feast.

“Possibly you downed a couple of glasses of cider and water through the large meal, however [does] your mouth really feel just like the Sahara Desert afterward?” asks Patricia Bannan, MS, RDN, nationally acknowledged nutritionist and wholesome cooking knowledgeable. “Consuming numerous salty meals, reminiscent of stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy, can depart you feeling not solely puffy and bloated, however [also] extraordinarily thirsty.”

The answer? Be sure you regularly hydrate all through the day in order that you do not disrupt your sleep, and drink loads of water the day after as nicely.

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“After we eat, our abdomen produces hydrochloric acid to assist with digestion. Nonetheless, consuming giant quantities of meals without delay causes excessive quantities of acid to be produced that may find yourself making their solution to the esophagus, inflicting heartburn,” explains Kelli McGrane, MS, RD for meals monitoring app Lose It!

Fats is harder for the physique to interrupt digest, and consequently, meals which can be increased in fats usually tend to trigger heartburn or acid reflux disorder.

The answer? Watch your fats consumption on the day of Thanksgiving. A meal-tracking app can assist you monitor how a lot fats you’ve got consumed, which can encourage you to skip that further piece of pie.

RELATED: The simple solution to make more healthy consolation meals.

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Sydney Greene, MS, RD, factors out that Thanksgiving might be laborious for these with dietary restrictions, particularly meals intolerances.

“Household and mates can have one of the best intentions, however until we make dietary restrictions or meals guidelines explicitly clear, we will not anticipate a dish to be devoid of the set off,” she says.

Many boxed meals reminiscent of stuffing and gravy mixes comprise synthetic and processed elements which can be derived from sources of gluten and dairy. Two such elements embody sodium caseinate and malt flavoring. In case your physique is not used to gluten or dairy or it rejects it, this could result in gastrointestinal misery adopted by a number of journeys to the toilet. Plus, consuming these meals you often keep away from—not to mention overeating them—simply spells hassle on your abdomen.

The answer? Come to dinner with a couple of of your personal lined dishes.

“Providing to deliver your personal selfmade dishes is a superb service to the host, and retains your GI system secure,” says Greene.

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Bannan says that whereas the amino acid in turkey referred to as tryptophan is usually responsible for post-meal fatigue, it truly might not be the only purpose you are feeling prepared for a nap after a big Thanksgiving dinner.

“Consuming an enormous meal, particularly one excessive in carbohydrates, takes quite a lot of vitality for the physique to course of,” she says. “Blood is redirected from different areas of the physique to the digestive system to work on breaking down the massive meal, which might result in fatigue.”

To not point out, consuming quite a lot of meals full of easy carbohydrates reminiscent of sugary meals like pecan pie and cheesecake may cause your blood sugar to spike, which in fact will finally result in a crash and trigger you to really feel prepared for a nap.

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We hate to say it, however it’s the reality.

“Once you overeat, digestion slows and your abdomen expands to accommodate the meals, which pushes in your different organs. In consequence, you could really feel gassy, bloated, and that your garments are too tight,” says McGrane.

Nausea, belly discomfort, and fatigue can even all be attributable to indigestion. One of the simplest ways to keep away from it’s to be sure to eat slowly throughout Thanksgiving dinner and pay cautious consideration whenever you really feel full.

“In spite of everything, you’ll be able to all the time eat extra later if you happen to get hungry once more,” she provides.

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“Refined carbohydrates embody meals constituted of white flour and sugar. When grains have been stripped of their fibrous and nutrient-dense outer layer in processing, all that’s left is a carbohydrate serving devoid of vitamin,” says Greene. “These extremely processed carbs trigger a spike in blood sugar and a cascade of insulin to choose up the sugar and convey ranges again down.”

It is this speedy rise and fall of blood sugar that happens all through a heavy Thanksgiving dinner that, through the evening whereas sleeping, triggers the discharge of epinephrine. Greene says epinephrine is a hormone that may trigger speedy coronary heart fee, sweating, and shakiness. In consequence, your sleep is disrupted and you could really feel on edge or perhaps a tad bit anxiety-ridden the following day.

“Purpose to replenish the following day with numerous contemporary greens, lean proteins, and wholesome fat, and skip the leftover bread and sweets,” she says.

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There’s one other approach Thanksgiving dinner can negatively have an effect on your sleep and that is by overeating.

“Your physique has a circadian clock that controls not solely your sleep cycles, but in addition the pure rise and fall of starvation hormones,” explains McGrane. “Once you overeat, you disrupt this pure rhythm, which might negatively have an effect on your sleep high quality that evening.”

Once more, the best way to forestall this situation is to be aware of starvation cues and portion sizes.

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“Consuming a salt-heavy meal, not ingesting sufficient water, and having a couple of alcoholic drinks can depart you with a pounding headache, even with out the hangover,” says Bannan. “Excessive quantities of salt in a brief time frame can contribute to increased blood stress, and alcohol can also be a diuretic. The mixture of each can contribute to complications in some.”

The answer? Drink loads of water all through the day, together with on the dinner desk, in addition to after dinner. As a substitute of going for that further glass of crimson wine post-meal, go for a glass of ice-cold water.

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Greene says that one generic field of stuffing accommodates 5,300 milligrams of sodium, which is greater than double the really useful 2,300 milligrams one ought to eat at most every day.

“This may not be an issue if the stuffing was unfold throughout the 12 servings the field makes, however most dinner visitors eat approach a couple of serving,” she says. “The overconsumption of sodium, coupled with alcoholic drinks, is a recipe for dehydration and water retention.”

A trick to keep away from this? Greene suggests consuming a minimal of half of your physique weight in ounces of water all through Thanksgiving day and on Black Friday. So, for instance, if you happen to weigh 160 kilos, you’d goal to drink 80 ounces in water, or about 10 glasses of water each days.

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This appears a bit backward, proper? Effectively, this is the scenario. Once you overeat, your physique goes into additional time to digest the surplus energy, and the following day it might probably really feel exhausted. Fatigue then alerts starvation, and what lends fast vitality? Carbs, in fact, as a result of they’re probably the most simply digested. Carbs start digesting as quickly as they hit your mouth by an enzyme within the saliva referred to as amylase. Fats and protein, however, do not really start to interrupt down till they attain the small gut and the abdomen, respectively.

So, you’ll be able to see that there is a lot happening whenever you overeat on a meals vacation like Thanksgiving!

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