Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and we all know what that means: delicious foods like roast or fried turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, and whatever other delectable sides and desserts your family and friends decide to bring to the feast on Thursday.

For dieters and weight loss seekers, Thanksgiving can be a difficult time of the year – a time of restraint and temptation when those around you are pigging out, seemingly without any detrimental consequences. The good news is that you do not have to sacrifice any a specific flavor at your holiday feasts this season, so long as you are willing to moderate your portion sizes. Following a few simple Thanksgiving portion control tips and strategies will make this a breeze, and take the guilt out of what should be a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

Approaches to Controlling Portions and Calories During Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving Holiday, as with many holiday events that are celebrated, often center around eating, drinking, and in many cases overindulging. However, celebrating the various holiday events need not be a time of concern and stress for individuals that are on fairly stringent health and fitness routine or even a weight loss program. Below are 10 tips that are designed to help make your Thanksgiving holiday season a little more enjoyable.

1. Satisfy your appetite with vegetables

Cooked veggies are extremely efficient for filling up because they’re low in calories by serving size. A half cup or cooked cauliflower is just 15 calories, while the same serving of carrots or broccoli is worth 30. Just be careful of rich cream and butter-based sauces, which will increase the caloric value of each serving rapidly.

2. Think of a deck of cards when dishing up your turkey

A serving of turkey measuring that size will pack 145 calories for dark meat, 132 calories for white meat with skin, and just 119 calories for white meat without skin.

3. Don’t spill the gravy – onto your plate, that is

With at least 50 calories per quarter-cup, gravy is one of the trademark pitfalls of Thanksgiving portion control. Use a small spoon to dish it up instead of a large ladle and you’ll be less likely to overindulge. Remember, a little goes a long way in the flavor and moisture department.

4. Go easy on the mashed potatoes

At 145 calories per half-cup serving, more depending on how much cream and butter have been added to the mash, a huge helping of mashed potatoes is one way to ruin your weight loss efforts for the day. A half-cup serving is approximately the size of half a tennis ball.

5. Less butter is better

Think twice before slathering butter on your roll or potatoes. A one-teaspoon serving, which is about the size of a single six-sided die, is worth 36 calories. If you’re preparing potatoes or cooked vegetables, skip the butter entirely and go for lower-calorie flavorings such as roasted garlic or chicken broth.

6. Opt for homemade stuffing

The store-bought variety contains about 180 calories per serving, even more than an equally sized serving of mashed potatoes. There are plenty of ways to reduce the calorie count if you decide to make it yourself, such as by replacing some or all of the bread with wild rice, mixing in plenty of chopped vegetables such as celery, carrots, squash, mushrooms and onions, and using less butter or oil than what the recipe calls for. Using whole grain bread instead of white bread is a great way to make the stuffing more filling, satisfying and health-positive.

7. Fill up with a hearty side salad

A full cup of salad is worth 100 to 150 calories, making it an excellent option for satiating your hunger during a Thanksgiving meal. However, you can expect the calorie count to rise quite rapidly once you figure in toppings such as dried fruit, nuts and dressing. Opt for a low-fat dressing, but be sure to check the sugar content. Many low-fat dressings pack a ton of sugar in order to compensate for a deficit in fat.

8. Limit cornbread and rolls to just a taste

Although it may be tempting to reach for a second helping of cornbread as you work your way through a holiday feast, your waistline may complain. That’s because a single serving of cornbread, about the size of a small bar of soap, packs a staggering 175 calories. Adding even a teaspoon of butter will launch that number to 211 calories.

9. Try cranberry jello instead of cranberry sauce

Just a quarter-cup of cranberry sauce, equivalent to the size of a standard golf ball, boasts 105 calories. That’s unfortunate, considering that cranberry sauce is another food that can tempt you to reach for a second helping. As an alternative, eat sugar-free cranberry gelatin instead. It’s virtually guilt-free at just 10 calories per cup.

10. Save calories for dessert

If you do a good job of moderating your portions and consciously navigating through the spread of main courses and side dishes, you can reward yourself with a slice of festive pie before calling a wrap on your Thanksgiving dinner. Be careful though, as a single slice of apple pie is worth about 300 calories. Pumpkin pie is similar at 323 calories. Coming in at a truly indulgent level is pecan pie, packing a whopping 456 calories per slice.

A “slice,” in this case, is defined as one piece of a 9-inch pie cut into 8 pieces.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make pie healthier and lower-calorie without sacrificing much (if any) flavor:

• Trade the traditional pie crust for one mainly consisting of whole wheat.

• Replace the evaporated milk called for in the recipe with skim milk.

• Cut sugar by up to one-third.

• Avoid toppings such as caramel sauce and whipped cream.

Thanksgiving Portion Control: The Bottom Line

Since virtually everything on a typical Thanksgiving menu aside from salad and roasted vegetables contains a high amount of calories, the key to indulging in a delicious holiday feast without packing on the pounds is portion control.

There’s no shame in fixing a smaller plate, even if the rest of your loved ones are loading up on all of the higher-calorie items. You can apply this same logic to all of your meals as a way of achieving ongoing weight loss success.