Holiday meals can be filled with delicious but calorie-dense foods that can derail your healthy eating goals. In this episode, Dr. Jordan and Dr. Williams break down why weight gain often happens during the holiday season and provide practical tips to help you enjoy holiday gatherings without the added pounds. From the science behind insulin response to specific holiday plate strategies, this episode offers listeners a roadmap to eating well while staying on track.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• Why holiday foods lead to weight gain
  • The social and historical reasons we gravitate towards heavy, carb- and fat-rich foods.
  • How traditional holiday foods trigger insulin spikes, leading the body to store fat.
• How carbs, fats, and proteins affect the body differently
  • Why carbs spike insulin levels, setting up the “fat storage” mode.
  • How protein can help stabilize blood sugar and dampen insulin spikes.
  • The role of fats as a calorie-dense energy source and how they fit into the holiday meal equation.
• Practical holiday eating tips
  • Balance carbs with protein to manage insulin response and avoid fat storage mode.
  • Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast to prevent overeating later.
  • Use smaller plates to control portions and manage your calorie intake.
  • Eat dessert within one hour of your meal to manage blood sugar effectively, and add a protein to balance your insulin response.
• Why intentional eating matters year-round
  • How to apply these holiday eating strategies to everyday meals to maintain or lose weight effectively.
  • The importance of balancing calories and hormonal responses to avoid long-term weight gain.

Dr. Jordan and Dr. Williams emphasize that with a few mindful adjustments, it’s possible to enjoy holiday meals and stay on track with health goals. Whether you’re looking to maintain your current weight or simply avoid the typical holiday weight gain, this episode equips you with tools to eat intentionally and enjoyably throughout the season.

Follow us on the web: https://billingslastdiet.com

Follow Billings Last Diet on socials:
Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

 

#emotionaleating #weightlosstips #BillingsLastDiet #sustainableweightlosstips #mindfuleating #healthyhabits #dietprogram #idealprotein #healthylifestyle

Intro 0:00

Dr. Jordan 0:06
Welcome to another episode of our Last Diet Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about eating for the holidays, what the holidays look like, and some tips and tricks you can use to make sure that the holidays don’t stick with you through the whole year. I’m here with Dr Williams, with Billings Last Diet, and I’m Dr Jordan, so let’s get into it. Dr Williams, looking at this time of year, a lot of people have concerns about diet, about weight. They’re starting to look forward to new year’s right, trying to think of that resolution as it comes up. I always bring up the note that the average American will gain about eight pounds from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. So today we’re going to talk a little bit how they can avoid those eight pounds and really put themselves in a position for success during this time of year. So let’s talk a little bit about why it’s so difficult for people now. You know, November, December, January, to lose weight.

Dr. Williams 1:05
Well, there’s a there are several different reasons. One, one that comes to mind right off the bat is that with the holidays comes the natural social side of food, where we’re gathering together for for Thanksgiving, we’re gathering together for work parties. We’re gathering together as friends. And so there’s a lot of food involved with those gatherings. The foods that we eat this time of the year tend to be the heavier foods as well. And so rather than having fresh vegetables and fresh fruit that we would generally eat during the summer time, we go to the heavier foods that are have the fattier foods, so and that has a tendency to put on more weight.

Dr. Jordan 1:49
I’ve thought about this too, just historically speaking, right? You have harvest time, right? Everybody’s starting to preserve their fruits and vegetables and starting to get that well, we’re starting in those colder months, and you don’t have that fresh fruit anymore, so now you’re eating heavier preserved, even if it’s naturally preserved. And what doesn’t go bad as quickly, flour, sugar, butter. So you’re baking more, you’re getting these heavier, starchier, just more carb heavy. And then naturally you’re going to put on more weight as well. And so I just was thinking about that the other day, about how, you know, typically, in the summertime, you have your fresh salad, you’re eating those, you know, nice greens. Well, we don’t have that opportunity. At least, historically, didn’t have the opportunity during this time of year. So I think just as a tradition, we’ve put on in these colder months, traditionally, people bake goods and give them and share them with each other, as a sign of, you know, love or that they care about them. Well, maybe that’s not the best thing we should be sharing with each other.

Dr. Williams 2:47
Right, and we, as we go into the winter months, our bodies naturally want to store fat to begin with. There’s couple reasons for that. There’s insulation involved in that fat, but it’s also extra, extra calories to where, if we do, in the past, we had a shortage of calories during the summer, during the winter time, where we don’t this time of this time of life, we and we can have access to those fresh fruits and vegetables, but we tend to crave and to go more to the comfort foods during that during that period of time. So I think that’s that’s one of the reasons that we we tend to put on extra weight.

Dr. Jordan 3:27
And we mentioned just a little bit those carb heavy foods, right? So when we’re talking about just food in general, help us understand how food works, how, why are carbs not going to help us as much. And we talk about Billings Last Diet we we have the Ideal Protein protocol, which is more protein heavy. So, so help us walk through that. Why would that be more important?

Dr. Williams 3:53
So our carbohydrates that we consume, they it provides a quick energy for the body, and so it’s the body’s easiest energy source. So the problem with the carbohydrate, though, is the carbohydrates, because it’s a quick energy source the body utilizes, or turns it into energy fast. So when you eat sugar, a simple carb, a very simple carb insulin spikes pulls that sugar out of your blood and puts it instantly into the cell. And so that’s why we get that energy spike when we have sugar. But it doesn’t last very long, and so it crashes pretty quick. So when you have an abundance of food, lots of carbs, lots of breads, grains, and you consume a lot of them. Your body, your insulin level, or your blood glucose levels go up. Your insulin level really spikes then, and the body says, “boy, there must be a lot of energy available”. Insulin then turns on fat manufacturing mode and says there’s a lot of energy available. I’m not sure how long I’m going to have this extra energy, so let’s store as much as we can for future use that’s called fat manufacturing mode. So insulin turns on fat manufacturing load, right? So those carbohydrates and and then what do you call it when you put a carbohydrate and a fat together?

Dr. Jordan 5:32
Delicious, right?

Dr. Williams 5:33
Delicious. That’s yummy. And so what happens is, you get the insulin spike with the carbohydrate, but then you have the all the extra calories that are involved with the fat. Now you’ve got the perfect time to store fat, and so we have to be careful when we’re consuming all the carbohydrates mixed with the fats to not spike the insulin levels. And that’s really where the key for being careful through the holidays so that you don’t gain those eight additional pounds is you need to be aware of how your body works with the hormones and the foods you eat. Insulin has to be controlled.

Dr. Jordan 6:13
No, absolutely. So what you’re telling me is this, this one pound of fat. This isn’t really the enemy, right? What is so this is just extra calories that we’ve consumed, and our body, because it’s protecting ourselves, is saying we might need this later, store it for future use, right, right? And so when we consume over, consume calories and they’re simple carbohydrates that are just quick sources of energy. What happens those blood the glucose level rises, and then the insulin rises. Then it happens to our blood sugar. It drops quickly because we’ve absorbed the energy right right now we store source some energy, and then we’re hungry again, and we go through that cycle of hunger. So especially this time of year, people get bored, right? You’re inside. We’re in Montana, it gets cold and it gets snowy, and you’re not using energy as much. You’re you’re in your house, you’re not doing physical activity as much. And so you get in this cycle of, well, I’m bored. I just need to eat food. My friends just gave me a pumpkin pie. So you kind of eat through that cycle. You gain extra calories. You eat, you gain calories, but you’re never actually using those calories, and you store that fat.

Dr. Williams 7:33
Very true. And we just went through Daylight Savings Time and and so now it gets dark, 5:35, 5 o’clock, and it’s it’s dark in the morning. And so without those daylight hours, we tend to be not as active as you mentioned. And so that’s a kind of a perfect storm as well. We’re craving the heavier foods, the fattier foods, along with the carbohydrates, and we’re not burning as much energy, and so it gets stored for future use.

Dr. Jordan 8:06
So we’ve talked a little bit about carbs and fats, and the other macro in there would be protein. So let’s talk a little bit about what macros are and why. I mean, anybody listening has probably heard at least of those three macros. What do those actually mean? Why do we, why do we isolate those three words to talk about food?

Dr. Williams 8:28
So much so maybe to explain macro. Macro stands for macronutrient. Micro. Macro is big. Micro is small. A micro nutrient would be like vitamins and minerals. A macronutrient is a larger energy source, so carbs proteins and fats and so carbohydrates and proteins and fats all serve as an energy source, but they’re not all equal in its energy source. There’s more calories in a fat, and then there isn’t a carb or a protein, and how fast that energy utilized is very different as well how it’s used and how it’s used, yeah, so a protein, when you eat a protein, it burns, I like to say a lot, like a briquette or a piece of charcoal. It’s a slow, long term burn of energy. A carbohydrate burns like a flash in the pan. It’s a fast release of energy, and then it’s gone. Fats are similar to a protein. It’s a longer burn. So they are not all created equal. The other thing that is different between those macros of carbs, proteins and fats is how the body reacts when you consume those we don’t generally consume just a carbohydrate or just a protein or just a fat, but to understand how to, um, control the body’s physiological response of whether we’re burning fat, storing fat, or staying the same we I think it’s, it’s beneficial to look at what happens when we eat just a carbohydrate, yeah, what happens when you eat just a protein, or what happens when you eat just a fat, so I’ll use, for an example, a piece of candy, a piece of beef, which is primarily protein, or a stick of butter or fat.

Dr. Jordan 10:34
Okay

Dr. Williams 10:35
So when you eat just a carbohydrate, as you mentioned before, your blood sugar levels spike really fast. But the primary thing we want to concentrate on, on maintaining weight or losing weight or gaining weight, is what happens to the hormones. When you eat just a carbohydrate, your insulin spikes fast. When you eat just a protein, and it’s a balance of hormones. It’s the other hormone is glucagon, which is a little technical, but hormones work this way. One hormone causes one thing to happen, and the other hormone causes another thing to happen. And when they’re balanced, then we get normal physiological response. Well, when you eat just a carbohydrate, you get an imbalance in hormones. Glucagon stays low, insulin goes high. Your body shifts into fat storage mode. When you’re when you eat just a protein, you get a balanced hormonal response. So your body stays pretty homeostatic, right? It’s not storing fat, it’s not it’s not burning fat. When you eat just a fat, there’s not a lot of hormonal response to the consumption of the fat.

Dr. Jordan 11:49
So I’m understanding carb spikes your insulin

Dr. Williams 11:54
Your insulin

Dr. Jordan 11:55
your insulin levels, protein spikes your glucagon, or the opposite of insulin and a fat kind of neutralizes, really, no major effect. Is that, right?

Dr. Williams 12:06
Yes.

Dr. Jordan 12:07
So how is that gonna come into play when we start talking about eating, especially during the holiday season, when we have good turkey which is a high protein, and then dump a lot of gravy on that turkey which is a high fat so how does that play into that holiday season, what we’re eating?

Dr. Williams 12:26
So if you want to maintain your weight, so I’ll say this, the reality is, there aren’t a lot of people that really want to lose weight through the holidays. Sure, they might say they want to lose weight, but they really want to have the holiday experience, the social and the food.

Dr. Jordan 12:46
So they want to eat their cake and have it too, right?

Dr. Williams 12:51
Yes. So if you, if you want to, your a realistic goal would be not to gain that extra eight pounds. And so how can I still enjoy the holidays and not gain weight? That’s what eating for the holidays is all about, and it is. What do you do with your macros? How do you take your carbs and your proteins and fats? What you’re gonna have all of those during the holiday meal? How do you eat those appropriately, so that you don’t set your body into fat storage mode, and the key is combining those foods appropriately. Okay, so insulin causes a big spike. Protein actually is more of a balancer, and fat doesn’t have a large effect on the hormonal response. And so when you have a good carbohydrate, so giv e me a carbohydrate for a meal that you want.

Dr. Jordan 13:49
Mashed potatoes.

Dr. Williams 13:50
So you want your carbohydrate of a mashed potato, a pretty starchy carbohydrate going to turn insulin on really fast. So if I have an insulin meter or a blood glucose meter, that’s going to cause a quick spike, and it’s going to hold that spike in the insulin response

Dr. Jordan 14:10
And the insulin turns on fat storage mode, correct?

That’s where you get fat storage. So we have a spike in the insulin when we eat our potato. Well, to make the potato taste good better, we put butter on it, which is a fat along with a carbohydrate, and then we put gravy on it, which is even more fat on top of the of that. And so now we have an insulin spike, which causes fat production mode. And when we have extra calories, this is just heaven for putting on fat, right? So how do we regulate that insulin response which turns on fat production mode? Well, the answer is turkey.

Balance that hormone hormonal response, right?

Dr. Williams 14:56
Have turkey with your mashed potatoes and your. Gravy, and what will happen is the turkey the protein tapers that insulin response, or that blood glucose, it slows that release of the blood glucose levels, which lowers the insulin response, which dampens the fat production mode.

Dr. Jordan 15:19
So it’s more of a hormonal game than anything, right? So instead of looking at your plate and saying, Okay, I have my favorite mashed potatoes and my favorite X, Y or Z, and my start looking and say, well, that’s gonna spike my insulin, starchiers, potatoes, those sort of things, and then I’m adding fat to it, and that’s gonna gain more calories. So how do I balance that? And to kind of play that game a little bit more, instead of just grabbing and going, we’ve talked about this in a podcast before, intentional eating, right? So think through your meal a little bit more, and you can help balance that a bit. Is that what you’re saying?

Dr. Williams 16:00
It is. And so here’s your take home tip for not only for the holidays, but for the rest of your life, if you want to maintain your weight, if you want to control it, think about how is this affecting my insulin? So think about that food combining. And so we call this the eating for the Holidays class, but it’s really eating for the rest of your life, in Billings, Last Diet’s protocol phase three is exactly what we teach for the Eating for the Holidays class, to not gain weight through the holidays.

Dr. Jordan 16:35
So help me understand, if I really like my potatoes, I can just keep piling it on and then just eat more turkey. Is that? What you’re saying? I’m not worried about

Dr. Williams 16:43
Yes, you could. You can do that, but there are limits.

Dr. Jordan 16:47
So it’s two acts. Act One, worry about the hormones, and act two, you still have to know how many, not the number, but be aware of calorie intake.

Dr. Williams 16:58
So there are two things that cause weight gain during the holidays. Not having your hormones balanced is one of those too many carbohydrates insulin spike. The second one is too many calories

Dr. Jordan 17:11
Right.

Dr. Williams 17:12
And so it’s those two things that causes fat to be produced. You have to have the fat manufacturing plant fired up, which insulin fires it up, and then you have to have the product to make the fat, and that’s the extra calories. So you have to watch both of those. So no, you can’t just eat more protein to not gain weight for the more potatoes and gravies that you eat.

Dr. Jordan 17:35
So if I have to choose between one of those, though, and I’ll take this just a bit, I will choose to balance my hormones first, correct?

Dr. Williams 17:46
Yeah.

Dr. Jordan 17:47
And the reason is, your hormonal response is very quick, right? If you’ve ever had too much pie and you start to feel sweaty, you know, you’re having a big hormonal response of insulin. And so it’s, it’s a very quick response with your hormones, because they need to be kind of the the Minutemen of your body to regulate what you’re putting in it and putting into your body. But the calories you tend to have about a 24 hour period. Is that right? 24 hours to work through those calories. So if you have to choose if you accidentally,

Dr. Williams 18:24
Intentionally!

Dr. Jordan 18:25
ate too many carbohydrates, you’re gonna want to balance that out with a heavier protein and then wait out over those 24 hours to cut the calories down a little bit.

Dr. Williams 18:37
I use this when we teach our graduating class. We take a theory of It’s six o’clock at night. You’ve already consumed your calories for the day, and so you’re done eating for the day, for your balanced diet, caloric diet, the phone rings and your friend said, “Hey, let’s go out for ice cream sundaes”. What do you say? Well, you can say no, but the reality is, sometimes we’re going to say, sounds great, let’s go, right? So we head down to the ice cream shop for our ice cream. And now we know we’re intentional. We know we are overdoing it on the calories, and when we eat ice cream, that is that perfect model of sugar, carbohydrate, simple carbohydrate and fat. And so what’s going to happen insulin wise, is it’s going to spike that insulin level. So I say, what do you need to do when you’re having your ice cream sundae after six o’clock, when you’ve already had your calories for the day?

Dr. Jordan 19:38
Combine the food.

Dr. Williams 19:39
You have to find a protein to eat with that. And I jokingly say, order a grilled chicken breast and put it on top of your ice cream sundae, which is not really the case, but you need to get protein. So if you have chicken breast along with that, within an hour of that ice cream sundae, then you get to dampen that insulin response.

Dr. Jordan 19:58
But now you’ve you over consumed calories, right?

Dr. Williams 20:01
So let’s talk about tomorrow. I’ve had my ice cream sundae tonight, tomorrow, I can decrease my caloric intake and still balance it out over the course of time. So I have 24 hours to balance calories, but I only get one hour to balance hormonal response,

Dr. Jordan 20:18
But that’s the next day. Everything starts over when I wake up, right?

Dr. Williams 20:22
Yeah,

Dr. Jordan 20:24
The body works off of 24 hour period, not when you go to sleep, when you wake up, right? So just because you had a big meal and slept, it doesn’t mean you restarted your psychological clock for your eating, right? So, so that’s a good tip, just in general, right?

Dr. Williams 20:39
Yeah

Dr. Jordan 20:39
But let’s talk a little bit about specifically during that. Well, we’re getting close to Thanksgiving. Hopefully we’ll be seeing this before Thanksgiving, yeah? So let’s talk about Thanksgiving morning, yeah, or maybe even the night before Thanksgiving, and kind of walk me through that 24 hours to help us avoid some of those extra calories or those hormonal spikes.

Dr. Williams 20:59
So maybe a tip, some tips for eating through the holidays and and we’ll take a holiday just an example.

Dr. Jordan 21:07
Yeah

Dr. Williams 21:08
Thanksgiving, yeah. So on Thanksgiving morning, I’m going to encourage you to not say “I think I’m going to not eat today so that I can balance my calories and eat a lot at lunchtime”. You go into your Thanksgiving meal hungry, you’re gonna tend to overeat. So Thanksgiving morning tip number one, eat something Thanksgiving morning so that you don’t go in too hungry.

Dr. Jordan 21:35
Should I eat a bowl of cereal?

Dr. Williams 21:37
Probably some protein is the answer we’ll give you so have some some ham and eggs, or have a protein drink. Get some protein that gives you the longer burn. If you eat just a bowl of cereal, it’s going to be gone really fast. Drink and be hungry

Dr. Jordan 21:53
Right.

Dr. Williams 21:53
So that’s tip number one is, don’t go into your your Thanksgiving meal or your holiday meal hungry. Okay, make sure you have something in the base of your stomach to begin with. Tip number two for your holiday meal is, and a lot of this you have some control over, and some of it you don’t have control is you need to be careful on the size of your plate. So I brought a visual for us today, and so there are not all plates are created equal, and if you’re going to somebody’s home, you don’t get a lot of choice on the size of your plate. But I have a platter here, a very large plate. I have a regular size dinner plate, and I have a salad or a dessert plate. These are all carriers for food, but which one, if you get to choose one of those plates, if you choose the smaller plate, you’re going to fill? Well, let me start again. You’re on a Thanksgiving meal. You’re going to fill your plate. If you pick this plate, it’s going to cart a lot more food than if you pick this plate.

Dr. Jordan 23:06
That’s right.

Dr. Williams 23:07
So psychologically, you want to make sure that you are choosing a correct plate. But if I’m at my mother’s home, and this is the plate that I have the choice of now I need to say, how am I going to treat my plate? So I’m going to call this real estate. Okay, you’re a land developer. You get to populate your land however you want. So if you’re dealt this large dinner platter, you’ll see this outside ring. I’m going to say my real estate is now reduced to that smaller ring.

Dr. Jordan 23:44
So we’re not letting it pile

Dr. Williams 23:46
Over, flow

Dr. Jordan 23:47
as high as we can, and let things fall on off, right? We want to try and manage that responsibly.

Dr. Williams 23:51
So what I’m going to do is I’m going to use that as my real estate, and now I am going to do my development. I’m going to put my my buildings on it. When you’re building your Thanksgiving plate, you want to think protein first. So I want you to carve out a spot that says this much for protein, and it’s going to be a significant size of your plate. “Why the protein?” Because protein dampens that insulin response. The next part of your plate you want to populate is for what I’ll call your health foods, your greens, your salads, your your vegetables, your relish tray, which are generally complex carbs.

Dr. Jordan 24:36
As I said, those carbohydrates, but they are much lower in calories as well. They take up more space for the for less calories, right?

Dr. Williams 24:45
And much higher in fiber

Dr. Jordan 24:47
right

Dr. Williams 24:47
And the fiber slows that insulin response, which is why candy spikes it so fast, because there’s zero fiber in the candy. And so protein, relish tray salads, and then you still have some spot on your plate, and that’s where you can put your potatoes, your sweet potatoes, and maybe there’s some marshmallow on top. That’s all right, because this is a holiday meal that you’re going to consciously consume and enjoy. So just use your plate as real estate, protein, complex carbohydrates, vegetables, salads, and then your other starchier vegetables, and then breads also are going to be included on there as well.

Dr. Jordan 25:37
And then maybe don’t use that same plate to go back to the dessert table, right?

Dr. Williams 25:42
Or go back at all necessarily? Yeah. So when you’re when it’s time for dessert, this is another tip for not gaining weight through the holidays is, you’re going to enjoy dessert, so make sure you take your smaller plate for the dessert. But you need to consume your dessert within one hour of when you ate your primary meal. Now in our family, we generally don’t have dessert that quick, so it’s two hours or three hours later, and now it’s time for pie. “What do I do for my pie?” I am gonna go back for pie, and I’m going to take my small plate for pie and maybe even some whipped cream on that pie, but I need to get protein with that pie, so I have in my… I brought with me a protein drink, so I have my pie and my protein drink. Or if there’s not protein drinking for Forget it. There’s still extra turkey. So have your pie, and then, within an hour, make sure you have some protein, protein with the turkey.

Dr. Jordan 26:50
If I know anything, you’re gonna be having lemon meringue pie, which has protein in there with the egg whites anyway, right?

Dr. Williams 26:56
And when you’re when you’re talking about a healthy choice, if you’re choosing between a pecan pie and a lemon meringue pie, a lemon meringue a win every time. See, that’s your healthier pie.

Dr. Jordan 27:07
You know what pie I’m gonna pick.

So let me just kind of recap a little bit for us. When you’re eating any food, it’s gonna be made of three major macros. Obviously, some are going to be more carb, heavy, protein heavy, or fat heavy. When you consume a carb, you’re going to spike protein, or, sorry, Spike insulin. When you consume a protein, you’re going to balance that insulin out. And a fat is just extra calories, and actually quite a bit when you’re at the dinner table at your Thanksgiving meal, be aware of more protein balanced out with your health food greens rather lower in calories. And then you can have your potatoes or bread or what have you. And then you will have about an hour window to balance that hormonal spike. If you need to balance that hormonal spike that’s more important than the calories, but then make sure you are aware over the next 24 hours. Is that right?

Dr. Williams 28:08
That’s correct.

Dr. Jordan 28:09
Perfect.

Dr. Williams 28:09
Well, one more one more tip: Thanksgiving Day. It’s a one day. And the problem is we tend to carry that from Thursday into Friday and Saturday and Sunday, because of the left overs, and so we don’t have one day of indulgence. We end up with a three or a four day weekend of indulgence, and that can become problematic as well.

Dr. Jordan 28:35
So you talk about this, these tips aren’t just important for that holiday, but these are things that you can carry with you when a friend calls you at night to go to get ice cream, any time during the year when you’re being aware and intentional with your eating. And I think that’s the key takeaway, is if you’re intentional with what you’re eating, you can avoid gaining extra weight during the holidays, and you can really help manage your weight during the rest of the year.

Dr. Williams 29:03
Well said

Dr. Jordan 29:03
Thanks. Well, thank you, Dr Williams, for joining us. Thanks for joining us on the channel here as well. We’re gonna meet again a couple weeks probably talk about hormones. I think that’d be important to educate on how those hormones really regulate. We can get a little bit more into the science on what those foods, those macros, are actually doing to our body, and then maybe talk a little bit about that medication some people are on insulin and why that maybe is counterproductive with that weight gain. So thanks for joining us again, and we’ll catch you next time at our Billings Last Diet podcast