Retirement: How to avoid holiday weight gain

One of the many advantages of being retired is that you don't have to sit at a desk all day. Instead, you can plan daily activities that will help you make it through the holidays, especially the next couple of weeks, without packing on the pounds. The trick is to do the math.

Americans gain an average of about 1 pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's, one study showed. People who sit around a lot pack on 1½ pounds, and those who are more active actually lose 1½ pounds.

Being active allows you to enjoy a few extra holiday treats without worrying about your weight, says Heather Mangieri, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. But, she adds, "You can't out-exercise a really bad diet."

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian in Chicago, says doing moderate exercise most days of the week can help compensate for the extra cookies and goodies you consume. "You don't have to break a sweat to reap the calorie-burn benefits."

Several registered dietitians tallied the calories in some holiday foods. And then they calculated how much activity it takes for a 165-pound person to burn them off. Here's what they found:

• If you go to a holiday cocktail party and have two glasses of red wine, five shrimp with cocktail sauce, six crackers topped with cheese spread and a piece of fudge, you'll consume about 630 calories.

To burn it off, you'd need to walk briskly about 35 minutes for five days. That means walking like you are late for the bus. Or you could do 40 minutes of vigorous house cleaning, such as scrubbing the floors or cleaning the carpet, on five days.

• Here's another example. Let's say you go to a family dinner and have two slices of ham, a serving of sweet-potato casserole, green beans, two rolls and a slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. That's roughly 1,320 calories.

To burn it off, you could play five hours of golf that week. That's walking the course, not riding in a cart.

• If at that holiday meal you consume a gin and tonic, a half cup of mashed potatoes, another dinner roll and a piece of fudge, that adds another 622 calories to the meal.

To burn off that much, you'd have to power-walk around the mall (4 mph or faster) for at least two hours. A power walk is really moving. It's not window shopping. Or you could bowl for 3 1/2 hours.

Mangieri points out that this exercise is in addition to activity that you would normally do, because the calories are probably higher than what you'd normally eat.

Blatner advises working more activity into your daily life. Instead of mailing back your returns, take them back to the store and work in some extra walking, she says.

Bundling up and playing catch with your grandkids or helping them build a snowman burns calories and is fun too, she says.

So the moral of this story is this: If you move more, you can enjoy some delicious holiday fare without packing on extra pounds.