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Nov. 26, 2008 -- No matter how earnestly you resolve not to overindulge this Thanksgiving, you will probably eat more than you should.
After all, a typical Thanksgiving meal can add up to 3,000 calories or more. And if you snack throughout the day or eat two big meals, you could easily double that for the day.
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One of the biggest culprits? Pecan pie. A single slice with whipped cream has about 800 calories -- more than a meal's worth of calories in a single dessert.
You won't find much that's low calorie elsewhere, either, unless your feast happens to have a raw veggie plate. Here's how some other Thanksgiving favorites stack up:
Who even wants to think about how long it would take to work all that off!
So what's a dieter to do?
WebMD contacted three well-known experts to get their take on Thanksgiving feasting. Their advice: Enjoy the day, and get back on track Friday.
"It's not the easiest time to eat sensibly and I don't advise trying very hard," says NYU professor of nutrition Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, who wrote the 2006 book What to Eat.
"My approach is to pick and choose," she tells WebMD. "I taste everything, keep the servings really small, and save room for seconds of the foods I really like. But if family dynamics mean that the cook will never forgive you if you don't eat the food, it's best to eat the food, enjoy every bite, and deal with dieting later in the week."
Physician John La Puma, MD, says even totally out-of-control days won't lead to significant weight gain if you have only few of them a year.
An accomplished cook who has adopted the pseudonym 'ChefMD,' La Puma is the author of the book ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine.
La Puma recommends choosing four days a year as "feast days" when you can eat and drink anything you want in any quantity you want.
"I think the idea of feasting that Thanksgiving represents is kind of lost in American society because we tend to feast all year long," he tells WebMD.
"The problem isn't Thanksgiving, it is the fact that many people don't stop eating between Thanksgiving and the New Year," he says.
Pete Thomas was once one of those people.
"Before I lost weight I viewed Thanksgiving as a day to gorge myself and eat everything in sight," Thomas tells WebMD. "That turned into a month of gorging between Thanksgiving and Christmas."