Southerners may eat more on Thanksgiving

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GALES FERRY, Conn., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Most Thanksgiving meals are high in calories, but the Web site WeightTraining.com suggests U.S. southerners consume more Thanksgiving calories than northerners.

On average, Americans eat more than 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day -- 3,000 calories for dinner and the rest in snacks and other meals -- including 229 grams of fat. The Web site's burning calories feature points out it would take, at the very least, 5 hours of running at a moderate pace to burn off Thanksgiving calories.

WeightTraining.com broke down the calorie statistics for some common northern and southern styles of cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner.

Using calorie statistics from the USDA or FitWatch.com, the Web site calculated a traditional northern-style Thanksgiving meal totaled 864 calories -- 362 for one serving of roast turkey; 70 for a dinner roll; 174 for mashed potatoes; 44 for snap green beans; and 117 for a slice of pecan pie.

A traditional southern-style Thanksgiving meal totals 1,428 calories -- including 383 for one serving of Cajun deep fried turkey; 173 for a piece of cornbread; 207 for macaroni and cheese; 60 for collard greens; 201 for a serving of simmered chitterlings; and 404 for a slice of sweet potato pie.

Ingredient choices, portion size and cooking methods will all affect the total number of calories, but the estimates are very low compared to what Americans eat on average on Thanksgiving, WeightTraining.com said.