--- title: Overeating: 6 Steps to Reset Your Diet After a Holiday Binge description: While a gluttonous holiday may leave you feeling sluggish and heavy, simple strategies can help you undo the damage and get back on track canonical: https://time.com/3616457/reset-diet-after-binge/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-03T18:24:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:16.076Z article:section: Health og:title: 6 Steps to Reset Your Diet After a Holiday Binge og:description: First step: start today og:url: https://time.com/3616457/reset-diet-after-binge/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt181f7e6c435f7698/69876c622dce017d469dc2e5/healthy-eating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3938 og:image:height: 2215 og:image:alt: healthy eating og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 6 Steps to Reset Your Diet After a Holiday Binge twitter:description: First step: start today twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt181f7e6c435f7698/69876c622dce017d469dc2e5/healthy-eating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 6 Steps to Reset Your Diet After a Holiday Binge > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=728f1c27-748c-43db-9573-0051777c5200&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_ by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Dec 3, 2014 6:24 PM UTC  Plate of roasted pumpkin with salad Plate of roasted pumpkin with salad Getty Images by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Dec 3, 2014 6:24 PM UTC If, despite every intention of balance and moderation you completely overindulged over the holidays, don’t panic. While a gluttonous holiday may leave you feeling sluggish and heavy, the truth is that a handful of simple strategies can help you undo the damage and get back on track fast. Here are six tried and true steps to help you lighten up, and get those uncomfortably tight jeans feeling loose again. **HEALTH.COM:** [16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20501331,00.html?xid=time-thanksgiving-120214) ### Step 1: Get back to your normal eating schedule I know you may be tempted to just not eat, but skipping meals only forces your body to shift into conservation mode and burn fewer calories. Skipping can also make you more likely to hang onto any fat you’ve gained, rather than letting it go. Steady meals, on the other hand, maximize metabolism, and help regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as hunger hormones. Try to eat breakfast within an hour of waking up, and eat your remaining meals three to five hours apart. Also, consider selecting a day’s worth of clean go-to meals to repeat for a few days. Your body loves consistency, so after it’s been thrown out of whack, repetition and regularity can go a long way in restoring balance. ### Step 2: Reconfigure your proportions Rather than drastically cutting calories, make non-starchy [vegetables](http://news.health.com/2014/04/25/5-delicious-pasta-alternatives-with-a-fraction-of-the-calories/) the focus of your meals, paired with lean protein, a bit of good-for-you fat, and small portions of healthy, slow-burning starch. One of the reasons you feel heavy after overeating is because your body stockpiles carbs in a form called glycogen, along with water. Cutting back, but not cutting carbs out completely, can help you level your energy and hunger (so you won’t pig out on leftovers at night), while still allowing your body to let go of surplus starch. Aim for just a third to a half cup of whole food carbs in each meal, such as [whole grains](http://news.health.com/2014/11/13/8-awesome-whole-grains-youre-not-eating/), and starchy vegetables. **HEALTH.COM:** [14 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Right Now](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20835155,00.html?xid=time-thanksgiving-120214) ### Step 3: Get more potassium On top of helping nerves and muscles function properly and regulating blood pressure and your [body’s pH level](http://news.health.com/2013/01/17/the-hot-new-diet-victoria-beckham-and-jennifer-aniston-swear-by-should-you-try-it/), potassium acts as a natural diuretic. Eating more helps you de-bloat and feel lighter by sweeping excess sodium out of your body and relieving water retention. Good sources include lima beans, spinach, Brussels sprouts, sweet potato, tomatoes, avocado, lima beans, salmon, and mushrooms. Here’s a day’s worth of meals that combine steps 2 and 3: **Breakfast** An [omelet](http://news.health.com/2014/06/25/5-tricks-for-easy-healthy-breakfasts/) made with one whole organic egg and three whites, plus a third of a cup of each: baby spinach leaves, chopped mushrooms, sliced grape tomatoes, and cooked quinoa. Season it with a handful of fresh cilantro, and once it’s ready, top it with a quarter of a ripe avocado, sliced. (For a vegan version, you can swap eggs for mashed chickpeas.) **Lunch** A tablespoon each of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, whisked together with a little fresh squeezed lemon and dried Italian herb seasoning, tossed with a cup and a half of torn [romaine](http://news.health.com/2014/10/31/5-biggest-salad-mistakes-youre-making/), a quarter cup each minced red onion, and chopped red bell pepper, topped with a half cup of lima beans and a third cup of cooked, chilled wild rice. **Dinner** One cup each baby Brussels sprouts and white button mushrooms, oven roasted, paired with three ounces of broiled [salmon](http://news.health.com/2014/10/24/tips-for-cooking-fish/), and a half cup of mashed baked sweet potato, seasoned with a tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil and a dash of pumpkin pie spice (for a vegan version trade salmon for lentils). ### Step 4: Drink water only, and sip more of it Make water your only beverage and up your intake. H2O supports optimal metabolism, and helps naturally curb appetite. Drinking more water also flushes out excess sodium to help you quickly de-bloat, and it gets your digestive system moving to relieve constipation. Aim for 2-2.5 liters of water a day (about 8-10 cups). **HEALTH.COM:** [14 Fad Diets You Shouldn’t Try](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20833428,00.html?xid=time-thanksgiving-120214) ### Step 5: Tune in Eat slowly, pay attention to your body’s signals, and stop when full, even if you haven’t finished your meal. Eating at a slower pace can automatically help you curb your portions while feeling more satisfied. When you chew carefully, set your fork down between bites, and tune into your body’s signals, you’ll be able to detect your tipping point—that feeling of just right fullness. One study found that this process was just as effective for weight loss as a formal class. **HEALTH.COM:** [Lose 10 Inches in 10 Days](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20768565,00.html?xid=time-thanksgiving-120214) ### Step 6: Up your activity One way to feel lighter quickly is to torch glycogen, the carbs your body stockpiles when you’ve eaten more starch than usual. To burn it up, get your muscles moving and your heart rate up, through anything from brisk walks to a Zumba class. And remember that small boosts in your activity level add up to help, including taking stairs, or dancing in your living room! _Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, is Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics._ [_This article originally appeared on Health.com._](http://news.health.com/2014/11/28/6-steps-to-reset-your-diet-after-thanksgiving/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment. With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. 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