Yikes: You Consume HOW Many Calories Before Thanksgiving Dinner Even Starts?!

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I have a hunch this information won’t stop any of us from hunkering down at the Thanksgiving table and piling our plates high with mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and creamed everything. I mean, it is Thanksgiving, after all. That said, here are some gasp-worthy Thanksgiving dinner facts, courtesy of TODAY’s Rossen Reports, that might make you think twice about that third serving of pecan pie.

Jeff Rossen and his team staged an early Thanksgiving dinner with a Connecticut family and watched them carefully as they prepped and consumed the meal. What the family didn’t know was that, throughout the day, someone was watching every single bite they took and keeping track of exactly how many calories they consumed. I know, it sounds like something straight out of a nightmare, doesn’t it?

Now, it’s no surprise that the family ate a lot (again, it is Thanksgiving): The entire family of 10 consumed nearly 25,000 calories. But what is surprising is this: A good 20 percent of those calories came before they even sat down to dinner. So taste-testing and, well, more taste-testing accounted for up to 1,200 calories per person. And as they noted, this staged Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t any different from most dinners around the country come Thanksgiving Day. One word: Yikes. See what else they discovered in the video below.

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