Anyone who's ever hoisted a turkey out of the oven or chopped countless veggies for Thanksgiving dinner knows that preparing the turkey-day menu can be hard work. We wanted to find out how that hard work translates into calories burned. So we used the Mayo Clinic's research on working metabolic rates to estimate how much you burn while you're cooking a traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu. Here's what we found. (Bonus savings: cook EatingWell's healthier menu and save 1,724 calories compared to traditional Thanksgiving dinner!)
—Bridget Soper, Contributing Writer