"And when you're finished with this, come back and have seconds!"

The average Thanksgiving meal boasts at minimum a belt-busting 3,000 calories—that's well over the amount the average person needs in an entire day. Add in the typical predinner snacking, and you're looking at about 4,500 calories. And that's before you even raid the fridge to get your evening leftovers fix. According to the American Council on Exercise, a 160-pound person would have to jog for four hours, swim for five hours, or walk for 30 miles to burn off the Thanksgiving meal alone—and that's just the first of a long string of calorie-dense holiday dinners you eat between November and January. To prevent the need to spend your entire January running marathons, learn how to recognize mistakes that lead to holiday weight gain, and how to combat them. Trust us, you can still enjoy your holiday feast—you just won't need to buy a whole new wardrobe in the new year.

A 2009 International Food Information Council Foundation's (IFICF) Health and Food Survey found that participants pegged exercise, followed by making healthful food choices, as the top things people can do to maintain good health. As it turns out, taking these two things into consideration during the holidays could help you avoid pigging out at the dinner table, too.

More than half of Americans are trying to lose weight, and 25 percent want to maintain their current weight. According to the survey, more than 70 percent of these people report cutting down on the amount of food they eat. But the majority of people say the biggest barriers to staying on track with weight-management goals are: No. 1, they're not getting results fast enough, and No. 2, a lack of willpower. During the holidays, problem No. 2 often comes into play.

Here's how to make your taste buds happy without tipping the scale.

• Start the morning off in motion. On average, Americans report being active about three days a week. And while you could probably come up with a thousand excuses to skip a daily walk or jog, taking just 20 or 30 minutes to exercise in the morning could help curb your holiday weight gain. According to the survey, people who exercise do it to lose weight and look better. If you've exercised, you won't want to eat as much, either, researchers say. Plus, exercise is a potent stress buster, something you may need if you're dealing with in-laws or other family situations.

• Don't skip meals. Brian Wansink, PhD, professor of consumer behavior and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, NY, and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think and fellow researchers looked at 50 families to investigate the "preload problem". They found that people grossly overeat on holidays like Thanksgiving, and part of that is because they start eating before the meal even begins. In fact, their research shows that up to 10 percent of Thanksgiving Day calories are taken in before the meal is even on the table. If you skip meals, you're more likely to load up on peanuts, pretzels, candy, and other treats before dinner. Instead, eat some fiber-rich oatmeal in the morning. You'll feel less starved when it's time for dinner—but you'll still be hungry enough to enjoy it.

• Don't be played by the plate. Is it a coincidence that as the average size of plates grew in this country, so did our guts? Wansink doesn't think so. He says that although the taste of the food matters, so do plate, bowl, and glass sizes—a lot. Not surprisingly, as plate sizes grow, so do portion sizes. And the average plate size has increased 60 percent since 1960. Wansink's research shows that we serve ourselves 28 percent more on a 12-inch plate versus a 10-inch plate. What's worse, he says, is that we tend to keep eating until our plates are clear. The takeaway? If your host uses big plates, keep the food in the middle, leaving at least a two-inch food-free margin around it. Better yet, eat from the smallest plate you can get your hands on.

• Leave the remnants on your plate. After you're done eating turkey or pie, leave the bones or leftover crust on your plate to help stop you from overeating. Wansink found that when college students ate chicken wings, those who had the bones cleared every few minutes went on to eat more than the students who piled the bones up.

• Eat less without offending the host. So Grandma isn't happy unless you have two servings of her signature dish? No problem. Make the servings small. She won't remember the amount you ate, just the fact that you went back for seconds. "You can do that, but make sure the servings are only a tablespoon large," says Wansink.