The average British person eats 6,000 calories on Christmas Day, study finds

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Champagne at breakfast, mid-morning mince pies, the big Christmas dinner followed by Christmas pudding, afternoon Quality Street and mulled wine, a turkey sandwich and - why not? - a slice of yule log and a glass of Baileys before bed.

Yes, Christmas is the season of delicious excess.

We all know we indulge more than usual over the festive season, but new research has revealed just how much we eat on Christmas Day alone.

The average person will consume nearly 6,000 calories on 25 December, three times the average daily amount for women.

You might think the main roast with all those delectable trimmings is to blame, but the study found that the average Brit will have eaten nearly a day’s worth of calories before even pulling a cracker and sitting down to the lunchtime festive feast.

Although most of us start the day with a simple breakfast of toast or fruit salad, by 10am we’ve reached for the chocolate, crisps, nuts and sweets.

More than a third of Brits will also have had their first festive tipple before midday, and 37 per cent crack open a bottle every day of the festive week, according to the study of 2,000 people who celebrate Christmas.

But for 70 per cent of us, how much we consume simply isn’t a concern over the Christmas period. Over half of those surveyed admitted that Christmas is their ‘get out of jail free’ card to indulge in whatever they want.

Of course, we all know that if we ate the same amount every day we’d become incredibly unhealthy and overweight, but if you really want to offset the indulgence of Christmas you can always burn it all off with an eight hour run or a 21.5 hour walk on Boxing Day.

The research by Wren Kitchens found that on average, Brits will put away 5,905 calories over the course of Christmas Day.

And if you don’t fancy traditional Christmas food but still want to join in the feeling of uncomfortable fullness, try eating these equivalent sources of calories: 118 chicken nuggets, 26 doughnuts, 12 Big Macs, 22 pork pies, 55 two-finger Kit-Kats, 32 slices of pizza, 53 bags of Quavers or 131 Jaffa Cakes.

'Tis the season to be indulgent.