My body is annoying me - weird vacation reaction, advice needed big time!

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Replies

  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    SassyMoonbeams wrote: »
    richln wrote: »
    I don't see anything too strange in your story except that you haven't lost anything in the 3 weeks since you got home. I would have to guess it is just water retention. Do you only weigh yourself once a week or every day? Since you are 5'7", you should be losing significantly on 1500.

    I don't see any America bashing here, but in the U.S., I think it is easy to find almost whatever food you can imagine if you live relatively close to a major city. That is not true of most of the other places I have been to in the world. Hormone-free, gluten-free, grass-fed (and whatever other buzzwords you can put on the label) meat can be easily found. Comparing fresh produce isn't fair because Aussies live closer to the equator and have a better growing season. If you just came to the U.S. a month ago, we aren't even anywhere near peak growing season yet. Most of our produce is coming from hothouses or is trucked in from 1000 miles away right now. We can only get the really tasty local grown stuff in late spring through early fall here in the DC region.

    I weigh myself every few days lately to get an idea. But usually once a week. I also found that my Body went through almost what seemed like a detox period where, once I started eating good foods again, my body was NOT reacting well. I guess it was getting rid of all the crap I had eaten while on vacation. I'm gonna check how I fare on 1600 a week from now.

    That is a very very very good point about the produce season. I wasn't just referencing produce though, but foods in general.

    What I think probably happened: you gained a little weight on vacation. No problem, vacations are supposed to be enjoyed. After a long day of flying home, you probably didn't get much sleep and didn't eat or drink very much on the plane, so you woke up the next day a little dehydrated and weighed yourself and you had a light day of only +3 pounds. One week later, when you weighed yourself again, you were at your new "normal weight" of +8 pounds or whatever; I don't think you mentioned exactly what it was. The last 2 weeks, you have probably lost a couple of pounds of bodyfat, but just did not notice because you don't weigh yourself very frequently and maybe some water retention issues too. Water retention is common when starting a new lifting program, or in your case, getting back to lifting after some time off. The increased appetite and "detox" feeling is pretty normal in my experience too. I feel it sometimes even after a long weekend of eating whatever I want and not logging.

    I haven't had the privilege of visiting Australia yet, but I agree that many places in the world have better tasting food that what you typically find (on average) in the U.S. I think many Americans have forgotten the art of cooking with fresh food, and fresh wasn't particularly selling well in the chain restaurants until recent years. However, the obesity epidemic leveled off in 2003, and I think there is a large cultural shift toward fresher, healthier food happening right now.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    Vacations prove weight loss is stupid and doesn't make sense. I gained 20lbs in one week on my vacation a few weeks ago. Yes. You read that right. 20lbs in one week. 10 came off in the first few days but as of today I'm still 7lbs more than before I left. I know, you're thinking, "well you probably ate non-stop for 7 days. Nope. A few beers on the beach and barely ate until dinner. So that equals 3500 calories over a day? Nope. But still gained. Sometimes there's just no logic to it all.

    I lost 4lbs on my vacation - because I moved a lot and watched what I ate - eating lots of fresh salads and minimal alcohol

    give it a couple of weeks and then reassess .. you may not have eaten non-stop but you probably went over your targets coupled with air travel and water retention ..

    Air travel can be a huge one. I basically ate at maintenance during my vacation, but I was up about 7 lb right after getting off the plane--went away in a couple of days. My ankles looked bloated too. This always happens to me and is just more noticeable when I'm thinner, which I'd forgotten about.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    SassyMoonbeams wrote: »
    editorgrrl wrote: »
    Your deficit is too aggressive for your size. Read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Connect your Fitbit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Log your Polar burns & follow your MFP calorie goal, eating back your adjustments. For some fun motivation, get some friends in the Fitbit Users group & start doing Fitbit challenges: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (aka your maintenance calories). If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that, you will lose weight.

    Thanks hun! Great idea to get some fitbit friends....

    .5 lbs for every 25 lbs you're overweight? I'm not sure I understand what you mean? .5 lbs to lose per week? So if I'm 50lbs overweight i I should be losing 1 lb a week?

    Yes, set your goal to 1 lb. per week: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided In another 25 lbs., set it to .5 lb. per week.

    The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. The smaller deficit will also help you transition to maintenance.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2015
    richln wrote: »
    I haven't had the privilege of visiting Australia yet, but I agree that many places in the world have better tasting food that what you typically find (on average) in the U.S.

    The US is quite varied, but this idea that it's hard to find fresh produce or good food in the US is bizarre. I've not been to Australia, but I've been to lots of other places and appreciated the local food in many cases, and yet don't find a paucity of options where I live.

    However, it IS true that in many parts of the US the fresh local produce available in mid April is lacking, for obvious reasons.

    There are also many regional variations in food culture within the US, obviously. I don't think you can generalize about people not cooking with fresh food or eating only at chain restaurants or the like.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,742 Member
    edited May 2015
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    SassyMoonbeams wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    SassyMoonbeams wrote: »
    I must say it was harder to find good quality food in America. It CAN be found but the standard of food i have grown accustomed to in Australia is superior by leaps and bounds in my opinion. For instance, I eat this beautiful pot set natural yogurt here in Oz that can be found at your basic supermarket, but the only decent yoghurt I could find in America, even at Whole Foods for Pete's sake, was very very different and paled in comparison sadly. I was just happy to find one that wasn't fat free at least! Not bashing America but I think we can all agree that for the most part the majority of foods on offer there are depressingly lacking in nutrition.

    I'm not American nor do I live there but I'm pretty sure they have an amazing range of fresh produce

    I lived in Canada most of my life, then moved to Australia ... and I've been quite pleasantly surprised by the food here in Australia. The fresh produce year round, the great selections on the shelf, like that pot set natural yogurt (so good!!), and so on.

    From a Canadian perspective, you'd have to live in BC to get anything like it.

    Yessssss girllll you know what I'm talking about!

    I was born and raised in the us and have lived in Australia for over 8 years. I am not anti American, I love America and am currently working towards moving back to America. There is a difference between downright insulting and berating a country vs being critical. And yes there is a great range of good foods in America BUT it is more challenging to find the good, high quality stuff. One of my friends in az who is extremely conscious of healthful foods shops at a huge array of stores to get all the best she can. Whereas here in Oz you can get amazing quality just in one or two stores. They are much more strict about the food quality here. Truth. If I recall correctly, Oz won't even import American meats because of all of the hormones. If people choose to be insulted by the reality of this then that's fine but a little misguided?

    Stutba I wish you well too, thank you. We will just have to agree to disagree. I was just saying that it is easier to make healthy food choices in Oz as the good quality food is, if nothing else, at least more readily available. That being said...australian mayonnaise is disgusting. It's SWEET. Blegh.

    Yes, and I love Canadian food ... I've got a list of things I'll eat when I'm there. But as you say, it is so easy to find a wide variety of good choices here in Australia. Down here in Hobart, I've got a fresh fruit and veg market a hop, skip, and jump away from where I work with fresh fruit and veg, of course, but a variety of other good choices. And on my walk between uni and work, I often drop into Coles for fruit and also dinner choices. Then cross the road to the Asian market for more. :)

    I've never tried the australian mayonnaise ... but I've noticed the same thing about pickles. I love dill pickles, but sometimes they are hard to find ... it's all sweet pickles! Ick!


    (I've been here 6 years ... and one day will return to Canada. But I'm not quite ready yet. :) )

    I got one word. Poutine. nuff said.

    I love Canadian food. Our fresh new potatoes, NB strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. Quebec Cheese, alberta beef...Nova Scotia scallops, mussels, clams, north shore lobster, Newfoundland cod...


    Oh yes! I thought about including poutine on my list of foods to eat when i get to Canada ... but I would gain 2 kg just looking at a plate of it, nevermind eating it. :smiley:
    SassyMoonbeams wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »

    Yes, and I love Canadian food ... I've got a list of things I'll eat when I'm there. But as you say, it is so easy to find a wide variety of good choices here in Australia. Down here in Hobart, I've got a fresh fruit and veg market a hop, skip, and jump away from where I work with fresh fruit and veg, of course, but a variety of other good choices. And on my walk between uni and work, I often drop into Coles for fruit and also dinner choices. Then cross the road to the Asian market for more. :)

    I've never tried the australian mayonnaise ... but I've noticed the same thing about pickles. I love dill pickles, but sometimes they are hard to find ... it's all sweet pickles! Ick!


    (I've been here 6 years ... and one day will return to Canada. But I'm not quite ready yet. :) )
    I'd love to go to Canada some day....I've got a friend in Montreal and another in Ottawa and I love me some hockey! Funny story, here in Melbourne I went to a hockey game a couple weeks ago and even they were serving poutine LOL.

    Yeah that's exactly it....it's so good you understand what I'm saying. There are fresh fruit and veg markets EVERYWHERE here. Even the bread they bake fresh at my local Coles, I mean it's a variety of high quality breads from white to sourdough to seeded and whole grain. My mom always gets excited when she comes to visit me cause of that bread (not that I eat any of it anymore lol)!

    Ugh YESSS the pickles. I've gotten used to them, I guess the saltiness offsets the sweetness a bit. Don't even TRY the mayo. It's god awful. A good brand you can find in most specialty European deli's is Tomy.

    :smiley:

    I would have loved to be there for that hockey game. :smiley:


    My husband and I were getting the cheap and nasty bread for a while ... but even with all the preservatives and whatever they put into it, it would go off in just a few days.

    So we decided to try other breads ... usually just bagged breads on the shelves of most supermarkets, but much nicer and they last longer. They also don't add sugar to the bread.
    One of our favourites is Helgas: http://www.helgas.com.au/
    Another is Abbotts Village Bakery: http://www.abbottsvillagebakery.com.au/




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