Going on vacation... question!

HakunaMatata137

Hey everyone!

So I'm going on vacation in a couple days for a week. Normally when I go on vacation I gain weight and all my diet/exercise goes out the window. But this time I don't want that to happen. I've lost 35 lbs. since Jan. and have about 40 more to lose. I do plan on working out 4 out of the 7 days I'm there.

And although I don't wanna gain weight, I also don't wanna deprive myself of vacation foods/drinks. Right now I'm at 1600 cals/day and currently do intermittent fasting. I've been losing around 1-1.5 lbs/week. So my question is: Should I temporarily change my calorie goal to maintenance while I'm on vacation? It would be around 2100 cals/day, and then I'd change it back to 1600 cals/day when I go back home.

I'm thinking that this way, I don't gain weight, but I also give myself a little more room to indulge. What do you guys think? Is this a bad idea? Thanks for any help!

amgreenwell

A lot of people will tell you a lot of different things. I think you should eat whatever and realize that it's vacation and just one week of your life in the scheme of things it won't affect you that much. Enjoy!

TavistockToad

If you're losing up to 1.5lb per week then you're maintenance is more than 2100

ashliedelgado

Enjoy your trip, whatever helps you do that. You're going most likely going to see an increase no matter what. Water weight from the travel. Water weight from increased foods.

I continue to log so I keep an eye on it, and try to restrict to one meal out each day if we're staying with family or friends. But like amgreenwell said - it's one week. Enjoy your time!

Running_and_Coffee

It's a great question. There's such a balance between wanting to enjoy yourself by not stressing over food, but also the stress that you are gaining weight can make it hard to do that!

If you CAN forget about the diet, eat within reason and be relatively active, that's ideal. If you CAN'T, then maybe try to focus on just enjoying foods that are part of the vacation but not just going all out at every meal. Like eat a Maine lobster dipped in butter and have some brie and croissants in France, but don't go for seconds at the hotel breakfast buffet just because you can.

Honestly...when I go on vacation with my kids I don't even really splurge much because they want to go to sports bars and kid-friendly restaurants where I'm perfectly happy with my usual "dinner out at kid friendly restaurant" I eat at home. I try to make the decision based on whether enjoying a specific type of food is part of the vacation experience.

dsboohead

A week of whatever would derail me and my efforts. I am still a mindful eater even on vacation. Mindful for me is not just shoving whatever is in front of me. I plan on trying whatever looks especially good in the moment and not being a glutton. Mindful activity is important too!
Balance is key!

malibu927

Since you’ve been at this for six months I’d use your vacation for a diet break. Go to maintenance, enjoy yourself, and get back on plan when you arrive home.

witchaywoman81

I recently went on vacation (and have another coming up). I set my calories to maintenance and made sure I tracked as well as I could. I actually found that being mindful helped a lot - I often didn’t even eat all my maintenance calories because I didn’t feel like I needed them. That may have also been a product of underestimating some foods though too.

FireOpalCO

Give yourself some rules to follow and plan your splurges a bit. This will help with weight gain AND your wallet. For example if I was going back to Disneyland (for the umpteenth time) these would be my rules:

1. At the hotel breakfast I will eat the items and quantities I would at home.
2. If we are eating somewhere we have at home, order what I would at home (I don't need the calorie bomb drink at the Disneyland Starbucks because "we're on vacation".)
3. I will carry my water bottle and refill it at the restaurants, I don't need to pay for sodas and lemonades.
4. I will pack several small snacks in my bag every day to prevent bad last minute choices.
5. We are DEFINITELY getting the Mickey beignets and Dole whips and something sweet at Pooh Corner.
6. I will keep the fixings for light meals in the hotel mini-kitchen so we aren't tempted to order takeout for dinner or grab a last snack while leaving the park.

If I was going somewhere with all you can eat type options, I'd probably have rules like "pick one dessert per night" or "eat plate of salad before getting entrees and sides".

bufger

I always go to maintenance for fun weekends or holidays . It's good to practice maintenance anyway

Leannep2201

I also usually go to maintenance, and my vacations are usually pretty active, so that helps too.
I’m also another who takes healthy snacks in my bag to help prevent bad choices. Works well.

I’m going away this weekend to a conference and I plan to eat at maintenance, make sure I get in my 10k steps each day, and get up early to walk each morning. I’ll be sensible about the foods I eat (they cater, and it’s not terribly healthy food), and use some of my snacks to top up meals that are high in calories- so I’ll have a smaller amount of the high calorie food and pair it with some baby carrots or a protein bar or something.

Danp

I like to enjoy the odd week without worrying be that on holidays or at a catered venue or what not.

I figure 1 week is 1.92% of your year and you get perhaps 5 weeks a year like this so that's 9.6% of your year given over to enjoyment.

So I plan to enjoy that 9.6% fully because it's what you do during the other 90.4% that makes the real difference.

JBApplebee

I'm going on vacation starting this weekend & I'm going to have a good time (within reason). If you can't go out & have a good time, it's not worth it IMO. I'm not going to pig out every meal or drink a lot each night, but I figure if I eat sensible for most of the vacation & work out while I'm there, I'll gain some, but I can deal with the consequences when I get back home.

NovusDies

I think it always comes back to how well you are treating yourself while not on vacation. As long as you have been kind to yourself like losing at a comfortable pace and working in treats you might have wanted then there is less danger of resisting when it is time to resume your deficit. If that is the case it doesn't really matter if you eat at maintenance or take your chances and come back with an extra pound to work back off.

Only you can determine how tight to hold the leash. You don't want to eat unnecessarily and you don't want to come back resentful at yourself for holding back too much.

joaniebalonie088

I say enjoy yourself, but don’t go crazy!

I went on vacation in April and went completely nuts. eating and drinking everything I could! I think that by giving myself a free pass, I ended up with this
“now or never” mentality. “Drink that beer now, because you won’t get any when you’re home!”

I ended up having a very hard time getting back on track when I got back from vacation. I think if I’d have avoided overdoing it on vacation, it would have cut out this “now or never” impulse and also would have made re-assimilating into real life a bit easier.

ladyhusker39

The real challenge isn't what you do during a week of vacation. It's what you do when you get home that will make the difference.

fb47

HakunaMatata137 wrote: »

Hey everyone!

So I'm going on vacation in a couple days for a week. Normally when I go on vacation I gain weight and all my diet/exercise goes out the window. But this time I don't want that to happen. I've lost 35 lbs. since Jan. and have about 40 more to lose. I do plan on working out 4 out of the 7 days I'm there.

And although I don't wanna gain weight, I also don't wanna deprive myself of vacation foods/drinks. Right now I'm at 1600 cals/day and currently do intermittent fasting. I've been losing around 1-1.5 lbs/week. So my question is: Should I temporarily change my calorie goal to maintenance while I'm on vacation? It would be around 2100 cals/day, and then I'd change it back to 1600 cals/day when I go back home.

I'm thinking that this way, I don't gain weight, but I also give myself a little more room to indulge. What do you guys think? Is this a bad idea? Thanks for any help!

As long as it doesn't make you OCD during your vacation. Personally, I don't mind the weight gain during my vacation, because I know it won't take long once I get back to my regular routine for the weight to come off since the vacation weight gain is mainly water weight and not fat.

On my last cruise, I gained 8 lbs in one week, it took me 2 weeks at my regular calories intake to get back to my pre-cruise weight. I basically lost 4 lbs per week, of course it was all the water weight I was carrying.

tinkerbellang83

Holiday weight gain is pretty much inevitable, but it's rarely a lot of fat gain unless you go really OTT.

Many people retain more water after a vacation because amongst other things:

• they're drinking alcohol
• they're in a hotter climate than they may be used to
• they're eating more carbs than they would at home
• they're eating more sodium than they would at home
• air travel can cause water retention, particularly long haul

hesn92

Personally i would just not worry about it. I wouldn’t be logging my food at all. Just too much of a hassle when on vacations and eating lots of different foods. But that’s just me.

JeromeBarry1

The thing about letting loose for vacation is that you've packed the clothes you will have available.

If you can wear your clothes back home, have a good time. If they're already snug, have a good time inside your calorie budget.

Diatonic12

Choose maintenance for the WIN. I went on a vacay and simply maintained while enjoying meals with my family. These are once in a lifetime experiences that we can't duplicate at home. Learning to moderate ourselves is where the rubber really meets the road while we're on the road.

trishfit2014

I went on vacation recently. I tried to eat to maintenance but it is hard to track as we ate out all the time. I ordered sensibly but did eat things I would not on a diet. I came home and weighed myself on the second morning back and I weighed the same as when I left. Next day I lost 2 lbs and that 2 lbs stayed off. I thought of it as a diet break.