Weight gain on long holidays/vacations

purple4sure05

Hey guys! I recently lost about 30 pounds from the start of the year. I've been in maintenance for 3 months but haven't exactly figured out my maintenance calories. I'm leaving for a 4 week vacation in just a couple weeks and I'm starting to worry!

Usually I weigh and log everything but it was recently my boyfriends birthday so I decided to let loose for the day and go to a restaurant without any nutrition info. I typically have one 2100 calorie day per week, so I estimated it out to be roughly the same. I ate a few bites of roast chicken, a couple bites of steak, two pork ribs, some mashed potatoes and half of a small, very thin flatbread pizza. I had only eaten granola yogurt and veggie spring rolls for the day, but I had also run 4 miles and weight trained. For dessert we went to a cookie place and I had a small cup of edible cookie dough.

The next few days my weight SHOT up higher than it's ever been in maintenance, including days that were insanely high carb like eating a massive stack of pancakes for dinner. Usually I fluctuate between 129.5 and 131.6 but I was almost to 133, which feels significant considering that none of my cheat meals have ever brought me near that. My body tends to follow a similar pattern every week because my cheat meal is always on a specific day. My weight hasnt gone near the bottom of my range since then, which was one week ago.

This experience has me freaked out for my vacation where I wont be logging my food intake properly for an entire month. I felt like the meal and dessert I had was pretty reasonable compared to my usual cheat days, but clearly I did something wrong.

Does anyone have experience with how much weight they gained on a long holiday if any? Or how to enjoy yourself without destroying your progress? I'm fine with gaining 2 or 3 pounds but if I go beyond that I'll be very discouraged, as the last few took so long to get off in the first place.

luaP852350

I put on nearly 3kgs on a 2 week holiday, I logged everyday as accurately as possible I went swimming everyday an walked 2k my Fitbit still isn't syncing so blaming some of it on that ! Enjoy yourself an go as crazy as you want then go strict when you get back 💪 enjoy your hols 😎

Danp

Went away for a week, came back about 2kg heavier while having an awesome times, got back to business when I got home.

Totally worth it. Life is too short to not enjoy those rare moments to the fullest. Three's 48 other weeks a year to be good and nothing you can do in 4 weeks is going to completely offset that.

purple4sure05

Danp wrote: »

Went away for a week, came back about 2kg heavier while having an awesome times, got back to business when I got home.

Totally worth it. Life is too short to not enjoy those rare moments to the fullest. Three's 48 other weeks a year to be good and nothing you can do in 4 weeks is going to completely offset that.

I dont disagree but on a four week holiday if I gained 2 kg a week I would come back 9 pounds heavier which isnt something I'm willing to accept after so much work. Im trying to figure out how to enjoy myself without significantly pushing back on my progress Did that 2 kg include water weight?

bluesheeponahill

Congrats on the weight loss!!
My trick, was to eat normal breakfast at hotel. Rather than buffet. I had a bowl of cereal and milk. If I was wanting a buffet I made sure lunch was smaller to compensate and dinner was moderate. Or
Sometimes if I knew where I was going/planning on a big lunch, I skipped breakfast. I carried water and drank it a lot. To me, while I enjoyed my holidays, I tried my best to plan ahead with food seeing logging in calories can be harder on holidays.
I came back 4 kilos lighter. But I did some intenstive walking!

vanityy99

I went on vacation and went up 5lbs and I was on vacation for over three weeks. I was sorta not really being mindful of how much I was eating still, it could’ve been worse. Just because you go on vacation it doesn’t mean you have to be one extreme to the other, you can still be a bit mindful but don’t stress out about it and enjoy yourself.

My weight went back down when I got home and started my routine again. It was just water weight.

purple4sure05

bluesheeponahill wrote: »

Congrats on the weight loss!!
My trick, was to eat normal breakfast at hotel. Rather than buffet. I had a bowl of cereal and milk. If I was wanting a buffet I made sure lunch was smaller to compensate and dinner was moderate. Or
Sometimes if I knew where I was going/planning on a big lunch, I skipped breakfast. I carried water and drank it a lot. To me, while I enjoyed my holidays, I tried my best to plan ahead with food seeing logging in calories can be harder on holidays.
I came back 4 kilos lighter. But I did some intenstive walking!

Thanks! My plan is also to eat a really healthy or at least low cal breakfast and snack on fruits and veggies and pretzels until my bigger meal of the day. I doubt I could possibly lose 4 kilos, but hopefully I wont do too much damage the other direction haha.

purple4sure05

vanityy99 wrote: »

I went on vacation and went up 5lbs and I was on vacation for over three weeks. I was sorta not really being mindful of how much I was eating still, it could’ve been worse. Just because you go on vacation it doesn’t mean you have to be one extreme to the other, you can still be a bit mindful but don’t stress out about it and enjoy yourself.

My weight went back down when I got home and started my routine again. It was just water weight.

Hopefully that'll be the case for me as well. I kind of struggle when I cant log because I mindlessly snack on things when I dont force myself to acknowledge the calories, or eat more than I should. Not to an extreme, but my weight has been very unforgiving with any missteps lol.

jaz100_nz

I usually lose a little weight when travelling with all the walking. The key it to drink a ton of water, avoid snacks unless it’s fruit, and aim for the healthier choices when eating out.

staticsplit

Your weight probably went up because what you ate seems like it could have a lot of sodium.

I usually go up a few pounds while on holiday but it comes off almost immediately when I get back into my usual routine, meaning it's mostly just water. While away I aim for around 2,500 roughly guesstimated calories, which leaves plenty of room to try things and enjoy myself. We usually have a decent sized breakfast if it's included in the hotel and then just have a light snack for lunch, then have a big dinner somewhere. So instead of my usual 5/6 smaller meals, I have 2 big meals and a snack. I also tend to walk like 20k steps when I'm away, which means I'm just eating at maintenance or slightly over. If I can, I book a place to stay that has a gym and a pool, so if I want to get in some weights or swimming or whatever, it's easily done.

I've been in maintenance since October and since then I've been on holiday to Malaysia/Singapore (lots of dim sum--weight stayed the same), visiting family over Christmas in California (lots of everything--went went up like 2 pounds over maintenance), went to the Isle of Skye (lots of scones and whisky--weight at upper end of maintenance), I was just visiting inlaws for a weekend (and they always have food everywhere--1 pound below top of maintenance range today), and next month I'm going to France (give me the cheese). I don't go super overboard but I enjoy myself. Balance.

LivingtheLeanDream

What you do the majority of the time is the main thing, even on a long vacation - enjoy it and then when you get back, its back to eating with a small deficit if necessary to get back to your happy weight range. Life is for living and vacation eating is a small space of time in the big picture that is our lives.


Have fun.

Danp

purple4sure05 wrote: »

Danp wrote: »

Went away for a week, came back about 2kg heavier while having an awesome times, got back to business when I got home.

Totally worth it. Life is too short to not enjoy those rare moments to the fullest. Three's 48 other weeks a year to be good and nothing you can do in 4 weeks is going to completely offset that.

I dont disagree but on a four week holiday if I gained 2 kg a week I would come back 9 pounds heavier which isnt something I'm willing to accept after so much work. Im trying to figure out how to enjoy myself without significantly pushing back on my progress Did that 2 kg include water weight?

Yes, only a little of that was fat. 1 week later I was well on my way to where I started and 2 more weeks after that I was fully back on track.

Even had I been away for longer I doubt I would have kept gaining weight at the same rate. Even after 4 weeks I don't think it would have been more than 3-4kg and keep in mind that I'm likely quite a bit heavier than you so those changes would be amplified.

The point being is that while managing your weight is important so is living your life and taking advantage of those rare moments to the fullest. In 1, 5 or 10 years from now my memories of vacations are going to be about my experiences not how well I stuck to a diet so I like to make the most of those experiences without feeling like I need to deny or limit myself.

People don't get develop a weight problem because they decide to gain weight. It happens outside of their control. That's the real problem with gaining weight, that it happens unconsciously. The way I see it gaining weight isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as it's a conscious decision and something that your in control of.

A big turning point for me was giving myself permission to gain weight when I felt it was warranted and 'normal' knowing full well that nothing I did during those odd celebrations, holidays and whatnot would have any real impact in the long run.

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ValeriePlz

Eating out a lot is hard to accurately log, and a lot of restaurant foods contain more salt than you would consume at home. When I travel for work or pleasure, I try to drink a ton of water and order more veggies. I also am prepared to come back a little heavier, even when I've been very active, so I am a little more forgiving of splitting a dessert or whatever because...it's vacation! Good luck!

cmriverside

So if you struggle without logging and if you want to eat and you also want to maintain, there's a problem to solve.

How about taking pictures of the food as you are about to eat? Some days I forget what (and how much) I've eaten, but if I have a picture I can look at it and go, "Oh, yeah. I don't really neeeeeed more food."

Alternately, I am one who believes that I can look at food and guess relatively well how many calories are there based on years of logging food. I also believe in relaxing food rules while on vacation. That's what a vacation is for - less discipline, more fun.

tcunbeliever

I'm on vacation 20 days in July, so I totally get concern for keeping healthy while traveling.

My plan is to log (as much as possible estimating amounts) and I set my goal calories to maintenance. I do want to continue to lose, so I will try to keep daily consumption below the goal I have set, but if I have a day or two that go all the way up to maintenance, then I'm not going to fret about it. Vacation is supposed to be fun, and not stressful, but I don't want to be all stressed out about having a lot of fluff when I get back either.

SuzySunshine99

So much of vacation weight gain is water weight. Here's how I gained 10 pounds in 7 days...copied and pasted from a previous post I wrote because I'm lazy....

I maintain my weight between 125-130. Before leaving for a week-long vacation, I weighed myself at 126. After my trip, I weighed myself at 136. Did I really gain 10 pounds of fat in 7 days? Unless I ate 35,000 calories above my maintenance for the week, then no. Here were the main factors for water and fluid retention in my case:

-Air travel: 6 hours of flying each way.
-Eating out at restaurants: Sodium and carb-heavy foods, alcohol.
-Increased exercise: Strenuous mountain hikes.
-Injury: Got flipped out of a raft into whitewater and slammed against rocks. Bruising and swelling.
-Dehydration: Was probably not drinking enough water for the amount of activity.

So, after returning from the trip, I got back to my regular eating habits, rested, and drank a ton of water. The 10 pounds was gone a week later.