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Vacation Notes

sgt1372
sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
edited December 2024 in Motivation and Support
Just posting this for personal accountability and for general info for those of you who worry about gaining wt while on vacation.

It wasn't unexpected but I gained about 3# from 147.5 to 150.3# during a 14 day vacation on a tour in China.

Not too bad considering that the tour usually provided 3 full meals a day when I normally only ate 1-2 and that I entirely went off my 16:8 IF eating pattern due to the time zone change & jet lag and often ate 500-1000 cals/day in excess of my normal daily cal limit during the trip.

It helped to have a bathroom scale available in the 4-5 star hotels that we stayed in to help monitor my weight during the tour. I knew I was gaining wt but it helped seeing the data to back it up which motivated me to cut back at the end of the tour.

Logging was a guessing game, since almost none of the food I ate was routinely loggable, but it seems that the amount I logged was reasonably accurate based on the cals posted and the wt gained.

Not a big deal since my current maintenance goal wt is 150 but gaining wt is too easy and I prefer to be under (rather than over) my goal wt.

So, my current goal is to lose the 2 8# that I gained during the trip, which I expect to accomplish w/in another couple of weeks, if not earlier, as soon as I can resume my prior eating habits & pattern.

Replies

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Travel, eating more food, higher sodium will all contribute to water retention. You will likely lose most of it in the next 5 days. Gaining weight is not as mathematically predictable as losing.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited October 2019
    NovusDies wrote: »
    Travel, eating more food, higher sodium will all contribute to water retention. You will likely lose most of it in the next 5 days. Gaining weight is not as mathematically predictable as losing.

    Looks like you were right about the hi sodium & water retention. Just weighed in at 147.5 this morning, lower than when I started the trip 17 days ago and lost the 3# gained during the trip in only 3 days after my return, after dropping my cals and resuming my IF routine.

    It's all good! 😊

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    19 months of closely monitoring my weight has taught me a few things. Not everything. I was recently on a 24 hour medically required liquid diet. I logged 250 calories for the day. The next day when I got on the scale I had gained 6 pounds. That one still baffles/amuses me.

    Suffice it to say that you should never react to a scale reading. You should react to a trend that includes many scale readings.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited October 2019
    NovusDies wrote: »
    19 months of closely monitoring my weight has taught me a few things. Not everything. I was recently on a 24 hour medically required liquid diet. I logged 250 calories for the day. The next day when I got on the scale I had gained 6 pounds. That one still baffles/amuses me.

    Suffice it to say that you should never react to a scale reading. You should react to a trend that includes many scale readings.

    I've been monitoring my wt daily for about 4 yrs now and I agree that daily variations are not as important as the trend.

    I've had some inexplicable daily variations too but more often than not readings on the high side are due to late night meals and retained digestive matter, rather than sodium and water retention.

This discussion has been closed.

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