Vacation

mel941980

My husband and I are traveling to Key West for the first time in a few days.

I want to enjoy my vacation, but I also don't want to gain a lot of weight.

Prior to Covid we traveled 2-3 times a year, but this is our first time going on a week long vacation since December, 2019. I'm a bit nervous as I'm leaning towards taking a diet break.

I started my weight loss journey in January, 2020. I have lost 88lbs and have 15 to go. (Even when I plan to indulge it's because I have stored exercise calories. I also log those days.)

Do you continue to use myfitnesspal on vacation, or do you just take your vacation and enjoy yourself then get back on track when you return home?

cmriverside

I don't try to stay in a deficit on vacation. Any "weight" uptick always goes away after a week or two being back home and back to my routine.


There's a lot of walking in Key West.

Enjoy.

cmriverside

..so ...NO! I don't track food, I just have a good time and eat/drink.

Congrats on your 88 pound loss! Let loose a little. That last 15 needs a diet break anyway:

Let's call it a Refeed.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

sarah12277

Have a wonderful time. I try to loosely track. To be aware of what I'm eating, and to make sure I've logged in to not lose my streak. I still allow myself whatever indulgence I want. If I end up being over so be it. I mostly strive for maintenance that week as most gains are just water for that timeframe.

I just came back from Disney myself. Many things I can't log but try to guess calories as best as I can; otherwise I let it be.

Have a wonderful vacation!

thisvickyruns

if it was my first holiday in 18 months I would be eating all the food, drinking all the drinks and giving zero kittens.

And then get back to the deficit the day I got home again

janejellyroll

I log every day just because I like the data. If I'm going on vacation, I focus on enjoying myself. For me, that looks like taking advantage of opportunities for physical activity while enjoying unique or interesting foods that I don't have easy access to at home.

mel941980

Thank you all for your insight; I truly appreciate it. I'm definitely going to look into a refeed, @cmriverside

mel941980

thisvickyruns wrote: »

if it was my first holiday in 18 months I would be eating all the food, drinking all the drinks and giving zero kittens.

And then get back to the deficit the day I got home again

LOL! That's what my husband suggested, too.

psychod787

cmriverside wrote: »

I don't try to stay in a deficit on vacation. Any "weight" uptick always goes away after a week or two being back home and back to my routine.


There's a lot of walking in Key West.

Enjoy.

Amen. The Keys are a trip! I say that loose "tracking" mindfulness, is ok. Just take it easy on Duval Street. That "crawl" to the mile marker can be rough.....

cmriverside

psychod787 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I don't try to stay in a deficit on vacation. Any "weight" uptick always goes away after a week or two being back home and back to my routine.


There's a lot of walking in Key West.

Enjoy.

Amen. The Keys are a trip! I say that loose "tracking" mindfulness, is ok. Just take it easy on Duval Street. That "crawl" to the mile marker can be rough.....

You talking a pub crawl? One needs a certain amount of lime juice and maybe coconut in order to arrive at the "Southermost Point."

helen_goldthorpe

While I was losing I'd log loosely - quantities would be guesswork but I'd at least have a record of the sort of things I was eating. I'm now maintaining and on a holiday at the moment, and I'm experimenting with not logging. I'm being pretty active anyway and just eating to hunger, logging one thing a day to maintain my streak but not worrying about the rest. It will be interesting to see what impact it has, but at the moment I can afford to gain a pound or two anyway so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

cwolfman13

Vacation is vacation...in the grand scheme of things, taking a week to just enjoy yourself is pretty irrelevant. I will also be going to Miami in late July for a few nights and then a road trip through the Keys with a couple of days in Key West...as with most of my vacations, we will be pretty dang active. Lots of walking and site seeing, snorkeling and diving, etc. I am typically far more active on vacation without any deliberate exercise or working out than I am at home working out most days, but also sitting on my butt most of the day behind a desk.

A big part of what makes travel pleasurable for me is trying the local fare. I'm not going to sit there worrying about how many calories are in my Cubano Sandwich when we stop in little Havana for lunch.

I have personally never gained anything except for water weight when I've been on vacation and that's usually more attributable to airline travel than anything else. When I get home, I just get back to doing what I do.

autumnblade75

helen_goldthorpe wrote: »

While I was losing I'd log loosely - quantities would be guesswork but I'd at least have a record of the sort of things I was eating. I'm now maintaining and on a holiday at the moment, and I'm experimenting with not logging. I'm being pretty active anyway and just eating to hunger, logging one thing a day to maintain my streak but not worrying about the rest. It will be interesting to see what impact it has, but at the moment I can afford to gain a pound or two anyway so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

You don't have to add anything to your food diary to maintain your streak - just log into the app. If you pop in to read the forums, you won't lose your streak. Nothing at all to do with logging your food.

cmriverside

autumnblade75 wrote: »

helen_goldthorpe wrote: »

While I was losing I'd log loosely - quantities would be guesswork but I'd at least have a record of the sort of things I was eating. I'm now maintaining and on a holiday at the moment, and I'm experimenting with not logging. I'm being pretty active anyway and just eating to hunger, logging one thing a day to maintain my streak but not worrying about the rest. It will be interesting to see what impact it has, but at the moment I can afford to gain a pound or two anyway so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

You don't have to add anything to your food diary to maintain your streak - just log into the app. If you pop in to read the forums, you won't lose your streak. Nothing at all to do with logging your food.

Even if you do lose your streak you can reset it:


From "Help" (at the top of any page)

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032624931-My-login-days-in-a-row-counter-is-incorrect-How-do-I-fix-this-

psychod787

cmriverside wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I don't try to stay in a deficit on vacation. Any "weight" uptick always goes away after a week or two being back home and back to my routine.


There's a lot of walking in Key West.

Enjoy.

Amen. The Keys are a trip! I say that loose "tracking" mindfulness, is ok. Just take it easy on Duval Street. That "crawl" to the mile marker can be rough.....

You talking a pub crawl? One needs a certain amount of lime juice and maybe coconut in order to arrive at the "Southermost Point."

https://duvalcrawl.com/

age_is_just_a_number

Two years ago I went on a three week trip. Gained 7 pounds. Took me 6 months to lose it. (I know that’s a really long time, so obviously I was t trying that hard to lose it). I did not track what I was eating while on vacation.
My thoughts for my own future success: don’t track, but don’t go overboard either.

lynn_glenmont

I log when I'm traveling, but I don't cart scales with me, so obviously it's unlikely it's as accurate as when I'm at home, since I'm estimating portion sizes. But I like having the best data I can reasonably obtain, so I have some idea of what to expect as an impact. Often my vacations involve a lot of walking and perhaps some biking or other activities, so it's usually not a major derailment.

Beverly2Hansen

So I can easily consume 3000 calories a day with food and alcohol on vacation in a week. I have to plan and log both my food and exercise. In 2017 I went up 10lbs from a week long vacation in Vagas. I think a normal person would be fine I personally can out eat most large men and did just that.

wunderkindking

Beverly2Hansen wrote: »

So I can easily consume 3000 calories a day with food and alcohol on vacation in a week. I have to plan and log both my food and exercise. In 2017 I went up 10lbs from a week long vacation in Vagas. I think a normal person would be fine I personally can out eat most large men and did just that.

...in order for that math to work for it being all fat gain you would have had to have eaten more than 3,500 calories ABOVE maintenance a day. 3,500 + mainenance calories for SEVEN days would have only gained you 7lbs. Not that I doubt you gained it or whatever, but you ate WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than 3000 calories a day to gain 10lbs in a week, if a good chunk of it wasn't water.

wunderkindking

I don't log. If it's a relatively sedentary vacation I will be somewhat careful. If it's my usual, outdoor activity centric, vacation I will eat anything that comes near me. In most cases it's somewhere between. But in no case am I logging anything.

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mtaratoot

When I go on a multi-day river trip, I just use a "recipe" that I created. I call it "Rafter's Rations." It's made of 100 grams protein, 100 grams fat, and 500 grams carbs. It comes to 3300 calories. It's about double my MFP goal before exercise. I am very active on river trips. It's really just a place holder.

I do also log beers. I know how many I have because there's limited room on my raft. I know how many I take per day, so I can add them to the rations.

If I have access to the internet, I still enter a decent guess about what I eat each day, but I don't feel any guilt about going over my goal for every damn day I'm on vacation. I still log. It gives me data to help continue to fine tune what I'm doing because if I "eat intuitively," I will probably go back to the weight I was before I actively started to track calories and get to a healthy weight.

PAV8888

It really depends on how often you vacation (now and in the future) and on where your focus is/will be while you're on vacation.

If a vacation is a once every five years five day rarity, the importance of caloric balance is going to be different than for a person involved in three separate month long "vacations" a year, right? The in-between the two extremes people will have to figure out which one is closer to their own reality )

If your vacation involves hiking the appalachian trail, logging excess meal calories may be of less importance than if you are vacationing in a magical post COVID cruise-ship or at an all you can drink and eat resort while lounging by (but not using) the pool.

There is a difference between eating at maintenance or a slight surplus, and going hog wild in the sun... if I were in danger of falling in the second category... I would log.

hipari

Depends on what your idea of vacation is. I usually lose weight during vacation more than "regular life", because my vacations tend to be city vacations with tons of walking around. I don't log on vacation, except maybe a guesstimated one day sample to see what I can expect in terms of calorie intake and deficit.

I also usually don't weigh in until several days after my return from vacation, just to eliminate extra stress about bloating related to diet and flying.

Antiopelle

My holidays are always extremely active, therefor I would not log in the past, coming back home at +- the same weight. The result however is that I continue that way of eating when I'm back at home. I find it extremely difficult to get back on track after a week of two of indulgence, and the weight starts creeping back on AFTER the holiday (same high cal intake, but a lot less activity).
For me, the best way is to track even if it is not as accurate at home. But everyone is different and we all have to find out what works best.

ninerbuff

Vacation to me just means I don't have to work. So I still adhere to working out daily, but I'll ease up on my calorie restriction. I may gain a few pounds after, but I expect that. Once I'm back, I go back to regular routine.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Speakeasy76

I log loosely just to keep myself on track and overall try to make healthy choices and not stuff myself, but I'm not overly worried about it and expect to gain some weight. Since this is now a "lifestyle" for me, I don't use it as an excuse to eat no-holds-barred, though.

westrich20940

Unless your vacation is like a month long --- do not worry about logging or dieting or anything on your vacation. Any 'weight' you gain will most likely just be water weight. One week (typical vacay length) isn't going to ruin anything.

Have. Fun. Enjoy it - Key West is super cool/fun.

mel941980

@cmriverside, thank you again for the diet break suggestion. I read up on it and followed your advice. I chose to hit at least 10,000 steps a day and logged fairly loosely in Key West, but I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted for ten days. Pure bliss. Key lime coladas should be illegal. Lol! While I gained 8lbs, 3-4lbs was actual fat, if my math is correct. That said, I took the weight off in 2 weeks and I'm feeling re-energized! I appreciate your insight. Have a great weekend.

cmriverside

springlering62

We did a week in SoCal with our daughter. The vegan food she made was super high calorie. Mind blowing to me. I thought it would be healthier than that.

We were home a couple days and immediately left for three weeks in Germany, including our other kid’s wedding. Our AirBnB was next door to a fabulous bakery, our AiBnB host kept leaving us holiday (Christmas) foods to try, and we had a fabulous traditional Swabian wedding dinner, in addition to other celebratory meals.

While there we walked a lot, and I ran around the Aassee (giant lake in center of town) every chance I got. I also made sure to attend some yoga classes- and walked to them as is my habit at home.

I came home nine pounds up. Because I continued exercising while there, I didn’t break that habit. I fell right back in to the food habits I developed hete, and the weight was gone in a couple months. And boy, did I have a good time sampling and eating baked goods and schnitzel.

The takeaway for me was, a short break didn’t upset the apple cart, don’t go all whiny and panicky and derail permanently, return to plan and you’ll be fine- and know that four weeks of unfettered eating = 9 pounds (ie, it’ll pile back on really quick if you don’t create lifetime habits!) )