Holiday trip

pinacolada7

Hellooo I came to a trip and I enjoyed myself in every posible way ( drinks , sweets, carbs), after months of diets and exercise. I don’t regret anything but feeling afraid of weighting my self on Monday ahahaha any tip ?

AnnPT77

What to do as far as eating and exercise: Just go back to your normal, healthy pre-trip routine. Don't try to "make up for it": That almost always ends badly, IME. I'd say the same whether you've been maintaining weight or losing weight before the trip.

If you're asking about weigh-ins and what to expect, that's a longer answer (sorry).

It would be normal to see a pretty big scale gain (multiple pounds), most of which will be water weight. The water weight part of it will take some time to dissipate. Absent any other factor in the picture that might add or sustain water weight longer, that would probably drop off in anything from a few days to a couple of weeks.

How long it takes is somewhat individual. For a woman who's adult and not in menopause yet, the timing of this water weight and the regular monthly hormonal water retention can sort of conspire to make it take even longer for the water weight to stop messing with scale weight.

Personally, I would always want to weigh myself the first morning after I got home (just like I always do every morning, after using the bathroom and before eating/drinking anything, and in the same state of (un)dress every day). That is because I know most of the scary scale jump is water weight, and because I look at weight management as a fun science fair experiment. I want to understand how my personal individual body handles weird water weight situations. I'm totally calm about this, no stress.

After doing that for years now, I can pretty much predict how long it will take for water weight from various causes to drop off, which is calming and useful knowledge. (It helps that I'm in menopause.)

If someone is super-stressed about fluctuations in scale weight, it may be a bad plan to do what I do . . . but they are giving up a potential learning experience.

So, what should you do? It depends on how stressful weigh-ins are for you.

Start weighing daily and learn from it, or wait for a week or so (up to a whole monthly cycle) if weigh-ins are too stressful.

After the water weight seems to be out of the picture, there may be another step. If you'd been maintaining your weight before the trip, and you end up a pound or two higher on the scale after the water weight leaves, you may want to cut back a bit for a few weeks to lose the pound or two. If you were losing before the trip, that won't be necessary.

It'll be fine, either way. Don't worry about it. It's great that you had fun on your trip: Don't put regret, guilt or self-recrimination in the picture. That's pointless, and feels icky.

Best wishes!

cmriverside

I would say it's way more important to step on the scale than to not step on it.

If you're up a few pounds, it's still going to drop back off if you get back at your calorie deficit. Not a biggie.

If you don't step on the scale you run that risk of, "The heck with it. I'll start again after the holidays." Then put on five more pounds, and not even know it.

It's always better to know, in my opinion. The truth will set you free and all that.

Retroguy2000

It's fine to have enjoyed yourself. As Ann said, get back to your normal workout schedule asap. You may not want to diet through Xmas but you should attempt to not gain weight from now to EOY.

You might consider delaying weighing until after a few days of normal eating and exercise, to let some of the excess water weight go first, since that will give a false impression.

yirara

Hey, my favourite topic because I travel an awful lot. Just this year I visited 9 countries I've not been to before (only two of them done during a single trip) plus a few repeat visits. Travel water weight and possibly a bit constipation due to changing how you eat is totally a thing. For me, travel water weight is The Worst. It sticks around for at least a week and then decides to leave me in the middle of the night. Cue excessive nighttime peeing. But hey, I know this happens thus there's nothing to worry about.

About actual weight gain: Well, how much did you really eat above your maintenance calories? To gain 1lbs you need to eat 3500 calories above your maintenance, and that's quite a lot! A 100gr crisps has about 550 calories. You could have eaten 6 bags of crisps during this trip plus your calories at maintenance (thus higher than diet calories) to only gain 1 single pound. Try to put it into perspective. It's probably not as bad as you think. ❤️

pinacolada7

Thanks everyone for taking your time and answer me back! It’s a great community, it’s comforting knowing it’s a normal feeling and situation!!

Cheers 💪

CrazyMermaid1

I too would rather have the data than not. Weighing daily normalizes the fluctuations for me. At the same time it keeps me accountable to myself. I go into a situation with the thought in the back of my mind that I don’t have to take off what I don’t gain. I make decisions based on whether something is worth it and generally it is.

elisa123gal

I found it was the ability to get right back on track that led to my weight loss. When i went on vacation I'd go right back on my healthy eating plan and exercise when i got home.. and that worked. It also worked for a day or a weekend when i went off.. you get right back on plan.