Lessons learned from a cruise

thoeting

So, I've been losing weight very, very slowly for the last 8 months - about 15 pounds total since March even though I eat about 1800 calories a day and work out nearly every day with cardio or strength. Also, never eating past 6 pm so that I have time to burn off dinner.

then I have a cruise in October and I've heard all the stories about the food and how people gain weight from over eating.

Looking over my slow weight loss, I had to make a decision to care or to not care and I decided "Screw it" I'm going to eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full and if I gain 5 pounds, at least I did the cruise with a minimum of anxiety over eating. I committed to going to the gym every day for about 30 minutes of cardio, and strength training at least once.

I stuck to my intentions. One day, I had ice cream for breakfast. Why? it was there and it looked good. Dinner was at 815 PM and I had wine, a full course dinner, and dessert - every night - 7 nights in a row.

it was wonderful. I'd say i ate/drank about 3000 calories a day, easy.

I get home and step on the scales, kind of resigned to whatever happens.,,

I lost five pounds.

You read that right-- I lost 5 pounds, on a cruise, eating whatever I wanted, working out about half of what I do at home.

My daughter is a medical student, so I gave her this scenario and asked her to run it past a nutrition professor to see his/her take on it.

His comment was that it made perfect sense. My body had gotten used to the same foods, the same intake,the same times and produced the enzymes necessary and when I shook things up so much, my body had to work HARD to switch to what was needed now. And therefore burnt off a lot of calories.

In other words, I shocked my body back into losing weight.;

Is there a lesson here? Hell yeah - should have trusted the experts and done it sooner. And will do it again. Maybe once every 6 months, just take a week off and eat everything i want, until I'm full, and force my body to adjust.

Pretty cool huh?

sweetpea129

We just went on a 7 day cruise the first week of October (we're we on the same cruise lol). Anywyas, i was so worried about gaining weight. I didnt stop myself from eating things i wanted though. But i didnt go crazy. I ate dessert every night, had a few drinks. I would say i ate about 2500-3000 cals a day. But i only used the stairs and walked a lot on the ship and in port, and swam. I didnt gain anything. THese next 2 weeks weight seems to be flying off. I think the cruise revved my body up or something!

thoeting

We were Carnival Pride out of Baltimore

sweetpea129

NO! So we're we!! September 30-oct 7th. We celebrated my 30th birthday on the ship.

thoeting

We were the next week....too much fun huh? I want to go back so bad

sweetpea129

LOL SMal world! Yes so much fun. The food was really good. Much better than our previous cruises. The ship was nice. My 2 yr old kept asking why the statues had no clothes on. The staff was awesome. Were ready to go again!

drmerc

sounds like bullsheit to me

Fat2Fit145

So, I've been losing weight very, very slowly for the last 8 months - about 15 pounds total since March even though I eat about 1800 calories a day and work out nearly every day with cardio or strength. Also, never eating past 6 pm so that I have time to burn off dinner.

then I have a cruise in October and I've heard all the stories about the food and how people gain weight from over eating.

Looking over my slow weight loss, I had to make a decision to care or to not care and I decided "Screw it" I'm going to eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full and if I gain 5 pounds, at least I did the cruise with a minimum of anxiety over eating. I committed to going to the gym every day for about 30 minutes of cardio, and strength training at least once.

I stuck to my intentions. One day, I had ice cream for breakfast. Why? it was there and it looked good. Dinner was at 815 PM and I had wine, a full course dinner, and dessert - every night - 7 nights in a row.

it was wonderful. I'd say i ate/drank about 3000 calories a day, easy.

I get home and step on the scales, kind of resigned to whatever happens.,,

I lost five pounds.

You read that right-- I lost 5 pounds, on a cruise, eating whatever I wanted, working out about half of what I do at home.

My daughter is a medical student, so I gave her this scenario and asked her to run it past a nutrition professor to see his/her take on it.

His comment was that it made perfect sense. My body had gotten used to the same foods, the same intake,the same times and produced the enzymes necessary and when I shook things up so much, my body had to work HARD to switch to what was needed now. And therefore burnt off a lot of calories.

In other words, I shocked my body back into losing weight.;

Is there a lesson here? Hell yeah - should have trusted the experts and done it sooner. And will do it again. Maybe once every 6 months, just take a week off and eat everything i want, until I'm full, and force my body to adjust.

Pretty cool huh?

i think its true..... metabolism is a funny thing.... good going....

Fat2Fit145

sounds like bullsheit to me

lolol... its possible... i dont doubt it

drmerc

sounds like bullsheit to me

lolol... its possible... i dont doubt it

You believe you can lose 5lbs making enzymes?

SideSteel

I'm happy for you and your weight loss.

I don't think there's any merit to your (or your doctor's) theory however.

Cindym82

I believe it, I lost weight in May when we went cross country and were in vegas and utah and az and I ate and drank whatever, came back and weighed 1.4lbs less

Topsking2010

I guess I should feel better about eating dessert at a retirement party. The calorie spike may help my weight loss.

Fat2Fit145

sounds like bullsheit to me

lolol... its possible... i dont doubt it

You believe you can lose 5lbs making enzymes?

I believe that the body is a VERY strange machine and it does get accustomed to the calories we eat. SOOOOO.... the increase may very well have cause her metabolism to start working overtime and burn more calories, whereas while she was eating the very same calories the body could nto have been getting enough and STORING it for reserves......

acpgranberg

I lost 5lbs on a cruise also. We took the stairs because everyone crowds into those glass elevators [yuck]. We walked all over the islands we visited and made a deal that if we were eating in the buffet that you only get one plate. It helped that most of the food was not very good and watching people pile on their plates was a little gross. Most of the desserts were tasteless except for the mousse. That was amazing. I only went to the gym once. It can be done.

Sarauk2sf

When you are on a calorie deficit for a while, your hormones start getting messed up as well as a certain amount of adaptation of your metabolism. Messed up hormones = water weight. So, the fact that you were enjoying yourself (and probably had an increased neat) and not dieting got your hormones back in sync and you had a whoosh!! It was probably a very beneficial thing you did for your longer term weight loss.

Countryboy_

What I learned on my cruise is that the authorities in Grand Cayman frown on skinny dipping.

thoeting

sounds like bullsheit to me

It may sound like that.. However, what I say is what happened.

sweetpea129

Whether its true or not, who knows. Maybe we all need a cruise to decide again. I'll take one for the team. Send me.

SideSteel

sounds like bullsheit to me

It may sound like that.. However, what I say is what happened.

I'm pretty sure he was referring to the doc's explanation of what happened and not disputing that you lost the weight.

thoeting

I'm happy for you and your weight loss.

I don't think there's any merit to your (or your doctor's) theory however.

it wasnt' my doctor that gave me this information. It was a professor at my daughter's medical school (which is Emory Med in Atlanta, GA)

Something has to explain the sudden weight loss - - you have a better idea than a medical school professor whose speciality is nutrition? Please share

thoeting

sounds like bullsheit to me

lolol... its possible... i dont doubt it

You believe you can lose 5lbs making enzymes?

I don't know...I just shared my experience and the resultant explanation from an expert.

But something happened

I was 164.4 the day I left. I was 159.6 the day I came back

skullshank

i lost 113lbs on a cruise....
tossed my ex right overboard. bon voyage *kitten*!

(ba-dum-bum)

SideSteel

I'm happy for you and your weight loss.

I don't think there's any merit to your (or your doctor's) theory however.

it wasnt' my doctor that gave me this information. It was a professor at my daughter's medical school (which is Emory Med in Atlanta, GA)

Something has to explain the sudden weight loss - - you have a better idea than a medical school professor whose speciality is nutrition? Please share

Fluid weight difference.


You do not lose fat eating in a calorie surplus, if you were indeed in a surplus.
Your body CAN stop producing enzymes if you eliminate food from your diet but you aren't going to accelerate weight loss when you re-introduce whatever food you eliminated.
Thermic effect of feeding happens even if you eat the same food daily and I've never seen any evidence that it reduces when you get used to that food.

EDIT: Lastly, you could have just been eating in a calorie deficit. Doesn't sound like it, but it's also an explanation.

thoeting

I'm happy for you and your weight loss.

I don't think there's any merit to your (or your doctor's) theory however.

it wasnt' my doctor that gave me this information. It was a professor at my daughter's medical school (which is Emory Med in Atlanta, GA)

Something has to explain the sudden weight loss - - you have a better idea than a medical school professor whose speciality is nutrition? Please share

Fluid weight difference.


You do not lose fat eating in a calorie surplus, if you were indeed in a surplus.
Your body CAN stop producing enzymes if you eliminate food from your diet but you aren't going to accelerate weight loss when you re-introduce whatever food you eliminated.
Thermic effect of feeding happens even if you eat the same food daily and I've never seen any evidence that it reduces when you get used to that food.

Forgot to mention the Tanita scale at the gym showed the weight loss to be 3.4 pounds of fat and 1.4 pounds of muscle.

thoeting

EDIT: Lastly, you could have just been eating in a calorie deficit. Doesn't sound like it, but it's also an explanation.
[/quote]

I eat about 1800 calories a day, and work off about 700 - give or take. Doesn't that qualify as a deficit?

thoeting

Whether its true or not, who knows. Maybe we all need a cruise to decide again. I'll take one for the team. Send me.

We should go together --- a control group so to speak

SideSteel

EDIT: Lastly, you could have just been eating in a calorie deficit. Doesn't sound like it, but it's also an explanation.

I eat about 1800 calories a day, and work off about 700 - give or take. Doesn't that qualify as a deficit?

Yes, but I am referring to the energy balance you were at while on the cruise. It sounds like you weren't tracking intake, so you can't say for certain whether or not you were in a deficit.

Once again, I'm not doubting your loss and I'm happy for you. Progress is good. I was just getting at the "why" rather than the "if".

randomtai

*sigh* I wanna go on a cruise... Congrats on your weight loss. I also lost weight when I went cruising last year, but I also worked out on the ship as well as took the stairs.

thoeting

You are right, I was tracking intake very very loosely, as in "how many calories are in a bottle of wine? Don't know, don't care"

DrMAvDPhD

I lost weight on vacation this year, too. I attribute it more to my activity level (desk job 50% of my day at work vs walking around doing stuff on vacay) than the fact that I was also eating around 3000 calories a day.