Exhausted and frustrated after a 7 day walking vacation :(

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PrincessTinyheart
PrincessTinyheart Posts: 679 Member
in Motivation and Support
So I just got back from 10 days in Boston. During my vacation I did a LOT of walking (if you have ever been there you know that it's just about the only way to get around - you even walk a lot to subway stations). Add in running from point A to point B to make it to various guided tours, climbing up and down stairs and it amounted to (what I calculated) to be a lot of exercise.

Was I perfect in every thing I ate? No but I tracked everything and stayed close to my goal every day. Some days under goal, some days over. My overall calorie total over 7 days was something like 400 under. (my diary is public if you want to see it. I don't remember the exact number

I weighed myself today and discovered that I had gained 2 lbs. I don't know what to do at this point. Obviously I screwed up somewhere. I had to estimate some of my foods because they were from little mom and pop places but when in doubt I estimated high. Maybe I didn't burn as many calories as I thought but I sure was tired and sweaty most of the time.

I know there will be posters who post cold hard facts... "weight loss occurs when calories burned is more than calories consumed". Yes I know that. What I struggle with is either determining the actual calories in the stuff I'm eating or how many calories I'm actually burning. Or both. Obviously I'm doing something wrong here. It isn't like I was cramming food into my mouth the whole time - I was too busy walking and sweating most of the day. I estimated low on my exercise and high on my food but I must have still been way off :( I'm so sad and feeling defeated at this point.

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  • Samstan101
    Samstan101 Posts: 699 Member
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    If you were eating a lot of stuff you didn't cook yourself then it could well have been high in sodium. Drink lots of water for the enxt couple of days and then weigh again.
  • kittykat1994
    kittykat1994 Posts: 149 Member
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    You seem to have gone over your sodium quite a few times in that time, so I'm guessing it's probably water weight which will drop down in the next 5-7 days if you stay under on sodium.
  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,212 MFP Moderator
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    If you did a lot of exercising that you're not used to, you're probably holding onto some extra water weight. It'll go away in a few days. :)
  • emmeylou
    emmeylou Posts: 175 Member
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    I would wait and re-weigh yourself in a couple days once you are back to your regular schedule. Yes, you were on "vacation" but I bet it stressed your body! All the extra and different exercise you did, plus trying to keep up with tours and the physical travelling itself... that stressed your body (even if it was "good" stress). Which means that your body could just be in freak out mode right now and needs a few days to adjust and re regulate itself. The other thing is - you could be retaining more water than normal, thanks to all the walking and stairs and such. Make sure you are getting your fluids in right now! That could be affecting your weight as well.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
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    2 lbs is a very small price if you enjoyed your trip - it'll probably drop off anyway if it's just fluid retention - if it isn't don't sweat it - your holiday is oc=ver so just get back to your usual routine and you will be fine :)
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
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    It might just be water weight. Drink your water daily and weigh yourself again next week.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
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    If you were eating a lot of stuff you didn't cook yourself then it could well have been high in sodium. Drink lots of water for the enxt couple of days and then weigh again.

    Not to mention stuff that gets cooked with oil that you wouldn't expect (i.e. veggies that you would steam, they cooked in olive oil). If you were walking a lot more than normal, you could also be retaining water in your muscles.

    Drink lots of water and get back on track. Two pounds is nothing in the grand scheme of things (it's certainly within most people's daily weight fluctuation).
  • HerbertNenenger
    HerbertNenenger Posts: 453 Member
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    When I went to Disney in December, I walked about 7-8 miles a day, and swam at night, but I didn't hold back on the indulging, and I gained 6 pounds in one week. Four of it came off in one week, the other two I had to work for. This proves the saying that the majority of weight loss is in the food you eat/don't eat, and not in the exercise.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,663 Member
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    Trial and error is part of life. Shake it off and continue.

    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
  • csverdin
    csverdin Posts: 12 Member
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    Only 2 lbs!!!! I went to Florida for a week and gained 10. One day I had over 30,000 steps tracked on my FitBit. After talking to my wife's trainer, she asked how much water I drank. The more you move, the more water you have to drink in order to keep yourself properly hydrated. I know this sounds backwards but drinking water will actually get you to lose water because it flushes the stuff out of your body that the water has to be there to dilute. Also, typically restaurant and prepared foods will be higher in salt which will cause you to retain water so even though the calories may be good, the salt content is higher which means you have to drink even more water to flush it out of your system.

    Don't worry, if you drink lots of water, you should be able to get the 2 lbs off within the week. It's only water weight.
  • PrincessTinyheart
    PrincessTinyheart Posts: 679 Member
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    Thanks everyone - I didn't think about the sodium / water weight thing. I did try to keep up with my water intake but if I was eating food I did not prepare myself (which was the entire vacation) then I bet my sodium content was sky high.

    As for the exercise I did do a lot of stuff I'm not used to... Most of my exercise is low impact stuff like the elliptical and skating.
  • PrincessTinyheart
    PrincessTinyheart Posts: 679 Member
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    Hey it looks like you all were right - I've been watching my sodium and drinking lots of water and now I'm down 3 lbs ! This is my lowest weight since I've started MFP!!! Yay!!

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