Help me understand this, please! Vacation eating vs weight.

Options
ghartleroad1
ghartleroad1 Posts: 51 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've been about 6lbs away from my ultimate goal (BMI 18.5; weight 118) for four month, fluctuating on the same 2lbs (122-124lbs). I am militant about keeping to my 1250 cal/day as a 5'7" woman, but lightened up a bit on my workouts - shifting from all cardio (HIIT & running) to cardio & weights. This has been my strategy for the past 14 months.

Last week was vacation. I did one 5mi walk. That's it for the entire week. While I still tracked my food, I took a more "eat what you want" attitude. So some portions were larger, was likely dehydrated, and I indulged my sweet tooth with a lot of ice cream. I mean A LOT. I was over my weekly calorie goal by 2000 cal and averaged over 1500 (vs my usual 1250) for the week.

I prepped myself to get on the scale yesterday, hoping against all hope to have not gained more than 1 to 1.5lbs. To my utter shock, my weight stayed EXACTLY THE SAME. Can someone explain this to me?

Did my body just get too used to my eating/workout routine? Is it possible my body went back into starvation mode before vacation? (This was the problem I had when I was first working out with running - my nutritionist informed me I wasn't eating enough when I first started trying to lose weight.)

Any/all insights are appreciated!

Replies

  • ultrahoon
    ultrahoon Posts: 467 Member
    Options
    Well I can't comment on the specifics, but if you were only 2000 calories over for the whole week, that's only just over half a pound, so normal fluctations in weight could hide that easily.

    Also, starvation mode as you described it does not exist.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Options
    Your body didn't go into starvation mode.

    Weight loss is not linear.
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
    Options
    Why are you worried about it? You ate and acted like you were on vacation; you are not on vacation every day. You know your actions were short term, not habits or patterns, and your relationship with gravity reflected a status quo, vacation behavior notwithstanding.

    As noted, weight loss is not linear.

    Seriously, if it were me, I would say, "Whoo-hoo!" and go back to my typical, non-vacation eating/activity habits without a second thought

    (To be fair, this is pretty much what I do after any vacation, possibly absent the "whoo-hoo!" based on the actual scale data.)

    Life, including deliberate choices about eating, is for living. Make the best "everyday" choices you can, enjoy the special occasion choices, and rock on.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,215 Member
    edited August 2015
    Options
    Ditto all of the above, including that you didn't go into starvation mode. Be happy that you got a "free ride" on your vacation and get back to eating and exercising how you're supposed to.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Options
    You are still eating at a deficit. There's no reason why you should have gained so I'm not sure why you're surprised you didn't.
  • lizzocat
    lizzocat Posts: 356 Member
    Options
    you were probably just eating at maintenance or even still at a very slight deficit. you don't gain weight the minute you go over your calories (especially if the calories you are over are at a deficit) , weight loss and weight gain is not that black and white
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Options
    lizzocat wrote: »
    you were probably just eating at maintenance or even still at a very slight deficit. you don't gain weight the minute you go over your calories (especially if the calories you are over are at a deficit) , weight loss and weight gain is not that black and white

    This.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
    Options
    At 5'7" and 122-124 lbs., you probably could get away with eating more than 1250 and not gaining. That's a pretty good height. Also, why do you need to get to such a low BMI? I'm much shorter and average around 120-122 myself and am considered normal weight.

Categories