2 weeks of vacation from it all...

adipace815
adipace815 Posts: 112 Member
edited November 2024 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I left two weeks ago for a beach vacation. The first week would be shared with family and the second with friends. Being in maintenance, I had a goal to get through the 14 days without considerable weight gain. I had a plan in place. I was to pack the weight scale and I would log everything, even if I knew it would put me over maintenance calories. I was also going to keep the Apple Watch on at all times (which I did do and I have tan lines to prove it) and attempt to work out somewhat regularly (I logged a couple but not a lot). I also packed enough protein bars for all 14 days, and I pre-ordered groceries to be delivered to our beach house with all the typical proteins, healthy fats, and lean proteins I needed. You know what they say about all the best laid plans right?

The scale I was supposed to pack didn't make it. That was my first mistake. I had no way to keep myself honest. I logged food, cocktails and everything for the first 3 days; but while on vacation I had no structure and eventually stopped logging by day 3. While I continued to eat fairly healthy foods and tried to stay away from my "kryptonite" kind of foods; my vacation meals were unplanned and out of control. Eventually, I even started to let in some of my "krytonite" foods even though it wasn't a lot. Daily interval training was replaced by short walks. Water was replaced by light beer. As much fun as I had, I came home realizing I probably am not going to like the results.

I felt at least a tightening in the belt loop that I am in, and there is no doubt that I gained weight. I have not wanted to step on the scale and just tonight as I am preparing to back to work tomorrow, I decided that I still will not for at least 2 weeks. My guess is- I gained about 10lbs or maybe more on this vacation. I still fit nicely in all the new clothes that I have. But they are slightly more snug. You just know when you have gained, and I know. I have decided to go back to my cutting level calories for the two weeks that I was in vacation and not log one weight over that period. My hopes are that after two weeks of bad behavior followed by two weeks of good behavior, I will create a wash.

It's been incredibly uncomfortable for me for a long time to not weigh daily. I have not weighed now for two weeks. I think I can get through the next two weeks without doing it. I am not sure if this is a good plan or a bad one, but it's a plan. Any feedback is greatly appreciated....

Replies

  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
    I will be in your shoes in a couple weeks when I head to Maui. I am also in maintenance so this will be a real test for me. That said, it's only 2 weeks (or in my case 10 days) out of many. Don't beat yourself up, just get back on the wagon and resume your life. And if it were me, I would weigh in just to assess the damage. I would want to know to determine how I would proceed with losing it again. I am not taking my scale or special foods and I, for personal reasons, probably won't drink any alcohol, but like you say, "best laid plans."
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
    I dunno, I went on vacation and all the weight I had gained went away after a couple days. Just get back on and watch how amazing your body is at losing weight.
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
    I went on vacation for 2 weeks. Half the trip was at Disney where I went to several all you can eat restaurants and they were expensive so I wanted to eat! Of course we walked a lot but I'm pretty active in general so I didn't feel like it was a crazy amount of activity. The second half of my trip was Christmas and beach. I was hardly active and we ate a lot of big meals. Sometimes I was so full, I was sick.

    When I got home, I was terrified to weigh myself. I gave it a few days to let water weight work itself out. Stepped on the scale and I had gained 1 pound!!! Mathematically I honestly don't even know how that could be possible. My only guesses are 1. I was more active than I thought and 2. I didn't eat as much as I thought. Even though I was sick from being so full, maybe my body reached that sick point earlier than it may have in the past when I was obese because I wasn't used to eating so much.

    So who knows, I really was anticipating a huge gain and was pleasantly surprised. Bite the bullet and see what the scale tells you, but then just jump back in. Even if you gained ten pounds you can probably take half of it off in a week since it'll be mostly water weight.
  • MarvinsAMartian
    MarvinsAMartian Posts: 236 Member
    What she said ^. Own it man. No sense in avoiding it. It happened, it sucks, so what? Don't dwell. Work hard and commit yourself to the grind again. You'll be alright.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Get back to your normal weighing routine. See where you are now, then make a plan to get back where you want to be.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    Step on the scale and be done with it. Learn what this type of holiday will do for/to you.
    We all need to learn to cope with this sort of thing in maintenance.

    When on holiday I do log, don't weigh but I do log to the best of my abilities and I know that I'll be not right.
    Last holiday (plus a week away on business) Eating out 80% of the time. My damager was exactly 1kg - Was off after three weeks as my deficit margin is small - At that stage I was at the top end op my maintenance range.
  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
    that's what maintenance is about! You got this!

  • Kimblesnbits13
    Kimblesnbits13 Posts: 369 Member
    I'll be in the same boat next week. Good job for weighing in. Sometimes i get too scared and want to avoid it, but i think it's important to keep yourself accountable and not in denial about the weight. Keep in mind also, if you flew, that can easily add a couple lbs of bloating.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited May 2017
    I'm going on a 5 day wine tasting vacation to Anderson Valley in Mendocino next week.

    Will be bringing my scale and will continue to weigh myself and log everthing I eat and drink daily.

    Just won't be able to do any lifting or rowing while I'm away but will continue to do as many body weight exercises as possible - - mainly pushups and squats that can be done anywhere, but I will also look for places where I can continue to do pullups and dips as well. Also bringing my lifting gloves and pushup stands for this purpose.

    Gotta stay in shape b4 I get my next DXA scan which is scheduled for the week after I get back.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    HappyGrape wrote: »
    that's what maintenance is about! You got this!

    This was my thought. Maybe there are people out there who maintain their weight all the time, day in and day out, year after year, but I've never met one. It seems perfectly natural for me to have to 'diet' again for a short period after a vacation. That's what maintenance is to me.

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »
    Step on the scale, you maybe happily surprised. When I'm on vacation I always put on a few pounds but it is gone by the next week. Your weight gain will probably be mostly water weight because higher sodium content of vacation type foods.

    You will be fine.

    I gained 3 pounds of fat in my 10 days vacation 2 years ago. It was actually a big deal for me because it's been hard enough to lose my last 5 lbs, let alone adding 3 more... so it took me about 3 months to get rid of them.

    I'm not a great scientist but I'm always a bit puzzled when people say that overeating for 2 weeks is not going to make you gain weight.

    OP don't beat yourself up. Go back to a small deficit. It's extremely hard to stay on track spending just one day with family and friends, let alone 2 weeks.
  • crooked_left_hook
    crooked_left_hook Posts: 364 Member
    I just got back from a week visiting family. I ate okay some days, all junk on other days. My sister, BF, and I managed to eat 4dz peanut butter chocolate chip cookies in 4 days. Some days I got 10K steps, others I barely made it to 5K. I weight myself the morning after I got home and was only up 2lbs. I cut back to 1550 calories a day for this last week and weighed in 2lbs below my pre-vacation weight.

    The point is, most of it is probably water, the rest can be managed by cutting back for a week or two. Life happens. Don't stress it. Use this as a learning opportunity.
  • swim777
    swim777 Posts: 599 Member
    adipace815 wrote: »
    Great advice everyone! I stepped on the scale and as I suspected gained just under 10 lbs. I own it! In the end I am really only 2 lbs over my top end of my maintenance range. Back to work today. I am not that unhappy with the results. It's just time to get maintenance back under control.

    You probably have a lot of sodium or water weight. Did you have a good vacation? If you are like me, you don't do that often, so I hope it was great! With the scale, the unknown is often the worst! If you have good habits, you will fall right back in!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Mathematically speaking I highly doubt you gained 10 Lbs of actual fat in two weeks. You would have to have eaten 35,000 calories over maintenance to manage that. You probably did put on scale weigh...water weight from eating out more...eating more so more inherent waste in your system, and if you rode on an airplane, that can cause substantial bloating.

    I've been in maintenance for 4 years and have gone on numerous vacations in that time...I've never put on actual fat on a vacation. I've never taken a food scale and I typically don't exercise. I do tend to be more active in general than when I'm at home because I'm out and about seeing this and that vs sitting behind a desk all day.

    Vacations are to be enjoyed...life is to be enjoyed...this really isn't a big deal.
  • adipace815
    adipace815 Posts: 112 Member
    swim777 wrote: »
    adipace815 wrote: »
    Great advice everyone! I stepped on the scale and as I suspected gained just under 10 lbs. I own it! In the end I am really only 2 lbs over my top end of my maintenance range. Back to work today. I am not that unhappy with the results. It's just time to get maintenance back under control.

    You probably have a lot of sodium or water weight. Did you have a good vacation? If you are like me, you don't do that often, so I hope it was great! With the scale, the unknown is often the worst! If you have good habits, you will fall right back in!

    I had a great vacation and yes I am sure it was packed with sodium. Its almost impossible to keep low sodium when you are eating at restaurants regularly. When I returned I immediately hopped back on MFP and adjusted my calorie intake. I didn't cut my calories to full "cutting" mode, but gave myself a fairly good deficit. I also resumed my HIIT routine, which I did not do any of during vacation. Within the first 3-4 days I lost 6lbs or so. All in all I am still up around 3-4lbs from my low weight, but I am inside of my maintenance range. I am pretty good with that. I will work these 4lbs off because I want to be at the bottom of my range. I did learn a good lesson about the weighing as well. Before leaving I was weighing every day. The daily fluctuations were driving me crazy. I am now weighing officially once per week. I jump on mid-week just as a reference but I don't log it. I find myself a little less obsessed with the statistics of it all that way. Thanks for the words of encouragement!
  • adipace815
    adipace815 Posts: 112 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Mathematically speaking I highly doubt you gained 10 Lbs of actual fat in two weeks. You would have to have eaten 35,000 calories over maintenance to manage that. You probably did put on scale weigh...water weight from eating out more...eating more so more inherent waste in your system, and if you rode on an airplane, that can cause substantial bloating.

    I've been in maintenance for 4 years and have gone on numerous vacations in that time...I've never put on actual fat on a vacation. I've never taken a food scale and I typically don't exercise. I do tend to be more active in general than when I'm at home because I'm out and about seeing this and that vs sitting behind a desk all day.

    Vacations are to be enjoyed...life is to be enjoyed...this really isn't a big deal.

    I think it felt like a big deal when I returned because it was so much and because I hadn't been in the routine mode for a while. When the weight came off quickly, I settled down quite a bit. Good thing because I have another vacation in August to get ready for.

    I am not really sure how to gauge what form the extra weight was in. I can only say that using the same scale, at the same time in the morning, with no clothes on and the results were what they were. Whatever it was, the bulk of it came off pretty quickly. Its been about 2 weeks that I have been back and I am still up about 3 lbs. I would guess that whatever form that is, it is what I really gained. I am going to work on it a little at a time and try to get back down to the low end of my maintenance range. But you are spot on, it really isn't that big of a deal. Thanks for the reply!
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    edited May 2017
    I left for a 2-week vacation the day after you posted your OP. I stopped logging, paid no attention to what I ate, made sure I got dessert at least once a day, did quite a bit of walking but also spent entire days sitting down, watching a sporting event, and drinking beer, and only managed to get a run in 2 out of the 12 days I was gone. And an abbreviated run at that.

    I weighed myself the night I got back and found I had put on 1 lb. After giving myself a couple of days for the airline food water weight to come off, I got back on the scale found I had actually lost 3 lbs. I have no idea why. I can only conclude vacation weight is not predictable.
  • lady_ghost
    lady_ghost Posts: 175 Member
    I think when ur on vacation u should relax. Even if u gain some weight u know u can loose it easily when u get back. I'm not saying go over board east sensibly, have some fruits and veggies but dont skip dessert lol.
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