Needing Support on Vacation

jille87
jille87 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello. I have been enjoying myself too much on vacation. After finally dropping down to my goal weight, I told myself I wanted to eat to my "maintenance" each day while on a 10 day vacation and believed that this would be very doable after having so much control and success with my diet up to this point. Within these past 5 days I have been anything but in control. I am still trying to find what my exact maintenance value is, but MFP has given me 1370 to work with (if sedentary). I have eaten between 2500-3000 calories each day for these 5 days, which is much higher than what I should have. I have not been sitting around all day, however. Each day I have walked over 20,000 steps or approximately 10 miles each day which I hope counts for something although I have not added it to my diary.

I completely accept why I have gone over each day...because this is a vacation of a lifetime and I wanted to enjoy myself and also not drag down the rest of my family with specific food requests. With that said, I am now assessing the damage and am absolutely terrified of what progress I may have erased. I keep trying to tell myself that what's done is done and when I return home I will go back to my routine and have to work from there-but my mind has become fixated on predicting what kind of weight gain I can expect when I get back. My problem is, I have never had to really make these types of calculations before, which is why I am reaching out now.

If my maintenance is (let's just use 1370) and my weekly Calorie average ended up being approximately 2243 Cal (not taking into account any "exercise" that can be attributed to the 10 miles each day), would you expect that there would be a gain in true fat weight? If so, by how much?

Thank you to all in advance. Again, I understand that I just need to get back into my normal routine and move forward, but just having some general figures would help me mentally while I spend my last few days on vacation. I don't want this to impact the fun time for others around me by talking about my "diet" and weight gain fears.

Thanks again!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    What are your stats? 1370 is pretty low for maintenance.

    That said, if you eat above maintenance you will gain fat. How much is dependent on how much you go over by...3500 calories over maintenance would equal one pound of fat gain. But you're burning a LOT more than 1370 calories if you're walking that much, so it's going to minimize your gain. You'll still see the scale go up when you get home anyway from eating out (higher sodium/carbs) and travel in general causing water retention. Give yourself at least a week for that to go away so you can see the true damage. It will probably be less than you're expecting.
  • jille87
    jille87 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you so much.

    My stats are I am 5'0 even and when I left I was around 100-101 (my weight trend app said about 100.6 pounds). It has taken me about a year to drop down from 143. I do not know my exact body fat percentage, but looking at chart pictures I am most likely around 24-25% body fat. At home I typically am fairly active and average between 5-8,000 steps per day and run 4-6 days a week for 3-4 miles. I do occasional strength training which I am trying to increase.

    I hope this helps!
  • deadlift555
    deadlift555 Posts: 18 Member
    At this point just enjoy your vacation! 10 days is short. Try to reel yourself in a bit though.... if you are dieting normally you should know what reasonable portions etc look like. Try to order salad/protein and a nice dessert and not go overboard. Don't worry yourself with the cals/details. You know if you are going overboard or not use your knowledge of portions etc.....have fun!
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    I wouldn't worry about weight gain then. When you get home, you may want to look into starting a body recomp if you want to lose a little more fat.
  • flagrantavidity
    flagrantavidity Posts: 218 Member
    edited July 2018
    I wouldn’t worry about it too much - your on vacation enjoy yourself.

    I’m still trying to loose so when I recently went on vacation, I tried to eat healthy and estimate my portions. However, after a graduation celebration, family reunion, and a trip to an amusement park, I ate a lot — a LOT I didn’t eat as “healthy” as planned. When I came back home I suspected to have gained weight.

    I got on the scale and I lost a pound! 0rrl2w838gab.jpeg
    6y1v2214isun.jpeg


    Again, enjoy your vacation and when you come home and find that the scale went up a couple of pounds, just adjust your calories and they will come off again.

    Don’t stress - your on vacation!
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    jille87 wrote: »
    Hello. I have been enjoying myself too much on vacation. After finally dropping down to my goal weight, I told myself I wanted to eat to my "maintenance" each day while on a 10 day vacation and believed that this would be very doable after having so much control and success with my diet up to this point. Within these past 5 days I have been anything but in control. I am still trying to find what my exact maintenance value is, but MFP has given me 1370 to work with (if sedentary). I have eaten between 2500-3000 calories each day for these 5 days, which is much higher than what I should have. I have not been sitting around all day, however. Each day I have walked over 20,000 steps or approximately 10 miles each day which I hope counts for something although I have not added it to my diary.

    I completely accept why I have gone over each day...because this is a vacation of a lifetime and I wanted to enjoy myself and also not drag down the rest of my family with specific food requests. With that said, I am now assessing the damage and am absolutely terrified of what progress I may have erased. I keep trying to tell myself that what's done is done and when I return home I will go back to my routine and have to work from there-but my mind has become fixated on predicting what kind of weight gain I can expect when I get back. My problem is, I have never had to really make these types of calculations before, which is why I am reaching out now.

    If my maintenance is (let's just use 1370) and my weekly Calorie average ended up being approximately 2243 Cal (not taking into account any "exercise" that can be attributed to the 10 miles each day), would you expect that there would be a gain in true fat weight? If so, by how much?

    Thank you to all in advance. Again, I understand that I just need to get back into my normal routine and move forward, but just having some general figures would help me mentally while I spend my last few days on vacation. I don't want this to impact the fun time for others around me by talking about my "diet" and weight gain fears.

    Thanks again!

    I think that you'll find any real gain (i.e., not water weight) will be negligible. At the VERY worst, eating 3000 calories a day at a calories-out of 1370 (CLEARLY not what you are doing), you'd put on 4.5 actual pounds. Make some sensible choices each day like you've been doing.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Lots of questions...
    1. Why would you select “Sedentary” to calculate your maintenance cals when neither your vacation habits nor your typical routine suggests a Sedentary lifestyle.
    2. When you are at home, do you log and eat back your exercise calories? Why wouldn’t you account for all that activity now, if you are logging your food intake on vacation?
    3. Did you try using your actual numbers to estimate your maintenance cals instead of what MFP provided? You lost ~43 lbs in a year, was the loss steady? That’s close to 1 lb/week - meaning you were at a 500 cal deficit from your maintenance, if your logging was fairly accurate you can take your average intake and add 500 cals to that as another way to estimate your maintenance cals.


    After a year of doing this you likely know about the impact of water retention on your weight - I would stop stressing so much about these numbers since you are using only worst case scenario, and focus on enjoying your vacation. No one is really going to be able to predict what true gain you will see but I have a strong suspicion it won’t be as much as you think it will be.

    Congrats on the loss and enjoy the vacation!
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    If you had to fly to reach your destination, don't freak out if you jump on the scales when you get home and there's a surprisingly large jump in your weight. Flying can temporarily add water weight. For me, it's always about 5 lbs, and dissipates within 3 or 4 days upon my return.

    Your vacation of a lifetime is to be enjoyed to the fullest. The few pounds you may have gained are temporary. The memories are permanent.

    Enjoy!
  • firlena227
    firlena227 Posts: 86 Member
    Agree with the above, last December I had a 12 hour flight home (Vietnam to UK) and slammed on about 6lb overnight! Also looked pretty much like I was pregnant with all the bloating... once things had settled down after a week or so it was mostly just water weight... although the 2 weeks of several beers a day had taken their toll too!! But heck, it's a holiday of a lifetime, you have plenty of time to get back to your routine afterwards, I'd say chill and enjoy your time away, and if that means eating whatever you fancy then go for it (imo) :)
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited July 2018
    Just enjoy your vacation, 10 days is not enough time to destroy whatever progress you did and this is coming from a guy who went on a cruise and gained 7 lbs in one week. I lost all of it in 2 weeks because it was all water weight. I definitely don't regret eating like a pig during that time.
  • Running_and_Coffee
    Running_and_Coffee Posts: 811 Member
    Enjoy your vacation! It's really hard to eat 1350 calories when you've got restaurants etc. Just be as active as you can be, and try to make at least your breakfasts and snacks less caloric. But even if you don't....you can get back on track when you're home.
  • jille87
    jille87 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you to everyone for your help! I really appreciate the insights and support. I had yet another pretty bad day today (I started off strong but then the delicious desserts at dinner really did a number on me. But, I will just continue to log it and hope that tomorrow and the final days will be a bit more successful and once I get back home I will be able to focus back on my routine.

    To answer some of Winogelato's questions I have put them down here since I am a bit new to maintenance and maybe this can help as well.

    1. Why would you select “Sedentary” to calculate your maintenance cals when neither your vacation habits nor your typical routine suggests a Sedentary lifestyle.

    I always used sedentary when I was trying to lose as I really only recently began recording over 5,000 steps a day consistently. As it is summer I am much more active daily and have more time for longer walks and other activities. Before during the teaching/academic year I typically only had about 4,000 steps as my average each day which I was told was still "sedentary".

    2. When you are at home, do you log and eat back your exercise calories? Why wouldn’t you account for all that activity now, if you are logging your food intake on vacation?

    Yes, I do log and eat back about half of my exercise calories when I am at home, typically. Unfortunately being a short female even running 3-4 miles only really burns between 250-320 Calories at a time, so I only have about 100 extra Calories for the day typically.

    3. Did you try using your actual numbers to estimate your maintenance cals instead of what MFP provided? You lost ~43 lbs in a year, was the loss steady? That’s close to 1 lb/week - meaning you were at a 500 cal deficit from your maintenance, if your logging was fairly accurate you can take your average intake and add 500 cals to that as another way to estimate your maintenance cals.

    I am still trying to figure out how to use my numbers to estimate my maintenance Calories and have had a very rough time doing so to be honest. My 43 pound weight loss was not steady--it has taken me over three months to drop my last 2-3 pounds and even before I left for vacation this was greatly fluctuating. I most certainly was not losing 1 pound per week consistently, but did lose quite a bit early on in August through November, but then it slowly started to decrease by about a pound a month. I have been very accurate in my logging (when at home) using a scale for each and every food and meticulously recording even small things such as gum or diet sodas with 3-5 Calories. I use a weight trend tracker--two actually--and my weight has been in such a small fluctuation it is hard to tell if I am even losing or staying the same. I was happy with my weight before I left either way, but with my frame even a 4-5 pound increase will show in a very unflattering way, which is why I have been so nervous and upset with my lack of control.

    I typically record my weekly net Calories on a separate spreadsheet as well. When losing, I was always either right at 1200 or just slightly below in order to lose weight, and even up to now my net has been around 1200 with this very little to no weight loss, so I am a bit afraid that my true maintenance may even be less than the 1370 MFP has given me.

  • mkculs
    mkculs Posts: 316 Member
    I had a very active, week-long vacation in week 7 of my logging this year--a hiking trip. I logged but was making wild guesses--not enough time on here to have any idea of whether or not I was right. I felt pretty sure that I hadn't actually gained any fat but also expected a decent bump from eating out and eating such different foods than I eat at home (I eat lots of yogurt, salads, fresh veggies, etc. at home).

    Now, here's the real reason I'm posting: my scale showed me up 7 lbs when I got back. And I knew I hadn't eaten enough to gain 7 lbs in 6 days, so I just kept on doing what I do at home, and sure enough, by the time several days had passed, I was back below my pre-vacation weight.

    Don't freak, whatever the scale shows when you get home. Just get back on board. In a week or so, you'll be seeing the "true" impact of your vacation, and it isn't worth worrying about now OR when you get home. You'll get back on track and resume, and since you are at/so close to maintenance, it will be a chance to eat "normally" with just a small deficit anyway.

    Enjoy; vacations tend to be rare, so they should be 100% fun.

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