Vacation weight gain! How long to lose?

zoemccarthy558
zoemccarthy558 Posts: 6 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi I'm planning on going on holiday to an all inclusive resort and I do not plan on holding back. I want to eat breakfast (which I never eat) and desert and ice cream and snack. I bet I put on at least 2lb of actual fat coz I can see myself having 1000 extra a day. If I go back to normal how long will it take to lose it again? Will I have to cut down or can I just go back to my usual 2000 calories? Really don't want to cut down coz I have activities planned for when I get back!

Replies

  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    You should be aware that along with any fat gain, you'll have additional scale weight gain due to increased water retention and increased food in your gut, so it may take a week of "normal" eating to actually determine how much of your gain (if you have one) is fat. So if it was me, I would return to pre-holiday eating for a week and then assess how much gain is "fat" and decide how to proceed.
  • zoemccarthy558
    zoemccarthy558 Posts: 6 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    I can gain 1lb/day on an all inclusive holiday. Graph is a 10lb temporary gain on a 10 day holiday.
    But a good proportion of that is water weight and weight of extra food in my system - that goes within a few days as you can see.

    Your fat gain from a surplus of xxxx calories will take as long as it takes you to cut xxxx calories when you get home.
    Personally I just nibble away the calories in chunks on days when it suits me and I don't feel the need to rush unless I have a particular event I'm training for.

    Don't understand your comment about your "usual 2000 calories" - if that is maintenance for you then it's still going to be maintenance when you get back and you will need to be in a deficit.

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    Hi thanks for the graph that is helpful! And yes 2000 is maintanace for my weight but surely if I gain weight on holiday then I'll need more calories to maintain my new higher weight so if I go back to 2000 I should go back to my normal weight eventually.
  • stwida
    stwida Posts: 10 Member
    Everything is net/net. If you're 4,000 over after vacation, you'll never get back to where you were until you have a total net deficit of 4,000. If you go back to eating at maintenance, you will simply hold onto the extra 4,000 you consumed on vacation. Whether you chip away 200/day or more, or less, it will not just go away. Of course, you can accelerate getting back to where you were by being in an aggressive caloric deficit, or working out (or both).
  • mrsjen1310
    mrsjen1310 Posts: 6 Member
    It depends how much it will knock you to come back and find out the scale gives out a much higher number, I did a weeks in Italy and came back 10 pounds heavier!! After a week of normal eating it was 2 pounds which seemed about right and its taken me another 3 weeks to loose that because I'm not very good at deficit these days and kept eating too much! Its been really annoying and I've vowed not to do it again on the next holiday!
  • TangledThread
    TangledThread Posts: 312 Member
    I gain two real pounds on vacation. I don’t do anything special when I get back and it’s usually gone in three months. I’m always drifting up and down in my range anyway so I don’t feel the need to change anything after a vacation.

    After the Christmas holidays, that’s a different story. That I have to intentionally lose.
  • RetiredAndLovingIt
    RetiredAndLovingIt Posts: 1,395 Member
    Went on a week cruise & gained about 5#, hopefully some water weight & not all fat, lol. 2 weeks later still 4# up, but have had the gkids with us this whole time, so not back to my normal eating pattern yet. Hope it will go faster after we take them home.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    If you don’t hold back at all while on vacation, then eat at maintenance when you get back so you can overeat at upcoming activities, you will gain, not lose. Don’t kid yourself. 100 calories a day is 10 lbs per year. Maintenance is a continuous balancing act for life.
  • StargazerB
    StargazerB Posts: 425 Member
    I just went to an all inclusive resort last month and didn't track at all and drank quite a bit of alcohol. After dropping the water weight, I'm up an actual 2 pounds. I also sprained my wrist while on vacation and wasn't able to get back to lifting until this past week. I'm hoping to get back to my original weight within the next two months. I'm just taking it slow and adding in some cardio. I don't think I'll ever "let myself go" on vacation again, honestly I felt crappy and bloated.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    Getting on an airplane adds 5 pounds right off the bat.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I gain around 2lbs on each 14 night cruise and that's me purposefully keeping an eye on what I eat and aiming for no more than 500 cals above TDEE each day. It takes me a month to lose it on my return.

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