Vacation
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When I go on a multi-day river trip, I just use a "recipe" that I created. I call it "Rafter's Rations." It's made of 100 grams protein, 100 grams fat, and 500 grams carbs. It comes to 3300 calories. It's about double my MFP goal before exercise. I am very active on river trips. It's really just a place holder.
I do also log beers. I know how many I have because there's limited room on my raft. I know how many I take per day, so I can add them to the rations.
If I have access to the internet, I still enter a decent guess about what I eat each day, but I don't feel any guilt about going over my goal for every damn day I'm on vacation. I still log. It gives me data to help continue to fine tune what I'm doing because if I "eat intuitively," I will probably go back to the weight I was before I actively started to track calories and get to a healthy weight.3 -
It really depends on how often you vacation (now and in the future) and on where your focus is/will be while you're on vacation.
If a vacation is a once every five years five day rarity, the importance of caloric balance is going to be different than for a person involved in three separate month long "vacations" a year, right? The in-between the two extremes people will have to figure out which one is closer to their own reality
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If your vacation involves hiking the appalachian trail, logging excess meal calories may be of less importance than if you are vacationing in a magical post COVID cruise-ship or at an all you can drink and eat resort while lounging by (but not using) the pool.
There is a difference between eating at maintenance or a slight surplus, and going hog wild in the sun... if I were in danger of falling in the second category... I would log.
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Depends on what your idea of vacation is. I usually lose weight during vacation more than "regular life", because my vacations tend to be city vacations with tons of walking around. I don't log on vacation, except maybe a guesstimated one day sample to see what I can expect in terms of calorie intake and deficit.
I also usually don't weigh in until several days after my return from vacation, just to eliminate extra stress about bloating related to diet and flying.3 -
My holidays are always extremely active, therefor I would not log in the past, coming back home at +- the same weight. The result however is that I continue that way of eating when I'm back at home. I find it extremely difficult to get back on track after a week of two of indulgence, and the weight starts creeping back on AFTER the holiday (same high cal intake, but a lot less activity).
For me, the best way is to track even if it is not as accurate at home. But everyone is different and we all have to find out what works best.2 -
Vacation to me just means I don't have to work. So I still adhere to working out daily, but I'll ease up on my calorie restriction. I may gain a few pounds after, but I expect that. Once I'm back, I go back to regular routine.
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I log loosely just to keep myself on track and overall try to make healthy choices and not stuff myself, but I'm not overly worried about it and expect to gain some weight. Since this is now a "lifestyle" for me, I don't use it as an excuse to eat no-holds-barred, though.3
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Unless your vacation is like a month long --- do not worry about logging or dieting or anything on your vacation. Any 'weight' you gain will most likely just be water weight. One week (typical vacay length) isn't going to ruin anything.
Have. Fun. Enjoy it - Key West is super cool/fun.2 -
@cmriverside, thank you again for the diet break suggestion. I read up on it and followed your advice. I chose to hit at least 10,000 steps a day and logged fairly loosely in Key West, but I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted for ten days. Pure bliss. Key lime coladas should be illegal. Lol! While I gained 8lbs, 3-4lbs was actual fat, if my math is correct. That said, I took the weight off in 2 weeks and I'm feeling re-energized! I appreciate your insight. Have a great weekend.3
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We did a week in SoCal with our daughter. The vegan food she made was super high calorie. Mind blowing to me. I thought it would be healthier than that.
We were home a couple days and immediately left for three weeks in Germany, including our other kid’s wedding. Our AirBnB was next door to a fabulous bakery, our AiBnB host kept leaving us holiday (Christmas) foods to try, and we had a fabulous traditional Swabian wedding dinner, in addition to other celebratory meals.
While there we walked a lot, and I ran around the Aassee (giant lake in center of town) every chance I got. I also made sure to attend some yoga classes- and walked to them as is my habit at home.
I came home nine pounds up. Because I continued exercising while there, I didn’t break that habit. I fell right back in to the food habits I developed hete, and the weight was gone in a couple months. And boy, did I have a good time sampling and eating baked goods and schnitzel.
The takeaway for me was, a short break didn’t upset the apple cart, don’t go all whiny and panicky and derail permanently, return to plan and you’ll be fine- and know that four weeks of unfettered eating = 9 pounds (ie, it’ll pile back on really quick if you don’t create lifetime habits!) )2 -
wunderkindking wrote: »Beverly2Hansen wrote: »So I can easily consume 3000 calories a day with food and alcohol on vacation in a week. I have to plan and log both my food and exercise. In 2017 I went up 10lbs from a week long vacation in Vagas. I think a normal person would be fine I personally can out eat most large men and did just that.
...in order for that math to work for it being all fat gain you would have had to have eaten more than 3,500 calories ABOVE maintenance a day. 3,500 + mainenance calories for SEVEN days would have only gained you 7lbs. Not that I doubt you gained it or whatever, but you ate WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than 3000 calories a day to gain 10lbs in a week, if a good chunk of it wasn't water.
It was at least 3,000 calories of food and a 5th of fireball per day but yes I genuinely consumed enough to gain 10lbs. I was kind of letting lose after a really bad break up. It was messy I spent an entire week trying to forget. Unfortunately if you eat out 3x per day at 1200 cal meals it gets real bad real fast.
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Beverly2Hansen wrote: »wunderkindking wrote: »Beverly2Hansen wrote: »So I can easily consume 3000 calories a day with food and alcohol on vacation in a week. I have to plan and log both my food and exercise. In 2017 I went up 10lbs from a week long vacation in Vagas. I think a normal person would be fine I personally can out eat most large men and did just that.
...in order for that math to work for it being all fat gain you would have had to have eaten more than 3,500 calories ABOVE maintenance a day. 3,500 + mainenance calories for SEVEN days would have only gained you 7lbs. Not that I doubt you gained it or whatever, but you ate WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than 3000 calories a day to gain 10lbs in a week, if a good chunk of it wasn't water.
It was at least 3,000 calories of food and a 5th of fireball per day but yes I genuinely consumed enough to gain 10lbs. I was kind of letting lose after a really bad break up. It was messy I spent an entire week trying to forget. Unfortunately if you eat out 3x per day at 1200 cal meals it gets real bad real fast.
And then you recognize both that you had a much needed break and that you need to reel it back in, so you do, and then that ten drops off surprisingly quickly as your body relaxes and goes,”aaaaaaaaah. Thank heavens. Normalcy again!”. 😘2 -
I log the best I can when I travel because I find that thread of consistency is a comfort to me rather than a burden.
I have to estimate a lot, and I try to err on the high rather than the low side, but I also aim for "maintenance" calories instead of expecting to lose while on vacation.
And if I get home and I'm a pound or two up, I consider that part of the "cost" of the trip.2 -
You lost 88 pounds. We should take your advice. Have the confidence that you know what to do. Whatever you decide..or which way you handle things..you are in control.2
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I've tried it both ways. Once, I was really careful with logging and sticking to my goal, and I lost a pound. You'd think I'd be pleased, but really I wasn't. I felt like I'd been deprived and it wasn't a "real vacation" because I was still "working" on weight loss. After that, I take breaks on vacations. That doesn't have to mean purposefully eat everything in sight. I try to remember that regardless of what I'm doing with calories at the moment, I'm not happy when I get that "overly stuffed" feeling. I eat what I want, but I don't binge.
It's also important to get back on track the minute you get back. I'm someone who can't do "cheat days" because it just leads to continuous overeating. The thing that helps me with vacations is that there is a very real and clear separation between being on vacation and being back home. I find it much easier to get back on track quickly when I'm back home, because I'm back to the "home" habits I've already established. Being on vacation is clearly a separate and totally different thing, not some arbitrary "cheat day" that I end up stretching into "cheat 3 months."1
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