Be sure to track during your vacation

FibroHiker
FibroHiker Posts: 398 Member
edited June 22 in Health and Weight Loss
Last year I spent three weeks in Europe, cruising the Mediterranean and then spending some time in France. I wanted to really enjoy myself, and I did, to the tune of a 15 pound gain. It took me about a year to lose all that weight.

This year I decided that I needed to make sure I tracked everything and reign in the eating on my vacation. I still had dessert sometimes. I still had alcohol. There were days when my calories were high so I would pull it back the next day and ease up.

I'm so glad I tracked everything. When I got back, I weighed myself a few days later and I had only gained three pounds in two and half weeks. This morning when I got on the scale I have already lost one of those three pounds with only two more to go. This is so much better than last year. Glad I did it.

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Hurray! Glad you found a way to enjoy yourself without lots of regret afterwards :smiley:
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,302 Member
    I haven't ever tracked on vacations.

    I don't take scales to weight anything and some places do not have reliable internet access.

    I do try to keep active and eat sensibly though

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,247 Member
    The last thing I’d do on vacation is track calories.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,984 Member
    I don't track on vacation. I do try to eat sensibly though and overall it's working out. For me, this means I don't eat out several times per day. I might have a simple sandwich for lunch, or a piece of cake but not a full meal. I chose my dinners wisely, and if it's too much I might take the leftover for the next evening or I just don't eat all. And I know I'll always gain a lot of waterweight from flights. I know it's not fat but only water that will come off after 5-7 days.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    I track on vacation, with far more estimating than I do at home, but I try not to give mandates to people who haven't even asked for my advice, and I try to remember that different things work for different people.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,247 Member
    Not tracking doesn’t mean going hog wild with calories. Just do like you when you weren’t counting long ago, you were just sensible and were conscious of what you were doing plus going out to eat all the time it’s virtually impossible to be remotely accurate.


    Part of the fun of vacay is eating different foods than you normally do. If you count then good for you….
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,558 Member
    edited June 24
    I track on vacay. Sometimes more loosely but I still track. I travel often, usually internationally - I don’t want to come back with extra weight on me.
  • lisakatz2
    lisakatz2 Posts: 566 Member
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    Not tracking doesn’t mean going hog wild with calories. Just do like you when you weren’t counting long ago, you were just sensible and were conscious of what you were doing plus going out to eat all the time it’s virtually impossible to be remotely accurate.


    Part of the fun of vacay is eating different foods than you normally do. If you count then good for you….

    This is exactly what I did on my last vacation. I put logging and exercise aside and enjoyed the food I ate, being mindful of portions and my own hunger. I didn't lose weight, but I didn't gain either. When I came home, I immediately went back to my usual eating habits.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,867 Member
    edited June 24
    I don't track on a vacation. I try to make sensible choices. I don't treat it as a "free pass". I also schedule it with my lifting to be a sensible deload time. Then when I get back, a few days after to let water weight adjust, I log my weight and enter an approx calorie amount for every vacation day in my spreadsheet which I use to log my TDEE (I track daily CI and weekly weight to get an estimate of my TDEE).

    This last time, I gained less weight after more time away, than on previous trips. So I call that a minor success.

    e.g. if I gained three pounds after two weeks (I said sensible choices, but that chocolate...), that's an additional 10,500 above maintenance, which is 750 per day, so I estimate my calories each day to be maintenance + 750, and enter that number for each of the 14 days. That way my spreadsheet stays fairly accurate.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,247 Member
    lisakatz2 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    Not tracking doesn’t mean going hog wild with calories. Just do like you when you weren’t counting long ago, you were just sensible and were conscious of what you were doing plus going out to eat all the time it’s virtually impossible to be remotely accurate.


    Part of the fun of vacay is eating different foods than you normally do. If you count then good for you….

    This is exactly what I did on my last vacation. I put logging and exercise aside and enjoyed the food I ate, being mindful of portions and my own hunger. I didn't lose weight, but I didn't gain either. When I came home, I immediately went back to my usual eating habits.
    Yes some people freak out and think if they aren’t tracking and counting that they’ll automatically gain weight. Hell, my last time in Hawaii for 3 weeks I came home 3 lbs lighter. You can sometimes tend to be more active when vacationing.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,879 Member
    edited June 24
    My first trip with my BF (a looooong time ago, 20 yrs) was the first step towards obesity for me. I gained about 12lbs in 2 weeks, yikes (and no airplane, so I couldn't blame water retention) - 12lbs I never managed to lose.

    Yes, I was loads more active than usual: we went hiking every day. But I also had a very elaborate breakfast every day, a light lunch and then a 4 course meal every evening (included in the hotel booking) with a cheese course and a dessert.
    This all seemed quite reasonable to me at the time, portion-wise, because:
    A. I was very active
    B. I had a light lunch
    (C. I had zero clue about how calorie dense foods can be, most notably cheese)

    I always track while on holiday now (and weigh myself, I have a travel scale), albeit it sometimes loosely: restaurant dishes are guesses obviously, but I do track more precisely for food I prepare myself. And I rein myself in on less active days. But I definitely still try out all of the local foods.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,496 Member
    Or don't eat like you think you'll never eat again on vacation,

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