Weight It Out
Summertime usually means lots of vacations, parties, cookouts and generally all kinds of events that tend to tempt us into overdoing it on the food front. I think this whole summer I have 2-3 weekends to spend at home cooking healthy meals and will spend all the other weekends traveling and dining out. Having just returned from two weddings and two back-to-back vacations within a 5-week period, I know a little bit about the post-vacation bloat J Here are some of my thoughts about the vacation cycle:
I am surprised at how quickly I can “put on weight” (and I quote that because it’s not really all fat gain), but I am even more surprised at how fast it comes off when I get home. I’ve learned that it takes about 2 days into a vacation of eating more than I usually do, in both portion size and richer foods and alcohol, to notice that my body feels different. And upon return, it takes me about 5 days to feel normal again.
Most of this extra weight is in the form of water. Remember that to gain a pound of fat you have to eat 3,500 calories above maintenance. Consider a vacation to a big city where you also fit in a few workouts in the hotel gym or running around town:
- Suppose you maintain your weight at 1,800 calories per day
- And you spend 3 hours walking all around sightseeing on your trip +300 calories
- And perhaps you hit the hotel elliptical for 30 minutes in the morning +250 calories
That means you’d have to eat 2350 PLUS 500 calories more to average a one-pound weight gain on your trip.
If you came home from your trip to Mexico 5 pounds heavier on the scale, you likely didn’t eat 17,500 calories above maintenance in a week – that would be an average of about 4,850 calories per day! Now I know I’ve probably come close to eating that number in one day before, but not seven days in a row. I find that my body usually wants to eat less the day after I eat a lot.
The reason for the 5 pound “gain” is water weight. Not only do certain rich foods leave you retaining water, but you also have the physical weight of the excess food traveling through your system for at least 48 hours or so. Kind of gross, but it’s in there!
Once you’re home, just slip back into your healthy routine (you’ll probably want to!), stock the fridge with produce and wait it out. DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF!! Use how your clothes fit and see how you feel. I used to feel self conscious about my post-vacation bloat, but then I realized that no one else can tell. It’s more about how you feel than how you look.
So relax on your next vacation. Knowing the facts helps me relax. Remember that just a few days of healthy eating is all it takes to counter a few days of moderate overeating. Bon voyage!
Very good points. I am also a person that feels the “gain” pretty quickly. I think it’s the height, but also I tend to have some instant belly expansion. It’s a good reminder to be patient with myself and think logically about the numbers.
Comment by Hangry Pants — 06.30.09 @ 7:28 pm
Great article! I think the way you broke down a rational explanation could be extremely helpful to those of us who feel ‘bad’ or ‘guilty’ after indulging on vacation. I might also add, though, that in addition to water retention and the weight of excess food, many people’s “plumbing” gets messed up when traveling. Dehydration (from plane rides, hot weather) and even being in an unfamiliar environment with a different routine can give your digestive system stage fright.
Appetizing? No- but just another factor to consider…
Comment by Mary — 06.30.09 @ 9:41 pm
The calories in equals calories out mentality doesn’t entirely explain vacation pounds. Now I’m not saying you haven’t gained water weight from indulging in more salty foods than normal, but traveling can also cause hormonal imbalances within the body. Certain stress hormones, such as cortisol, can prevent your body from burning fat. Besides stress, my vacations are typically jam-packed and sleep deprived. Less sleep effects the release of Leptin and Ghrelin, hormones released by fat cells which regulate your metabolism. Lack of sleep decreases appetite curbing Leptin and increases tummy-growling Ghrelin. So, like I said, there may be more attributed to the different “feel” during and post-vacation than just water weight.
Comment by Alicia Offutt — 07.01.09 @ 8:39 am
Wow, Kath, this is just what I needed to read today after the first part of my summer being very similar to yours in traveling a lot! Thanks for this mentality to get me through the week of feeling like I blew it!!
Comment by Cara — 07.05.09 @ 1:49 pm
[...] I tend to keep a rough running total in my head of how many calories I eat throughout the day to try to keep things in check. I can’t always trust myself to eat intuitively, since it is somewhat easy for me to fall back into bingeing/restricting patterns of eating. (Incidentally, Elina at Healthy and Sane has had some great posts lately about trying to find a balance between being too restrictive and too binge-y.) I decided that during our vacation I would just eat without worrying too much about how many calories I was eating, since 1) we’d be in one of the culinary meccas of the world and 2) it’s not possible to gain all that much weight in the span of a vacation, as Kath helpfully explains. [...]
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