gain weight after a holiday?

Holidays used to be such a double edged sword for me back in my 123kg days. On one side it was always great to go somewhere and escape from reality for a bit, but on the other side I knew that it always meant seeing the scale go up afterwards which made me anxious all the time and kinda always took away some of the fun of the holiday. It was hard to fully enjoy and have fun cos on the back of my mind I knew I’d have to "deal with it".

There was no free ride.

Over the past few years though since I hit my weight goal and maintained it for a couple of years now, I started to see & really understand how holidays work in terms of weight loss/gain. Here’s the good news:

There’s nothing to be anxious about.

Let’s get one thing straight first. After a holiday you are going to gain weight. It's just facts. How much weight you gain obviously will differ for everyone based on the type or duration of holiday you were on, but I think one thing we gotta accept is in the very short term there’s gonna be some kind of weight gain.

Why?

Well cos you’re on holiday. Meaning you’re likely eating more than usual, eating different foods than usual, drinking more than usual, moving less and relaxing more. Which is pretty much what you’re supposed to do on a holiday or else it wouldn’t be much of a holiday. Now with all that extra food and drinks and less activity, there’s a high chance you’ll see a higher number on the scale when you compare your weight at the beginning of your holiday vs at the end of the holiday.

Super normal. Expected. Nothing to worry about.

What do you do about the holiday weight you gained?

Nothing.

That’s right, that wasn’t a typo. You do nothing. There’s nothing you need to do extra about holiday weight. You don’t have to starve yourself after or go extra hard on the treadmill, all of that is completely unnecessary and only adds more stress and uncertainty in your routine. The only thing you gotta do after a holiday is get back to your regular routine. That’s it. Your regular routine over the next couple of days & weeks will shift your weight back to where you started before the holiday and continue to help you make progress towards your goals.

The thing about holiday weight is that it’s gained by your lifestyle during the holiday. If your holiday lifestyle only occurs during the holiday and stops after the holiday is over, there’s no chance you’ll maintain your holiday weight over time. Your weight’s gonna have to eventually come back down when we’re you’re back in your regular routine.

Of course on the flip side, if you allow your holiday habits and lifestyle bleed into your regular lifestyle after the holidays then yeah, the holiday weight may stay a bit longer or continue to go in the direction you don’t want to.

Please don’t read all this then start thinking you should never take holidays. You should. You shouldn’t ever need to pause your life just to get to your weight goals. Your weight goals is an ongoing goal while life is happening in the background. Go have fun when it’s time to have fun, work hard and stay disciplined when it’s time to do so too. There’s no “end” to the weight loss journey. Even after you hit your weight goals, you still gotta be working hard maintaining those habits and lifestyle that got you there just to maintain the new goal weight for life.

Long story short?

Enjoy your holidays to the fullest during the holidays, get back on track immediately when it’s over.

Gaining holiday weight is super super normal. No need to fight it, enjoy it and move on!

Till the next one, hope you’ve been well~

— Po