Before you freak out, it's probably not that bad.*[Of course, I don't know how much you ate, how long you were gone or how many benders you had. It's still likely not that bad… I think.]
The good news is that a lot of the weight you see on the scale when you return is water retention; the bad news, is well, all of that won't naturally offset those calories you loaded into your system. However, the odds are in your favor!
To see how bad it was, I tracked various pints during a three-week, three-country, two-continent vacation I had in April. More or less, my weight normalized after a week or so (save a pound or two).
For those curious, here's my weight chart during our journey:
Weight Before, During & After Vacation
I also ate like a pig.
The stress of flying can naturally cause weight gain
Before we proceed, let's clarify that there is two types of weight gain: fat gain and water weight gain.
Don't underestimate how heavy water actually can be. A pint of water (or two cups) can weighs just over a pound.
Flying can cause a lot of water retention because of how dry the cabin is, as reported by Healthline, and numerous other sources.
Other things that messes with weight? Salty foods, stress, jet lag, and an irregular sleep schedule. That pretty much sounds like all of traveling!
It's at least a recipe for water retention, and at least, masive temporary weight gain.
For the most part, it is commonly accepted that 3,500 calories equates to one pound. Nutritionists and healthcare organizations like the NHS commonly accept that the average woman needs about 2,000 calories per day, while the average man needs about 2,500 calories per day.
Okay, now, have you ever actively tried to eat 1,000 calories over your average intake? That's like a full McDonald's $6 meal deal.
It is actually super uncomfortable. Even if you were going gangbusters, it would take about three to four days of chowing down at this rate to gain a pound.
How I normally eat versus how I ate while traveling
It is important to set baselines, because measuring weight gain is pretty useless if you don't know where you stood before.
I've been pretty stringent about my diet over the last year-mostly due to health issues and weight management-and consume anywhere from 1,200 to 1,800 calories daily on a pretty consistent basis. I also solidly exercise three to four hours per week.
I basically threw this out all the window on a three-week trip to Mexico, Los Angeles and Vietnam, save for an hour and a half of working out.
How did I eat? Like I was on the eating Olympics.
I ate when I was hungry, I ate when I wasn't hungry. There was a period of time where hunger felt like the distant past. I, even once or twice, ate when I felt like I might throw up (the food was that good). I was also in the three most delicious places of all time.
There were definitely different variables in each place.
In Mexico, I had some stomach issues, which caused diarrhea-I kept eating, it was great for losing water weight, in my opinion-and toned it down in Los Angeles, where I focused on enjoying more of the fresh produce and seafood California naturally excels at.
Halfway through, I weighed myself and clocked in at 120.8 pounds.
It was really Vietnam where I lost all semblance of self-control, just because of how delicious everything was. In my mind, this was negated by the fact that portion sizes were often half of the portion sizes in the U.S, though I am pretty sure I ate at least five or seven times a day.
At some point, I started to prioritize the native fruits that are generally different to obtain in the U.S.: mangoes, passion fruit, dragon fruit, lychee, mangosteen, and all the tropical fruits.
Eat all the fruit.
How long it took for my weight to normalize
I started the countdown the morning after I landed back home, after 30 hours of traveling to get back to the U.S. (Da Nang ⟶ Taipei ⟶ LA ⟶ New York), which is maybe recommended, into how much you want to scare yourself going into a diet.
In general, I took the approach for every day I was in Vietnam (a period of ten days), I would "fast" for the same amount of time in order to equalize my food consumption.
How I felt like I needed to be after my trip.
For my return home, I was fairly religious, and returned to calorie tracking, and weighed myself every single day. To be honest, it wasn't hard for the first two or three days.
I had ate so much on my trip, that I wasn't super hungry, and kept to light snacks like fruit, and then slowly added more substantive food back in.
Just to be sure, I also returned my eating habits back to a track that would have me lose one pound a week.
In reality, I probably gained about two pounds of true weight, and it took me about three weeks (one to normalize, and an additional two) to undo all the damage.
Totally worth it in my opinion.
