Vacation (& Recovery)

[Northern_Blitz]

Just got back from a week with my family at my grandparents cottage. I had an awesome time, and got to hang out with my brother and his daughter (8 months) who I haven't seen since January.

My "experiment" for this week was vacation! I kept my meals fairly SCD friendly (2 eggs + almond butter breakfast, cold cut meat and veggies for lunch, meat and vaggies for dinner), but I did allow myself to cheat (i.e. cookies / chips / unlimited diet soda / unlimited fruit, etc.) after lunch. Some of the meals also had small cheats such as home made breaded chicken, patato salad, cream sauce, pasta with sugar & apples. Basically, I tried to stay true to some of the principles of SCD, while allowing myself to cheat. Cheats were still less epic than "cheat days", and I did not have a cheat day yesterday.

Before I left
Weight: 195 lbs
Total Inches: 140"
Waist Naval: 32.75"
Calculated BF%: 13.1%

This Morning: Sunday
Weight: 203.5 lbs (up 8.5)
Total Inches: 141.75" (up 1.75")
Waist Naval: 34" (up 1.25")
Calculated BF%: 14.7%

I actually thought I'd be up more than this. I am generally up about 5 lbs after cheat day, so I look at this as gaining about 3.5 lbs over a week of indulgance. I hope that this extra weight will come off quickly (more like the weight in the first month of the SCD). I've wondered if this was the case before, so I thought it might be helpful to track and share my weight progression throughout the week (or until I hit 194 again). I'll still do macro updates in my progress log (link below).

This week I will back to my SCD/Primal type diet (i.e. SCD with no beans but I allow up to 50 g 90% dark chocolate, and blueberries and raspberries). I will keep track of my weight, waist, and calculated BF% measurements here.

[Northern_Blitz]

Monday
Weight: 202 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.4%

Tuesday
Weight: 201 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.5%

Wednesday
Weight: 200.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.6%

Thursday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.625"
Calculated BF%: 14.4%

Friday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.2%

Saturday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.2%

[HoneImprovement]

I suspect you will bounce back in 1.5 to 2 weeks. It looks like you did a good job of eat a SCD breakfast, that's important.

A 4HB blogger I follow gained 11 lbs when he took 2 weeks off to enjoy the birth of his kids, and had lost 7 pounds in the first week back.

Good luck!

[Northern_Blitz]

Thanks for the response.

1-2 weeks is what I'm hoping for and so far it looks attainable. I thought it might be nice to track this data for next time I go on vacation and get freaked out.

They way I look at this diet is that it is a lifestyle change. A couple weeks off a year won't make too much difference IMO, but I wanted to put that thought to the test.

[Northern_Blitz]

Monday
Weight: 202 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.4%

Tuesday
Weight: 201 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.5%

Wednesday
Weight: 200.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.6%

Thursday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.625"
Calculated BF%: 14.4%

Friday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.2%

Saturday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.2%

Comments: I find it strange that my weight loss slowed so dramatically during the week. I felt that Thursday and Friday were my "cleanest" days so I was expecting better numbers. As it stands now, it may take weeks longer than I was hoping to lose my vacation weight. Not the end of the world, but dissapointing none the less. I found that I've been hitting the dark chocolate (90%) pretty hard this week (as much as 120 g / day). I will try to severely limit that next week, and today will be a very light cheat day.

Speaking of cheat day...today I'm running an experiment makeing "gluten free crepes". I'll compare almond, coconut, and quinoa flours.

[Northern_Blitz]

Week 2

Sunday
Weight: 201.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.5%

Monday
Weight: 200 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.1%

Tuesday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.375"
Calculated BF%: 13.9%

Wednesday
Weight: 198 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.25"
Calculated BF%: 13.8%

Thursday
Weight: 198 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.25"
Calculated BF%: 13.8%

Friday
Weight: 197.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33"
Calculated BF%: 13.3%

Saturday
Weight: 197.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33"
Calculated BF%: 13.3%

[terryhickey]

Comments: I find it strange that my weight loss slowed so dramatically during the week. I felt that Thursday and Friday were my "cleanest" days so I was expecting better numbers. As it stands now, it may take weeks longer than I was hoping to lose my vacation weight. Not the end of the world, but dissapointing none the less. I found that I've been hitting the dark chocolate (90%) pretty hard this week (as much as 120 g / day). I will try to severely limit that next week, and today will be a very light cheat day.

I actually have experienced this before when taking a week off, I found it helped to stay away from the scale for a week as I started to doubt myself. The vacay weight went away when I did that.

[Northern_Blitz]

I actually have experienced this before when taking a week off, I found it helped to stay away from the scale for a week as I started to doubt myself. The vacay weight went away when I did that.

That's interesting. I do believe that the weight will come off (maybe in one more week, maybe in 3). This week is off to a promising start (maybe in part because I'm less worried at the beginning of the week?).

Although I think that your advice is sound, I don't know if I can stay away from the scale because I'd like to see the progression.

[Northern_Blitz]

Week 2

Sunday
Weight: 201.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.75"
Calculated BF%: 14.5%

Monday
Weight: 200 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.5"
Calculated BF%: 14.1%

Tuesday
Weight: 199.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.375"
Calculated BF%: 13.9%

Wednesday
Weight: 198 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.25"
Calculated BF%: 13.8%

Thursday
Weight: 198 lbs
Waist Naval: 33.25"
Calculated BF%: 13.8%

Friday
Weight: 197.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33"
Calculated BF%: 13.3%

Saturday
Weight: 197.5 lbs
Waist Naval: 33"
Calculated BF%: 13.3%

I'm going to wrap this thread up.

Although I weigh 3.5 lbs more than my minimum, my calculations show that I Have gained about 3.8 lbs of muscle, and actually have lost 0.3 lbs of fat compared to my minimum weight of 194 lbs.

According to the same calculations, my BF% is 0.4% less than it was at my minimum weight. It is still 0.2% higher than my minimum body fat percentage, but I'd imagine that I'll hit or surpass that next week.

So...it looks like a vacation of pseudo-SCD meals with full gluttony in between (especially at night) "cost" me about 2 weeks. Not terrible, but next time I would maybe try to tone down the crazy snacking on vacation.

I'll keep posting my weekly numbers in my log for anyone who's interested (see sig).

[Tahoe24]

Just curious...did you say you're eating dark chocolate on non-cheat days?

Thanks,
Tahoe