All those pounds are mostly water weight. The reason for the five-pound “gain” is water retention. What is this? 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.
Experts told Insider that weight gained after an indulgent few days is unlikely to be fat, and usually falls away when a person's normal diet is resumed. Taking a break from a diet while on vacation can even be beneficial in the long run, according to research.
Weight gained after a vacation or indulgent weekend doesn't mean you've put on fat. It's probably just water retention, experts say. Rebel Wilson said she gained almost seven pounds while on vacation at an all-inclusive resort. Eating more salt and carbs can make us gain water weight, not fat, a dietitian said.
We all like to relax and indulge on vacation, but a new study has found that just a one-week trip away can cause us to put on weight, which we could still be carrying around for up to six weeks after the holiday has ended.
The first measurements were taken one week prior to vacation, then again one week and six weeks post-vacation. The study found that 61 percent of the participants gained weight while on vacation, with an average gain of 0.7 pounds, and that the weight gained throughout the entire study averaged 0.9 pounds.
If you lose weight over the course of a few months, you won't regain it in a week, a personal trainer said. The scale may spike after a vacation, but that won't be all fat gain, according to Jordan Syatt. You can set some health boundaries, but your main priority should be enjoying yourself, he said.
Let's face it: Summertime weight gain can be a real bummer, though experts say it's fairly common. During a one- to three-week vacation, adults tend to gain a little less than 1 pound (lb), according to a study published in March 2016 in Physiology & Behavior.
Celebrations and vacations can involve eating foods higher in carbs and salt than your normal diet, and both of these lead to water retention, she said. We store carbs as glycogen in our body, and for each gram of glycogen we retain several grams of water right along with it, Mockler said.