Over the holidays, the McKays took a first trip to Hawaii. While on this week long vacation, I relaxed my usual diet. I didn’t track my macros like I usually do. We ate out every night and always followed these big dinners with dessert.
However, when I got home and weighed myself, I found that I had not gained any weight. Instead, I had lost two pounds.
It reminded me of a point strength coach Dan John made in our interview about fat loss. John’s has noticed the same paradox with his clients that I have: people often come back from vacations lighter than when they left, even when they stay at buffet-style, all-inclusive resorts, and feel like they ate and enjoyed themselves more. On the journey.
John believes this paradox is due to the fact that while on vacation, you often:
Move more. I think this was the biggest factor in my vacation weight loss. When you’re on vacation, you often do much more physical activity than you do back home, walking many miles to the sights in a city, walking for hours in museums, or hiking the vast landscape that is Disney World. I spent every day in Hawaii swimming, boogie boarding and hiking. even though I didn’t do any special training while I was away, I was probably 10 times more active than in my usual sedentary routine.
As Dr. James Levin shared in our podcast on non-exercise activity thermogenesis, research shows that you can manage your weight simply by moving your body more outside of the gym. Match an increase in calories with an increase in NEAT and you won’t gain weight. Make your caloric expenditure from NEAT exceed your caloric intake and you will lose weight.
Feel less stressed. I found that even though I was much more active on my trip, my appetite decreased. Although the meals I was eating were larger and richer than usual, I was less inclined to snack, so while I felt like I was eating more than usual, I’m not really sure if my caloric intake increased significantly or not.
This reduction in hunger may have something to do with the way physical activity has been shown to regulate appetite, the increase in my sleep quality (see below), or the significant reduction in stress I experienced during waking up and falling asleep to the sound of ocean waves. Stress increases cortisol and cortisol makes you hungry. Less stress = less hunger. Reducing stress can also give your metabolism a healthy boost overall.
I sleep more. Sleep deprivation has been shown to have a negative effect on weight. When you don’t get enough sleep, the hormones that make you hungry go up, while the hormones that help you feel full go down. This leads to an increase in appetite and you especially crave foods high in carbohydrates as your body looks to sugar for energy to fight off fatigue. Additionally, insulin sensitivity drops and cortisol increases, making your body more apt to hang on to fat.
Getting enough sleep helps regulate your hunger hormones and improves your metabolism, and you’re likely to sleep more on vacation.
I’m not sure if my amount of sleep improved while I was in Hawaii because a (damn, damn) rooster woke us up every day at 5:30am, but I think all the physical activity really increased my sleep pressure each day , which significantly deepened my sleep.
As Dr. Levine also noted in our discussion, sleep and regularity create a virtuous cycle: when you move more during the day, you sleep better at night, and when you sleep better at night, you have the energy to move more during the day. day.
What’s great about recognizing the holiday weight loss paradox is that you can apply it to non-holiday weight loss. It shows that you can lose weight without paying too much attention and being too strict with your diet (although, of course, dietary changes will enhance your results). Increase your sleep and physical activity while reducing your stress and it’s possible to lose weight naturally.
While it may be easier to improve your stress, sleep, and movement while you’re away, these are all habits you can easily implement into your daily routine at home. While you may have to wait to enjoy beaches, museums, and leisurely rides until your next trip, you can start living the vacation lifestyle and enjoying the weight-loss rewards right now.
