Maintaining is easy?

Updated 7.21.2014; reformatted 8.22.2015
So my family recently completed a week long vacation during which we visited both sides of the family. The entire week could be described as a week long feast. Family meals multiple times a day, usually at a restaurant, plus special "treats" courtesy of grandparents.

In addition, I have been on my seat much more than usual. Due to age and injuries of various relatives, even walking is minimal when visiting family. And standing (one of my favorite NEAT—increasing things to do) weirds some people out— particularly those who stand as little as possible during the day.

So did I gain weight?

Some people believe that maintenance is difficult or impossible, though I do not. I'm typing this as we drive home from our week's vacation, and though I didn't plan to do so, it occurs to me that this week was an excellent opportunity to test my maintenance theories. Here was a week of eating out and eating well. Of course, I won't know if I've gained any weight until I get up and weigh myself tomorrow morning.

I won't be surprised if I have gained a pound or three. I ate more than I do usually, but even on vacation I remained aware of portion size. Restaurant portions are typically 2-4 times larger than true portions, so I've learned to be judicious when choosing off the menu. That said, I didn't hesitate to choose options that I wanted. If I couldn't finish, I took the remainder home, or simply left it on the plate. The combination of eating more and moving less though will mean added pounds.

Portion Awareness

When I say that I remained "portion aware" I imagine that for some that suggests that I was feverish toting up calorie counts in my head. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I've said previously, I spent time a few years ago teaching myself what a proper portion for a human of my size looks like (because proper portion size varies with the size of the human) and I retain that information. So when a 12 inch diameter plate filled to overflowing is placed in front of me I don't think that it represents a portion.

Lack of portion awareness, or habitual under reporting of intake, are all too common. The following is quoted from the linked abstract:

RESULTS: All patients had normal serum thyroid hormone levels. Eight patients had RMR and TEE values within 15% of predicted values and were substantially underreporting their energy intake. One patient had low TEE (-19%) and a normal RMR, a finding that implies a low level of physical activity. This patient also underreported energy intake as estimated by the doubly labeled water technique during the study (-38%). The 10th patient had a low RMR (-23.2%) and TEE (-25.0%), the mechanism of which was uncertain. This patient's reported food intake over the 14-day period was accurate but was less than her long-term intake over months or years as suggested by doubly labeled water TEE estimates. The TEF response in patients was not significantly different from that observed in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS: Underreporting of energy intake from foods is a frequent finding in patients with disturbances in body weight regulation who are referred for obesity evaluation. Severe underreporting may be detectable by means of screening measures available to most dietitians. Low energy expenditure, due either to physical inactivity or to metabolic factors, is also observed. Modern evaluation methods provide new insights into patients with weight regulatory disturbances and at the same time stimulate important new research questions

A visit to the scale

So did I gain weight this vacation? Yes, about three pounds. So this next week I will return to the eating and moving plan I devised two years ago.

That's right. No new eating scheme or exercise, just back to the habits that resulted in the weight loss. No starving or "killing it" in the gym for me, thank you. Just a return to healthy, sustainable habits. Will the weight come off? Of course it will. I'll be eating a bit less and moving a bit more. The energy balance does hold, don't believe any other hype.

People (mostly women) who claim they can't lose weight aren't accounting for all their calories. Many times they restrict for a few days, but then binge eat. I don't starve, and I don't binge eat— and haven't since I quit dieting in my 20's (over 30 years ago now). I eat the proper number of calories for a female of my height and age, and I make sure that I move more than I sit.

I think that I will turn this into a series of posts where I will document my "progress" as I return to my non-vacation habits.

To be continued...

Disclaimer