What To Do With Your Diet And Workout On Vacation

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Going on vacation soon?

Wondering what to do with your diet, workout, and tracking during that time?

Want to avoid gaining fat, losing muscle, and letting your progress go to hell… but you also don’t want to ruin the fun of your vacation?

If so, here’s everything you need to do.

The Truth About Vacations And Progress

I want you to understand something.

Progress isn’t lost or made in a week. Or even two weeks.

That’s a tiny period of time.

What matters for your progress is what happens during the 50 weeks of the year when you’re not on vacation.

If you’re getting that part right, then what happens during the 1-2 weeks when you are isn’t going to make any meaningful difference whatsoever.

So, with that in mind, here’s my advice…

Your Diet While On Vacation

  • It mostly comes down to trying to make good decisions as often as you realistically can without stressing yourself out too much. It’s a vacation, after all.
  • Prioritize protein, fiber, and vegetables. All 3 will help with hunger control, and protein will help prevent muscle loss (although this is more of an issue with longer vacations).
  • Speaking of protein, I always pack protein powder and have a scoop every morning since I never know what the eating situation will be that day. This isn’t required or anything, just something to consider as it gives you a nice head start on protein for the day.
  • Don’t go TOO overboard with overeating. Again, it’s a vacation, so you should enjoy it to a healthy degree. Just, you know, do your best to avoid the “unhealthy degree.”
  • Go with zero-calorie drinks instead of calorie-containing drinks whenever possible. Water is obviously best, but stuff like diet soda is an option too.
  • Don’t go TOO overboard with alcohol. I know, it’s a vacation… but you get the idea. Good decisions whenever you can. Simple as that.

Your Workout While On Vacation

  • If there’s a hotel gym (or a gym nearby) and 1) you would love to get some workouts done, and 2) doing so wouldn’t negatively affect your vacation in any way, you can feel free to do so. It doesn’t have to be your full normal workout schedule or even a full normal workout. As little as 1-2 workouts in a week—where you’re only doing the most important exercises—are plenty for a vacation. 
  • More importantly, if working out on vacation isn’t doable for you, or you’d rather not, or it would negatively affect your trip… don’t do it. Feel free to just enjoy the vacation and get back to your workouts when you return. That’s what I do.
  • You can try to keep your general activity level up as best as you realistically can so you’re still getting a solid number of steps per day.

Your Tracking While On Vacation

  • Leave the food scale at home. I took a food scale with me on vacation one time in my life. Do you know how many times I used it? Zero. It never came out of my bag, I never packed it again after that, and I laughed at myself for bringing it in the first place.
  • If you wanted to open your diet app to look something up as part of the “make good decisions” advice from before, that’s totally fine. But I don’t recommend actually trying to track your calories/macros on vacation. F that.
  • Body weight tracking? Nope. Don’t pack that scale either.
  • Measurements? Lol, not a chance.
  • Sleep? That’s fine if you want to.
  • Steps? That’s a good one worth tracking.

The Most Important Thing

Enjoy the vacation and then get right back to normal with your diet, workout, and tracking when you return. 

If you do that… you’ll be fine.

If you don’t… and instead spend the next month or 12 still in “vacation mode,” that’s when you’re going to have problems.

Take note, my friend. This part matters more than anything else in this email.

You Will Gain Weight, Though

It’s VERY normal to come back from a vacation and see that you’ve gained some weight. 

I usually see people gain anywhere from 1–5 lbs after a week.

Don’t freak out, though. It’s not fat.

Most (if not all) of this weight is just meaningless temporary stuff like water retention that will be lost within a week or so of being back to normal with your eating. 

So, don’t let it scare you or anything.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About Jay
Jay is the science-based writer and researcher behind everything you've seen here. He has 15+ years of experience helping thousands of men and women lose fat, gain muscle, and build their "goal body." His work has been featured by the likes of Time, The Huffington Post, CNET, Business Week and more, referenced in studies, used in textbooks, quoted in publications, and adapted by coaches, trainers, and diet professionals at every level.