Have you experienced the vacation weight loss phenomena?
It’s real! You eat a lot more, you exercise a lot less yet you come home and your clothes fit better.
How can this be???
Well first, if you follow me, you hopefully know that eating more and exercising less is my secret for body positivity.
Second, vacation usually means LESS STRESS. Less stress=less cortisol aka the stress hormone.
Here are a few things that can happen when cortisol levels are persistently high:
- Raises blood sugar
- Increases cravings for sugar
- Increases hunger
- Reduces ability to access body fat for fuel i.e. burn fat
- Suppresses the HPA-axis contributing to hormonal imbalance
- Makes cells less sensitive to insulin
- Increases belly fat
- Increases rate at which fat is stored
- Raises circulating fatty acids and triglycerides in the blood
When we go on vacation, often times, our stress levels plummet and so do our cortisol levels! This allows your body a chance to rev up its fat burning potential.
In addition, less exercise gives your body and muscles a chance to rest which is so important when it comes to build lean, metabolism boosting muscle!
And lastly, you are more likely to eat intuitively on vacation meaning you stop eating when you’re full and you eat when you’re hungry! Many of my clients come to me after years of restrictive dieting and aren’t used to actually listening to their body’s hunger cues so vacation means eating more which combined with rest and less cortisol often leads to more calories their body has needed for weeks/months/years and allows their thyroid and metabolism to function optimally!
Download my healthy travel guide tips on my favorite snacks to pack and foods to buy at the airport and gas stations!
