how did I gain weight?
 

I walked at least 4 miles a day, and that is the minimum and except for a daily gelato, I didnt over indulge at all. I dont think one ice cream a day can put on 5 pounds, at least not with all of the walking I did. I know it may not seem like a big deal, I just dont see how in the world I could have gained 5 pounds when all I did was walk and I didnt over eat. Has this happened to anyone else? I was in Italy for almost 2 months and constantly on the go.

It could be just water weight. It's not uncommon for a woman's weight to vary by up to 5 pounds due only to water retention.
Probably nothing to worry about :-)

Ha ha ha! Did you just turn 50?

No Holly, I will be 26 this coming autumn.

(My comment was meant for the OP.)

There is only one answer to the question "how did I gain weight?"

And that is that you ate too much food for your activity level. No one likes to hear this, but it's as old as time, true as can be, and no mystery at all.

so if that's you TexasAggie posting as Italianissima(?) well i clearly remember on another post something about 3 gelattos a day along with a couple slices of pizza. that'll do it ;-)

Have you missed a period, (and I'm not talking grammar here)? When I was a student in Florence, I lost 23 lbs without even trying in a 3-4 month span of time. I credit it to healthier eating and fewer between-meal snacks.

BC

oh mine was for the OP as well, i got confused by that 4th post in line

I'm actually 20. LOL, now you all probably just think I'm a young girl overly concerned about her weight. I know it sounds like I'm making too much of something small, I just dont see how it happened when all I did was walk and I didnt over eat. I hope it goes away. Maybe it is water weight. :-/ Though I've been home for 4 days now, so I dont know if the scale could still be reading water weight. Im trying to eat very healthy and I've been back to the gym. I just dont see why I didnt come back 5 lbs lighter!

Are your clothes tighter or fit the same? If so, you may have put on muscle.

Walking, an aerobic exercise, will help expend calories but if you didn't keep up any kind of a weight program, you may have lost muscle which keeps your metabolism up so that you burn more even when resting.

I lost weight while in France and was so happy that I ate a box of French chocolates upon returning - well, you know what happened.

Bookchick, I didnt want to put anything too personal out there that would skeeve out others, but since you mentioned it, I actually did skip a period. It's odd because I have never been late before (and yes I'm sure that I'm not pregnant) Are you implying the weight gain has something to do with my system not cleansing itself this month like it was supposed to?

Ronda beat me to it--I'll bet you toned up your legs, and muscle weighs more than fat. It's usually best to go by how your clothes fit and how you feel than by the dreaded scale.

suze,

Before you go accusing me of being another poster you might look at previous posts by both of us. Doing so would have alerted you that your accusation was <b>absurd</b>.

Not only have I been posting regularly since my return from my last trip but you can easily see from my posts that my last trip was for 2 weeks, NOT 2 months. Furthermore, if you read posts by the OP you would have found her trip report where she described studying abroad in Italy for a couple months.

So... where on earth did you come up with your idea of me being the OP?? Really, you should find better things to do with your time. And since you brought it up, yes I am blessed to be able to eat whatever I want and not gain weight. But I work out 5 or 6 days a week (running primarily) and I think that has a lot to do with it.

I was merely trying to reassure the OP that the weight gain might merely have been water retention. Women really can legitimately &quot;gain&quot; up to 5 pounds of water weight depending on their menstrual cycle. So it might really not be that the OP ate too much or exercise too little. A few days ought to be sufficient to know.

Nope. My clothes still all fit the same. Nothing tighter. However, does everyone really agree with the whole muscle more than fat notion? I've heard that before but dont really know if its true.

All sorts of possibilities, Italianissima, but most likely you were not eating the same foods in Italy that you eat at home. Maybe a bit more pasta, a bit more cheese, a bit more wine, etc. You may not have &quot;overindulged&quot; but there may have been more calories in the quantity of food you ate.

And, as a matter of fact, one ice cream a day over 60 days will put on 5 lbs. There are about 3500 calories in a pound. So 5 lbs = 17,500 calories. Divided by 60 days, that's about 300 calories a day extra. Very easy to do, I'm sorry to say!

You may have walked 4 miles per day, but if you are a regular gym-goer at home, you may not have burned as many calories walking as working out, especially if you do any sort of aerobics.

I've heard the muscle weighs more than fat too and it seems logical based on my experience. I weigh 7 pounds more than I did in high school but now I wear a size 4 instead of a size 6. My exercise in high school was mainly cheerleading, dance, and the like... whereas now I work out with weights and run several days a week. So... I'm a smaller size but I actually weigh more.

Also, if you did miss a period (and there are other reasons to miss one besides being pregnant), then yes - your body could be retaining a lot more water. Are you rings a little tight on your fingers? That is an easy indication of water retention for most.

------------------
suze, I just saw your second post. I'm assuming that meant you no longer think I am the OP? :-)

Marilyn, you just ruined my day (as I sit here eating a Fudgesickle). Please no stats about Starbucks Vanilla Lattes, or you'll ruin my whole winter.


:D

&lt;where on earth did you come up with your idea of me being the OP??&gt;

whoa girl... if you read the first four posts on this thread, you answered a question that Holly asked the OP. It was confusing.

&lt;Really, you should find better things to do with your time.&gt; Well that's sure as h*ll not going to be to doing a background check on each poster before answering on a thread.

And, please do correct me if I'm wrong but did you not mention something about gelatto 3 times a day in a recent discussion, no?

Sorry, Jocelyn. :-(
It doesn't make me very happy, either. The trick, of course, is to figure out how to eat 300 calories a day LESS. (Or how to burn 300 calories a day more.)

Hey Suze,

I never said you were wrong about me mentioning eating pizza and gelatto 3 (sometimes 4 - I will admit it!) times a day in that other post. But... on that same thread (just as mentioned above), I also clarified that I have never had an issue with gaining a pound in Europe. I work very hard at exercising and maintaining my current weight and I'm sure my age helps too. So... I just don't understand why (how?) you thought I was posing as the OP? I can tell you with all honesty that I have asked some embarrassing questions (you should read my first post about hot pants!!) on this board but I have never posed as someone else.

I did re-read my post and I meant to delete a few things (I edited and previewed but my changes didn't show up on what posted for some reason...??). My response certainly came out a lot meaner than I ever intended and I am sorry for that.

OK let's take it from the top~~

Italianissima says how did I gain weight?

texasaggie makes a comment

Holly asks Italianissima did you just turn 50?

texasaggie says no i'll be 26

...can't you see you answered a question meant for the OP? no big deal but no need to jump all over my case about it.

Oh!!! I just looked back up at the top. Makes sense now. I am quite sorry for the tone of the original post - really, I did edit before I posted and my intended post was certainly not very similar to what actually posted.

whew... thankfully you finally get my point.

mostly i dont' like being being told to go research all the posts someone has made here before replying. personally i think that's kind of creepy, like stalking or something. i've been posting here for five years now, and just take each post at face value. you might consider doing the same.

but we still haven't helped poor Italianissima with her little problem. she's probably ready to catch the first boat back to Italy instead of listening to us bicker!

kindly, s.

I never gain weight when I travel. But I have noticed that European air makes my clothes shrink. It's quite a problem in France.

LOL :-)
Perhaps we should just join her and have loads of unhealthy gelattos and drinks to re-cement our usually quite friendly Fodors relationship!

\
Just go back to whatever your daily routine is, and without the daily gelato, and a little careful eating, the 5 pounds can be gone in two weeks. Well worth it for an 8 week trip to Italy. Our bodies aren't programmed machines, sometimes they don't behave exactly as we expect. Don't worry about it.

i'll drink to that~ salute!

&quot; The trick, of course, is to figure out how to eat 300 calories a day LESS. (Or how to burn 300 calories a day more.)&quot;

How many posts on fodors do I need to type to burn 300 calories?

LOL Jocelyn ;-)

Or... how many calories do my day dreams about Italy burn?

Jocelyn, LOL! If that worked I'd have no problem being slim and trim! Maybe if we jog in place while we type...you think?

I'm off to yoga -- keeping up the good fight!

marilyn, you are on to something! yes, some kind of fodors fitness program.

A stationary bike under the computer desk?

So far, I haven't gained any weight on vacation but... I eat a lot of salads, veggies, fruit here at home... I can imagine that, in Italy, one would eat a much higher proportion of pasta, breads/pizza, meats, desserts, and far less salads, vegs, fruits...therefore, potential weight-gain.

I'm going to France for 3 weeks in September and am not worrying too much about gaining weight because I intend to walk a lot. That may not work in Paris, though, since from everything I read, the food is rich and the portions generous. Then there's the wine....

I want to buy a pedometer to see how many miles we walk each day in Paris. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good one? I may start a new thread on this if no one responds...

To Italianissima419: Here is the news: You had a bigger energy INTAKE than you could use by any exercise. In other words: You ate too much!

Italianissima419 - LOL! In all likelihood, you overate. It's easy to think otherwise, but the calories add up. And as to walking 4 miles per day - well, it's easy to think that means you can eat more, but alas ,no. I'm reminded of a recent conversation with my mother. I had just finished running a marathon (yep - 26.2 miles). My mother was sure that meant I'd have burned several pounds worth of calories (FYI - 1 pound equals roughly 3500 calories). Me to mom - sorry, no, one mile equals approximately 100 calories, so I've burned about 3/4 of a pound. Sorry mom, and italianissima!

Also, with respect to muscle weighing less than fat - well, sort of. Muscle is <b>less dense</b> than fat. So, if you lost one pound of fat, but gained one pound of muscle, you'd weight the same, but fit a little better into your jeans. If your pants don't fit better, this is not likely the explanation.

The good news - you'll probably lose the weight in no time now that your'e not eating yummy Italian food every day. ;)

I agree with Ronda, my first thought was that you gained muscle instead. Muscle weighs 3 times more than fat.

Congratulations! Keep it up. Next time you go to Italy, you'll already be toned, and then you can look forward to actually losing weight while you walk around eating those gelatos.

The first time I visited Paris, I lost nine pounds in seven days. Of course, I walked from about 8 AM to midnight every day, and I only ate one meal a day (fast food), so that helped. When I got back I was surprised by the weight loss, but I calculated calories consumed <i>vs.</i> calories burned, and the math worked out.

If you <i>gain</i> weight, you're eating too much. But as long as it's just for the duration of the trip and not something you do routinely at home, no harm done.

Thanks to everyone for your imput. I dont know what the case is. I know some of you think I over ate, but I really didnt. I honestly dont know. Maybe I gained muscle or maybe that one gelato a day did more harm than I thought. In any case, my clothes arent tight at all. Most of them fit the same, one pair of jeans is actually a little looser but I dont know how that is. Maybe I lost inches in some areas and gained it in others. Anyhow, I'm off to the gym. :-)