You have been dieting for a while now, making it a part of your schedule, and achieving tremendous results because of the consistency. Then, during a weekend, a casual hangout plan with your friends turns into a short vacation planning session. You are very excited and on the inside, you are going 'Holy s#!t! my diet will go for a toss and I will lose all the results I have achieved so far.' So you start contemplating whether the trip is worth the damage. You almost end up canceling the trip giving silly excuses, though you really wanted to go. Again, what about the hard work that has gone into dieting and training?

Been there? I know. 

I myself used to face this issue years ago and many of my clients feel the same until they talk to me. In this piece, I am sharing five glorious pointers that may possibly help you keep your gains on point while traveling. Let's get to it: 

The number one mistake people often do while traveling is to try losing fat and building muscle. To lose fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit system with adequate protein. That is doable but you may miss out on training sessions which will require you to drop your caloric intake further and you will not be able to enjoy the local delicacies and cuisines there. To build muscle, you need to eat slightly higher calories than maintenance with adequate protein and train with weights. People often take vacations to go on a break and enjoy some time off, and your schedule or travel plans may not leave you with enough time to train. 

See my point here? It is too complicated. 

Just keep it simple and keep maintenance as your goal. An easy way to estimate your maintenance calories is to multiply your bodyweight in pounds by 14 to 16.  Example, a guy weighing 160 lbs will need around 2250 to 2550 kcals to maintain his weight.

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In one of my previous articles, I have gone into detail about how the carb to fat ratio of a diet does NOT really matter when it comes to fat loss. That mostly holds true for maintenance as well. If you are following my point one, then this step is easy. Just get enough protein and keep a check on your total calories, you shall do just fine. How much protein would be adequate? Scientific literature suggests that 0.72 g/lb protein intake is sufficient to maintain lean body mass. The 160 lbs guy above, he will need ~120 grams of protein to maintain his lean body mass.  An easy way to get this protein is to make protein-rich food choices while eating out or carrying a few scoops of whey protein for the convenience. 

Hell of a contradiction here, right? But this piece is to make your life easy and not hard while traveling. Sometimes, it will be difficult to get enough protein. Just stay within your maintenance caloric limit. Calories will always stay king. One sub-optimal week won't dent your progress much. It is like taking a bucket of water out of the pool and stressing that you lost a bucket worth of water. Not a worthy tradeoff for the fun you shall have on your vacation. 

While traveling, the temptation of hogging local food, or some desserts you have been craving and resisting while dieting (which is not needed) can be skyrocketing. That is how one meal of junk food can turn to two turning to many. The easiest way out here is to break it down. Do not have two meals of exclusive junk food back-to-back. Always have a meal of junk food followed by more filling, unprocessed or minimally processed, and nutrition dense foods. 

Enjoy the occasional junk, do not go all out! 

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Walking can also burn quite a few calories. And when you are traveling, the luxury of your cars might not be available all the time. Use this opportunity to walk around a bit or even explore the local culture and markets. I hope you enjoy reading this piece and the next time there is a vacation plan being made where you or your bro or buddy is backing out because 'gym,' make them read this piece of fitness wisdom. 

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness.