Lose Weight While You Travel: How I Lost 70 Lbs. in A Year

Is it possible to lose weight as a frequent business traveler? According to a study by Extended Stay America, 86% of business travelers reported gaining 1.5 lbs. per week they traveled.

In 2018, I took 20 business trips that took me to 17 cities in 10 countries. I boarded a plane 53 times, spending the equivalent of 8.5 days inside an airplane, and managed to lose 70 lbs. I want to tell you how I did it.

Towards the end of 2017, I had my annual checkup with my doctor. The results were not good: High blood pressure, high sugar levels, triglycerides out of whack, and fatty liver. My doctor warned me: “The consequences of your current lifestyle are starting to manifest, and unless there’s a change, we’ll have to take drastic steps.” He mentioned that the fix was “easy,” I just had to lose some weight and exercise a bit. 

In 2017, I flew to 13 cities in 9 countries for business. I boarded a plane 46 times, spending the equivalent of almost eight days inside an airplane. Honestly, my diet wasn’t great, and I didn’t exercise at home, let alone while on the road. When traveling, particularly for business, you are likely eating even worse than when you are home. From hotel breakfast buffets with tons of fried items and bread, fast-food lunches while rushing in-between meetings and big client dinners where the healthy options are not necessarily the priority. Exercise? Yeah right. My typical answer was: “when?”. When traveling for business, we end up working even longer hours, so instead of the usual ~8 hours, it is typical that you end up working 12 to 14 hours each day. 

By the time 2018 rolled up, I decided that I would listen to my doctor and do something about it, so losing weight became a priority. On January 20, 2018, I stepped on the scale, and it read: 249 lbs. I set a goal to get to 175 lbs in one year. My wife, Yunibe, suggested we start with a walk. We walked 2.99 miles in 54 minutes, 11 seconds. According to my Apple Watch, I burnt 280 calories, my average heart rate was 136 bpm, and I felt like I was going to die!

How to Set Yourself Up for Success to Lose Weight?

It is paramount to be self-aware and understand what works and what doesn’t. In my case:

• I need to have no restrictions on what I could eat, so a restrictive diet is out of the question
• The ability to track and visualize my progress is essential
• I like to use technology, so including apps and devices keeps me engaged. 

About technology, there are many ways to use it to help us lose weight. I mainly use three apps on my phone: Apple Health, Apple Fitness, and MyFitnessPal, combined with a fitness tracker, in my case, an Apple Watch. I like it because it tracks my workouts, heart rate, burnt calories, etc. It also suggests calorie burn goal increases weekly. 

The best part of using technology is the ability to keep track of my progress. I can quickly get a visual representation of various metrics like weight loss, exercise minutes, distance traveled, cardio fitness, macros, etc. 

On the food front, my wife, Yunibe, set me up. She helps people to live a more healthy life (check out her blog!). Her approach is not to move people away from eating their favorite foods but rather to guide and help them understand the impact of portions and add variety to what you eat. It is the perfect approach for me since there aren’t restrictive diets, and I get to keep eating the foods I like. The key is ensuring that your portions are the right size so you don’t exceed a calorie intake goal per day. In my case, MyFitnessPal suggested 2,060 calories as my daily target. The beauty of this method is that you can choose how to allocate your calories. 

With the foundation set, and believe me, your nutrition accounts for 80%+ of your success; it also helps to exercise. Simon Sinek, the author of “Start with Why,” talks about the importance of Consistency over Intensity, which applies perfectly. He says: “Going to the gym for 9 hours doesn’t get you into shape. Going to the gym for 20 minutes every day gets you into shape.”

Consistency is way more important than intensity. If you are consistent, intensity increases on its own. In my experience, as I’ve lost weight, I automatically can increase the intensity of my exercising. I took a walk on January 1st, 2021 and went for 3.73 miles in 54 minutes. According to my Apple Watch, I burnt 365 calories, and my average heart rate was 108 bpm. That was my warm-up. I also spent an extra hour doing core, strength, and flexibility training. Compare that to the first walk I told you about earlier. It’s night and day. 

Making It Work While Traveling

One of the biggest challenges for business travelers is keeping a routine. It is essential for our healthy habits to “travel” with us. For instance, there are days I go out for a walk or a run. Other days, I stream HIIT or functional strength and core workouts. Before Covid-19, I would use the elliptical or the static bike. Accordingly, one of the key amenities I look for when choosing a hotel is that it has a gym and/or access to outside areas where I could walk or run. With Covid-19 making gyms less safe, ensuring a good internet connection to stream workouts is very important. Also, some hotel chains are creating rooms that include workout equipment within them, like this kick-ass room from Hilton I enjoyed during one of my trips:

As mentioned earlier, consistency is the key. I exercise for at least 30 minutes EVERY DAY. Since February 1, 2018 – 1,074 days ago (as of when I wrote this article – January 1, 2021), I have not completed 30 minutes of exercise on three days. Three days out of 1,074 – which equates to a 99.72% completion rate in almost three years. Currently, I am on a streak of 783 consecutive days. 

To lose weight, when I travel (or used to travel before Covid-19), I maintain the same healthy habit as when I am home: I exercise every morning between 5:30 am and 7 am. That means I have no calls or meetings (like a client breakfast) before 8 am. 

My calorie intake strategy is simple: 400, 600, 1000. I allocate my available calories on each meal as follows:

• Breakfast: 400 calories
• Lunch: 600 calories
• Dinner: 1,000 calories

This method allows me to “save” most calories for client dinners, where generally there’s more food. Additionally, it is vital to keep hydrated, so I try to drink around 3 liters of water throughout the day. Also, if possible, I try to eat at the same times I eat when at home. 

The Results

On January 29, 2019, I stepped on the scale, and it read 179.9 lbs. While I did not make my goal weight of 175 lbs, I am delighted with the results. Since then, being disciplined, I got down to 172 lbs, and currently, I weigh 176 lbs. Besides the noticeable cosmetic changes, I feel healthy, stronger, and happier. Also, all the concerning health issues from that 2017 physical are no more. 

Lose Weight While Traveling – In Summary

Here are the three key points that helped me and can help you lose weight while traveling too:

• Make sure you know what works for you. Otherwise, you will lose interest and give up.
• Don’t forget that consistency is more important than intensity, so your goals should be mid to long term. Discipline is a must.
• It is essential for your healthy habits to “travel” with you.

All the best,

Jorge