Training and Nutrition on Holiday: How to Maintain Your Progress

Table of Content:

• Nutrition during Cutting Phase

• Nutrition during Maintenance Phase

• Nutrition during Bulking Phase

• Training during Maintenance and Cutting Phase

• Training during Bulking Phase

• Key Takeaways

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Going on holiday can feel a bit challenging if you still want to train and eat properly in order to maintain your physique.

As a friendly suggestion—especially if you are going on holiday for a relatively short period of time (7–10 days)—I would recommend not stressing too much about nutrition and training, and instead fully enjoying your time off with your loved ones (or by yourself if you are traveling solo). This approach allows you to enjoy the travel experience without worrying about calories, macronutrients, or finding a suitable gym to train.

That said, if you still wish to train and take care of your nutrition while on holiday—whether to maintain your routine or for any other reason—there are several strategies you can adopt to maintain your physique or even improve it. The strategy you choose will depend on your goal: whether you want to maintain, cut, or bulk.

Here’s how to manage nutrition and training while away from home.

NUTRITION

Let’s be clear and honest: nutrition is probably the hardest aspect to get right. You are away from home, likely with different food options available in supermarkets compared to what you are used to, and—assuming you will be eating out frequently—this can be challenging as well.

GOAL -> Cutting Phase

Cutting while on holiday sucks—let’s be real.

My main suggestion is to plan your holiday outside of your cutting phase or, conversely, to structure your nutrition so that your holiday does not coincide with a cutting period.

If this is not possible, here are some general rules of thumb you can follow to make things easier.

The number one priority is to ensure that you remain in a caloric deficit. Since you will likely be eating out frequently and trying local dishes, your actual caloric intake will probably be higher than you expect.

For this reason:

• Use intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting can help manage calorie intake. For example, you might drink plenty of water in the hours after waking up and delay your first meal until later in the day. Skipping breakfast and having your first meal at lunch is often an effective approach.

• Load up on vegetables

Vegetables provide essential vitamins and help you feel full without adding many calories. Aim to include at least one serving of vegetables at every meal.

• Include protein at every meal

Protein helps preserve muscle mass and stimulates muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Since protein is often the hardest macronutrient to obtain when eating out—and the most important during a cut—make sure to prioritize your daily protein intake.

• Adjust fats and carbohydrates wisely

When eating out, ask for sauces on the side, as they are often high in fats. This allows you to better control your intake. Additionally, choose grilled, baked, or boiled dishes instead of fried options to reduce overall calorie consumption.

• Plan ahead for indulgent meals

If you know that lunch or dinner will be more indulgent, scale back earlier meals to balance your daily intake. For example, if you expect a high-carb and high-fat dinner, focus on high-protein, low-carb, and low-fat meals earlier in the day to compensate.

• Stay well hydrated

Hydration serves two key purposes. First, it helps maintain proper fluid balance—especially important in summer destinations where fluid loss is higher. Second, drinking enough water can help keep your stomach feeling fuller and reduce hunger, particularly in the morning hours. 

GOAL -> Maintenance

If you are going on holiday and your main goal is simply to maintain your physique, you can follow a similar approach to the strategies suggested for cutting, but with greater flexibility, as you do not need to be in a caloric deficit.

·       Intermittent fasting would, once again, be my number one recommendation. It is easy to implement and highly sustainable, as it simply involves delaying your first meal of the day. This can be achieved by drinking plenty of water, having one or two coffees, or—if you prefer to eat breakfast—by choosing a low-carb, low-fat, moderate-protein option. Intermittent fasting also improves sustainability because breakfast is often the least “social” meal while on holiday and the easiest one to compromise.

• Eyeball portion sizes and calorie intake to roughly estimate how close you are to maintenance calories, without stressing over exact numbers.

  
  

• Keep protein high at every meal, as it is the hardest macronutrient to obtain when eating out or traveling and remains essential for preserving muscle mass.

  
  

• Maintain a balanced intake of fats and carbohydrates without overcomplicating things. If a restaurant dish appears high in fats, adjust your carbohydrate intake accordingly, and vice versa.

  
  

GOAL -> Bulking

If you are on holiday and currently in a bulking phase, with the goal of gaining muscle mass, this is by far the most flexible scenario. Maintain your usual diet structure and let holiday meals act as “planned high-calorie meals” to support your caloric surplus.

It doesn’t need to be perfect—as long as you meet your protein intake, you’re on track.

If you consume slightly more fat than usual, it’s not a problem. Since the goal is to gain weight, being on holiday allows for greater flexibility in macronutrient distribution, provided protein intake is adequate.

When bulking, there is no need to stress excessively about restaurant meals or precise macronutrient tracking.

The two main priorities are:

• Hit your daily protein target

• Eyeball portion sizes to ensure your caloric intake is sufficient but not excessively high

TRAINING

Training while on holiday is generally less challenging than nutrition, as you can usually find a gym with basic equipment almost anywhere, allowing you to get in a solid workout.

Just like with nutrition, your training does not need to be perfect. Some machines may differ from what you are used to, and others may not be available at all—but that’s not an issue.

What matters most are training volume and intensity.

Maintenance and Cutting Phases

Keep your training volume at maintenance levels (approximately 6–10 sets per muscle group per week) while training close to failure (3–0 RIR). If some of the machines you normally use are unavailable, simply replace them with similar exercises that target the same muscle groups.

Since training volume is on the lower side, it is especially important to push each set close to failure to ensure a sufficient stimulus to maintain muscle mass.

Bulking Phase

If you decide to continue bulking while on holiday, training volume should be slightly higher than maintenance. You can either maintain your usual training volume or, if time is limited, slightly reduce volume—ideally not below 12 sets per muscle group per week—while staying relatively close to failure (3–0 RIR).

When in a caloric surplus, insufficient training intensity and volume increase the risk of gaining fat rather than muscle. You eat more, you train less efficiently and all the caloric surplus will not be used for muscle building but rather it will be converted into fat : no bueno.

• If you are confident you can maintain high-quality training while on holiday → it is reasonable to continue bulking.

• If you are unsure whether you can maintain the necessary volume and intensity → consider shifting to maintenance calories and pausing the bulk temporarily.

  
  

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Match your nutrition strategy to your goal — flexibility increases the further you are from a cutting phase.

• Keep protein moderate-high in every phase — it’s the hardest macro to get when eating out.