“Vacation calories don’t count” (“Calories don’t count on vacation”)

“Vacation calories don’t count” is a popular saying. Many vacationers are advised to go off their diets to try the local foods and enjoy the vacations. “Vacation calories don’t count” has been printed on many images.
 
“Calories don’t count,” many people jocularly say, on birthdays, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or New Year’s, or any other occasion. “Birthday calories don’t count” has also been printed on many images.
 
The expression “calories don’t count” was popularized by the 1961 bestselling book of that title by Herman Taller (1906-1984). Taller recommended a low-carbohydrate diet with polyunsaturated fats (such as safflower oil). The book Calories don’t count when ... (1979) by Sara Parriott and the Chicago Tribune column on January 1, 1982, “Calories don’t count on payday” by Joan Beck, both listed many occasions when “calories don’t count.” “Calories don’t count if it’s your birthday, New Year’s Day, Christmas or Thanksgiving,” Beck wrote.
     
“Calories don’t count when…you’re on vacation” was printed in the Los Angeles (CA) Times on September 23, 1979. “The widely held theory that on vacation calories don’t count” was printed in the New York (NY) Times on July 25, 1990. “soooo full. i really need to stop eating so much but vacation calories don’t count, right?” was posted on Twitter by Krista Godfrey on June 21, 2008.
     
“IIRC, calories don’t count on your birthday” was posted on the newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry on March 25, 1998. “Birthday calories don’t count” by Mitch Albom was printed in The Star Press (Muncie, IN) on June 6, 2006. “Calories don’t count on holidays, birthdays, vacations, weekends, after midnight, other peoples birthdays, parties, road trips, restaurants” was cited on Twitter on April 20, 2014. “Calories don’t count on holidays, birthdays, vacations, weekends, after midnight, road trips and dealing with breakups” was cited on Twitter on May 6, 2014.
 
Related sayings include “Holiday calories don’t count,” “Halloween calories don’t count,” “Thanksgiving calories don’t count” and “Christmas calories don’t count.” A saying for after these events is, “So sad that in just a few days bread and dessert will have calories again.”
       
           
OCLC WorldCat record
Calories don’t count.
Author: Herman Taller
Publisher: New York, Simon and Schuster, 1961.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Calories don’t count when ...
Author: Sara Parriott
Publisher: Los Angeles : J.P. Tarcher ; New York : Distributed by St. Martin’s, ©1979.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English : 1st ed
 
23 September 1979, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Book Notes” by Dick Lochte, Book Review sec., pg. 2, col. 3:
In “Calories Don’t Count When…” (Tarcher, $2.95, paperback), Sara Parriott lists a number of positive thoughts on the care and disposal of fat foods. I.e.: “Calories don’t count when…you’re on vacation…you’ve just exercised…you have only a bite…you order a diet soda.”
 
Newspapers.com
1 January 1982, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Calories don’t count on payday” by Joan Beck, sec. 1, pg. 18, cols. 4-6:
Calories don’t count if it’s your birthday, New Year’s Day, Christmas or Thanksgiving.
(...)
Calories don’t count at weddings, bachelor parties or office parties.
(...)
Calories don’t count when you’re in love.
(...)
Calories don’t count when your mother tells you to eat.
   
2 April 1989, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Calorie-Free Vacation” by Judith Morgan, pg. 20:
“In the first place, calories don’t count at sea. And calories don’t count when you’re on vacation.”
   
25 July 1990, New York (NY) Times, “De Gustibus; Hearty Food in an Idaho Cabin” by Marian Burros, pg. C8:
Whether it was the smell of the sticky buns and bear claws filled with homemade prune and walnut preserves, the mountain air or the widely held theory that on vacation calories don’t count, it was goodbye to the Surgeon General’s Report as we indulged in the traditional country breakfast that you read and salivate about these days but seldom see.
 
Google Groups: alt.callahans
I’m Slimming tomorrow. I’ve an alibi today.
Paul Saunders
8/2/93
This is from a little book I have borrowed from a friend.
All of these are above appropriate cartoons of a rotound bear.
(...)
... Calories don’t count on holidays ...
 
Google Groups: alt.lifestyle.furry
The ermine ponders her upcomming whelpday…
Ron Orr…& Tirran
3/25/98
(...)
Carrot cake for a birthday? IIRC, calories don’t count on your birthday, so go for the gold… 😉
     
Newspapers.com
12 July 1998, Hartford (CT) Courant, “Confessions of a Foodie,” Rhythm of the River sec., pg. 9, col. 1:
Be happy calories don’t count on vacation.
 
Newspapers.com
21 November 1999, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Hanalei’s Calming Effect” by Terri Barber, pg. L15, col. 3:
We were forced later in the trip to invoke Rule No. 3: On vacation, calories don’t count.
 
Google Groups: rec.arts.disney.parks
‘Weight Watchers’ & ‘Kungaloosh’?
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
9/12/00
Patrick R. Sklenar