... You're traveling.

After a long hiatus, the Calorie Scientists are back and bringing you the latest-and-greatest from the calorie-free scientific community!

A perk of now being an elderly person (OMGguyswestartedthiseightyearsago) is having slightly more money to travel than we did as starving students living off of Trader Joe's balsamic vegetable medley. And icing on the proverbial cake: Calories don't count while you're traveling! We've already covered the science behind no calories during air travel—particularly useful now that Virgin America exists and offers unlimited drinks and snacks—but this benefit extends far beyond the walls of those pressurized purple cabins.

The logic is: Your body acclimates to its home environment, and recognizes food items that you typically eat while in that environment (e.g., kale and quinoa... or burritos—also calorie-free, because obviously). When you shift to different locations/timezones/eating habits, your body simply can't keep up. Similar to Google Maps in a no service zone, it can't immediately identify its location and expends excessive energy trying to digest this change (see what I did there?). This period of confusion can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the distance you've traveled and length of your trip. During this time, all food and drink is understandably calorie-free.

Calorie-counting picks up again when you're back in familiar territory, so make sure to have that extra margarita (...or three) while you can—your beach bod will thank you later!

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Editor's Note: While weighing whether or not to end this entry with a witty hashtag, it came to my attention that hashtags didn't exist the last time we posted on here. Uh, what. #CDCI