Cruising With a Dietitian: How to Avoid Gaining Weight While at Sea

My husband and I just returned from a 7 night cruise from Baltimore to the Bahamas on the Carnival Pride. Since we've been back, I've had several people ask me the million dollar question: "How much weight did you gain?" Since this article is about my experience I'll tell you: about 3 pounds. So, let me rephrase my title:

Cruising with a Dietitian - - how to gain "just a little bit" of weight while at sea.

See, not being allowed to gain any weight would be unrealistic and just not any fun! I must admit that I am a little bit of a foodie and we did indulge in many of the culinary adventures the ship and ports had to offer: The "Chef's Table" tour of the galley and 7 courses tasting menu, a night at "David's" steakhouse, several servings of molten chocolate cake and deep fried cracked Conch in the Bahamas. I even indulged in a couple of Pina Coladas while lounging in the hot tub.

My measly three pounds is really not that much considering the statistics. The personal trainer from the ship's gym quoted me a figure of 7-14 pounds per cruise. A UK poll published last year by the Daily Mail quotes 1 pound a day. CruiseReview.com found the average weight gain on a 7-day cruise ranges between 5 to 10 pounds. Judging by some of the eating behaviors I witnessed on the ship, I would say that this could be accurate for those who really "let loose."

Here are my top 10 tips for minimizing weight gain while cruising:

1. Be a "Picky" Eater. No, I am not implying that you need to order chicken fingers at every meal like my son does. What I mean by "picky" is regarding the quality of the food. "Picky" means really two things: 1) not indulging in chicken fingers, mac and cheese, soft ice cream and other items that you can easily get while not vacationing. Save your calories for more epicurean adventures. On my cruise, there were quite a few unique options such as oysters Rockefeller, escargot and chilled mango soup. 2) "Picky" also mean not eating something unless it's REALLY good. If the fish is dry and cold, don't finish it. If your buffet food tastes bland, let the waiter take it away. If the cake is tasteless, just take 1 bite and stop. Remember: the "clean plate club" is not in session on cruise ships. Only clean your plate if you truly enjoy the food and if it's a "4-star" dish.

2. Utilize the Gym. Not having enough time can't be used as an excuse while at sea! You should be exercising more, not less. Most ships have cardio equipment, free weights and exercise classes. Sign up for a fitness class. My husband and I signed up for a group cycling class at 4pm one day which saved us a few hundred calories of afternoon cocktails - - we didn't indulge in a drink until the class was over. If you don't like the gym, there is also usually an outdoor track for walking/jogging. Walk the halls and explore every nook and cranny of the ship. Take the stairs as much as possible instead of the elevators. Think of the cruise as a "spa vacation": take care of your body, exercise, use the steam room, indulge in a massage, etc. All of these activities are food free.

3. Opt for the dining room over the buffet. Yes, you can order anything you want, but you have to wait for the different courses. Slowing down the meal time will decrease the amount you eat. It can take 10-20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain that it's full so having down time between each course is helpful. As an added bonus, the portions served in the dining room on many cruise ships are small - - just don't order 2 entrees! For most meals, I ordered a salad, a soup, an entrée and split a dessert with my husband.

4. "Scout the Buffet Line". If you must go the buffet, scout out your options. Choose 3-5 items in total that you most want to eat. Remember that there will be another buffet and more things to try for the next meal. Food researcher, Brian Wansink writes in the April 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine: "Skinny people are more likely to scout out the food. They're more likely to look at the different alternatives before they pounce on something -heavy people just tend to pick up a plate and look at each item and say, 'Do I want it? Yes or no.'

Can You Lose Weight By Just Drinking Green Tea?

Are you drinking tea?

Drinking tea is no longer confined to the four walls of China or India. The healthy habit has spread across thousands of miles and numerous countries that acknowledge the health benefits rightfully claimed by this green drink which the Chinese have known for more than 4000 years. A few known benefits of drinking green tea include:

• Speeding up metabolism
• Increasing energy
• Boosting the immune system
• Enhancing mental function and focus
• Promoting healthier skin and fighting aging
• Enhancing oral health
• Improving cardiovascular health
• Protecting the body against disease
• Preventing cancers

Maybe it's about time you consider alternating your regular feel good soda drink or coffee with a cup or two of hot or cold green tea. If you have issues with your health, that switch may actually help resolve some of those issues.

Where Does Tea Come From?

A plant called Camellia sinensis is where all four types of tea - black, oolong, white and green, come from. You must have encountered this information from one of the numerous materials available online and which can be downloaded for further reading. All except green tea goes through the process of oxidation. Hence, only the green variant retains most of the healthy ingredients and powerful antioxidants that make all those health benefits possible.

Greens Help Lose Weight

Greens can refer to green vegetables rich in fiber, which aids digestion and boost metabolism. Greens can also refer to green tea with powerful ingredients that aid in weight loss and management. Such ingredients stimulate one's metabolism and blocks fat absorption at the same time. Hence, a lot of people who has weight issues are looking at the mounting evidences that point to the weight loss benefits one can derive from regularly drinking tea.

Random Check

People with weight problems are often confronted by the fact that using diet pills may be harmful for their health and that's because of the unhealthy ingredients they pack the pills with. A random check though of any diet pill package would show that one of the ingredients they declare they use is green tea. This clearly indicates how the consuming market values the proven benefits of green tea weight loss results.

Burn That Fat the Natural Way

What's in green tea that gives it the ability to burn fat? Remember that among the four types of tea, only the green one skipped the oxidation process? The absence of this ingredient-draining process allowed the tea leaves to retain most of their healthy ingredients. This is why, high concentrations of catechin polyphenols are found in this fat-burning drink. Catechin polyphenols are compounds that work in collaboration with the other chemicals in the body to increase fat oxidation and thermogenesis (the process of creating heat in the body by burning fat) levels. You may check ebooks which are available online for free if you want more details about thermogenesis. The polyphenols in the tea drink if taken on a regular basis can boost metabolism and burn fat in the most natural and safe way.

Role of Polyphenols in Losing Weight

In cases when excess amounts of triglyceride is synthesized out of the consumed food (sugar and fat) and carried into the bloodstream and other tissues in the body, they convert to fat which causes a person to increase his weight. The abundant polyphenols activates the enzyme that causes the excess triglyceride to dissolve. A process like this happening inside your body can bring about benefits of green tea weight loss results over a certain period of time.

Role of EGCG in Metabolism

Another powerful antioxidant, epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG has been proven to stimulate metabolism and consequently accelerate weight loss. EGCG works with caffeine, which is also found in tea, to stimulate the central nervous system into processing fat as body fuel through the process of thermogenesis. Earlier researches pointed to caffeine as the only ingredient that caused this process. Recent studies showed, however, that the EGCG contained in green tea stimulates thermogenesis more than just caffeine. The synergistic work of EGCG and caffeine increased 24-hour energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

Is Tea All You Need to Lose Weight?

Is Green Tea enough? If you are not expecting any instant results and are not quite conditioned for exercise or changing diets, drinking five eight-ounce cups of tea everyday will burn 90 calories. Do your math and set your weight loss objectives. It will most likely show you that you will lose about 10 pounds in a year by just drinking tea - no exercise, no change in diet. The number will increase if you add exercise and healthy diet to your tea drinking regimen.

The Use of Diet Pills for Weight Loss

The use of diet pills for weight loss has become a popular way to lose weight. Many people use it as it seems like the quickest way to lose weight. People strive to lose weight for the sake of appearance, but mostly for the sake of health. It is important, though, that you do seek the advice of a medical doctor, especially if you are on medication already.

Choosing the Right Diet Pills for Weight Loss

There are hundreds of pills for losing weight in the market. This makes it quite difficult to know which one the right one is for your purposes. It is important that you read the labels to see what the ingredients are in the product.

You should also check whether the product is on the approved list of your country's food and drug administration. Your doctor would know this and therefore it is important that you consult with him. It is important that you follow a strict diet even though you were to use diet pills for weight loss. Whichever one you choose would therefore not necessarily work best for you, if you do not follow a strict diet as well.

The Benefits of Pills

What you gain from diet pills are specifically for weight loss. You must remember, though, that the pills are an added benefit to weight loss. It is not a stand-alone process to weight loss. You have to have a good diet as well as add exercise to the program.

Once you have lost the weight through the help of the pills, you should stop using them and continue with your diet and exercise program. People do put the weight back on after they have stopped the pills, because of the lack of discipline in continuing the diet.

Successful Diet Pills For Weight Loss

Successful pills are the ones that would help you with:

• Suppressing your hunger. It would mean that you would have to eat at more regular times.
• You would also be able to control your portions better, especially if you have a menu worked out for your daily meals.
• Some pills will make you feel fuller for longer as well. This you would be forced to eat regular meals.
• It will also help you to take in fewer calories.

The success of a diet pills for weight loss does not lie in the pill itself. The pill is only there as a help to you to lose weight.

Tina tries… an aqua class

By Tina Betts

Tina risks getting her face wet in the hope it will do something spectacular to her body…

I'm no mermaid. At the school swimming gala I was always the one having to start in the pool because I couldn't dive in. An underwater wardrobe malfunction aged 14 (in front of the boys – of course!) didn’t help my confidence, but I’ve moved on. And since a friend taught me how to swim the breast stroke correctly, I'm not averse to getting my face wet, just so long as I can still touch the bottom!

I must admit lane swimming sounds as dull to me as running on a treadmill, though, so I'm quite excited by my first aqua class with Cheryl. I've even got the perfect cossie - the websites call it a legsuit, but I prefer to call it my Victoriana. It’s basically an all-in-one with shorts and it’s perfect for holding all the right bits in and making you feel secure when stepping out of the changing rooms (take that, class of ’86!).

So I'm raring to go. I’ve been warned this is not about fancy footwork – it’s a proper workout, but your body and joints are completely supported, ‘like gloves around a hand’, as Cheryl explains. 

The pool is the perfect temperature and once I've got the hang of facing the right direction and minimising my splashing (I did notice the other members of the class giving me a wide berth!), I'm smiling and having fun. The challenge of getting an ‘eddy flow’ is particularly good – that’s where the whole group runs in one direction for a few strides, then abruptly changes direction. A great mix of different exercises means you get a good workout without the pain of not being able to walk the next day.

And I've been back. Unlike my Spanish class, I haven’t had to force myself to join in Cheryl’s aqua class after a rubbish day because the old endorphins kick into action and I always feel loads better afterwards. I’m conscious I need to keep my new exercise regime varied, so I guess that's where Lloyd steps in again. I wonder what he has lined up for me next? Oh, my lord, I do believe I'm getting excited!

Cheryl Stafford is a personal trainer at Nuffield Health (nuffieldhealth.com). For anyone interested in what’s actually happening to your body underwater, here’s what Cheryl told me…

·       Water provides hydrostatic pressure, which basically means pressure all around the body (rather like a glove around a hand). This aids blood circulation and has a massaging effect on the muscles.

·       Water protects the joints from impact, so you’re able to replicate high-impact land moves more safely and for longer periods of time. The cooling effect of water also allows for a quicker recovery.

·       Water provides frontal resistance – basically, the harder you push, the harder the water pushes back! The same movement on land will be approximately 12 times harder in the water, so you use far more energy.

·       Water provides a dual concentric contraction, which means both your front and back muscles have to work concentrically as water exerts force all around the body. In land-based exercises you work against gravity, so one muscle is working eccentrically (ie lengthening), while the other is contracting or shortening. The eccentric contractions are related to DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, ie not being able to walk downstairs the day after a workout!). This is less likely in an aqua class as it’s difficult to work a muscle eccentrically.  

·       The water turbulence requires you to be more balanced and so results in greater postural gains.

·       Working against the eddy flow or turbulence is very difficult and so increases intensity – for example, when you’re running in a circle and are then required to change direction. This principle can be used a lot in aqua exercises. The turbulence is increased when there are more people in the pool, working in opposite directions, and when the pool wall is higher than the water level, as the water rebounds back off the wall.

·       It’s an ideal complement to a weight-based routine as you’re using muscles differently. The body adapts to exercise, so there are diminishing returns if you’re constantly doing the same thing. In addition to a varied exercise regime, you should change your routine every 6–8 weeks to prevent de-training.

Tina tries... Up close and personal

By Tina Betts

In her first ever gym session, Tina is put to work by her personal trainer…

I’m nervous about meeting my personal trainer for the first time. My most pressing worry is… argh, what do I wear?

My trainers are caked in mud, as the last time I used them was for gardening, and my trackie bottoms are stored safely in a suitcase on top of the wardrobe (they’re certainly going to need an iron!)

But with trainers cleaned and bottoms pressed, I'm ready to meet my nemesis… Nuffield Health’s Lloyd. Turns out he’s a laid-back kind of guy who quickly puts me at ease, but just as quickly puts me to work. Taking into account last week’s MOT and having listened to my goals, he’s worked out a programme for me. I start with a set of exercises, so he can gauge my fitness level (squats, twists, mountain climbing). With each set he ups the challenges. So far, so good as, 20 mins in I'm still standing and confident I can get through this first session without looking like a numpty.

I resist the urge to giggle every time Lloyd asks if I can "feel it in my glutes yet?" I have no idea where my glutes are (I now know they’re bottom cheeks, and yes, I can feel them). I’m also introduced to my core – that’s tummy, mid and lower back, hips, shoulders and neck regions. And, boy, do they get a work out (I’m really feeling it the next day).

Was the workout worth it? Well! I’ve overcome my reluctance about gyming it - I’m even excited about my next session. Best thing is, I’ve realised I can do it. Over the next few weeks Lloyd is going to help me build up my stamina and, to help, he’s suggested I fit in a cardio session. So next week you can read all about my aqua aerobics session. Now where’s that cossie?

Personal training sessions at Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centres cost from £55 for a single session. A five-hour booking costs £230 (that’s £46 a session) but it’s cheaper if you pay by direct debit. See www.nuffieldhealth.com.

We’d love to hear about your endeavours to get fit… 

Tina tries…

In our new series on shaping up, Healthy Food Guide’s art director Tina Betts starts on her journey towards a proper exercise plan to supplement her day-to-day walking…

By Tina Betts

How did it happen? I’m 43, and things are starting to sag. I haven’t changed my eating and drinking habits, so age is starting to catch up with me. I inherited my ‘walk everywhere’ gene from my Dad. I don’t have a car, so think nothing of whizzing down to Sainsbury’s with my trolley bag. But despite frequent trolley dashes, there’s a big but – my big butt, in fact! I’m lucky that I’ve always been a healthy weight, but it’s starting to creep up, the muffin top is rising steadily and there’s no way I’m going to fit into my dream 40th birthday dress again, at least not the way things are going.

My fear of exercise means I’ve never liked the gym or classes. It’s the classic ‘I was always the last to be picked’ for the team at school. It’s made me a tad anxious in sporting environments.

But that all changed a few weeks ago. As part of a work feature, I tried a yoga class for the first time with my work colleagues. And I could see the attraction of exercising as a group. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. And so, Tina tries… was born. It’s a week by week log of my mission to get fit - and get me back into that party dress.

My first stop was the Health Check at Nuffield Health at their flagship centre at London’s Cannon Street (it’s really more hip hotel than soulless gym). All members go through checks before starting their fitness plan.

Nuffield Health’s senior wellbeing adviser Katarina Berceliova took me through my body MOT, checking my BMI, resting heart rate, blood glucose levels (all healthy) and quizzed me about my sleep patterns (fine) and lifestyle habits (cholesterol and alcohol quotas not so fine). Generally, at 5ft 5in and 9 stone 3lb, my BMI at 21.2 is very good and my blood pressure spot on. But I know I need to do something about my fitness levels – I’ve reached the age where you can’t take anything for granted. 

I came away feeling optimistic with three main Wellbeing Action points: to monitor my blood cholesterol, up my water consumption and increase my activity and fitness levels.

Come back next week to read about my first ever session with my personal trainer. I have to admit, just those words make me nervous…