How Not to Gain Weight on a Cruise

Cruises are famous for their plentiful cuisine, including four course meals, chocolate buffets and 24/7 pizza. But that doesn't mean you have to lug home the extra baggage of added weight along with your vacation tsochkes. Here's some tips for not letting your waistline fall overboard when you're cruising.

The late seating in the dining room can pile on the pounds unless you intend to dance the night away. On our first cruise, my husband and I never set foot in the dining room because we didn't want a four course meal at 7:45 at night. There is usually a buffet style restaurant open for all three meals elsewhere on the ship, their food is wonderful and you can go much earlier in the evening. That's also a good tip if you're prone to heartburn.

Buffet meals can be very tempting and that leads to the next tip. Eat only two meals a day. A friend and I were on a cruise recently and on the at-sea days, we'd eat a good breakfast, have something light in the middle of the day (fruit or frozen yogurt) and partake of the early seating in the dining room that we were lucky enough to get assigned. On shore days, we'd order breakfast in our room plus a box of cereal to munch during the day to stave off hunger. When we'd get back on board, we'd hit the buffet, being too hungry to wait for our assigned seating in the dining room and because, after a full day running around on shore, who wants to dress up to eat?

Eat fish. This seemed to work really well for me. Fish is low calorie, filled with Omega 3 fatty acids and as long as you go light on the sauces and zero on the breading, it's an excellent choice. Of course, I know I don't have to tell you not to surround your excellent choice with high calorie mayo-laden salads, breads and 3 kinds of desserts!

Don't take the elevators. The only time we took an elevator on our first cruise was to experience the glass one in the Grand Lobby. We all know how good walking is for us but stairs are even better. The more stairs you take, the less guilt you'll feel when you're sitting in the sun, reading your books and sipping your umbrella-embellished drinks.