I wore a glucose tracker to monitor my holiday weight gain. Here's what happened
Inevitably, there is panic, as the jeans worn on the flight to somewhere sunny refuse to button on the return home. Add to this a long string of hangovers and the general sluggishness that follows a week of heavy dinners, and you can find yourself more drained by a trip away than you were before it.
Yet the positive effects that come with a week of R&R aren't to be underestimated. Holidays can be good for the health of our muscles, hearts, brains and blood sugar alike. So, earlier this year, I went off to Greece armed with a glucose tracker and the determination to keep a food diary but still enjoy myself, to see how much damage a week of ice cream, souvlaki and wine can really do to your health.
The glucose tracker in my arm was there to tell me about how all of these carbs could 'spike' my blood sugar, leading to potential consequences for my health later down the line.
Going to a Mediterranean country wasn't cheating. Yes, there's plenty of fresh vegetables and your food is more likely cooked in olive oil than butter, making it better for your heart and your skin. But there's also deep fried feta, chips inside of massive pita wraps, huge trays of baklava, and many different kinds of spirits to contend with. I went to Athens and then an island, with two friends and my boyfriend, who, thanks to spending a lot of time in the gym, usually eats about 4,000 calories a day. Foodwise I pretty much kept up with him for the whole trip away.
For breakfast on our first day I had a huge bowl of creamy full-fat Greek yoghurt, topped with tahini, banana, honey and nuts. Lunch was a halloumi souvlaki, stuffed with chips and some kind of delicious yellow sauce. I split a box of baklava as a snack with one of my friends and then for dinner, I had a huge bowl of orzo with mushrooms, a side of (more) chips, and dessert, a platter of Greek treats split between the four of us. In true first-night-away style we got through five litres of wine. In our defence, it was 11 euros a jug. (Then I went back to our AirBnB and ate four croissants meant for the morning to soak it up).
I might have earned some of that with a walk up the acropolis (thankfully, we hadn't planned it for the morning afterwards) but the rest of the holiday was spent lazing about. We all took it a bit easier on the booze but made up for it in food. Most mornings started with Greek yoghurt, but the nights ended with huge dinners, snacks afterwards, and a dessert like loukoumades (donuts covered in hard sugar) to finish. At home I try not to snack too much (a rule of keeping your blood sugar in check) but while I was away I ate anything I stumbled across that looked half-tasty.
All in all, I totally pigged out and I drank more than I do in an average month. What would this blip in my usual moderate lifestyle mean for my health in the long run?
Lauren's diet: at home vs abroad
How bad is it really to gain a few pounds on holiday?
I'm not here to tell you to starve on holiday. As personal trainer Dalton Wong helpfully puts it, 'losing holiday weight is easy, but you'll never get back the time that you spend away'. Yet the truth is that a sudden jump in weight can be jarring. When I got on the scale after my week in Greece, I weighed a full half a stone more than I had done when I left. I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me.
Did all the cheese and pita bread I ate really do that much damage? Probably not, Wong says. 'That jump won't just be fat but also water retention, caused by eating a lot of salty food, and probably a bit of fat depending on how much you've eaten,' he explains. If you're someone who does a lot of strength training, 'you might even put on a bit of lean muscle mass, because you're giving your muscles the good rest and nutrients that they need to actually grow'.
As Wong often reassures his clients, you would have to eat a truly enormous amount of food to put on half a stone of fat in a week. A single pound of fat gained requires 'about 500 extra calories every day on top of the amount you need to maintain your weight,' he explains. As such, the reality is that a week of overindulgence likely won't make you gain more than two or three pounds at most, even if, like me, you've ended up reaching to the back of your wardrobe for an extra pair of trousers.
I think I ate at least 4,000 calories a day. To maintain my weight I need about 2,000, roughly what I eat when I'm at home. It's not all as simple as calories in, calories out, either, however. 'Your body has a set point that it really wants to stay at,' says nutritionist Jenna Hope.
Once you return from holiday, your body works hard to bring your weight back down to its usual levels, a process that can be masked by water weight and constipation. 'A week or two, or even three, outside of your norm might not actually cause weight gain at all, because you aren't causing any long-term changes to your metabolic activity,' so long as you go back to your normal habits.
For this reason, Wong advises that you 'avoid weighing yourself for four weeks after you get home,' he says. 'Anything you see differently in the scales then might be actual fat, but until then, what you're seeing likely isn't real weight gain.' Sure enough, after a week back at home I was only three pounds heavier than I was when I landed in Athens; after a month, I was back to my usual weight.
Given the power of your set point, shifting the weight can be as simple as 'going for an extra walk after lunch,' says Wong. If you really are concerned about putting on weight on holiday, 'either eat or drink your calories,' he advises. 'Have the extra cocktail or the slice of cake, not both. You'll likely be satisfied with one and feel a bit healthier afterwards.'
What happens on the inside?
The scales don't tell the full story, however. Studies that examine what a week of overindulgence does to your body only present bad news. One Oxford University study reveals that three weeks of eating badly is enough to raise your risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Their participants were fed a diet high in sat-fats (crisps, cheese, chocolate and pizza) for 24 days, and while their weight didn't budge, their cholesterol levels spiked by 10 per cent, and the fat in their liver increased by a fifth.
A summer trip can also give you an 'obese brain', another recent paper from the University of Tubingen in Germany found (clearly, holiday-spoiling is a flourishing academic niche). Just five days of eating a poor diet is enough to cause changes to our brains that outlive 'the timeframe of the consumption', reports Professor Stephanie Kullmann. After eating an extra 1,000 calories a day for five days, 'the brain and behaviour response resemble that of a person with obesity and changes in the brain seem to occur prior to weight gain.'
What can also change quickly is our gut microbiome. 'A week or two weeks of eating differently and not getting enough fibre is long enough to see some changes in the makeup of your gut,' says Hope. The happiness of your gut is a core to good energy levels, proper digestion, immune function and even keeping you in a good mood. Spending time away in a totally different food environment is part of why we can come back from holiday feeling more sluggish and constipated than ever before.
From the food log before and after my holiday, and while I was away, it's clear that I was eating more than I usually would for a few weeks on either side. I'd have an extra pint of beer or glass of wine on a Wednesday and I'd often veer towards something heavy in fat and salt and therefore attractive to my 'obese brain' for dinner post-holiday. I'm sure that my gut was not impressed. 'If you go away multiple times a year, it can be really hard to reset and not slide into bad habits,' Hope says.
Fortunately, this is easily avoided. 'Preparing your breakfasts and lunches for the week that you're back home can be really helpful, as it removes the element of spontaneous choice and helps you make better decisions,' says Hope. 'It can be really helpful to order a grocery shop to arrive on the day that you're back.'
To make it even easier for yourself, 'try having a healthy breakfast on the days that you're away, rather than diving into the hotel buffet and having everything you can see,' she adds. Having one healthy meal a day makes it much easier to get back to normal once you're home, and if it's high in protein, you won't instantly reach for a snack as soon as you leave your hotel. (And if you're in the land of thick, creamy Greek yoghurt, like I was, it won't feel like a sacrifice.)
Will a holiday raise your blood sugar?
Blood sugar monitors are increasingly being worn by people who aren't diabetic. The way they work is that you stick them into your arm (there's a small needle, but you can't feel it once it's in), and then you can monitor the amount of sugar that's in your blood after you've eaten from an app on your phone. Ups and downs are normal, but dramatic spikes after meals or prolonged periods of super-high blood sugar can indicate insulin resistance. This is a sign that your body is struggling to handle the amount of sugar you're feeding it, and is a precursor for type 2 diabetes. Discovering the foods that 'spike' you can help you prevent this in the long term, and this can also help you to avoid the sluggishness and fatigue caused by the crashes that follow.
It was interesting to see that a typical day in Greece eating a lot of carby and sugary foods made my blood sugar soar. But I can't say it made me behave any differently. I did get a few weird looks from other tourists and it does ruin the bikini photos. The really useful bit came when I looked at my results after landing in Britain. I wore my patch, from Lingo by Abbott before, during, and after my holiday. In the week that I came home, my average blood sugar fell to being 95 per cent lower than it had been while I was away.
At first I was shocked. Clearly my body had gone into panic mode because of how much I'd eaten. The stats sound dramatic on paper but in both cases, my average blood sugar remained in a 'healthy' range overall, only briefly rising or falling to unhealthy levels. Such a return to normal is a good sign: 'this shows that you're in good metabolic health and that your body is responding with insulin in a normal way,' says Sophie Bertrand, Abbott's nutritionist.
Your blood sugar levels are a result of homeostasis, the complex bodily process that keeps us functioning as normal. It's hard to disrupt this process in a serious way by overeating for a week, Bertrand says. If you're in your twenties and have a BMI that marks you as healthy, like me, then you can eat whatever you like for a short while and be fine in this regard, but this process works less well as you age. Seeing its effects was helpful. 'Someone who's older might find that they have more problems bringing their blood sugar down to normal,' says Bertrand. Over time, this is an issue that can raise your chances of developing insulin resistance, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes. About 40 per cent of us in Britain are insulin resistant.
With this in mind I'll probably start approaching holidays a bit differently as I age. But regardless of your health, there are ways to get back to normal more quickly regardless of your age. Again, a protein-rich breakfast is king: 'this will help to avoid big fluctuations in your blood sugar throughout the day,' says Bertrand. 'Your sleep is also really important in keeping your blood sugar levels stable. Take the opportunity to grab a few more hours each night than you might at home.' Regardless of what you're eating or how much you're sleeping, a quick walk after dinner can work well 'to balance out your blood sugar' too.
Besides, the chance to let loose can be good for us. Regularly going on holiday can lower your chances of dying from heart disease in the long run, and can also bring improvements to your blood sugar and 'good' cholesterol levels. As Bertrand puts it, 'a week of treats is much better than a routine filled with less healthy food or binges that follow restricting yourself too severely'.
Do you need to worry about your step count?
All of this ignores a fact that's fundamental to the concept of holidays: a week or more of relaxation does us provable good. Stress – both the physical and mental kind – can wreak havoc on our health. If you're the kind of person who exercises a lot, a week spent abstaining from lifting heavy weights or sprinting on the treadmill, presents a much-needed break for your joints and muscles. As a result, 'some of the weight you put on while you're on holiday might well be lean muscle mass,' says Wong.
That said, keeping your step count up can actually offset the potential damage done to your health by eating outside of the norm. 'Going for a walk before or after dinner is a good way to help bring your blood sugar back down to a healthy range,' says Bertrand. And what's more, you'll probably find it easier to get them in while you're away than you do at home. I certainly did: my average steps per day are 12,000 as per my health tracker, but I got in 15,000 a day in Athens, and it didn't occur to me that I was exercising.
Do I regret letting loose on holiday? Not at all. As Jenna Hope says, the really crucial thing for your health is how quickly you go back to normal after your holidays, and making sure that you don't live with your 'holiday brain' between them. Next time I go away, I'll be sure to plan some healthy meals for the week that I get back, and I'll try to find ways to keep my step count up while I'm away too, to counter the effects of eating badly. I'm not sure that I'd take a glucose tracker with me again, but it's certainly helpful to know that beer spikes me more than wine, and that baklava does less damage than chips. Best of all is that, having looked at the changes to my body, I now know that with some thought, I can keep enjoying holidays the way I want for the rest of my life.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Skift
21 minutes ago
- Skift
Accor Plans U.S. Expansion, Currency Moves Hit Profits
Investors hated Accor's results - the stock got crushed. But the U.S. expansion plan is starting to pick up. Accor signaled plans for deeper U.S. expansion, highlighted by its recent Treasure Island Las Vegas deal, even as currency swings dragged down first-half profits. CEO Sébastien Bazin said the Paris-based hotel company would target U.S. cities where the company can leverage European demand, especially through the lifestyle and luxury brands of its Ennismore joint venture. "We're going to continue to go deeper in the U.S.," Bazin said during Thursday's earnings call. "You're going to see more of those transactions, likely in some targeted cities where we can contribute European demand." The Treasure Island deal marked Accor's biggest U.S. move in years, adding the 2,885-room Las Vegas casino resort under its Handwritten collection.


Vogue
22 minutes ago
- Vogue
11 Vitamin B12 Foods to Support Energy and Brain Health
One cannot have a well-balanced meal without incorporating vitamin B 12 foods into the mix. The water soluble vitamin, explains Samantha Dieras, RN, DCN, director of ambulatory nutrition services at Mount Sinai Hospital, plays a vital role in nerve function, blood cell formation, metabolism, DNA production, and many other functions that our bodies need to stay healthy. Vitamin B 12 foods are easy to add to any routine. Whether you're solely following a plant-based diet or welcome any animal and dairy product into your meals, you can find vitamin B 12 foods pretty much in any food group. And as an added bonus, these foods also come with other essential nutrients (think omega-3 fatty acids, protein, iron, and more) that our bodies need. So if you're looking to see if you're already on the right track or wanting to add more good sources of vitamin B 12 into your life, the best ones to add are: Clams If you love shellfish, registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Manaker says that clams make for a great source of vitamin B 12 According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 3 oz. of clams contain about 17 mcg of the nutrient. It also contains iron, which she says makes it a great combo with B 12 for energy and red blood cell production. Beef, Chicken, and Other Animal Liver Manaker calls liver a nutrient powerhouse as it contains B 12 , iron, and vitamin A. According to the NIH, one serving of beef or chicken liver contains 70.7 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin B 12 , which is almost 3000% daily value of the nutrient. Salmon Salmon is a favorite food amongst experts and our favorite celebs. Manaker says it's not only high in vitamin B 12 with 2.6 mcg of the nutrient, but it is also a main source of omega-3 fatty acids. This combo especially helps support brain function and heart health. Trout Manaker lists trout as another fish source that is rich in B 12 and omega-3s. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), one filet of trout has 4.6 mcg of the nutrient. Tuna Tuna is known as a great source of protein, but Manaker says you can also look to the fish for your B 12 needs. The NIH says that 3 ounces of tuna contains 2.5 mcg of the nutrient. Eggs Another great source of protein and B 12 , Manaker says eggs are one of the easiest foods to add to any meals. The NIH says one large egg contains 0.5 mcg of the nutrient. Dairy Milk Whole milk (please don't drink raw milk), is a nutrient powerhouse. It's most known as a great source of calcium to build and maintain strong bones and teeth. But it also provides protein, vitamin D, and B 12 to hydrate, repair muscle, and boost our energy and metabolism. The NIH says that one cup of 2% milk contains 1.3 mcg of vitamin B 12 . Yogurt Another dairy product you can turn to for vitamin B 12 is yogurt. The NIH says that 6 oz. of plain, fat-free yogurt contains 1 mcg of the nutrient. Sardines Tinned fish are having a moment, and sardines especially make for a great source of vitamin B 12 . 'Tiny but mighty, they're rich in B 12 , calcium, and omega-3s,' says Manaker. According to the USDA, one tin of sardines contains 8.22 mcg of the nutrient. Lean Beef Lean beef provides you with many different nutrients, such as protein and iron. Manaker also lists it as a good source of vitamin B 12 to give you energy and boost red blood cell health. The NIH says that 3 oz. of lean beef contains 2.4 mcg of the nutrient. Nutritional Yeast Known for its cheese-like flavor, nutritional yeast is a vegan seasoning that is packed with nutrients. It's especially rich in vitamin B 12 , according to the NIH. A quarter of a cup can contain anywhere from 8.3 to 24 mcg of the nutrient. What does vitamin B 12 do for the body? As mentioned previously, the benefits of vitamin B 12 are many. Manaker says that it primarily helps convert the food you eat into energy for your body. But it also supports your nervous system, produces red blood cells, and DNA production while also reducing your risk for heart disease. And if you're feeling the need for an emotional boost, she says the nutrient can play a role in regulating your emotions and producing serotonin. How much vitamin B 12 should I take daily? Dieras says that the recommended amount of vitamin B 12 one should aim for can range from 2.4 to 2.8 mcg per day. For those who are pregnant, Manaker says it's best to stick to 2.6 mcg per day while those who are breastfeeding may increase it a bit to 2.8 mcg. Should I take vitamin B 12 supplements? Manaker says that eating whole foods in a well-balanced diet is the ideal way to get your daily vitamin B 12 intake. But if you're not getting enough from food or if you have absorption issues (a.k.a pernicious anemia), you might need to incorporate dietary supplements into your routine. she says you can turn to supplements in a pill form or as a shot if prescribed. Are there downsides to vitamin B 12 ? Both Dieras and Manaker say that vitamin B 12 is generally safe and that there are minimal downsides. 'B 12 supplements are generally safe because your body flushes what it doesn't need,' Manaker says. In high doses, it may cause headaches or nausea. Dieras says it might also interact with certain medications such as gastric acid inhibitors and metformin. As with any new supplement you're interested in taking, it's always best to consult with a doctor to make sure it's right for you. Have a beauty or wellness trend you're curious about? We want to know! Send Vogue's senior beauty & wellness editor an email at beauty@


New York Times
22 minutes ago
- New York Times
‘Japanese Walking' Is a Fitness Trend Worth Trying
Going for a walk is one of the simplest workouts, but it can have powerful health impacts. Walking has been linked to improved mental and cardiovascular health, and it can be effective for managing back pain. But not all walking is equally effective. A method nicknamed 'Japanese walking' on social media — also known as interval walking training, or I.W.T. — seems to offer greater advantages than a simple stroll, or even than walking at a moderate pace for 8,000 or more steps a day. The strategy was first introduced two decades ago in a study led by Hiroshi Nose, an exercise physiologist at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan. The country has one of the world's oldest populations, and Dr. Nose hoped that, by applying interval-training techniques used by elite athletes to its senior community, he could improve older people's health and reduce the country's medical costs, he told The New York Times in an email. After seeing promising early results, he and his collaborator, Shizue Masuki, continued to study the method in depth. While this type of exercise isn't new, it has been a trend on TikTok this summer. Here's what the science says about the benefits of interval walking and how to get started. What is 'Japanese walking'? As the name suggests, interval walking is a form of interval training, which involves alternating between bursts of intense activity and more gentle movement or rest. In this case, it's basically just alternating between fast and slow walking. But compared with more classic forms of high-intensity interval training, interval walking is more approachable for many people, especially those who haven't exercised in a while or who are recovering from injuries that make high-impact activities like running difficult, said Dr. Carlin Senter, the chief of primary-care sports medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.