SHAlINI SAKSENA speaks to health experts about easy options for losing weight
EAT SMART
Health experts and doctors tell you that while there are no short cuts to shed kilos miraculously in a month, there are some things that one can do to ensure that you lose that fat and maintain it.
Dr Vinay Bhat, internal medicine, Columbia Asia Hospital tells you that the first step towards loosing weight is to understand a few things.
“Obesity in the country is on the rise as we have prospered. The more we have westernised, the more obese we have become. We, as Indians are more prone to obesity because we have more body fat as compared to westerners. Second, Indians have a tendency to have truncal obesity — fat around abdomen and pelvis. The problems of putting weight in these areas are several as this leads to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart problems,” Dr Bhat explains.
Another aspect is that seeds of obesity are sown in childhood. Why this is happening is because we have nuclear families, both the parents are working, playgrounds are disappearing and children are more interested in playing video games. All this is adding to the obesity.
“There is no weight loss programme — for children or adults — where a pill will do wonders. It has to be a lifestyle change. One can’t expect a child to go for a walk, if parents don’t. You can’t expect a child to eat healthy food, if parents don’t. It has to be a behavioural change that the entire family has to follow,” Dr Bhat says.
The problem when it comes to weight loss among people is that few have concept of calorie intake. Even if people say that they eat only two rotis, one has to see the dough size and is not about how many one has eaten but how much calories one has eaten. If one has eaten one samosa, it has calories of four-and-a-half rotis. Mothers tend to give aloo parantha to children — it has calories of four rotis. “How will a child feel hungry if he has eaten two aloo paranthasIJ” Dr Bhat asks.
The solution lies in eating smart. Rather than eating two parantha, one can eat one parantha and eat sprouts or a fruit. This will add the fibre, fill the tummy and reduce calories.
“We need to eat a diet that has less of trans-fat, less of carbohydrates, little more of protein and plenty of fruits and raw vegetables (salads). For any weight reduction programme the focus should be on eating raw foods than less of cooked, Dr Bhat opines and says that in order to lose a kg of weight one has to cut 7,200 calories. But he does say that one can indulge in one’s favourite food as a reward, once a week.
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Doctors in Delhi tell you that eight out of every 10 people fall off the diet programme, it is important that one follows a plan that is easy to follow and sustainable as a lifestyle behavioural change in eating habits. This is where a therapeutic or a clinical dietician steps in.
Chief nutritionist, Priya Bharma at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute in the Capital tells you that going to just any dietician is not going to do the trick. “One has to go for a proper consultation with a clinical dietician who will look at the person’s body mass and chalk out a diet programme that will work for that individual,” Bharma explains.
She says that weight loss can’t be termed a easy or tough. It depends on the Basic Metabolic Rate of a person and the need to increase this rate. “This can be either done by rigorous exercise or a high fibre diet. But to ensure that the person stays on the plan, there is need to introduce frequent meals — two to three — and tell them to have some fillers — gel forming agents like Chia seeds — 10-15 gm in the whole day. This gives satiety and restricts calorie intake in a day,” Bharma says.
For example, if a person weights 100 kg with a height of 5’5, the focus has to be on a weight loss of 3.5 kg a month and restrict the person’s calorie intake to 800-1,200 a day.
This doesn’t mean that one has to give up one’s favourite food. One can eat a pizza, burger and even pasta. “Since the focus is on calorie intake, we modify the plan. If she wants to eat noodles with a shift in the eating pattern,” Bharma says. She tells you that a diet plan can’t and should not be drastic. “We educate the person who comes to us for consultation. If he wants to eat two eggs, we tells him to do so once a week, if he wants to eat a burger or a pizza, we tell him to do so mid-morning. It is not as if we cut all refined and junk food from their lives,” Bharma says.
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Since no diet plan is going to work wonders unless one does some sort of exercise, here are some asanas that one can follow.
“One of the most important lessons to learn is that losing weight is not going to happen in a month. It has to be a long-term process. But by doing a few yoga asanas, the kilos one sheds can increase,” Manisha Kohli of The Yoga Chakra opines.
For those who have never exercised, even the smallest of efforts can be daunting, therefore the easiest way forward is to start with pranayam. This is the super food due to ayama-viloma. To begin, start with 60 breathes which can be broken into 20 each three times a day to begin with.
“The advantage is that the breathes help purify the blood and the respiratory system, enriches the blood with oxygen and the lungs flush out the toxins and help in weight loss,” Kohli explains.
For those looking for a more intensive pranayam is kapalbhati. This is very rigorous and some may feel fatigue. Beginners can start with 50, but has to be done on an empty stomach.
Another asana is dandasana. To begin with, one can start with a few seconds and hold it for a minute will help melt belly fat.
Those who can’t do surya namaskar, go for parvatasana. Hold this asana for eight to 10 breathes to begin with. Then there is naukasana as well. “Doing pranayam with yoga increases metabolic rate.