Let's loose lockdown fat

Coronavirus lockdown changed lives of so many people . I was one of those working for IT job and staying at home. My office closed down in March 2020 and I am working from home ever since. 

This  lockdown caused significant impact on the healthy lifestyle of many as the gyms closed down too . 

There was no regular exercise and I was getting bored at home as I was not getting chance to meet my colleagues and friends. 

When I get bored I eat and most of the time it's sweets stored in the refrigerator. Chocolates and fried snacks were the comfort food for me.  I would make multiple trips to refrigerator and eat whatever is there in stock. By the time gyms reopened in Apr 2021 I had gained whooping 15 lbs. My BMI was 33.3 which is almost obese and at very high risk level. My total weight was 185 lbs.

As per the recommendations the ideal BMI for my height is 154lbs . I had to do something to get out of this dangerous situation. As I gained weight I was feeling the differences in my body movements . My movements were not as swift as before. When I was playing any sports like cricket or tennis I was not feeling as agile as before.

Lockdown accelerated the weight gain for me but I had been steadily gaining weight from last few years.

I am going to point a few things that may not work when you are trying to loose weight .At least for me it never worked.  

1) Don't rely on only cardio to loose weight. 

2) Don't rely on keto based diets only which are not sustainable.

I have run several half marathons and I can tell you one thing that running never helped to loose weight.

On average average person consumes 2000 cal per day and the goal to loosing weight is reducing the calorie intake by 500 cal per day. If you can create the deficit of 500 calories per day then you can loose 35000 calories a week which is equal to 1lbs .I want to share diet plans and exercise plans that worked for me. I currently weight 163.5 lbs . Lost more than 20 pounds in  almost 4 months. The key is to have a lifestyle which is sustainable. Don't adopt a lifestyle that you can't do for longer duration of time.

Here are some techniques that you can use and then I will share what I used. 

1) keto diet ( Don't recommend that as it's short term).

2) Low carb diet.

3) Intermittent fasting.

4) Exercise regularly to increase your metabolism rate.

If you do intermittent fasting then you start burning fat after 8 hours of fasting as you are out of carbs that you ate last night. Don't do it for more than 24 hours as you will start breaking down the proteins. Eat enough proteins throughout the day on daily basis. 

My diet plan:

It took me time to understand what is carbs . People say reduce carbs but it was not clearly defined.  Carbs is anything made of grains ( Mainly rice and wheat) .The bread we eat in the morning. The roti, rice we take in the lunch and dinner is all carbs. Our Indian diet is mainly carbs based.  We can replace these carbs with healthy carbs like oats and quinoa or brown rice. Brown rice takes more time to digest and its better for health. In the morning instead of white bread we can take multigrain bread. The whole flour roti can be replaced with multigrain roti. We make the multigrain flour at home by mixing the different flours.  

Eat most of the carbs and sweets you want in the morning. In the morning the body needs more glycogen and during day the metabolism is fast so it gets used throughout the day . During sleep time the body doesn't need more than 500 cal to get though 8 hours . So dinner needs to be under 500 cal and carbs free or low carbs. 

My weight loss plan is mix of intermittent fasting, low carb diet and regular exercise. 

1. Fasting on Tuesday( Fast from dinner to dinner. I take dinner on Monday night and then take another dinner on Tuesday. When I eat on Tuesday night I take enough carbs as I didn't eat any carbs whole day).

2. I go to gym at least  3-4 times a week in the evening ( Exercises I do are cardio, Strength training and again 10 mins of cardio at the end. Cardio has to be HIIT ( Hight intensity interval training) that can elevate your heart rate.For example you can walk at the speed of 3miles  and then run at speed of 6 miles and then come down to 5 and again walk at 3 or 3.8. The  Strength training should be for full body  - core, legs , glutes and upper body. you can break down the exercises on different days).

The more muscles you develop the more are the chances of loosing weight. Muscles need more oxygen that means you will be burning fat while you are not exercising as well. 

3. For dinner I don't eat any carbs and try to finish dinner before 7 PM in the night. 

4. For proteins I eat eggs, chicken and fish . you should eat (0.8 * your weight in kgs) gms of protien each day. So if you weigh 60 KG then you may need 48gms of protien each day . This is only an approximate calculation. 

5. For veg options I eat beans, chickpeas, soya chunks, kidney beans.

6. If I eat a lot in the day then I take only protein shake in the night .Any protein shake with less calories is good. Generally whey based protien is better than plant based protien  . 

As some wise men say the goal as to be SMART ( Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)

Specific - How much you want to loose.

Measurable - You can measure it in the kilos but a better measurement is the waist size. As you gain more muscles the weight will also be more as the muscles are heavier than fat. I use an app called fatsecret and measure my weight and calories intake each day. 

Achievable - Target for no more than 1 to 2 lbs per week. Anything more than that is dangerous.

Time bound - Be consistent with your effort . 4-5 lbs per month is possible .

Here are some of the tips that can be used as well.

1) Reduce the intake of salt as salt helps in retaining water that leads to weight gain.

2) Drink more water . The more water you drink the less water body retains.

For the first few weeks the weight lost is mainly water. For each molecule of carb there are 3 molecule of water stored. After the water weight is lost the fat starts to loose. In men most of the fat is stored in the abdomen and face area. When you start to loose weight the first place you loose from is from your face . After some time  you start loosing weight from waist/abdomen area   . In the end the weight from love handles looses.

Good luck !

 

Mistakes teach us something always

 Admit it we all make mistakes. Sometimes these are foolish and other times we take very calculated steps but they turn out to be not so good decision .Whatever the situation I feel that sometimes it's good to make mistakes. Have you ever thought what will happen if nothing goes wrong in life . If all things keep going smoothly then how dull life will become. When musicians compose music they use high notes and low notes to make it interesting . Smart orators use pitch variation in their speeches to get constant attention of listener. There are ups and downs everywhere in the world whatever example we take . Stock markets are cyclical. There is not always a bull market. At the end of bear market there is always a very long bull market.

Recently I made a mistake that made me realize how it improved my life when I dissected it more . One fine evening I was trying to take out my car from garage but the rear door behind the front passenger seat was fully open and  while backing up it stuck the drywall on the right side. I heard a loud thunder and when I looked back there was a large crack in the wall . Also there was big black spot near the garage door. 

I was tired from the day trip to mountains and was going to purchase some groceries and food .I had already driven for more than 5 hours that day and I didn't have any energy to deal with this situation. As soon as I hit the garage wall I felt horrible . I didn't want to see it at all. It was looking so bad .I started cursing myself for being so reckless.  It was in the night at around 7 PM and I couldn't do anything about this situation. So I tried not to think about it and carry on with what I was doing for the time being. I went to the market and bought food and groceries from the market . Then I went ahead and got my car washed. Called up my wife and asked if she needs something from the market.  

After an hour I reached back home and looked at the crack again  . It was a straight line and was about 1/4 inches deep . I have a new house any small issue that comes up is painful.

I started searching on the internet for some solution . After looking at several videos and blogs I  found a home depot video that tells exactly what to do to fix the issue. 

Based on that video I made a list of the things on my phone that I need to buy next morning to fix the drywall  myself . Next morning the first thing after waking up I did was that I went to home  Depot and bought the items I had made list of. 

As soon as I was checking out at Home Depot I heard from the customer service that there is an offer  going . If I apply for the Home depot Credit card today then all the items I purchased will be free .I was happy to hear that. I could wait for 5 mins and get the things for free.  This blessing came out of nowhere so I went a head and applied for the card .

It was blessing in disguise for me. For me the following are the takeaways from this mistake I made inadvertently .

1. Learned new skill. I was able to fix the drywall and also painted the rest of the walls in the garage that had marks. 

2. Now I know how to fix the nail holes and other marks in the wall. This may seem like a small thing but I didn't know what to do about those. 

3. God has his own plans . I didn't want to go to the Home Depot next day but when I went there all the items I purchased were free of cost because of offer they were giving due to new year.

4. Look for positive for whatever happens in life. If you win be grateful to what you received and if you loose you will learn something new that will help you win next time.

Hope my experience will help you also to look at the brighter side of the things.