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 !
