Beginner’s Guide to Effortless Weight Loss

Beginner’s Guide to Effortless Weight Loss

Beginner's Guide To Effortless Weightloss

Beginner’s Guide To Effortless Weight loss is a series that we have started on the blog. 

Well, we believe in the power of resolutions. It is important to find your own “Why” for the resolutions as for good habits. Also, while finding your “why” it is also important to understand what is sustainable. Here is some preamble to the new “Back to Health Series” that we are starting on the “The 5 AM Mommy” blog.

Me and Shrilekha have been working out for more than a decade now. Those who know us personally know our quest for working out and thus feeling fit.

Back to Roots For Effortless Weightloss

We have been working on our better self since we have realized that there is nothing better than being fit. Fortunately, we realized it very early in our life and I thank my father for that. He has worked out a lot in his adolescence and youth. He has passed on those genes to us. When we ask him about it, he says I always ate what was available (that time there was scarcity of food), they used to walk in farms and eat raw veggies or smoked veggies. So, we realized that going back to roots was certainly the answer to this diet chaos which exists all along in the new modern world.

Indians have a palette which is exposed to varied tastes, though we love fusion food and tasty food from all over the world, it is said that the most “here to stay” food trend is “SIMPLE FOOD”. With the alarming obesity rate, this is the right time to move in that direction.

Beginner’s Guide To Intermittent Fasting:

A lot has been said about Intermittent Fasting and the west is literally going gaga over the same. But I know only one thing when my grandmother who passed away recently at 89 can do it all her life without attracting any ailment, I can do it. She observed OMAD ( One meal a day) and many days of fasting religiously. She worked hard and was never known to be a lazy person. 😉 So, we all should just take a step back from the modern world and go back to ourselves. I am sure you would find so many examples of Intermittent Fasting folks in your families.

Intermittent fasting is a simple method of abstaining from food after sunset. You might ask what is new in that, we do not eat after sunset at all, well if that is the case ” Good for you”. But in these days of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other related distractions, it is difficult to wind up your day before 11.00 pm. Wouldn’t you be hungry if you sleep at 11.00 pm and eat around 6.00 pm? Thus, starts the episode of binge eating and eating more than what your body actually requires.

When there is binge eating, the satiety signal which your body gives your brain gets dissolved in the exciting part of the Netflix original or any TV Serial, and we don’t feel full, hence overeat.

Important aspects that we need to look into while doing intermittent fasting to lose weight.

Which is not the case with only calories restricted diet.

There are umpteen theories, before and after pictures on various platforms in favor of intermittent fasting to lose weight but before going there we should check out what our ancestors say? Fasting has been there for many generations in all religions which mainly tells you to get in touch with your body and know whether you truly need that much food?

They say ” Fasting of the body is the food for soul”. Well, here is to some soul searching… 🙂

Here are some facts of intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is nothing but limiting the eating window to some hours in the day and not consuming anything post that till the next eating window starts.

Suppose, you like to take breakfast and cannot carry forward your day without it. Your eating window would be

8 AM to 3 PM for 8/16 hours of Intermittent fasting if you are eating around 8 AM.

It can also be 9 AM to 4 PM and can also be 10 AM to 5 PM and so forth.

While deciding the eating window, it is always better to understand the body clock and its a correlation with sunrise and sunset. A practice which many people from earlier generations have followed for all their lives. But in case you can’t hold onto the body clock due to your professional and other commitments it is perfectly fine. Your eating window also can be

  1. 12 Noon to 7 PM
  2. 1 PM to 8 PM
  3. 2 PM to 9 PM

Post the eating window, you would not be able to eat anything, you can only consume water, coffee without milk and sugar, tea without milk and sugar.

One Meal A Day: 

One meal a day ( OMAD) is a type of Intermittent Fasting. It is usually followed by people who have already tried Intermittent fasting and would like to advance their practice. OMAD is also helpful to break the weight loss plateau. As we have spoken at length about Intermittent fasting and how it can help you lose weight, here is a complete detailed guide to OMAD ( One Meal a Day), the science behind it and how to use it effectively for the weight loss.

Before going for OMAD, it is always better to try and do the 16/8, 14/10 intermittent fasting just to check whether it is going well with your body. Sudden jerk to the body is not a good idea. Implement the IF for any eating window for some time and then take on OMAD.

Here are some benefits of OMAD:

  • Increased Focus:
    • You do not have sugar spikes through out the day and hence there is no slump of energy. There is no breakfast or lunch per se. Usually people eat only one meal in the form of dinner which can include pretty much anything. For weight loss and breaking the plateau though it is important to eat balanced one meal during dinner time. The biggest gain from OMAD is increased focus.
  • The calories are automatically restricted
    • With OMAD you do not have to worry about restricting calories as body takes care of it automatically. How much can one person eat in one hour? Definitely not 2500 calories at one go 🙂 So, it is easy to restrict your calorie intake.
  • Weight Loss Plateau
    • You can come off your weight loss plateau with OMAD because you are changing your food habits. You aren’t eating as per your usual time and calories. Your body is used to it and is comfortable showing weight loss plateau. Once you reduce the number of times you eat, the plateau starts wearing off.

What can be eaten while on OMAD?

Intermittent fasting is by far the most flexible method. If you skip an hour of your eating window you can increase it in the morning. While being on OMAD, you need to make sure that your meals are balanced. Include all types of food in one hour of eating window. Choose the time to eat and maintain it for a specific time period to see the change. You can not eat or binge on anything while being on OMAD. At the most, you can drink Green Tea, Black Coffee, and Tea Without Sugar.

Diet vs Lifetime Swaps:

Dieting is nothing but a change in your food habits to reset the system. There are a number of diets and every diet has its own result. A diet that causes deprivation is going to bring back many ailments in the future. So, we must carefully choose something which suits us, which helps our gut bacteria and which aids digestion. Weight-loss is not seasonal or can not be done only for some functions. It is a change in lifestyle. Whenever you feel like losing those stubborn 5 kgs which are there on your waist, just embrace some lifetime swaps.

  • Staircase instead of the lift
  • Walk instead of a two-wheeler
  • Country sugar or no sugar instead of refined white sugar
  • Cold Pressed oil instead of refined oil
  • Sea Salt or Rock Salt instead of Normal Table Salt
  • Hand pounded rice or Matta Rice or Wild Rice instead of Normal Rice
  • Warm water instead of normal water throughout the day

We all know these swaps, but we are conditioned in such a way that we would not like to take that first step towards our own health. Setting resolutions on paper is easy, but to make them happen you must take that first step. In my opinion, we have a huge number of readers who have already done these swaps. Those who haven’t done, let’s do it.

There are some issues that we have discussed in this beginner’s guide to effortless weight loss. Here are some. 

But I don’t like working out ☹ :

Nobody likes to workout and nobody likes to eat vegetables. But more than that we hate eating medicines, So… the choice is ours.

The best way to go about work out is

Attract your tribe

Find out people who are on the same boat. Their consistency will bring you to doing things you have never imagined.

Get a fitness tracker

This is the best way to keep track of your steps and thus knowing the calorie burnt.

Follow people (Trainers) who inspire you

I like to be inspired by fit people. There are a huge number of trainers across the world whom you can follow and feel inspired.

Use social media as your fitness ally

You can create an environment on social media which makes you workout regularly. There are umpteen fitness groups available which would prompt you to work out and to eat healthily. Just find one for yourself and you are ready to go.

Weight-loss or fitness is a journey. After a point of time, it is the journey that matters, and weight-loss or fitness is just a byproduct. But till such time arrives, every single day struggles. We hope this beginner’s guide to effortless weight loss serves you the best.

Snehal Joshi
mugdhaaa@gmail.com

Snehal is a Certified Nutrition Coach by National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is writing about her persuits of Nutrition Science since last 4 years.

2 Comments
  • Preeti Santpur
    Posted at 17:18h, 01 February

    Yes it’s very true. And using staircases, country sugar and warm water regularly helps out reducing the weight. I do it regularly. One thing too i would like to add that not to drink water before and after the food immediately. Should drink warm water in between the food that also little bit just once. After an hour you can drink warm water.

  • admin
    Posted at 12:14h, 04 February

    Thank you mam for your valuable comment.