How to lose 13 kilograms (28.66 lbs) of body weight in 4 months?
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I was weighing about 80 kg at that time which was equal to a BMI of 25.535; borderline normal or slightly overweight for my height of 177 cm, and my hip size was 36-1/2 inches. (By the way, do you want to check your BMI? Calculate it with the BMI calculator.) My plan was to achieve the weight reduction before the next New Year spanning over 12 months, a slow and steady process. So having a clear target, I had to plan losing my weight in such a way that neither I lose any vital minerals in my diet nor I compromise with my immunity. As you know, I’m neither a dietitian nor a physician, but I managed to reach 67 kg by the last week of April itself with a hip size of 33 inches with no major herculean task involved or lifestyle change adapted! How did I do that? Simple secret – work more, eat less. Want to know more? Read below.
Secret 1: Work More
To shed that extra bumps/tire around your hip and stomach, you have to exercise with an empty stomach, i.e., at early morning after a bowel movement at which time your stomach might have emptied all the contents of previous day’s intake and the colon too is finishing up its work. By doing so, your body breaks down the fat in your body to meet the energy requirements rather than absorbing the energy from any ingested food.
Now as I knew this secret, how did I enact it?
By just taking a morning walk! No tedious exercise more than that.
Here is my schedule: By 5:30 a.m., I’m up from bed. After brushing and a bowel movement, by 6:00 a.m., I’m at the track.
A slow and steady start: For the first fortnight, I walked for about 25 minutes and covered 2.5 kms. The next fortnight, I increased it to 5 kms in about 45 minutes. By fifth week, I was walking about 7.5 kms an hour and didn’t increase it from there, so that I’m having an hour of exercise a day.
Secret 2: Eat Less Carbohydrate And Fat, More Fiber
The one basic thing that we all need to know is that though mankind has come a long way from the primitive age with his lifestyle and civilizations, his digestive system is still in the primitive age itself, same as that of every other animal, and has not still adapted to what he eats now, especially cooked food. It still has been designed to digest raw food like fruits, vegetables and nuts and the more we move closer to fresh raw fruits and vegetables in our daily life, the less problems with digestion, constipation and obesity. The more the time food materials are retained in the colon, the more it absorbs from the food. So the more fiber we intake, which is contained in fruits and vegetables, the less time it is retained in our colon and less the problems (less time here means, the optimum time). Counter arguers could outline the cons of raw food, but according to the Journal of American Diabetes Association, vegans show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer. Furthermore, researches made by ADA prove that a diet higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help prevent symptoms of metabolic syndrome (a cluster of symptoms that include high blood pressure, large waist size, elevated levels of fats in the blood and the body’s inability to handle glucose), and a diet high in fiber can lower the risk for type 2 diabetes.
So by saying to eat less, I don’t mean here to starve but to just make healthy food choices, to veg out a bit, to increase the vegetable-to-meat ratio in such a way that I take less fat, carbohydrates and sugar; and more of fiber in the form of fruits, vegetables and whole grains so that the volume of intake is not affected and I don’t feel as if I’m having half a stomach while leaving the dining area.
This was my daily schedule with regard to intake and sleep:
- A cup of lukewarm water with a few drops of lemon juice and honey in it after I’m back from morning walk. I don’t have any solid proof whether the combination of these three can reduce your weight or not, but I took this to replenish the water that I have sweated out with my walk, honey for its antibiotic properties, lemon for its detox properties, and overall to utilize any benefit if at all exists in this granny’s home remedy in reducing weight.
- Breakfast at 8 a.m.: Broke my usual quantity of breakfast into five parts. Replaced 2/5 of that with green vegetables/fruits. Remembered to include an egg, an apple and a few dates to meet the requirements of minerals like iron, calcium etc.
- Tea break at 11: Just a cup of tea or any fruit juice with a single spoon of sugar with no snacks.
- Lunch at 1:30 pm: Usual amount of cereals/pulses. Again replaced 2/5 of carbohydrate intake with green vegetables/fruits.
- A mild nap of 30-45 minutes after lunch.
- Coffee break at 4: Just a cup of coffee with a single spoon of sugar with no snacks.
- Dinner at 7 p.m. Usual quantity of my intake but replaced 2/5 of that again with green vegetables/fruits.
- Back to bed at 9:30 p.m. Ensured that I have an adequate sleep for at least 8 hours a day for my metabolism to work fine. If there is an alteration in the sleep time that disrupts the whole body functioning.
This way I managed to have 5:30 hours break between each food intake and that I had my food before I’m hungry (if you’re on the food once you’re hungry, you tend to eat more) and that I had no other oral intake in between the timings mentioned above. I adopted this schedule and the results were absolutely marvelous. By beginning of February, my weight was 74.6 kg, by beginning of March I was weighing 72 kg, by beginning of April I was weighing 69.4 kg and by beginning of May I was weighing 67.3 kg. If you look at the figures, the first month of dieting showed good results stripping me off almost 6 kgs and a gradual decrease in intensity thereafter. By May, I decided to keep my weight steady at 67 kg as I already moved to the lean BMI range of 18-22 with a BMI of 21.5 and as I was looking that extra slim while looking at mirror and as reported by my friends, relatives and family members.
So I again altered my diet and reduced fiber/vegetables to 1/5 of my intake and reduced the walking distance to 5 kms in 45 minutes. So that was a balance of my energy intake and energy spend and from then to this date, my weight has remained stable at 67 kg. Of note, I strictly followed per capita oil intake as we saw in heart healthy practices to ½ a liter a month (at the maximum to ¾ a liter a month) and avoided non-vegetarian food except a day in the week and an egg daily, so I’m neither a lacto-ovo-vegetarian nor a lacto-vegetarian but a sort of semi-vegetarian.
Of note, my hemoglobin level was 14.9 gm/dl at the beginning of the course and it has remained static until now, hence the entire process hasn’t made me anemic or anything of that sort, though I didn’t go for any detailed tests like lipid profile or so. I hadn’t had even a single episode of illness including common cold to account for immunity compromise during this period nor am I feeling exhausted easily after this period. In fact, I used to have frequent spells of indigestion headaches earlier, the frequency of which has come down heavily that I’m having indigestion headaches rarely now.
I am not a diabetic or a heart patient but anticipating problems getting obese or growing older, I decided to enact at the age of 39 itself to rejuvenate my body and stay healthy. If I can lose weight of about 13 kilograms (28.66 lbs) in 4 months without having to spend an extra dime or even without visiting a dietitian/physician by just altering my diet/habits, why can’t you, if you wish to, before the next New Year?
Do you know that to produce one kilogram of broiler chicken meat, you need to feed them with 3.4 kg of feed. This feed-meat ratio increases to 8.1 to 1 for the production of pork; isn’t it a great toll of environment by nonvegans? So by going green, you are becoming eco-conscious and environment friendly too!
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