My Weight Loss Experience Of 28 Kgs


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My Weight Loss experience.

Wt. 103.5 kg., Height : 177 to 178 cm. Age :43years.
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Most of my friends & family wanted me to look slim.
Done some research and took following steps so as to avoid by belly getting attention.
1)Monochromatic attire, with dark shirts & lighter trousers.
2) Solid color dark shirts & some patterns on the trousers
3) Dark color matching shirt buttons.
4) No patterns on the belt & buckle. Both belt & buckles of same tint as that of trousers.
5) heavy looking shoes. etc...

But one day, I realised that these tactics are not going to help in long run.

Prior to starting my weight loss journey.
I use to eat 4 times a day.

Morning : 1 cup tea.

Breakfast : like a king.
Lunch : like an employee

Evening : Tea + cookies / khari, sometimes Wada pav

Dinner : like a beggar.


Then read Dr Dixit, he says, ' He who eats once a day is a YOGI, who eats twice a day is a BHOGI. And who eats thrice a day is a ROGI.'
By this definition, I must have been a ROGI admitted in ICU & on venti on the weekends!.

So, I decided to be a BHOGI.

Jan 19.

Steps taken
1) Tried dixit diet (Only two meals a day, nothing in between the meals except 40 calorie tea /butter milk + 5km brisk walking/day) . It helped but weight loss speed was too slow.

2) My wife came across an interview of Mr Sharad Pawar, which in, he revealed that he lost 12 kg just by reducing Chapati intake to 1 /meal & replacing the extra Chapatis with variety of routinely available vegetables. I also modified my diet accordingly. It helped me a lot.

3) As per Dixit I was walking briskly 5 km daily but never sweated, (If you are not swearing, you are not burning enough calories to loose weight) hence on one Sunday decided to find out my original walking stamina. I stopped walking that day once I stated getting burning sensation( impending blisters) in my soles. It was 12 km distance.
Since that day started walking 11 km /day. Gradually increased the distance by 1 km fortnightly.
With above mentioned methods, I was able to loose 11 kg in first 4 weeks.

Then came plateau in the weight loss.
.....…...........................................................

For 15 days, weighing scale refused to move downwards. Then I stopped tea consumption. Started green tea, green tea increases metabolism & hence calories are burnt quikly.

4)Also, started biking in the night time, I could do hardly 1 km initially , gradually increased the distance to 15 km over a period of 2 months . Its not the distance alone which determines the weight loss, time required to cover that distance also matters equally.

Bicycle with duel suspension made the rides bit comfortable. Also learnt that biking with duel suspension(MTB) burns more calories than other bikes.( those with front suspension only, or racer bikes without suspension)

One of the major cause of the plateau during weight loss is that your daily calorie requirement gets decreased proportionately. So once you loose some weight, you have to further decrease daily calorie consumption.

At the end of 11 weeks, I lost total 15 kgs. Then I again suffered from plateau in the weight loss. To overcome this, I googled caloric value of all the food items I consumed. And came to know few intresting facts..
----------------

1)
It is already clear that once you loose 5 to 10 percent of your weight, you need to decrease daily calorie intake but that's not sufficient. Because of that weight loss the body becomes more efficient, it requires lesser calories to perform the exercise you were doing during the recent weight management.To overcome the plateau in the weight loss , it's also necessary to increase the amount of exercises & simultaneously decrease the calorie intake further.

2)Daily calorie requirement depends on *age, sex & your latest weight So, it decreases with *every* kg you loose, & every year you grow.

3)Casio keisan calorie calculator found to be best for calculating daily caloric requirements as well as daily calories burned.

4)One 60 ml peg (neat /dry /OTR) of whisky /rum /vodka is enough to neutralise benefits of 1.5 km brisk walk. Taking 3 such pegs will undo 5 km of walk.

Adding carbonated drinks (Sprite, soda, coke etc..) to the alcohol further double ups the problem. (10 km walk gets neutralised). This occurs only if you finish your alcohol + meal within 55 minutes. If you take more time than 55 MINUTES (as is the case often) , problem of calorie deposition in the form of fats on your tummy quadruples. ( *Fat sparing effect* ). This comes to neutralisation of 15 to 20 km brisk walking per party ( ppl walk this during 1wk).
You can imagine if you party once a week, what happens!

5)One small Chapati (35 gm) is equal to 1 km of brisk walk. Earlier I use to consume 4 to5 Chapatis /day, I reduced the intake to 1 chapati /day., decreasing Chapati intake also leads to fibre deficiency. To make up that I replaced chapatis with Pears(4/day) or Guavas (4 /day) if not available then apples.

6) Brown Poha, Red poha a.k.a. healthy foods ( coz of fibres, anti oxidants) contain too many calories & should be consumed in 1\3rd quantity as compared to white poha. It took 5 months for me to realise this.

7) Calculator. net & Casio keisan are two calculators which I found useful for calculations of daily minimum calorie requirement & calories burnt due to various activities.

Remember, *In absence of exercise / activity*, BMR = Daily minimum calorie requirement

8)Eating less calories than BMR will invite serious diseases due concomitant & inevitable restriction of minerals & vitamins.

9)Udid wada, Dahi wada are protein rich foods but they are richer in fats also . So better to consume them in lesser quantity.

10)Guava is a better food, it contains not only fibers but also proteins in substantial quantity.

I have not stopped eating Wada Pav or Misal pav. or fast foods like burger, I eat them as a part of morning meal or dinner but *never in between the meals*. Before eating these fast food items I eat some fruit or vegetable salad tossed in butter.(1\2 tsp) Then I take care not to excced my daily minimum calorie requirement.

If someone gives me Prasad or Pedha/sweets as a part of some celebration. I accept it but don't eat it in between the meals. I eat it at the time of my main meal.

Eating in between the meals leads to insulin release, this insulin in absence of exercise converts these sweets in to fats & then it gets deposited on your body.
1 small Pedha is equal to 1 to 1.5 km of brisk walk. About larger pedha, don't ask!

It is good to start your meal with sweets / fruits, it leads to satiety faster thus further calorie intake is restricted automatically. But quantity these sweets & sweet fruits should be restricted so that you don't exceed total daily carbohydrate consumption to more than 55%.


Keto diet is dangerous for intellects or professionals who use memory for their work. It leads to fogginess in the brain. So better to keep carbohydrate intake in the range of 50 to 55%, as brain needs fresh glucose for functioning above par.

I use an app, Healthyfy me to calculate calorie content & carbs - fat - protein breakup of the food I consume . It is pretty reliable. But I did not subscribed to their diet - exercise plans. The diet is to be planned by yourself or as per advice of your physician ( especially if you are already suffering from any aliment or if you suspect that there is possibility of a disease inside)

Also used the app only for knowing calorie content of the food we consume, *most of the weight loss apps give misleading information regarding calories burnt by activities /exercises you perform* thus compelling you to subscribe their paid diet & exercise plans. For eg. Car driving burns 100 calories/ hr. but healtyfy app tells you that it burns 170 calories. Also it is important to buy a food weighing machine(available online at 300 to 500 Rs) , because without that info provided regarding the calorie contents of particular food item on the weight loss apps /websites is misleading.

Due to tenacious plateau in the weight loss, I decided to find out reasons behind the weight gain after 40 years of age.

It's proven scientifically that after 40 years of age, as an inevitable change, there occurs sarcopenia / myopenia (loss of muscle fibers) especially skeleton muscles.
The rate at which this sarcopenia occurs is 2% per year. This means by the age of 50, we loose 20% of lean muscle mass. This loss should ideally lead to proportionate weight loss but what practically
we get is the weight gain!!.

Why do we gain weight despite loss of lean muscle mass after age of 40?

Muscles are dependent( during rest or otherwise) on glycogen( ultimately glucose) for survival. When muscle fibres start dieing due to ageing, there becomes extra glucose available in the blood (coz can't be used by died muscle fibers). This extra unused glucose is ultimately converted into fats & finally gets deposited as adipose tissue,hence the weight gain.
This gets compounded by reduction in activity levels (lesser calories are burnt as compared to earlier age) associated with the age.

*What are the solutions for sarcopenia related weight gain.?*

1) decrease the daily calorie intake by 2% per year after reaching the age of 40. This way, by the age of 50, you end up decresing the daily calorie intake by 20 % !,but concomitant decrease in fat intake leads to hormonal problems (most of the hormones are dependent on the fat for functioning) . So there comes role of Low Carb Diet, Low carb diet is not good for brain- intelgence based professionals.

2) Try to regain the lost muscle mass.

More healthy option is to regain the lost muscle mass. This prevents glucose excess occurring due to the sarcopenia, thus preventing fat gain. If you happen to further gain lean muscle mass over the regained mass, it will lead to melting the adipose tissues so as to make glucose-glycogen available for the survival of new muscle fibers ( *Fats would get converted into glucose only if you are eating lesser calories than burnt* ) . Final effect would be increased muscle mass with simultaneous loss of adipose tissue.

All know that muscle mass can be grown with resistance training ( dumbell, barbell, machine, cable, calisthenics).

Cardio(aerobics) i. e. walking, biking do not help in gaining muscle mass.

Coming back to my weight loss story.
It was 11 wks & I hit second plateau after loosing 15kg (@ 88 kg.

By this time I was started looking visibly anorexic. Most of the doctor friends started advising me that there is enough of weight loss now. People around also started saying same.(were you ill?, get some investigations done etc..) But I knew the criteria for "ideal' body weight was Height in CM - 100 or BMI 25 . And I was still 8 to 9 kg away from it. Later I realised
actually, this BMI 25 is not something ideal. Ideally BMI should be 23 or lesser . BMI 25 is like passing with ATKT. Biggest flaw of Dixit diet is that they mention ideal BMI as 25.

Since, social pressure was building, I found that its the appriel/attire which is making the ppl feel that I am ill. So got the clothes altered, & then some pressure was off.

So knowing that I need to regain lost lean muscle mass, I decided to do pushups, I selected push ups because I use to do that during school & college days on & off, and there is something known as Muscle memory. Also, it is well known fact that if someone is able to do 45 pushups in 1 go, his /her heart is healthy. So on one fine Sunday, at home, I tried pushups, & Hoila !!, to my surprise, I was able to do 45 in one go! . Next day, arms & shoulder started aching, it took whole 1 month to recover from that pain., had to discontinue the pushups for 1 month.

So I resumed back to walking & biking. And decided to do resistance training of a child level.

htttp//www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

I was stuck at 87 - 88 kg, and at this stage after going through above mentioned research, I realised that I had lost more than 1 kg per week, amounting a calorie deficit of more than 1000 calories per day, This excessive calorie deficit must have led to muscle loss along with fat loss. Of late, waist size decreased but was accompanied by proportionate decrease in hip size also. It was like I was decreasing weight but not the WHR, thus sabotaging the very purpose of the weight loss!!

So the famous dictum,
" To loose weight, calories burnt should be more than you ate" turned out to be deleterious for my weight loss programme.

Now, big question was how much calorie deficit should be created so as to loose fats but not the existing muscles.
*According to Dixit, its 200 calories /day. But hardest problem is that you never know when did you crossed the SLENDER line of seperation between calorie deficit & calorie excess' because 200 calories means hardly a couple of tea cups or a medium size Chapati or a Roti or an apple or ...*
I also learnt that 7000 to 8000 calories = 1 kg of body weight. i. e. when you burn 7000 to 8000 calories it leads to 1 kg body weight loss.

So after discovering & using the calorie calculator mentioned in the above link , I decided to make the line of seperation between deficit & excess bit thicker as compared to Dixit diet and thinner than what was I doing since last 11 wks. And I decided to settle with a deficit of 500 calories /day. Obviously, this was going to decrease the speed of the weight loss.

Now,
Exercise schedule was as follows
1) 14 to 16 km walking in the morning.

2) sporadic dumbell training in the evening

3) 15 km bicycling in the night.

This hectic schedule was followed for 5 wks.
And finally, I lost 5 to 6 kgs. I followed this hectic schedule because there was some extra time available due to school holidays of the kids, also I didn't wanted to loose the momentum.

So at the end of 19 wks. of my weight loss spree , I had lost total 22 to 23 kgs, It was my marriage anniversary & I was weighing 81 kg ( that was my weight on the date of the marriage also, 16 years back) but things turned otherwise, by now my wife had lost patience, she finally broke and requested one of my schoolmate friends,
"This fellow is out of bounds , plz, control him".... Deep inside my heart, I was knowing that my family was not going to sustain my weight loss spree for more than 6 months though they had pledged full support & in fact she withdrew the support in 5 months only & that's why I wanted to execute such an exhaustive programme hurriedly.

Finally, I had no option but to review /reconsider the weight loss programme. At the end of 19 wks of the weight loss programme, I decided, & stopped walking.

I preffered to stop walking over other forms of exercises because It was time consuming & making my availability difficult at the time of emergency at home or hospital. Also it was scortching may month then.

I decided to replace the walking exercise with some resistance /weight training at home. Joining gym was not possible as it would waste 40 minutes for getting ready, to & fro commute.

Somehow I manged to convince my family that its necessary to do weight exercises at home for me to regain some muscle mass if not further gain for maintaining the weight lost. Also it was necessary to continue cardio ( biking) for loosing little more flat.

It is proven beyond doubt that *' little extra fat* inside or around your stomach serves as nidus for obesity, because this little extra fat makes you lethargic or lazy. Nothing begets laziness as laziness.

So from 21 wks onwards,
Schedule was as follows..
1) Morning- dumbell or calisthenics at home.( 45 to 60 minutes)

2) Night - 15 to 16 km biking(60 minutes) . On week ends, I use to do 22 to 26 km.

During first five weeks of my weight loss journey, I didn't took single day rest , and as you have read earlier, it paid rich dividends ,later when I stuck with
the first plateau, I came to know I was necessary to take rest atleast once in a week & had started doing so. I read that this rest is necessary for recovery of the muscles. Then how come I lost so much weight during first 5 wks without any rest day ? I studied and found that it was because of physiological diuresis (expulsion of water holding salts in the urine ) associated with exercise & reduced steroid secretions due to improved & adequate sleep which is an invariable gift associated with exercises & healthy food.

So,now coming back to weight loss journey from 21 wks onwards...

In 4 more weeks, I lost 2 kgs + & finally my BMI was 25. & weight 78 to 79 kg. And then whole world went against my further weight loss efforts, including my little daughter .

So overall 25 kg was lost, and the diet during this period was roughly as follows...

Initial 3wks : starting from 2nd Jan 19
Morning Tea without sugar + two to three tbsp milk ( 40 calories)

Break fast :

1)Vegetables salad tossed in 1/2 tsp butter(250 gm), 2)Two chapatis or 4 slices of whole wheat bread, 3)vegetable sabji Or a double egg omlette. Or sometimes misal pav Or Wada pav.
4) 4 idalis/ 4 udid wada /2 plain dosas with sambar Or Poha

5) fruits (Watermelon /Mango)

No lunch.

Evening : Tea without sugar + 3 tbsp milk. And 2 fibre rich Marie biscuits or butter milk or coconut water.

Dinner :
1) some sweets like 2pc. Jalebi, 2 small gulab jamuns etc..


2)Vegetable salad (250 gms) tossed in butter 1tsp butter.

3)Sprouted beans with gravy 1katori
Or Varan - daal 1 katori.
Or sometimes paneer.
Or 2 Egg curry Or
Pav bhaji Or mutton/fish 2 to 3 pieces(twice a week) .

3)2 chapatis

4)Green leafy vegetable thrice weekly.

4) 1 Mango or 2 slices of water melon or 3 slices of papaya.

Rice one katori only once a week.

This was going without weighing the food on the weigh scale.

How did I controlled cravings in the afternoon?

Butter milk., I use to drink 4 small glasses. Or coconut water.

This made some difference in my weight but speed was not to my satisfaction. Dr Dixit regime says it makes difference of 6 to 8 kgs in 6 months, I needed to loose atleast 25 kg.

Hence switched on to Sharad Pawar regime, twice daily.(from week 4 to week 26)

Most of the breakfast was unaltered.

No Lunch

Dinner :Only 1 chapati per day at the time of dinner, 10 to 12 vegetables eighter uncooked (salad)or cooked (5 days a week.

In case vegetables were not available in sufficient numbers, then 2 egg curry (once a week), 2 pc mutton curry, (once a week) 2pc fried fish (once a week)

Stopped, tea altogether, & switched to black tea /black coffee /green tea.
With this plan, my weight reached 78, 79.

At this stage, Me & my wife happened to attend a meeting, where we meet a senior physician from Pune. He was happy to see me loose that much weight & upon enquiry he asked me to try for BMI 23, i.e. to loose 6 to 7 kg more... I asked him to convince my wife,finally she agreed.

By this time, monsoon arrived, and my research on Google also showed that I need to cut down the cardio ( biking) & prefer resistance /weight training.

Hence stopped biking from 23rd wk onwards, & started doing Calisthenics (1 hr) in the morning & dumbell training in the evening(1 hr) 6 times a wk with the aim of loosing abdominal fat & regaining lost muscle mass . Diet was not altered.

By the end of 26 wks my weight came down to 77 kg. But I noticed that WHR not altering favorably . Still I continued further for few days, within a month or so my limbs started looking tonned & bit bulky, however this effect vanished within next 15 days.!!!
 
Thread Starter #2
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started googling & found following things.



1) For person in the forties, to gain muscle, need to do not more than 45 to 60 minutes of exercise in a day, that too with a rest period of 48 to 72 hrs in between same exercise.



My way of doing weight training twice daily (2 a day) was OK for a person in twenties.



Also, came to know that there are 3 somatotypes of body of human being.



1) Ectomorphs (skinny OR single bone Or hard gainer in layman's language)



2)Mesomorphs



3) Endomorphs ( double bone or heavy built)



There are some calculators available online which can tell you what body type you are. Practically, there is overlapping of these types in the same person, so these calculators tell you what type predominantly you are.
 
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Workout methods & diet differs for all the three body types when it comes to muscle gain.

What Is Your Body Type? Take Our Test!

Famous ectomorphs are Anushka sharma, shilpa Shetty & most of the models who surface on the front page of the fashion mags, Bruce Lee, Imran Khan, Usain bolt.

Famous
Ecto+mesomorphs
are Rhitik Roshan, Tiger shroff, John Abraham.

Famous Mesomorphs : Salman Khan, Sunny Paji,

Famous Meso +Endomorphs : Vidya Balan.

Famous Endo morphs : Rishi kapoor. And most of body builders, Mr India, Mr Asia etc.

After using couple of calculators like mentioned above
, I found that I am 75% ectomorph + 25 % mesomorph.

So those who are predominantly ectomorphs, it takes lot of hard work for *longer* period to gain muscle as compared to plain mesomorphs, hence a. k. a. Hard gainers, that's why Rhitik took 27th year of his age to enter bollywood.
Ectomorphs have very high metabolism, if they want to gain muscle, they need to eat frequently ( especially healthy
carbs & healthy proteins) & they should be in caloric surplus . Ectomorphs can become obese (cental obesity) due to lack of activity/exercise for prolonged period & unhealthy eating practice. To become obese also they require lot of time despite overeating !

Mesomorph is best body type for gaining muscle, they respond quickly to exercise.


Endomorphs naturally look bulky all around so apperntly it feels that they are excellent muscle builders but little extra adipose tissue present all around their body plays additive role. They easily become obese if no exercise or overeat wiithin short period.

I have not much researched on Mesomorphs & Endomorphs. There is hell lot of literature on their diet & exercise on Google.

External appearance of all these body types *depends & changes* as per their diet & exercises & starts overlapping on each other body types. Also external appearance depends on body shape type.


After knowing that I am an ectomorph predominantly, it was clear that
1) I need to eat frequently, this means the Dixit +Pawar regime was OK for loosing weight but not gaining muscle. And that's why I was loosing weight but WHR was not moving favourably.

2)On exercise front, it is suggested that ectomorphs need to bring their body fat percentage bellow 14%, practically this means face should start looking bony ( in other words, I needed to loose 7 to 8 kg more!, total 33 kg!!! ) so as to get maximum benefit of exercises to gain the muscle mass or rather regain.

Now, I needed to change my diet plan. On exercise front I was really doing hard work and that's what was required for an ectomorph. But as a man above forty, rules & guidelines meant for above 40 ppl also needed to be applied. This means I needed total overhaul of both diet & exercise plan!

First I targeted diet, sometimes started eating 3 times a day. But this lead to immidiete increase in weight by 1 or 2 kg, which use to take 15 odd days to revert back. Till now I was calculating calorie content of the food depending upon number of items consumed on Healthyfyme app. For eg. 2 small apples, or 3 medium idali etc.. And here there was a problem. By now, I had purchased a weigh scale for weighing food. Using the weight of the food item to know the calories consumed & their breakup among carbs, fats, proteins helped me reveal that my fat intake was more than recommended & protein intake borderline. And this was the reason behind the unfavourable WHR & failure to regain muscle mass.

On further Google search I came to know that average adult needs 0.8 gms proteins /kg /day but if you are exercising & want to gain muscle mass it is necessary to take proteins 2 gm /kg /day. But for ectomorphs 1.5 gm is OK. One beauty of protein rich food is that it requires body to burn few extra calories to absorb & digest them, this helps in loosing weight( fat) . Also proteins take more time to get digested as compared to simple carbs or fats, hence tummy gets sensation of fullness & hunger is delayed.

So, I increased quantity of protein rich food items in my diet , boiled chicken, boiled mutton, soyabean roasted, eggs, paneer, daal- chaval etc... Soon I discovered that these protein rich food items are also rich in fats, & hence are not serving my purpose of high protein & low fat diet. On Google, I found that the boiled chicken to loose & separate its all the fat needs to be boiled at 700 °c.or dessicated !!

Now began my search for the protein source which is devoid of fats. & answer was WPI.
 
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How long have you been on your reduced weight ie -28kgs? I have observed that I reduce say 5 kgs and then when I relax I end gaining 7 kgs in no time. how to maintain the weight lost?
 
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How long have you been on your reduced weight ie -28kgs? I have observed that I reduce say 5 kgs and then when I relax I end gaining 7 kgs in no time. how to maintain the weight lost?
I stared my weight loss programme on Jan 19 and by the end of Sept 19 I lost total 28 kg.
And I am able to maintain that lost weight since last 2 months.
For you, it was necessary to further decrease calorie intake after 5 kg loss. Calorie requirement goes down because you need not spend the calories to carry the extra 5 kg you were carrying earlier. Also you have to increase your exercise amount,because your body finds it easy to do the exercises you were doing before loosing those 5 kg extra load.


On the contry, we people feel that since we have lost 5 kg weight, we can eat little bit more, & decrease amount of exercise and here it boomerangs.
 
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Good writeup. Got to know more things on weight loss. I am also trying for same but getting time is problem.

Out of 24 hrs i am away from home for almost 12 hrs. Some how i managed to take toll on sleep and started for jogging for 2 kms in wee hours.

But the sad part was due to hectic schedule and insufficient sleep i got irregular in this as well. The weight and belly is getting increased. From waist size of 32 now it went to 36.
 

mayankdixit

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It's very commendable that you achieved so much in such a little time. But be warned before hand. Your body will recover that Lost wt sooner or later.
Actually the real struggle starts now.
Loosing weight is tough. But maintaining that lost weight is very,very ,very tough.


If you had lost at the rate of 5 kgs/ year then it would have been easier to maintain that Lost wt.
The faster you loose weight, the earlier you gain it back.
The slower you loose, the longer your body will maintain that lost weight.
 
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It's very commendable that you achieved so much in such a little time. But be warned before hand. Your body will recover that Lost wt sooner or later.
Actually the real struggle starts now.
Loosing weight is tough. But maintaining that lost weight is very,very ,very tough.
Thank you for the appreciation. Before Covid lockdown, I was consuming calories enough to maintain weight( 75 kg) & diet was still high protein ( 2 gm/kg). Aim was to decrease the fat percentage & convert that fat weight in to muscles ( *Body recomposition*) But from 15 th March 2020, stopped exercises, stopped using Healthifyme app, stopped calorie tracking, stopped whey, stopped egg whites, started eating 4 times a day.

Breakfast = poha / egg omlatte / upma etc + normal tea +2 Parle G ,later on added 3 egg whites.

Lunch = 2 chapatis, +half katori rice + routine vegetables + 3 to 4 dates. Evening snax -= Normal Tea + 2 to 4 Parle G.

Dinner : 2 chapatis + half katori rice, some times with Varan +routine vegetables.

Protein intake was reduced to approximately 1.2 gm /kg, sometimes 1.5/kg. After 15 days weight incresed by 1 kg. Hence, with aim to maintain the weight & to retain whatever remaining muscles I had, decided to resume exercises at home. 90 Push ups, later replaced by dumbell floor press, 90 dumbell squats, 90 dumbell biceps curls, 90 dumbell shoulder press, all divided in 6 equal sets, all these anaerobic exercises were done on alternate days. And 60 minutes of stationary biking cardio at home on alternate days, Sunday holiday.

My recommended weight maintainance calories were around 2200 & having learnt the portion control over last year I was consuming approximately 2500 calories. Results at the end of August 2020 : I gained 4 kg weight. (approximately 2 kg muscles + 2 kg fats).

Lessons learnt : 1) Muscle gain is possible only if you are in *caloric surplus* Body recomposition is a myth for me.

2) Metabolic health is more important than the calorie calculations on the app when it comes to muscle gain. Most annoying was my tummy circumference incresed by 1 &1/2 inch atleast.


If you had lost at the rate of 5 kgs/ year then it would have been easier to maintain that Lost wt.
The faster you loose weight, the earlier you gain it back.
The slower you loose, the longer your body will maintain that lost weight.
Que:How much should be your maximum weight loss?

Ans:. Maximum 0.75 % of your body weight /week. This means once you losse kilogram after kilograms , the weightloss rate needs to be decreased accordingly. I was loosing 1kg /week during my weight loss journey. That was more than 1% per week which meant I was loosing 250 gm muscles per week during those 28 weeks. (7 kg!) [frustration].
 
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i managed to take toll on sleep and started for jogging for 2 kms in wee hours.

But the sad part was due to hectic schedule and insufficient sleep i got irregular in this as well. The weight and belly is getting increased. From waist size of 32 now it went to 36.
Inadequate sleep leads to stress & thus release of steroids in the body. The steroids prevent expulsion of the salt & water from the body. This retained salt & water leads to unhealthy weight gain. Its better not loose any weight at all rather than compromising the sleep. Your weight gain was not due to irregular exresices but due to the stress & steroids.
 
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Workout methods & diet differs for all the three body types when it comes to muscle gain.

What Is Your Body Type? Take Our Test!

Famous ectomorphs are Anushka sharma, shilpa Shetty & most of the models who surface on the front page of the fashion mags, Bruce Lee, Imran Khan, Usain bolt.

Famous
Ecto+mesomorphs
are Rhitik Roshan, Tiger shroff, John Abraham.

Famous Mesomorphs : Salman Khan, Sunny Paji,

Famous Meso +Endomorphs : Vidya Balan.

Famous Endo morphs : Rishi kapoor. And most of body builders, Mr India, Mr Asia etc.

After using couple of calculators like mentioned above
, I found that I am 75% ectomorph + 25 % mesomorph.

So those who are predominantly ectomorphs, it takes lot of hard work for *longer* period to gain muscle as compared to plain mesomorphs, hence a. k. a. Hard gainers, that's why Rhitik took 27th year of his age to enter bollywood.
Ectomorphs have very high metabolism, if they want to gain muscle, they need to eat frequently ( especially healthy
carbs & healthy proteins) & they should be in caloric surplus . Ectomorphs can become obese (cental obesity) due to lack of activity/exercise for prolonged period & unhealthy eating practice. To become obese also they require lot of time despite overeating !

Mesomorph is best body type for gaining muscle, they respond quickly to exercise.


Endomorphs naturally look bulky all around so apperntly it feels that they are excellent muscle builders but little extra adipose tissue present all around their body plays additive role. They easily become obese if no exercise or overeat wiithin short period.

I have not much researched on Mesomorphs & Endomorphs. There is hell lot of literature on their diet & exercise on Google.

External appearance of all these body types *depends & changes* as per their diet & exercises & starts overlapping on each other body types. Also external appearance depends on body shape type.


After knowing that I am an ectomorph predominantly, it was clear that
1) I need to eat frequently, this means the Dixit +Pawar regime was OK for loosing weight but not gaining muscle. And that's why I was loosing weight but WHR was not moving favourably.

2)On exercise front, it is suggested that ectomorphs need to bring their body fat percentage bellow 14%, practically this means face should start looking bony ( in other words, I needed to loose 7 to 8 kg more!, total 33 kg!!! ) so as to get maximum benefit of exercises to gain the muscle mass or rather regain.

Now, I needed to change my diet plan. On exercise front I was really doing hard work and that's what was required for an ectomorph. But as a man above forty, rules & guidelines meant for above 40 ppl also needed to be applied. This means I needed total overhaul of both diet & exercise plan!

First I targeted diet, sometimes started eating 3 times a day. But this lead to immidiete increase in weight by 1 or 2 kg, which use to take 15 odd days to revert back. Till now I was calculating calorie content of the food depending upon number of items consumed on Healthyfyme app. For eg. 2 small apples, or 3 medium idali etc.. And here there was a problem. By now, I had purchased a weigh scale for weighing food. Using the weight of the food item to know the calories consumed & their breakup among carbs, fats, proteins helped me reveal that my fat intake was more than recommended & protein intake borderline. And this was the reason behind the unfavourable WHR & failure to regain muscle mass.

On further Google search I came to know that average adult needs 0.8 gms proteins /kg /day but if you are exercising & want to gain muscle mass it is necessary to take proteins 2 gm /kg /day. But for ectomorphs 1.5 gm is OK. One beauty of protein rich food is that it requires body to burn few extra calories to absorb & digest them, this helps in loosing weight( fat) . Also proteins take more time to get digested as compared to simple carbs or fats, hence tummy gets sensation of fullness & hunger is delayed.

So, I increased quantity of protein rich food items in my diet , boiled chicken, boiled mutton, soyabean roasted, eggs, paneer, daal- chaval etc... Soon I discovered that these protein rich food items are also rich in fats, & hence are not serving my purpose of high protein & low fat diet. On Google, I found that the boiled chicken to loose & separate its all the fat needs to be boiled at 700 °c.or dessicated !!

Now began my search for the protein source which is devoid of fats. & answer was WPI.
Whey proteins were basically waste products created during manufacturing of cheese from milk, but someone found that stray animals feeding on the waste products were looking bulky & fit than the human beings on the cheese. This led to introduction of whey protein in the human diet!

I was so obsessed with Dr Dixit's 'eating twice daily only' concept that I was really hesitant to start a third meal with whey Proteins. Because according to Dixit third meal would release a bout of insulin which can lead to conversion of whatever sugar available in the blood to get converted into fats on tummy. For this he cited Harrison Textbook of Internal medicine.!

But finally, I decided to add whey protein powder given to me as physician sample by Mr as a third meal ,but soon learned that its for patients only & contains sugar, fats as well. Finally decided to purchase it from the protein powder shop. If you look at the google reviews of any gym or protein shops, protein shopkeepers & gym trainers & dieticians are supposed to be Pundits in nutrition, but I saw they misguiding you on the basis of the brand availability & nearing expiry dates of the products in their shelves.

So, I researched on my own & found that for a person who is looking for both fat loss & muscle gain simultaneously need to take dietary proteins available at home (egg white, mutton, chicken) or whey protein powder /bar with virtually zero sugar & fats. And, protein shops keep selling you a powder with zero *added* sugar on the pretext of selling you zero sugar powder!

Also learnt that its the whey derived from milk of cows who are *grass fed* which has more muscle gain benefits & not the ones who are fed on grains.
None of the protein shopkeeper were able to tell me if the offered WP is produced from grain fed or grass fed cows.

Researched further on WP (whey proteins), found that there are 3 types
1)WPC (concentrate) : these contain 75 % whey & rest sugar +fat. Good for those who look to gain weight. Obviously tasty due to fats.

2)WPI (isolate),: purest, *almost* devoid of fats\sugar(lactose) , good for those who want to gain muscles but not weight in the form of adipose tissue. Also for those who have lactose intolerance.

3)WPH (hydrolase),: kind of bovine colostrum, this contains lactose, *also it comes in pre digested form, in general amongst all proteins whey proteins are easily digestible & WPH are easiest to digest amongst all the whey proteins* Good for weight gain & for infants.
One of the Netflix
web series, Mirzapur or something similar has shown how a gangster who wants to win a body building contest managed to get human milk at gun point!.

So, purchased a 2 kg container of a WPI.

By now, it was clear that for me, I needed 1.5 gm proteins/kg body weight /day for regaining some muscle mass.i. e. 120 gms /day for my 75 kg weight.

Till now, I found that my daily protein intake from home made food was as follows.

30 to 40 gms in the morning breakfast
& 30 to 40 gms at dinner. So I needed to add 40 to 50 gm over pre existing protein intake. I thought of adding 25 gms WPI in the break fast & 25 gms in the dinner.
But... I came to know that for adults, only 15 gms of proteins can be absorbed & digested during the transit of protein from stomach to proximal small intestines over a period of 5 hrs in one go , And intestines also need 5 to 10 gms of proteins as a source of energy just to carry out absorption of these 15 gms. rest of the proteins are either wasted in faeces or if gets absorbed get converted in to adipose tissue. I tried to find out how much gets excreated in faeces? ( of course!! on Google & not in the lab )but Google couldn't provide me answer. So maximum protein at a time should be 15 gms + 10 gms, & this is why scoops provided with WPI containers are of 25 gms. And famous dictum, "high protein diet leads to burning more fats /calories " turned out to be false. Protein ingestion does leads to extra calorie burning but it burns proteins only(that to *inside* the intestines ) & not fats located elsewhere in the body. However, it's true that proteins give you a sensation of fullness in the tummy which inhibits you from munching some snacs in between the meals.

I also came across a study in which post menopausal ladies were given protein doses as higher as 40 gms every 5 hrs, showed that it got absorbed completely as confirmed by muscle biopsy, however, I could not find a study where this is applicable to men in 40 s.

Now, I had no option but to start a third meal. Earlier, under Dixit +Pawar regime, I was taking meals at 10 /11am & 9 pm. So I started taking WPI at 4 pm.
I was really skeptical about third meal because during these 2 months, I use to gain couple of kgs on & off whenever I happened to take couple of heavy meals. And this unwanted gain use to take 15 odd days to vanish off with hard work. Still I started WPI as a third meal.

Meanwhile, I studied how an ectomorph man in 40s should do resistance training.
Ectomorphs are a. k. a. Hard Gainers. They need to do real hard work as compared to mesomorphs and endomorphs. Compound exercises are must. And isolated muscle exercises( biceps curls, etc) are of minimal benefit. Compound exercises means exercises which involves many joints & many muscles especially big muscles. ( pectoralis triceps, biceps, brachialis, trapezius quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius). But I was already doing pushups ( to be precise Hindu Pushups) & full squats. Both these are compound exercises & are kind of Suryanamaskar . I felt that it was the unfulfilled protein requirement which was responsible for failure to regain the lost muscle. But this thought was partially correct..


... *To be continued*...
 
Thread Starter #11
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Further I learnt that
there are 3 types of resistance(Anaerobic /Non cardio (weight training) exercises.
1) for Strength
2) for Muscle mass gain
3) for indurance.

Before, knowing these types,
I was doing 40 repetitions (reps) of an exercise & 4 such sets.

As per the definition of the types of exercises, my exercises were falling under indurance type. And these were severe type of exercises than what were required for muscle gain & this was further compounded due to lesser protein intake.

For Muscle gain or rather regain, I needed to do 9 to 14 reps & 4 to 6 such sets. And these are to be done as HIIT,meaning interval between 2 sets should be 30 to 90 seconds only.(This is important because, fatty acids in the blood require oxygen for carrying out glycogenesis which is important for replenishing the exhausted glycogen. Blood glucose can be converted in to glycogen in absence of oxygen also, but this can lead to hypoglycemia & hypoxia )

Since week no.40 , I started doing this 'medium reps, medium sets HIIT exercises, but many times interval between two sets increased beyond 90 secs.
Also as required for ectomorphs in their 40s , I started doing them once in 72 hrs. Also I tried my level best to finish the exercises within 60 minutes, because at the 45 - 60 minutes on wards muscle glycogen gets depleted & muscles become dependent on the fatty acids for getting energy. And I avoid eating anything for 45 minutes after exercises so as to give adequate time for the fats to get converted in the glycogen else newly entered glucose from the food would arrest that conversion.

During the rest days, i. e. twice wkly , I started biking again (45 to 60 minutes) , coz my weight was doing up & down between 75 kgs & 77 kgs, and cardio discourages fat gain.

And, also had already increased protein intake by 25 gms as told earlier, Actually this 25 gms increase is not enough to fulfill 1.5 gms /kg requirement for muscle gain. I needed to add fourth meal of 25 gm proteins for that.

Meanwhile, I researched for reasons behind ectomorphism, following postulations I came across,

1) deficiency of 'myogenin' in the genes. This deficiency leads to under development of fast twitching muscle fibers, which are responsible for muscle mass gain when subjected to exercises.

2) narrow diameter of the blood vessels supplying muscle fibers.

Amongst these reasons, second one can be treated with L arginine ( one of the non essential OR semi essential amino acid). In obstetrics, we use this L arginine in abundance to prevent & treat IUGR of the fetus inside mother's womb . It releases Nitric oxide which helps in dilatation of blood vessels thus improving blood supply.
Hence, I took a sachet & tried, there are few side effects to be watched for, I suffered from metallic taste for 2 days, hence decided to stay away from that. I found that Pumpkin seeds along with few others are dietary sources of Arginine. However I didn't tried any specifically coz my non veg food intake has increased recently & Arginine is found in abundance in meat.

Thus, so far, from week 29 to 49, I managed increment of atleast 1 inch in mid arm circumference & mid thigh circumference on either side, though chest circumference remained unchanged. *Also, my maximum abdominal circumference decreased from 117 cm to 90 cm during this weight loss journey of 50 weeks*.

*According to the Asian criteria about the weight eighter BMI should be lesser than 23 or abdominal circumference should be lesser than 90 cm.*

The muscle gain might not be visibly highlighting but I can say, its definitely in the pre 40 age range. I hope the increased glycogen demand by these new fibres would help burn some more fats thus help me sustaining the 28 kg weight lost so far.

*Most important rules I forgot to mention*:
More important it is to drink atleast 2.5 L water daily before 8 pm.
Those who are obese or overweight, 80% fault is in the kitchen & exercise or lack of exercise plays only 20% role.

When you are obese, exercise which is important so as to loose weight is cardio /aerobics. Anaerobic / weight training are hardly useful for loosing weight.

Anaerobic exercises become important only when it comes to maintaining the status after you loose the weight. That's when you reach normal range of BMI.

After completing 52 weeks (1 year) of my weight loss journey, one of my friend suggested me to join a gym and train under a trainer because he felt that I didn't gained muscles proportional to the exercises I was doing . Also he thought I will learn correct technique as this was the first time in my life I was stepping in a gym!.

On 1st Jan 2020, joined gym & hired a 12 yrs. experienced trainer. He started training me with aim of gaining muscles & loosing fat bellow 14 %.
He trained me as follows, resistance training ( warm up with 10 minutes tread mill & 50 push ups & then Dumbells, barbells, machines, cables, calisthenics, on alternate days, cardio ( treadmill, elliptical & stationary bike) twice a week, Zumba once a week and rest day on Sunday.Training was heavy for 1 hr at a time per day ,hence he asked me to increase protein intake to more than 2 gms a day( so I was taking whey protein 25 gm twice daily, 6to7 egg whites twice daily & normal meals twice daily) . Also carbs( an apple or a banana) were added along with the pre exercise morning whey protein.

End result at the end of 1 month of the gym training was that my abdominal circumference incresed by 2.5 cm[gun], my fat percentage incresed by 2%, my weight incresed by 2 kgs. Whatever muscle mass was gained during last year vanished. [frustration]

Then, I realised that my muscle fibers are dying due to the heavy exercises & sugar to be utilised by them is getting deposited on the tummy as fats or body switched to gluconeogenesis (converting muscle proteins to glucose) Discussed the matter with the trainer & other trainers & realised that their knowledge is suitable to train ppl in 20s, not me. On 14 Feb 2020, finally decision taken to discontinue the trainer but continue the gym. I did following changes.
1) Stopped cardio/ Zumba altogether,

2)started weight training 5 to 6 days a week, one body part a day.

3)Started taking more than 3 minutes rest in between the sets & exersises. Earlier I was allowed to take only 60 to 90 sec rest.

4)Diet was unaltered.

At the end of 1 month, on 14 March 2020, I noticed that I had lost 2 kg weight, dropped back to 75 kg, also my abdominal circumference touched 90 cm again. but no muscle gain . Now, my wife declared lockdown 1 week before Modiji could declare & Gym was also discontinued.
To be continued....
 
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So, retrospectively what were the reasons behind muscle loss & weight gain in the gym during first month of my gym tenure in the life? Ideally, first month is best for muscle gain.
1) stress due to heavy workout. Trainer use to make me do 50 push ups, 25 double bar dips as a warm up. And then after 45 minutes of weight training, he use to make me do 50 squats with a 10 kg iron chain on my shoulders as finishers . This must have led to cortisol (natural steroid secreted in body in response to stress) release and then salt, water & fat retention.
2) inadequate glucose intake to justify that heavy workout.

Why I am talking of muscle gain continously ? Is it because I want to look handsome? Is it because I want to impress people around me? No, not at all. 1 kg muscle burns around 100 calories /day in *resting* phase( for survival alone without any exresises) . If you have 3 to 5 kg extra muscles it comes to 300 to 500 calories /day. i. e. 2100 to 3500 calories a week. Then you can party once a week. Other studies say that 1 kg muscle can burn only 15 calories during a day in resting phase. This comes to 350 to 500 calories /wk. You can easily take extra ice cream /sweet dish or a chocolate of your choice at weekends. *This applies to men & women equally.* Women also should try for muscle gain, especially women who are above 40, should try to *regain* the muscles lost due to age related loss of muscles (Sarcopenia).

Here are my before (Jan 2019) & after(Sept 2019)pics
rps20210102_135420.jpg
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rps20210102_134440.jpg
rps20210102_134335.jpg
 
Thread Starter #13
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After the lockdown, I started finding out reason behind increse in the waist /tummy circumference despite good amount of exercise during lock down period.

Following intresting facts were found:
Recommended cooking oil intake : 2 to 3 teaspoons of oil in a day is recommended for *healthy* living and to keep all the illness and diseases at bay. One should be consuming 1/2 litre of oil per month per person.
Instead of frying your food which adds unnecessary fats and calories - use cooking methods that add little or no fat. Opt for stir frying or shallow frying method. You can also use a brush to grease your food instead of using a spoon to pour oil. 'Cooking oil spray' are also available in the market. Food grade tissue paper needs to be used for absorbing extra oil from the fried food. Please remember oil(fat) contains 9 calories per gram. To burn calories in 10 gm oil you need to *briskly* walk 1 to 1.5 km or do 90 push ups or do 45 Surysnamaskars.

Change your cooking oil every month: It is advisable to keep changing your cooking oil from time to time in order to get the maximum benefits from all good quality fat components example PUFA and MUFA. (Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Monounsaturated Fatty Acids) Once you finish your oil, instead of going for the same oil, purchase some different oil. Say for example, for one month use rice bran oil, next month you can switch to sunflower oil/ groundnut oil.

Having learnt this I enquired at the home minister about monthly cooking oil grocery bill & leant that we were consuming over 1 kg oil /per person! Then I corrected it.

Mistakes committed during my weight loss journey :
1) I realised late that fat should be the primary aim & not the weight loss on the weigh scale.

2) Too fast weightloss. I began with 1% loss /wk in the beginning & later the loss got incresed to 1.2 %/week.

3) While decreasing the calorie intake, also decreased proteins .

4)Late realisation about increase in protein intake for retention of muscles.

5) Late realisation about increase in protein intake when I started anaerobic/ weight exercises.
6) Late acceptance about increse in carbohydrates proportionately alongwith proteins for regaining the muscle mass.

7)Too much cardio ( walking almost 14 to 17 km most of the days for more than 2 hrs ) to beat the plateau in the weight loss. This actually happened in an attempt to appear for half marathon /walkathon ( 21 km) as I use to see few of my batch mates completing marathon(42 km) in two hours. That inspiration led me to opt for a 16 wks walkathon plan. But according to this plan one is supposed to walk on alternate days( to allow muscles to recover & avoid muscle loss & also prevent cortisol (steroids) secretion due to the stress arising out of the excess cardio & with extra glucose & protein intake, And, there I was walking 6 days a week with further calorie cutting. I did so because I wanted to finish the outdoor cardio things before beginning of the monsoon. Retrospectively I feel, I could have saved the per day time spent on walking from 2 hrs to1 hr by just carrying a back pack worth the weight lost I had achieved so far.

8) Joined a gym & opted for a socalled 12 yrs. experienced trainer, who hardly knew that it was important to focus more on hip (deadlifts) so as to sustain the weight loss achieved so far. He trained my whole body barring hips. This mismanaged my WHR (Waist Hip Ratio ) despite loosing waist substantially.

9) I realised no muscle gain is possible unless I am on slight calorie surplus but failed to reduce overall oil intake during this caloric surplus . This led to some (1.5 to 2 inches )increase in waist circumference.
 
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Whooa!!!

First of all, beautifully articulated the entire journey. I pray that you continue walking on this path. I am 44yrs old now and trying my best (without much efforts) to restrict my weight. My height is 175cms weight is 86kg. From the last couple of years, my weight is between 82kg to 86kg. Due to lockdown, I am at 86kg range otherwise it was around 82-84kg mark.

On average, I walk around 3-4 km a day, try to do some brisk walking, running on treadmill or freestyle exercising - plank, pushups, sit-ups etc.

Can you suggest, how should I start my journey to weight loss?
 
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Thread Starter #15
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Whooa!!!

First of all, beautifully articulated the entire journey.
.
Thanks friend.
My height is 175cms weight is 86kg.
You are clearly 11 to 15 kg overweight (obese by Asian criteria)

On average, I walk around 3-4 km a day, try to do some brisk walking, running on treadmill or freestyle exercising - plank, pushups, sit-ups etc.

Can you suggest, how should I start my journey to weight loss?
Minimum you need to do is walk atleast 4.5 km in 45 minutes in fasting state with adequate water intake.
Body uses blood sugar for first 20 to 25 minutes and switches over to utilise fats after that.
Once body switches over to fats as a fuel source, it continues to burn fats for 45 minutes thereafter, so you are not supposed to eat anything 45 minutes after the exercises, else body will start saving the fats & use sugar as source of fuel. You can drink as much water you want coz water contains zero calories. You can drink black /green tea without sugar because they also contain near zero calories.
 

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