Thread Starter
#1
My Weight Loss experience.
Wt. 103.5 kg., Height : 177 to 178 cm. Age :43years.
---------------
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.!!!
Wt. 103.5 kg., Height : 177 to 178 cm. Age :43years.
---------------
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.!!!