Can we lose weight only through dieting, and without exercises? 10 hacks busted

Fat-loss tips through healthy diet

Can we lose weight only through dieting, and without exercises? Answer is yes. A suitable diet plan, without exercises can help you to lose a lot of pounds. There is no need to starve yourself. Instead choose your food wisely and you can lose weight by calorie deficit diet. Avoid or reduce certain food items while you can add some items in plenty, which can significantly help you in reducing weight. You can also seek the help of a nutritionist. They can choose you a better diet plan, that suit you most.  It’s only a myth that we have to starve ourselves and do a lot of exercises to lose weight significantly. Through this column, I shall try to clear some of the common doubts related to choosing a good diet plan for weight loss. 10 hacks related to dieting and exercises are busted in this post. 

Food and Eating habits 

Can you reduce body weight only through food control and without any form of exercise? 

Definitely yes! Each person is different and each one needs a separate diet plan, based on his age, body condition, diseases, how much he is physically active and lifestyle. You can reduce weight in a healthy way through proper diet plan, keeping in mind all these factors, which differ from person to person. Along with it, he has to slightly modify his lifestyle too. If he can include some physical exercises too, he gets quicker results. But it doesn’t mean, only physical exercises catalyze body weight loss. Persons suffering from autoimmune diseases need mild exercises, along with a healthy and controlled diet plan.

Another common doubt is, how much weight can we lose a month. Weight loss is totally dependent on the person. Some people, who have better metabolism tend to lose weight quickly. Same is the case of people who are physically active. If you are suffering from hormonal issues or certain disease conditions, weight loss journey may take a long time and more hard work, yet it is 100% possible. To lose weight up to 4.5 kg is okay, but never more than that. Our target should be, how to be consistent and lose weight slowly, rather than harming your body and health to reach high target goals.

Never assume food to be something which is used to gain or lose weight. Healthy food is needed for our existence and proper functioning of all our body activities. How to feed the body and mind with the healthy and a balanced diet – that’s the real task. Apart from getting rid of hunger and quenching our thirst, food we choose plays a lot of tasks, such as improve our gut health and digestion, heal our body from inflammation, to control hormonal imbalance and lifestyle diseases, give us good sleep and mental happiness, and a lot more. It’s not at all possible to list everything.

The food we eat take care of many things including beauty, glowing skin and even anti-aging. Food plays the major role in keeping both our body and mind health and sound. So, never underestimate the power of food. Even eating food at the proper time can improve your health, and helps you in losing weight without much efforts. When you rearrange your meals according to your perfect time table and make it well balanced, you are helping your mind and body through many means.

How to choose the diet? 

Which diet plan suits me most? Is it keto diet, anti-inflammatory or intermittent fasting? 

All diet plans cannot suit everybody. We need to choose the best diet plan for us, which give us better and healthy results without harming our body. For example, if you choose keto diet, it contains very less carbohydrates and very high proteins and fats. So when body needs calories, it burns fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. But the problem here is, if you follow keto diet, you have to fully avoid sugar containing items including fruits with high sugar content. Broccoli, leafy vegetables, mushrooms and tomatoes are preferred. A person having high uric acid content in blood can’t consume too much proteins, and hence the keto diet too, for a long time.

You might have seen reels about healthy vegetable juices. But having green smoothies for a long period can adversely affect your health. A person with uric acid issues can’t take these green smoothies for more than a week continuously. It can hamper his health. Intermittent fasting is widely recommended by health experts and doctors these days. In modern lifestyle, when we are over-consuming food, the digestive system is painful. It needs rest, detoxification and time to reset, and fasting is the best way to achieve this goal. Eat whatever you want in the 8-hour window, and keep your stomach empty for 16 hours. Though it is not at all easy to achieve this, you can start with 12 hours, then 14 hours and slowly reach 16 hours not-eating window. Take your own time. It is also important to eat less calorie food in the 8-hour window, if you want to lose a few pounds easily.

Anti-inflammatory diet is the recent added one. Nowadays a lot of celebrities like Vidya Balan have revealed the secrets of her weight loss through Anti-inflammatory diet. We have to identify those food items which don’t suit our body and discard them forever. You can take expert’s help who can easily identify those food items which cause body inflammation. It’s not that simple, as appear to be.

Anti-inflammatory diet is good 

Does Anti-inflammatory diet suit everyone? 

When something damages your body, maybe cuts, injuries or certain food items which don’t suit you, your body naturally responds to it and this process is called inflammation. Certain food items can cause body swelling. Some preservative foods like sausages, some processed food items which contain preservatives, artificial colours or chemicals, food items with excess salt, sugar or oil, deep fried items, high calorie fast food, maida, carbonated drinks, excess red meat – all these food items can cause inflammation.

Food rich in antioxidants never causes inflammation or swelling. Green vegetables, leafy vegetables, fruits, small type of fish rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, nuts, ginger, garlic, turmeric – all these food items have anti-inflammatory benefits. Eat whole grains. They have less glycemic index, and hence they want increase blood sugar level suddenly. Food items with high glycemic index can also cause inflammation and swelling.

Bottle gourd and leafy vegetables like palak are good for health. But it doesn’t mean these items suit everyone. Same is the case of many food items, which are healthy but may not suit everyone. Even many healthy food items like seafood, shell items etc. are allergic to some people. Some people are lactose intolerant, while some have digestion issues with rice, wheat, barley or any type of grains, sometimes in specific. You need to closely observe how your body reacts to different items of food. You can keep note of regularly used foods and triggering foods. Then take one item and not eat for 2 weeks. Do the same for the other items in your list, taking one at a time. Based on body’s reaction to different food items you can easily find which ones won’t suit you.

Blood test and lifestyle 

First of all, you can do a blood test 

Checking sugar level and cholesterol using blood test is not sufficient. Blood count which includes hemoglobin, and function of thyroid, liver and kidney should also be included. You can also test the level of iron, Vitamin D, B12, CRP etc. If body has swelling or inflammation, liver responds to it by producing a protein called CRP. After tests, if you find any problem with CRP, you have to consult a doctor and take treatment.

Excess consumption of wheat is not good for hypothyroidism. You can replace it with rice products. You can minimize the consumption of milk to cut down calories. At the same time if you are diabetic or at the border line, the doctor may suggest you to cut down rice products and consume wheat and millets, less in glycemic index. Those with the problems in kidney and liver should reduce protein intake.

You should take care of your life style too. You should get continuous sleep of at least 7 to 8 hours. Eat your dinner at least 2 hours before you go to bed. If you can make your dinner a little bit earlier, it is a remedy to many of our diseases, and even helps in reducing body weight. Digestion should be complete before you go to sleep. It will also avoid gastric problems which can affect your sleep. For every 25 kilos of your body weight, you should drink one litre water. You should also keep in note of your health condition. For the easy movement of joints and for better oxygen supply to every part of the body, water plays a significant role. Sufficient water also helps in flushing out waste, thus helping in body detoxification.

Consume sweet, but…… 

If all blood tests are ok, can we consume sugar? 

If you can fully avoid white sugar, it’s really good. But the truth is, practically it is impossible. After all we are all humans. You can’t avoid morning tea and evening tea with added sugar, if you are not a diabetic. Such beverages can refresh your mood and free your stress in your office. Everyone is going through a stressful life, and your favourite food can give you a lot of happiness. So, if you give up your favourite food, it adds more stress to your diet plan, and it is also possible you will give up your diet plan easily. The best option is to harmlessly include your favourites, even while you are going through a weight loss plan.

Stress plays an important role in increasing weight, same is the case of not getting sufficient sleep. When you are in stress, body produces excess cortisol hormone, which triggers fat deposit and high blood pressure. It increases sugar content in your bloodstream too. So, never stress yourself to give up your favourite food. Instead, you can reduce its quantity of intake and frequency. You can reduce your sugar tea from 2 to 1. Ice cream, carbonated and flavoured drinks, sweets etc can be minimized, and slowly generate a habit to avoid them from your diet. You can cut calorie intake significantly this way, which will overall improve your health and also helps you to reduce body weight.

Suppose you eat a laddu or gulab jamun of your favourite, because you couldn’t resist it. No issues. You should be well aware of your daily calorie intake. When you eat some high calorie food, you can add a lot of veggies which contain fiber and also dal or any kind of protein rich food, to keep your daily calorie intake well balanced. Also, avoid such sugar added food items for next few days, to compensate it. More you can control the cravings of sweet, fried and salted processed food, you get better results. Always keep an eye on your daily calorie intake. If you are able to manage a calorie deficit diet, you can easily achieve the target of weight loss. Eat more food with rich in protein and fibre, while reduce high Carb food rich in calories. When you eat more fiber and protein, you won’t feel hungry easily. Also drink water regularly. Sometimes hunger is only the need of water, which our brain misinterprets as need of food.

Reduce some items, while increasing a few others 

Some food items are to be increased, while a few others are to be kept in control 

Reduce carbohydrates and increase protein intake. Eat good fat in moderate quantity and also increase fiber intake. Drink sufficient water, and eat some fruit every day. Ensure yourself that you are getting all vitamins and minerals through the food you take every day. Include protein in every meal, along with fiber. Fiber helps in the better absorption of protein, and protein helps in the building of muscles, which improves metabolism. More calories are needed for the functioning of muscles, and hence a good amount of calories you take will go for its maintenance, thus helping you to remain in calorie deficit. But remember, if you have problems in kidney and liver should reduce protein intake.

Protein also helps in repairing cells. When you eat a protein rich diet, you won’t feel hunger easily. For breakfast, you can substitute a portion of your breakfast with eggs, dal, paneer, chickpeas etc. It keeps you full, gives you extra energy while reducing your food cravings too. When you control your food intake this way, you can reduce body weight. If you eat protein rich food first, you can’t eat too much. You can also avoid processed food and those prepared adding colours and preservatives. Avoid sweet and deep-fried items too. Artificial sweeteners and artificial oils are added to bakery items, which damage your health a lot, alongside increasing your body weight without much consumption.

Can we go for easily available and cheap items? 

Use olive oil. Bake chicken breast. Prefer green salad. These costly items are not necessary

Yes, olive oil (especially virgin olive oil) and chicken breast have many health benefits. Same is the case of many costly and imported green vegetables like broccoli, lettuce etc. Let us make a budget friendly diet. You can prepare healthy dishes using cheap and easily available vegetables and seasonal fruits, not necessarily imported ones. For example, we can prepare Sambar and Avial, which include a lot of vegetables.

For lunch, consume on small spoon of rice, preferably brown rice along with 4 or 5 pieces of chicken or fish along with the gravy, and some vegetables. You can add some salad and curd too. Adding half cup curd in your daily mails can improve your good health. Adding eggs is also a good option. It helps to reduce the amount of carbohydrates in your meals. You can make easy side dishes from vegetables and also add dal, which makes a balanced diet. This meal suits your body the best. When you give important to losing weight, it’s equally important to maintain it, once you achieve the target, which is difficult for most of us. If you choose traditional food items, it becomes easier because your body adopts it quickly.

Coconut oil with good cooking point is healthy comparing other processed oils. When you take too much time for cooking, choosing oils with high cooking point is advisable. It can also help in burning bad fat. But using oils in moderation is the key. Good fat is needed for our body. Please note the calorie intake. Remember these points.

1. Never overcook vegetables until they lose taste, colour and nutrition.

2. Avoid deep frying chicken and fish in high heat, to get their health benefits maximum. Shallow fry in medium flame is sufficient.

3. You can make simple stir fry (Mezhukkupuratti) of vegetables adding less salt and oil. Also use less time for cooking.

4. Never use red meat frequently. Use them once in a while, and never fry them. Instead you can make curries.

5. Apart from non-vegetarian dishes like chicken, fish and eggs, protein is also found in milk products like cheese and paneer, lentils, nuts etc.

6. You can add banana stem and flower rich in fibre to your diet, leaf of colocasia etc which are easily available.

7. You can choose different types of naturally available spinach for dishes. You can also add moringa leaves which have multiple health benefits.

Good fats and fibers 

How to get good fats and fiber, which are important 

Good fat can burn bad fat. For heart health, functioning of brain and hormonal balance, it is needed. Nuts and seeds provide the best good fats. They are bit expensive, yet you can include them in mild quantities. You can consume 5 to 10 nuts every day. Include pista, cashews, almonds, walnut, peanuts etc. Seeds of sunflower, chia, flax and pumpkin have several nutritious effects. You can add a big spoon of anyone of them, or a combination of two or more to your daily diet.

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and pulses are high in fibre. If you include these items in your diet, you won’t get hunger easily. Fibre improves digestion. But drink more water, when you take more fibre. For better bowel movements and remove blocks of intestine, fibre is essential. It also helps to balance the sugar level in blood and to maintain proper weight.

Is gut health so important 

If gut is good, everything is good 

If you are digestive system works well then you are got health is perfect. If not, it can effective you badly in many ways including excess weight. Have you ever felt stomach discomfort when you are in stress? This is called brain gut axis. This happens because there is a two-way communication system between your brain and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. If your gut health improves, brain works better. It reduces depression and mood swings, and improves defense mechanism. Your skin glows and functioning of different organs improve.

Gut bacteria plays an important role in good gut health and it is found in all types of fermented food. Probiotic food items contain these bacteria, which includes curd, buttermilk etc. You should include probiotic food items regularly in your diet to improve your gut health. You can include quarter cup of curd every day in your diet. Another important thing is, some people are lactose intolerant. They can prefer curd over milk, and get all health benefits. To add, after fermentation of milk, protein content concentrates and hence it contains more protein than milk.

Prebiotic food can prepare an atmosphere where gut bacteria grow better. Onion and garlic can be included in prebiotic food items. When sufficient amount of fibre and water are added to food, it improves and refreshes the digestive system.

This is a myth 

No exercise needed? Will skin sagging occurs with weight loss? 

We can’t say, exercise is mandatory in weight loss programs. Exercise always have its not health benefits. With a balanced diet and calorie deficit diet, it’s possible to reduce weight. It’s not necessary that you should do exercises along with it. But still, if you are physically active, it makes you healthier. Never sit at a place for long hours, either at home or office. Once in every hour, you can have a short break and walk for a while. You can also do some stretching exercises. You can prefer staircase over lift, and have a short walk to the office instead of using vehicle till doorstep.

You can start gardening and farming at home. You can practice dancing. Never go to bed soon after meals. It adds more pounds to the body. When you lose obesity, there are chances for sagging skin. If you can do exercises along with proper diet, skin sagging can be reduced significantly. Exercises tighten your skin and make it glow. That’s the advantage of doing exercises along with healthy diet, when you are going through a weight loss program.

Some important points to take care of, while dieting 

What to drink when you get up? 

Begin your morning with a glass of warm water. You can add cinnamon, cumin seeds or a combination of both, while boiling your water. Cinnamon can improve your metabolism, which triggers fat loss. Some people drink lemon- honey water. But some doctors suggest not to take lemon in empty stomach.  You can find many types of juice and drinks through reels such as moringa leaves juice, ash gourd juice, gooseberry juice etc. They are good sources of different types of nutrients. But they don’t give you results for long time. Unless you follow a strict diet, all these health drinks are not going to help. You need not drink them on a daily basis. You can ask your doctor’s opinion too.

How to find solution for food cravings? 

When you reduce the total intake of food, your mind asks for more food. At many times it’s not at all needed for our body. But because of our food carvings we may end up eating high calorie food items. You can make a list of food items to be eaten one day prior to it, and stick on to that decision. Keep such food items out of your reach.

To get enough nutrition, we need to add a few more items to the diet 

To get benefits of iron in a better way, we need Vitamin C. Pulses, peas, chickpeas along with tomatoes can give you. For better absorption of calcium, we need Vitamin D. Include milk and eggs in your diet. To get benefits of magnesium, Vitamin B6 is essential. Make a smooth of Kerala banana (big sized banana) and almonds to get this.

An easy daily menu if you follow south Indian diet 

Breakfast at 8:00 a.m: 1 Idiyappam + vegetable stew + one Bull’s eye.

11:00 a.m: 1 guava

Lunch at 1:00 p.m: one big spoon of brown rice + cucumber Pachadi with curd + green gram mezhukkupuratti + moringa leaves-carrot thoran

4 PM: A handful of peanuts + coffee

Dinner at 7:00 p.m: 5 pieces of chicken + aviyal + 1 mango

Drink water at regular intervals, in proportion to your total body weight.

Improve your traditional menu by adding more nutrition:

1. You can prepare dosa, idli, chapati, steam cake, appam or idiyappam adding ragi, which belongs to millet group. For dinner you can make Ragi porridge, and add if you add nuts, seeds, fruits and dates or dry fruits of your choice. You can combine different items.

2. Apart from ragi, jowar, pearl millet, Fox tail millet and kodo millet belongs to millet group. You can substitute rice with any of them. You can make fried rice or upma using these millets by adding vegetables of your choice.

3. While preparing idli, dosa or chapati, you can make them more colourful and nutritious by adding spinach, carrot, beetroot etc.

4. Occasionally you can make green gram dosa instead of normal dosa. Even while preparing normal dosa, add more urad dal and a little green gram to make them more protein rich and nutritious. You will get the benefits of fermentation too.

5. You can add vegetables and spinach of different types to chapati, orotti etc. You can make healthy parathas too, by using chicken or paneer stuffing.

6. Sprouted beans have more nutrition. You can prepare salads and side dishes using them. Sprouted ragi, green gram, peas etc are most common.

7. You can prepare healthy raitas by adding chia seeds, flax seeds and fruits to curd. You can take them in between the meals. Drink sufficient water when you are consuming chia seeds.