LOSE WEIGHT DURING A LOCKDOWN WITHOUT EXERCISE-PART 2
Welcome back to the second instalment of the diet plan. To those who have not read the first instalment, the second part will make no sense. So please revert to the first part either in the Deccan Chronicle newspaper dated second April 2020 or check it out on my website @www.jayanthmurali.com.
In the first part of the diet plan, I outlined the first two steps out of ten steps where I challenged your body to shed those extra pounds that’s always sagging around like yesterday’s baggage without setting foot inside a gym! Before we continue to lose all that accumulated fat and get fit, let me do a quick recap. This diet plan which I have designed to help one lose weight during the current lockdown without ever having to step into a gym envisages ten steps. Last week, I detailed two steps which would earn you 25 points if you implemented them, and this week you are being exposed to three more, which could earn you additional 18 reward points if executed each day. As pointed out earlier, each of the ten steps has a certain weight-age or reward points. To achieve the weight loss goal of 5 kgs per month, one would have to earn 1800 reward points in 30 days, which would require one to score a minimum of 60 reward points daily. After having skimmed through the first part, you now know why it is critical to eat from a small plate, chew your food 25-30 times before swallowing and take small breaks between servings. Now, let’s dive forth and propel this incredible quest onward.
The next and third step in this diet plan helps you earn five reward points if you open a “Food Journal” and make entries of all that you are devouring during the day, every day till the day you achieve your weight loss goals. Pandemics are stressful times. Staying cooped up at home during stressful moments like a pandemic may mean raiding the refrigerator frequently as the body craves high-calorie and high-sugar snacks and junk food as these items provide bursts of energy and solace during stressful times. During such times, we can easily fall into the trap of overeating unless one is consciously tracking what one is eating in a journal to make one mindful of what and how much to eat. We don’t realise that it’s often the small in-between snacks, a small nibble here and a little bite of chocolate there that’s potentially keeping us away from losing weight. When we write every snack, we nibble on and every juice or soda we are gulping down, we become more accountable for what we are consuming. Food journals also help us uncover the unhealthy habits that are keeping us away from losing weight. When we become mindful of our eating patterns, we realise how and where we are going wrong, and we gain control over uncontrolled binging, eventually. Research reveals that people who journal what they eat lose twice the amount of weight than those who don’t believe in the journal’s power. We also get spurred to eat by distinct triggers, which we may not be aware of. Food journals help us recognise such triggers. For instance, some unconsciously reach for food when they watch TV or while driving or when they are feeling angry, bored, sad, happy or nervous. Journals help us identify such triggers and make us aware each time we unconsciously reach for food. They hold us back at the nick of time from indulging in mindless eating habits. Journals can also help us know whether we are eating adequately from each food group and whether we are getting reasonable fibre, minerals and vitamins from fruits and vegetables.
The fourth step, which can help melt all those unwanted fat and help us gain several health benefits, is intermittent fasting. Implementing intermittent fasting each day will earn you ten reward points. This strategy could prove game-changing if religiously followed not only for weight loss but also for boosting immunity. Intermittent fasting was a way of life for our ancestors for about two million years. They ate when they had food when they didn’t; they left the caves looking for it. Our bodies have evolved on a sporadic diet which allowed the human bodies to burn fat and build immunity.
Strengthening one’s immune system is critical during a pandemic. Fasting is one of the best ways to boost one’s immunity and also achieve weight loss simultaneously. As pandemics are stressful times, fasting during such times could cause the cortisol levels to rise, but the protocol that is being proposed here is the mildest version of intermittent fasting. It’s a version which is easy to follow with the slightest discomfort. The reason intermittent fasting can improve immunity is that the practice of fasting effectively regulates the immune system by diminishing the number of inflammatory cytokines stimulating an inflammatory response in the body. Fasting also stimulates autophagy, which inhibits viral infections and the replication of intracellular parasites. The body, therefore, could probably elicit a similar reaction to the COVID-19 virus. The process of autophagy is part of the innate immune system that utilises pattern recognition receptors to identify viral cell invaders. Catabolism during fasting also helps the body get rid of intracellular pathogens.
As already mentioned, the intermittent fasting protocol I am advocating is straightforward, one that will put the slightest or almost no stress in the body. We already fast after our dinner until we partake our breakfast the next morning. The intermittent fasting I am recommending does not constrain your food choices, nor does it limit the quantity of the food you can consume. All it requires is that you advance your time of dinner to either 1800 or 1900 hours and delay your breakfast next day a bit to either 0800 hrs or 0900 hrs so you are on a fast for 14 hours and your the eating window gets limited to 10 hours in which you can eat with no restrictions. However, eating nutrient-dense foods like fruits and vegetables and shying away from sugary calorie-rich snacks and sodas can boost your results. For best results, limit carbs to dinner, and stay hydrated throughout the day with plenty of water. It’s that simple. But if religiously followed, the effects and benefits are mind-boggling. After adapting to a 14-hour fast, try a 16 hour fast with an eight-hour eating window to get even more out of intermittent fasting. Just this small and straightforward tweak goes to bring about a host of benefits besides weight loss and improved immunity such as decreased fat mass, reduced blood pressure, improved insulin sensitivity to fight diabetes, improved brain health, reduced oxidative damage to cells and DNA and higher autophagy for cells to repair themselves.
The reason why intermittent fasting works is that intermittent fasting accesses stored fat energy in our body. Some food we eat is more than our immediate energy needs and therefore gets stored as fat for later use. When we eat, insulin rises and converts the excess energy at first into glycogen, which can get stored in the liver or muscle. Our bodies, however, have limited capacity to store glycogen, and once the entire storage gets used up, the liver converts excess glucose to fat by a process called de-novo lipogenesis. Some of which is stored in the liver and the surplus get stored in various parts of body fat. We, therefore, have two energy systems. The glycogen system which is easily accessible but has only limited storage space and the other being the body fat which has unlimited storage space but is remarkably inaccessible.
When we are intermittently fasting, we exist in two states. During the eating window, we are in a fed state, which is a high insulin state, and during the fasting period, we are in a low-insulin fasted state. If we eat the moment, we wake up and not stop eating until we go to bed. Over time, we will gain weight because we are always in a fed state, and we have not permitted our bodies to access stored body fat by being in a fasted state. By being in a fasting window during intermittent fasting, we are allowing our bodies a certain amount of time to burn stored energy. This, in essence, is what intermittent fasting is all about and why it is proving to be a game-changer for losing weight and gaining lean mass.
Having looked at the first four steps, we have now arrived at the fifth step. The fifth step is a straightforward but effective step, which helps you reduce the quantity of food you require to feel satiated. It will make you feel full with much less food. Following this step, each day will earn you three reward points. This step requires you to ingest a tablespoon of Psyllium husk before every meal. Psyllium husk, or what is colloquially known as Isabgol or Ispaghula, comes in two varieties: tablet and powder. While the pill is more comfortable to ingest, the powder form is more popular. Thirty minutes before every meal mix a spoon of Psyllium husk in 300ml of water and then gulp it down. Assuming you have two main meals a day; the total comes to 600ml of water and two tablespoons of the husk.
Once ingested, Psyllium husk expands inside our bodies. Thus makes us feel full, which in turn decreases the feeling of hunger. When we sit down to eat, we end up taking smaller portions, hence resulting in weight reduction. The reason I suggest that you have the psyllium husk with water half an hour before a meal is because research has shown that drinking water during a meal could hamper digestion. Small sips of water do not affect us but, drinking more than a glass can lower our digestive powers. Studies recommend drinking water either 2 hrs after having a meal or 30 mins before one. The more water you drink during a meal, the lesser will be the quantity of gastric enzymes that will get secreted. Over and above, by taking the husk before a meal, you give it time to absorb the water and expand further in the stomach.
Finally, every dominant religion from Christianity to Buddhism to Hinduism held the practice of fasting to be sacred and necessary. For our forefathers, intermittent fasting was a way of life. Their waking hours were spent hunting, gathering and trekking, and there was often only one big meal eaten when food was available, and the conditions were safe. Seven thousand years ago may seem like a forever, but it’s a small bleep in time when it comes to human evolution. It transpires that our ancestors understood what they were doing both spiritually and scientifically speaking. It’s time for us to remember who we are and where we came from. The act of fasting will help us quiet your mind so that your soul can speak more clearly to us. It could also awaken us and give us more natural energy, flexibility, clarity of mind and overall lightness of being.
Source from: epaper/deccanchronicle/chennai/dt:07.04.2020
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
