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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

General Motor Diet – To do or not to do?

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Dear Pooja,
I followed the GM diet twice, and lost almost 8 kilos. I’d followed the diet then because I had a wedding to attend. Now, I want to lose 10 kilos permanently. Is it safe to practice it on a regular basis? Or are the results just temporary?

What if I asked you ‘Will you be able to do the particular diet permanently?’ Nothing lasts till you don’t work towards it. That holds good for any regime you intend following whether it was a hair care, skin care, exercise or diet related weight loss. Till you apply a certain cream to can prevent the pigmentation that bothers you, till you lift the weights to have the tone and strength you want, similarly till to follow a particular diet you will have the results it gives you. If you can’t do it forever – how will the results last forever? Thus my strong advice is never start something that is difficult to sustain. If the cream cost lakhs the results can be great on you skin but you cant keep applying it forever? Follow a food plan that can be become a lifestyle then its results are here to stay. Eating just fruits or just meat or vegetables in the whole day is not something anyone can sustain so then obviously once you start eating everything the weight will come running back on. No wedding or occasion is worth putting your body through the torment of muscle loss (and lack of eating wholesome only leads to losing your healthy burning muscle mass) and the worse being it comes back on as fat (the unhealthy storing component that further lowers your metabolism) Weight loss is not about deletion, we all tend to make food the enemy by starving or depriving ourselves to the point where we are punishing our bodies to lose weight. Weight loss is not about upheaval, its about adjustment. Weight loss is not about dieting, it’s about making permanent changes to your eating habits. So that you don’t have to do this rut for another occasion around the corner. Please do visit a nutritionist who can help you chalk this regime for you well and forever. Good luck!

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

I am tired of FAD diets – help me!

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Dear Pooja,
I am a 26-year-old woman and have been dieting  (I eat only two meals -lunch and dinner) for the last couple of years now. However, the amount of weight loss is rather slow. I have tried different diets (the GM diet helped me to lose 4 kgs last year but now i am the same) but none of them have worked so far. What should I do?

 

Sadly my dear, you are losing out only your healthy burning muscle mass not the unhealthy storing fat. When the body is not fed frequently and adequately, it drops its metabolic rate and moves into a compromised burning state where it is unable to breakdown fat as a source of fuel and therefore survives by breakdown the next available source- muscle. This too leads to weight loss but after a while plateaus as the body cant let go of too much of its muscle mass. Any diet that starves you can only lead to loss of muscle never fat thus all your previous weight loss attempts have failed. To start up (and for the last time ever) eat to lose. Divide your meals into four main meals plus three to four fillers depending on the number of hours you are awake. Eat little but eat every two hours – that is the best way to keep your metabolic rate up and thus use fat as the reverse fuel- helping you lose weight gradually but permanently because as the fat mass decreases it increases inherent metabolic rate making it easier to maintain the lost kilos. Happy eating!

 

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In Articles to munch on

NOURISH GENIE:TAKE IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT

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Can’t do without it, and definitely can’t do with too much of it. Salt is a chemical compound called sodium chloride ­ 40 per cent sodium and 60 per cent chloride. Studies recommend that the upper limit of salt for adults is anywhere between 3.75 5 gm (sodium intake between 1.5 2.3 gm per day) which actually measures to just a tsp of salt per day. This is the ideal amount of salt for all healthy adults without high blood pressure, diabetes or cardio-vascular diseases.
WHY DOES THE BODY NEED SALT?
Cutting back on added salt is a small way to avoid over consumption. Do remember that you don’t need to add salt to all the food items you are consuming ­ 75 per cent of the salt you eat is already present in everyday food items, like bread, breakfast cereals, ketchup and a lot of canned foods. Fortunately, nutrition labels on most ready made foods indicate the salt content in them. (1 gm sodium = 2.5 gm salt; so if you know how much sodium is present in a food item, you can roughly know the amount of salt it contains). Here’s how you can decode the labels: High salt content: If the salt content is higher than 1.5 gm per 100 gm of the food product, the sodium content mentioned will be 0.6 gm per 100 gm. Low salt content: If the salt content is 0.3 gm for less per 100 gm of the product; equivalent sodium content would be 0.1 gm per 100 gm.
Medium salt content: Foods between high and low figures. e Also note that dis-solvable vitamin supplements and painkillers contain up to one gm of salt per tablet. It would be advisable that you switch to non-effervescent counterparts, especially, if you have been asked to watch your salt intake.

WHY TOO MUCH SALT IS BAD FOR YOU
If you binge on foods that are too salty, you feel bloated and puffy hours later. This is be cause eating too much salt causes your body to retain more water, which increases the blood volume. This furthur leads to excess pressure on the blood vessels, thus demanding a lot of hard work from the heart in order to ensure smooth blood flow through the body. This is the main cause for high blood pressure and various heart dis eases. Other metabolic disorders associated with excess sodium intake include osteoporosis, kidney stone, asthma and gastric cancers.
SALTY FOODS ONE MUST AVOID
Cheese Pickles Papads Salted nuts Wafers, chips and other savoury farsan Soy sauce Tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and other ready-made sauces Breads Ready-to-eat soups, noodles, pasta
BALANCE THE SALT INTAKE
Focus on potassium
Increase in the level of potassium helps lower sodium levels, thus balancing blood pressure positively. Potassium rich foods include fruits like plum, peach, banana, muskmelon, avocados, orange, spinach, prunes, raisins and apricots to name a few.
Increase your water intake
This is the best way to flush out the excess sodium and maintain correct pH balance in the body. Aerated waters, sodas, energy drinks are unfavourable and can easily sabotage your efforts to maintain normal blood pressure.
Rinse canned foods
Vegetables and meat that are packed in brine (salt solution) always increase the salt content in the body.Rinse them to wash away extra salt.
Replace salt with herbs
Instead of reaching out for the salt shaker to add that extra flavour, season your food with citrus juices, herbs and spices.

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In layer3

BEST DIET FOR WEIGHT LOSS

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What’s the best diet for weight loss? Celebrity nutritionist and founder of www.nourishgenie.com,Pooja Makhija weighs in.

Sometimes the road to body beautiful seems miles away. No matter how hard you try to diet, exercise or sacrifice, you begin to wonder whether you will ever achieve your healthy goals. Fat weight loss sometimes seems as mythical as world peace. In a situation where questions seem to follow questions, I present to you a simple hack: three tricks for identifying whether a weight loss diet is indeed good for you and able to deliver the results you have always wanted. While any calorie-controlled diet should help you lose weight – you can find good diets online or even more customized plans on websites like www.nourishgenie.com – evaluate the diet at hand by asking yourself the following questions:

  1. Is The Diet Helping You In The Long Term?

If you’re going to make the effort anyway, why not choose a diet that helps you both lose weight and keep it off? Liquid diet weight loss is one such short-term, futile approach. Juices cleanses or some detox diets would be examples of a liquid diet weight loss attempt but any diet that is skewed in the favour of liquids and not solids already means that your efforts will literally go down the drain. Liquid diets are akin to starvation, and no starvation diet will do anything for your body in the long run except harm it. If you want to really employ one of the best weight loss tricks ever, how about simply eating healthy instead? Food is one of the best tools for weight loss. Eat to delete.

  1. How Does Your Diet Make You Feel?

Your body is the quickest indicator of your wellness. As weight loss diets are meant to correct an eating pattern but not to punish you for it, the best diets are those that make you feel energetic, happy and motivated. If your meal plan makes you feel tired, lethargic, run down, irritable or depressed, you haven’t chosen right.

  1. What Should You Expect From The Diet?

Make sure that the diet you choose results in permanent weight loss. Obviously when I mean ‘permanent’, I mean that you do not revert to your old weight once you have adopted a new lifestyle. Another good indicator is fat loss. If your diet suits your body, it’ll leave your muscles alone. A good diet for weight loss doesn’t allow the body to use up muscle instead of fat, which happens in cases where nutrition is inadequate.

Apart from a good diet plan for your weight loss, there are a few more weight loss tricks: Make sure you eat every two hours: This’ll not only keep your hands off junk food, but also provide a steady stream of energy through the day. Additionally, like walking or running, even digestion burns calories, and eating frequently helps keep your body in the gym. Eat fruits good for weight loss.Apples, oranges, grapefruit, even mangoes (all except bananas) are all examples of fruits good for weight loss. And don’t forget to drink water and sleep well because it is a holistic approach to health that works the best of all.

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