Wow - I haven't published a post in a LONG time... a whole year to be exact. Well, I was busy losing some weight, so excuse me while I eat my celery. Not exactly.
I lost 35 lbs in about a year, which nets out to about 3 lbs a month, going from pant size 42+ to size 32. A year ago, I couldn't dream of fitting in any clothing that had the word "skinny" or "slim fit" next to it. Infact, my turning point came when I tried to button a brand new shirt I had bought a few months before, and to my dismay, couldn't. I went home that day and looked at all my clothes, and realized that I had belts ranging from size 32 to size 46, and every time I got bigger, I'd just go out and buy new clothes. That was the day of epiphany for me.What followed was a few weeks of figuring out what to do. There are a million diet programs out there (Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig etc.), gyms enticing you to join to lose weight, Bowflex-type infomercials where they tell you how someone lost 100 lbs in 30 days by exercising 15 minutes a day, pills, powders, rollers and doctors running their own side business touting how their patients lost weight to become and look sexy - and it is all very confusing.
Many have asked "how'd you do it?" "Did you go to the Gym?" "Did you starve yourself?" "Is you wife not feeding you anymore...?"
I generally don't answer these questions (except for the one where I tell them that my wife actually makes me cook, so I end up starving) - quite frankly, I think most people want the hear the answer but assume they are not being given the whole story.
Then there's the other matter of other desis saying things like "you need to be healthy" (translation: We like our men fat).
Well, here's the truth - I am about to "give away the secret".
Basically, it is a game of simple mathematics. And you don't even have to be good at it. Everyone's body needs x amount of calories to survive. Just survive. You wake up, you sit on your ass, you go to sleep. It's called BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Whatever. If you actually get up off your ass, walk around, maybe even trek to work or school - your body needs BMR + the energy you spend on these activities. That is the amount of energy your body actually needs. If you eat that amount of energy (and yes, all food can be calculated in energy, its called Calories), you will stay at your current weight. If you eat more energy than you spend, your body will store it somewhere (hence resulting in weight gain). If you eat less energy than you spend, your body will need to make up that energy from somewhere within - and it will look towards the energy reserves you already have (sugar, fat, muscle), resulting in you getting thinner.That is it. That is the key. There is a lot of hocus-pocus around this because Weight Loss is a $20 Billion industry, with over 100 Million people trying to lose weight, and if they all simply just explained this to you, you'd be doing it on your own, and they'd lose revenue!
To prove this point, let's look at Weight Watchers -
They have a point system. The number of points you can eat is based on your weight, goal, sex and age - the same exact parameters used to calculate how much energy (calories) you should be eating. THEN comes the marketing - they have celebrities telling you how amazing the program is. They have foods you can eat (laced with chemicals btw). So you spend money on their membership, their foods, and are afraid to eat anywhere else. They give you one day to eat whatever you want - and call it a CHEAT day. Really?
Think about it for a second - eating whatever you want is called cheating. Which means, staying with them and on their program is the only reliable way for you to lose weight. Make it RAINN!All they have done is convert the energy formula to points, and sold you a lump of coal. Now you are dependent on them and their program, their foods, and their marketing. And for that, you pay your hard earned cash.
And oh by the way, your life style has not changed at all. You become a repeat customer. Mission Accomplished.
Weight loss is not about a short term goal, its about changing your lifestyle. Its about getting into new habits, its about eating like a normal human being, but knowing what goes in, must go somewhere.
Once you figure that out, the rest is easy (well, easier).
