Eat Desi Food, Lose Weight

Talk about an attention-grabbing heading.  Guess what, no more nonsense or science, I will tell you exactly how it can be done.

You see, people are still under the illusion that weight loss and clean-eating go hand-in-hand. Whilst this can be achieved, it is definitely not the best way to get fit.  Let me explain.

The first thing someone will do is limit their carbs.  By limiting carbs, people think they will lose weight. Yes, you will lose weight, but this weight will come mainly from water as carbs hold water in cells that are in your body.  When you drop carbs, you lose a lot of water, thus, you lose body weight on the scale. If losing water is the goal, awesome, go for it.  

But I’m assuming you want to lose fat.  The jiggly stuff that you do not like the look off – am I right?

The next thing someone will do is quit cold turkey and go ‘clean’.  No processed foods, fruits and veggies and bland foods.  Fruits and veggies, awesome.  But this is usually followed by plain meats, avocados, healthy red meats, salmon – basically stuff that you don’t really like and ultimately is a lot more expensive than it needs to be.  We are still under the illusion that the best breakfast is either avocado on toast with smoked salmon and some bulletproof coffee.  But did you know that you can eat some protein granola, or even some eggs with cheese and still lose weight? Did you know you can still have some butter on toast or some Weetabix? I’m guessing, no.

Lastly, and something for my Asian audience, we eliminate the roti-salan, the rices, the teas and the stuff we have enjoyed for years.  What happens then?  Misery. We crave these foods more.  We receive negative comments from friends and family. We sacrifice time with the family or family gatherings and ultimately we do more harm than good to our mental state.  Perhaps we see a post from a popular Instagrammer who says asian food is bad and must be avoided and follow this advice, blindly.  And as a result, we just don’t enjoy any of the journey.  Our clients, and even those in our member’s zone still enjoy their asian food.  We just make some small changes and Get their overall nutrition in check so that they can enjoy any other foods they like. 

Guys.  Let me say this once again.  Weight loss is ALL about energy.  Are you burning more than you are taking in per day. I’ll explain the essentials below.  

• Find out how many calories you need per day JUST to maintain your weight.  There are a tonne of calculators out there
• Use this number as a guide and eat this amount of calories per day.
• If you are a number’s person, awesome.  Take your body weight in pounds (lbs) and eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.  so if you weigh 140 pounds, aim for around 120-140 gams per day.  Eg – a regular chicken breast is around 30-40 grams of protein. 
• Eat fruits and veggies, more protein, healthy fats and carbs each day.  More carbs on heavy exercise days.  Big leg workouts and back workouts use up more energy.
• Exercise. Daily if you can. Weight train 3-4 times a week for faster results (especially you ladies)
• Continue eating some of the food you like – roti, salan, rice etc.  By getting 80% of our food from wholesome foods, we can still enjoy some roti-salan if we want as calories will be in check. 
• Be consistent.
• Watch your weight decrease slowly. 

Once we figure out what our maintenance weight is, which takes some trial and error, we can then exercise to burn calories and achieve a calorie-deficit and just make some small changes to the diet.  Make sense?

Your roti is NOT making you fat.  Please stop, and I’m begging you, please stop eliminating carbs thinking it’s the carbs causing the weight gain.  The only thing that causes weight gain is overconsumption of calories.  Eating more calories than your body needs as this extra food will be stored as energy in your fat stores – that’s all! If you ate 20 chapatis in one go, then yes, you will have gone over your calorie allowance and weight gain could happen.  If you put 20 tablespoons of oil in your salan, then again, weight gain may happen. But its really all about moderation guys.  That’s it. 

A particular food is not to blame.  Please keep this in mind.  If that was the case, our clients would be fat.  Every asian person on this planet would be huge.  Think about it please.  You have people in India and Pakistan who eat oily food pretty much everyday, but so many of them walk a hell of a lot – thus they burn a lot of calories and balance everything out.  Nowadays, desk jobs, office jobs generally and being inactive at home means we do not move much, thus we don’t burn any energy.  Add to that our crappy diet that has no balance and this is a complete recipe for disaster. 

Now this article was all about raising awareness and helping you all.  I really hate to see you guys suffer and struggle because weight loss is really simple – you just need support and motivation. 

With our Member’s zone, we have many females all over the UK, who are part of our programme who are helping one another, motivating one another, sharing ideas and pushing each other.  Oh, and we give you everything from the workouts, nutrition guidance, motivation and answering all questions!  This is has been the most successful thing we have done as it has been incredibly well received.

So if you are someone who is stuck, doesn’t know what to do and you are getting really sad and down about your health and weight then I urge you to get in touch with us! No, this is not expensive personal training, something completely different, I promise.

Join us. Talk to us first if you want, and if you decide to join, you will be part of an amazing group on WhatsApp where you are joined by like-minded ladies who are on a similar journey.  On top of that, we basically give you everything you need and ensure you are on track and help you.  

Guys I hope you took something away from this article.  You don’t deserve to suffer.  There is light at the end of the tunnel. You are just led to believe it’s not possible!

Take care.