A popular belief regarding weight reduction is that even while on a very strict diet if you happen to go out one night and indulge in mutton briyani and a rich dessert, you can compensate this by doing extra exercise the next day.

While doing a very strict diet it is a wrong concept to let yourself go and indulge once a week. Usually we see such people coming to us and saying “I have been trying very hard to lose weight for the last 6 months and not succeeding”. Finally they admit that they are very strict throughout the week, in their diet and regular exercises, but also very regularly indulge in the weekend.

“Hey, we are working so hard we need a break, don’t we!” “Sorry, sensible serious weight reduction requires you to be strict and good all the 7 days and 7 days and 7 days for at least 3 months to get 10kgs off. After that during the maintenance period you may eat your goodies twice in a week and maintain your weight, but now it is hard work all the way, every day, 7 days a week.

Let us look at the calories to get a better picture. 1-cup mutton briyani is 500 calories and your dessert is another 500. Your normal diet dinner would be 300-400 calories. So you have an extra 600 calories of glucose in your blood. You decide to add 20 minutes extra workout to your present 1 hour in the gym tomorrow morning. Your blood cannot say that you have planned to work out more in the morning so it will keep this 600 calories waiting in the blood. It has to be removed from the blood immediately. But you are sleeping and can not use it so the body converts it to fat and stores it. Next morning you are at the gym and do an extra 20 minutes on the treadmill. You burn an extra 100-200 calories only. 400 is still stored as fat.

By lunchtime you are ravenously hungry because of your extra work out and you eat 2 cups of rice instead of 1 cup. You have stored another 180 calories and only added to your damage. So one of the most important lessons to learn, is that, exercise in weight reduction or weight control is not meant to compensate some food eaten but mainly to build up your fitness and your metabolic rate, which in the long run helps to burn fat more efficiently in your body.

Here’s some news, one samosa is 150 to 200 calories. A brisk walk of 20 minutes burns about 100 calories. So if you indulge in 1 samosa while weight reducing, you have to do an extra 40 minutes walk, over and above you present regular exercise schedule. It’s not worth it!. Hold on, the samosa can be eaten after 3 months, while on maintenance. All the goodies are not running away, they will be there for us just 3 months away. We will then be 10 kgs less, smartly dressed, looking good and eating without guilt and pain so WAIT. It’s worth the WAIT!