Quantity and Calorie Intake to be Controlled for Weight Loss

In front of me is a woman/man who weighs 100 kgs and she/he looks at my forbidden list of fatty foods –fries, sweets, butter, ghee, pastries, puffs, etc. and exclaims “I have not eaten any of these for the last one year!” Then how did she become 100kgs in weight? She has been over eating or eating large quantities of her regular food and meals. She may be consuming many slices of bread, 2-3 cups of rice and dhal, 3-4 chapattis and large amounts of sabji. Lots of fruit juice, lots of popcorn or puffed rice, lots of coffee/tea and biscuits too may be consumed.

Weight reduction involves very strict control on quality, that is fatty food intake as mentioned above and very strict control on quantity of all the regular foods eaten in the three meals as well as foods like fruits, coffee, tea and biscuits, etc., that one may snack on.

1. The first point I would like to discuss is about drinking juices. Ideally on a strict weight reduction diet we do not recommend the consumption of tender coconut water and fresh juices. This is because a glass of tender coconut water or a juice is between 100-150 calories at the minimum, even without adding sugar. Instead we recommend that you have a snack of a whole fruit like one orange, apple, pear or guava at 11 am and 6 pm. One fruit will give you approximately 50 calories plus the fiber in it, which helps to fill you up and raises your metabolism as your body works harder to digest the fiber.

When you have to make a glass of orange juice you will use at least 2-3 oranges which will give you 100-150 calories and the fiber is missing. Similarly we do not recommend the consumption of carrot, beetroot and other vegetable juices and instead we want you to eat a bowl of fresh salad daily, with both lunch and dinner. When you eat a salad the calories are less and the fiber is more and this plays a big role in your weight reduction.

2. The second dangerous foods are dieters snacking on popcorn, American corn, puffed rice and khakaras. All these items seem very light when you eat them but the biggest danger is that they cannot be counted. They are usually eaten in hand fulls, cup fulls and bag fulls and either while watching T.V or a movie or chit chatting with others so there is no quantity control. These foods may not be counted in a fatty food list or dieters forbidden list but they contain very high amounts of starch and salt and this can completely cancel all the dieting and exercising you may be doing.

One should only snack at tea time, 4-5 pm and that should be only on 2-3 crackers, Marie biscuits, digestive, high fiber biscuits or 1-2 whole wheat bread slices or toast. Even these snacks must not be eaten at 11am, 6pm or bed time.

3. The third point is our meals -bread, rice, chapatti, dhal, vegetables, milk, eggs, chicken, fish, etc., are all the nutritious and good food that has to be eaten daily in our meals. How ever we need to know that they all contain calories and we need to count those calories and control their quantity intake so that the total calorie intake of all our meals and milk, fruits, etc., is less than the calories that we burn daily. Only then will our weight come down.