Advise for the Right Exercise and Diet Plan

Many options of exercise and work out plans are available today. There are gyms and exercise and dance classes available all over Bangalore and also in most apartment complexes. Many even have personal gyms at home and have personal instructors to help them. It is however very important for you to decide what you want for your body and what exercise and diet plan will best suit and help you achieve the goal you have for your body. Do you have the ideal weight for your height? If you are ideal weight do you want to tone the muscles or build muscle mass. Do you want to lose 5 to 10kgs fat, (weight). There is a different strategy involved in each.

1. If a person is already at her/his ideal weight and wanting to build muscle you have to focus on strength training exercise, weights, stretches and may be some yoga too, 3-4 times in a week.

2. Also to build muscle it is not enough to work out without providing a very good diet which is the raw material for the build-up. The diet must first be made up of breakfast, lunch and dinner being carbohydrate and protein food, balanced together. Then over and above the regular protein intake you need to consume a little extra protein in the form of extra skimmed milk and extra egg white. If you normally drink 2 glasses of skimmed milk 250 plus 250 ml then you need to add one more glass of 250ml milk. Therefore the total being 750ml skimmed milk per day. Normally you would eat 2 egg whites with breakfast and now you may make that into 3 egg whites daily. If you are a pure vegetarian and there is no egg white then you would have to consume 4 glasses of milk totally in a day. Besides this you should be consuming one cup dhal with your lunch and one cup dhal with your dinner.

3. Finally in order to ensure that you don’t gain weight and keep the fat per cent in your body at a minimum you need to do 25-30 minutes cardio exercise like walking or jogging daily or at least 6 day’s a week along with your 3-4 days of weight training and stretching exercise.

We want to specially advice you not to take any protein supplements as they can have serious side effects on your reproductive hormones.

To lose fat (weight)

1. If you have to first lose 5-10 or 20kgs weight before you reach your ideal weight then your main focus has to be on cardiovascular exercise like walk/ jog in a park or on the road side or on a treadmill (without incline) or on a cross trainer. This must be a minimum of 30-45 minutes once a day or 25-30 minutes in the morning plus 25-30 minutes in the evening all 7 days. Yoga or weight training or stretches may be done over and above cardio exercise for 30-40 minutes 3 times a week for toning the body but you must not think that these exercises can substitute walk/jog as they are meant to tone muscles and not for burning fat in any part of the body.

2. However regular you are with your cardio workout you must know that to reduce fat in the body you also need to put a plaster on your mouth and mind if you want to reduce fat that is already stored in your body. You have to completely avoid eating all food containing excess oil/fat like deep fried snacks, chaat, buttery popcorn or corn, all nuts and oilseeds like almonds, flaxseed, walnuts, etc., Butter, ghee, cream, all sweets, desserts, cakes, cookies, chocolates, ice creams etc., This cannot be indulged in once a week, similarly you cannot miss your cardio once a week. It is being strict and very regular all 7 days till your finish your 5-10kgs weight loss that counts. You can lose 9-10kgs in 3 months.

3. Besides this you must eat all 3 meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner as carbohydrate and protein balanced meals during the entire weight loss period. If the protein intake is not adequate in all the three meals, you will lose muscle tissue along with fat and you will look aged and have lose, sagging, wrinkled skin after your weight loss. You must never substitute a meal with only fruits, only salads or boiled vegetables.