Before		After

Dietician and nutritionist Lisa John was fat once and it's hard to believe that this mother of three ever had a weight problem for 28 long years. Because she's been the butt of jokes and has been through bouts of gorging followed by starvation routines, she knows exactly how a fat person feels. She lost 25kgs in a year. Lisa John invests time and energy in her clients and lending a sympathetic ear comes naturally to her. She spends time analyzing your eating habits and lifestyle.

More than that she has had people pouring out their hearts to her. Emotional problems often lead to eating disorders. "You can't fight any battle on an empty stomach so don't even try to fight this battle on one". She says, the golden rule is never to be hungry and never to skip a meal. After years of study and experimenting, she has come to certain conclusions about food and dieting.

The first and most important principle is to ensure that your energy requirement of calories for the day are properly distributed between meals. According to Lisa, breakfast and midmorning snack should constitute 40% of calories for the day, lunch and tea, 40% and dinner, 20%.

The second principle is to ensure that each meal is a combination of complex carbohydrates and protein foods, along with which a good variety of vegetables and fruits must be added throughout the day. Please note that the quantity of food eaten in meals must be controlled and is specific and different from individual to individual. Overeating of the right food can also lead to obesity. E.g. A person says he never eats fatty foods but whenever he eats his meals his quantities of the right foods, namely rice, dhal etc. are much more than his body requires. All the extra rice and dhal is converted to fat and stored.

The third principle is that fat in the body can be reduced or removed only when the fat coming into the body is kept to a minimum of 2-3 teaspoons per day. This means that minimum oil may be used for seasoning. However, all oily preparations, groundnuts, coconut, fried foods, fatty bakery foods, sweets, fatty non-veg dishes, creamy milk and milk products like butter, ghee and cheese must be completely avoided. "Take heart, its not forever, 2-3 monthly only" says Lisa. In three months you can lose 10kgs.