[amitk26]

Guys hold one one article on BBC in western context and it is kind of concluded that "our ancestors " were not having breakfast

Fortunately in India still many villages have lifestyle which "our" ancestors followed before electrification and urban office work was invented.

In urban India also if you look at food habits of a traditional shopkeeper it is very much the same and these people have absolutely no western influence or in other words there is no way Kellogs could have affected them to have breakfast.

Few pointers from my side

1. Few decades ago there was no electricity ( still it is the case in may villages where only electric poles exist).

2. Even today people in rural India get up before dawn and have some breakfast called Kaelva / Kaleu in rural dialicts of North India and go to fields for agricultural work. Most of the time the breakfast here is parnatha + lassi or something similar. Today this word is out of faishon and I have heard only from maids in my home town but that does not mean it never existed.

Still you can hear this word in urban India in Hindi in Krishna temples when morning breakfast bhog is offered to the god and Arti is performed.

3. People do finish the work by noon before sun gets too hot and then go for siesta after lunch.

4. Evening the dinner is at around 6:00 - 6:30 depending on season before dark. Even in some communities till recently it was forbidden to have food after dark. Also the evening dinner is usually paranthas even to extent that having roti is considered really bad omen.

How do I know this , well I had similar discussion with my father on how was life during his school days in 50s early 60s in village.

So yes before urbanization our middle class people that is land owning farmers / teachers / shopkeepers or whoever could afford was having meals 3 times a day and cycle was set much earlier.

BTW : Life expectancy in India in 1947 was just 31.4 years and the main reason was low availability of food and famines.

[dre@ms]

I am here looking to reduce my tummy. I am 176cm and my weight is 76kgs.
My food habits,
Mon-Fri
Breakfast:
Boiled oats (Quaker) - 1 cup
Coffee
Lunch:
1 cup of rice with some root vegetables
Evening:
Some snacks like masala peanuts, masala channa dal, tapioca chips
Dinner:
Dosa/Chappathi/Idly/Vermicelli/Rawa Upma or some times 2 cups of rice

Sat:
Breakfast - Masala poha/2 Dosa/3 Idly
Lunch - 2 cups of rice with some root veggies
Dinner - Fried rice/noodles 1 cup

Sunday:
Skip breakfast
Lunch - 2 cups of rice with chicken/mutton/fish gravy/fried
Dinner - Same as above or replace rice with Idly/Dosa/Chappathi

I was trying to do those AB exercise morning for 15-20 minutes but not able to do it regularly due to my erratic work schedules. And with that I do weight lifts of 3kgs 35 count just to build my biceps.

Please advice how should I change my diet and workouts. I am planning to devote some time in the evenings for workout. Is that ok?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by amitk26

Few pointers from my side

1. Few decades ago there was no electricity ( still it is the case in may villages where only electric poles exist).

2. Even today people in rural India get up before dawn and have some breakfast called Kaelva / Kaleu in rural dialicts of North India and go to fields for agricultural work. Most of the time the breakfast here is parnatha + lassi or something similar. Today this word is out of faishon and I have heard only from maids in my home town but that does not mean it never existed.

Still you can hear this word in urban India in Hindi in Krishna temples when morning breakfast bhog is offered to the god and Arti is performed.

3. People do finish the work by noon before sun gets too hot and then go for siesta after lunch.

4. Evening the dinner is at around 6:00 - 6:30 depending on season before dark. Even in some communities till recently it was forbidden to have food after dark. Also the evening dinner is usually paranthas even to extent that having roti is considered really bad omen.

Hey thanks for bringing in the Indian context.
Does your father also remember the typical quantity of each such meal.
It would be of tremendous information to compare it to an urban sedentary person's diet!

Originally Posted by amitoj

Why would I want to unnecessarily put my will power to test by starving myself for half a day when there is another, much easier and less biologically taxing method of achieving what i want. Starving is not the only way to lose weight. Being smart about your diet will yield much better and more satisfying results.

I don't know how you can call removing morning breakfast as starving!
Anyway its not your method or mine method, its just something available in the market so we both needn't "defend", people have different ways of achieving same result, the end result matters!

By the way, I recall you have written that you are 90kg and intend to remain around that ... any reason why you are restricting yourself to a set kg of weight? The way I see things, fat loss should be more based on appearance and waist measurement (for guys).

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by alpha1

I don't know how you can call removing morning breakfast as starving!
Anyway its not your method or mine method, its just something available in the market so we both needn't "defend", people have different ways of achieving same result, the end result matters!

If you have dinner at 8PM (lets say) and then skip breakfast and go straight for lunch at 1 PM, that is 17 straight hours without food.

I am surprised that it is not your method. The conviction with which you were advocating this suggested that you have personally tried it out. My bad.

Originally Posted by alpha1

By the way, I recall you have written that you are 90kg and intend to remain around that ... any reason why you are restricting yourself to a set kg of weight? The way I see things, fat loss should be more based on appearance and waist measurement (for guys).

Weight is the most convenient metric to measure and shows you whether you are moving in the right direction or not. But you are mistaken by assuming that that is the ONLY thing i am measuring. I have lost 10 kg weight, dropped fat content by 3%, increased water content by 2% and increased muscle mass slightly. And also shaved 4 inches around the waist.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by amitoj

If you have dinner at 8PM (lets say) and then skip breakfast and go straight for lunch at 1 PM, that is 17 straight hours without food.

I am surprised that it is not your method. The conviction with which you were advocating this suggested that you have personally tried it out. My bad.

1. By your measures people starve themselves normally from 8 pm to 8 am = 12 hours. But they hardly feel starved.

2. I have tried your approach of cutting down each meal (5 to be precise) to bits such that it feels like bird feed and thus doesn't satisfy and hence difficult to sustain long term as a diet methodology, also to add the incessant calorie and grams counting. I have also tried my approach of reducing the number of times one feeds himself. There must be a reason why I am advocating one thing over the other.

Much before all this diet, fat reduction thing I had observed that after eating buffet at night, the normal eating practice of the entire next day felt unnecessary. Which is what led to to research about if I do not eat the complete next day what happens, what happens if I do not eat morning breakfast / lunch when I feel the need vs when I do not feel the need etc. Why is that the unknown "well wishers" always come up with reasons why stomach should never be kept empty. Why do we start feeling sleepy and lazy after eating while those same well wishers recommend having largest meal as morning one, why do we eat so much when we are idle or under stress. What causes the tummy bloat (not fat) etc

3. Besides, what I am doing is not much different from what Bahai, Catholic, Jews, Muslims and Jains do in their fast (please note they don't call it starvation).

Hence I do not prefer calling it MY method. I do not hold any patents, and I am not going to get any benefit by someone else doing it (or not doing it). I am sure even you don't hold any patents to your way of reducing calories, and thus should have no vested interests.

4. If you wish to put a name to my approach - it is called intermittent fasting.

[srishiva]

Since this is bodybuilding and exercise thread, wouldn't you be really deprived of nutrition if you miss breakfast?

In my village, most people have a lunch at 10 AM before going to fields and then dinner. Breakfast is or maybe mostly was not prevalent. I remember my grandmother preparing breakfast just for us when we were there during summer holidays.

So if you workout like heck in the morning, you should have good breakfast. For weight loss, you can always have negative net calorie with good nutrition. We also need our brain to be functioning properly since most of us are not manual labourers.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by alpha1

1. By your measures people starve themselves normally from 8 pm to 8 am = 12 hours. But they hardly feel starved.

You are forgetting that 2/3rds of this time is spent sleeping.

Much before all this diet, fat reduction thing I had observed that after eating buffet at night, the normal eating practice of the entire next day felt unnecessary.

The same logic applies when one eats a healthy breakfast in the morning. The carving for junk food over the course of the day is hugely reduced.

[kap04]

Any feedback about the Snap Fitness gym at Marathahalli? Are there any other gyms in this vicinity?

[anandjha]

Interested in buying a chinning bar for home. Kindly guide me which one should I look for? A friend of mine used a vacuum type fixed between the door frames but it could not take the load. Thanks.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Door frames in India are pretty strong. I use this one, it is very good. They do ship to India.

I have two of these now, one for each location. One installed on the door, another in a corridor. Works very well.

[anandjha]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I have two of these now, one for each location. One installed on the door, another in a corridor. Works very well.

Thank you. Will surely get one. It is good to see that you have graduated from that lying pull up frame that you had made for yourself. By the way how many pull ups/chin ups you are managing to do now?

One more request to you as a moderator. If you could please get a thank you button on such similar threads as well.

[narayan]

Guys
Is there an alternate way to consume Soya chunks available in the market other than using it in full. I somehow dont like the texture and feel of biting into Soya and it also stands out in a typical vegetarian preparation. Can it be powdered and added to any other food stuff and consumed ?

Thanks

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by narayan

Guys
Is there an alternate way to consume Soya chunks available in the market other than using it in full. I somehow dont like the texture and feel of biting into Soya and it also stands out in a typical vegetarian preparation. Can it be powdered and added to any other food stuff and consumed ?

Thanks

There's a granule version available too, give it a try (I've seen Nutrela and a couple of other brands in the regular super-markets and grocery stores). It's not powder, but way more homogeneous in dishes than the big chunks.

[Ketan]

Originally Posted by alpha1

4. If you wish to put a name to my approach - it is called intermittent fasting.

I'm in complete agreement on this, I have been trying this for past few months now - not the exact approach some have proved with scientific methods and result though. Following the exact approach would have given me faster/better results for sure.

When I started cutting, I decided not to be very aggressive and go slow with the cutting/reducing. However, I learnt from some studies/articles that confirms the aggressive approach can be useful, reducing at slow rate doesn't help except adding some time to overall results.

I never used to have breakfast since my childhood days, just one big glass of milk before I leave for early morning school, when I was away from home for studies post my 10th, I stopped even that glass of milk and used to have only 2 meals a day. I was doing alright all the way till I started taking breakfast on regular basis in the past 5 years or so, I put good amount of fat in the past 5 years it seems (even with my mildly active lifestyle). For past 6 months, I'm trying / practicing intermittent fasting, skip a meal out of 3 meals a day, 3-4 days in a week when I'm going to hit the gym early in the morning, its going to be the breakfast that I'll be skipping, keeping myself hungry haven't been difficult for me ever. Sometimes, I have hit the gym after 20 hours of fasting and by the time, I take my first meal, its 24 hours, on an average, 3-4 days in a week, I start working out after about 16 hours of fasting and then take 2-3 big meals in rest of the hours I have left in the day. Works ok I guess. I have got my blood report done twice in the last 6 months and doing my body composition every week or so with the BI machine that I have bought 6 months, back, I guess I'm doing fairly OK, need to be a bit aggressive now. I have reduced about 10KG, out of which a very good amount of fat is dropped. I usually don't look at my weight but the body fat% is my ultimate goal. I'm close to 21% (@73kg) from 28.5% body fat six months back (@82kg), close to 35% of this was shredded due to a 1 week winter track in Himalayas I guess, loved to do that every few months if I can
Overall, I loved the intermittent fasting way, I have dropped my BF%, added some skeletal mass, look decently lean as well, and there is lot more scope to go further, my next milestone is 15% body fat and my biggest challenge is the food I eat, if I can set this one thing right, no goals are difficult (even if I rarely workout).
EDIT: not against the breakfast approach, just trying to make a point that its not must for sure while I'm cutting/reducing. The scenario changes when I start maintaining at certain point and I may take regular 3 meals or more. However, they need to be watched for sure.

Originally Posted by Jaguar

You are forgetting that 2/3rds of this time is spent sleeping.



The same logic applies when one eats a healthy breakfast in the morning. The carving for junk food over the course of the day is hugely reduced.

on an average, a man burns 750+ calories in the sleep, during nights, while a woman burns about 510+, about 1lb of loss a week for women and same in about 5 days for a man, though the metabolism slows down during sleep, 8 hours of sleep is very useful for fat burning and surely makes you feel hungry
As I mentioned, not against the breakfast approach, but if you have specific goals in mind, skipping breakfast is not going to harm. I'm happy to read a few post ahead that our ancestors didn't have breakfast funda

[fine69]

How bad are our typical whole wheat breads that are available over the counter? None of them are 100% whole wheat flour and all of them have preservatives etc.

I'm trying to find out whether the whole wheat bread that I eat everyday in the morning is mostly empty calorie or is it not too bad to have 2 bread toasts everyday in breakfast.

I usually have 2 toasts with a 3 egg omelette, 2 slices of chicken ham, 1 slice equivalent grated cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion and at times even bacon if I'm feeling adventurous. I'm sharing this because this wouldn't taste good with our usual wheat roti or parantha so bread is my only option.