[msdivy]

Originally Posted by hellmet

As a south Indian vegetarian, rice is a staple food for me every day for lunch. Also, upmas, idlis and dosas are common fare for dinner/bfast. What do you suggest I replace these carbs with? I can think of Ragi and oats as replacements, but there is little you can experiment with these grains.

A suggestion. List all the food items available and which you can have it daily. Remove the items which are based on grains (like rice, wheat, ragi, corn, bread, bun ). Remove the items that have starch (like potatoes, peas). That leaves plenty of vegetables, fruits, grams. Since oil is allowed, you can have them fried.

Originally Posted by carbookie

Also, the Ketogenic is the most strict of all Low carb diets. If you believe in low carb, there are other options like Atkins, Paleo, south beach etc.

True, the success of the Ketogenic diet depends on low carb intake. About Atkins, I have found people feeling weak during the diet.

[hellmet]

Originally Posted by carbookie

There are many vegans who have successfully followed this diet, but I am not sure what the hell they have been eating. Ragi and oats are also grains and off limits on this diet.

OK.

Originally Posted by amitk26

Replace polished white rice with grains which were consumed in south before irrigation facilities increased rice production with corresponding fall in other grains.

(a) Eat brown /red rice : There were no rice mills 100 years back and this is how rice used to be.
Rice husk is rich in thymene , fiber , B-vitamins and rice bran oil is called miracle oil due to it's mix of poly-unsaturated and saturated fatty acids.

Been trying to convince family to move to brown rice with no success. They don't really like the taste.

Originally Posted by amitk26

(c) Cut totally on sugar try taking sugarless tea/coffiee .

Yep, already doing that.

Originally Posted by amitk26

(d) replace your cooking oil with Rice bran oil (easily available in super-markets in bangalore) preferably mix Sunflower and ricebran oil in ratio of 1:4 . We are doing this for last 2-3 years and cholerostrol level of everyone in the family including my parents is good.

Never heard of rice bran oil. Let me ask friends and Google and find out more.

Originally Posted by amitk26

BTW : Fermented foods like Idly and Curds are main source of B-complex in Indian diet so continue it.

I am a vegetarian too ( though north indian) so the above info is based on personal experience.

Apart from the regular idlis and dosas and yogurt, I also have water kefir everyday. Water kefir is a fermented liquid and good source of probiotics.

Originally Posted by msdivy

A suggestion. List all the food items available and which you can have it daily. Remove the items which are based on grains (like rice, wheat, ragi, corn, bread, bun ). Remove the items that have starch (like potatoes, peas). That leaves plenty of vegetables, fruits, grams. Since oil is allowed, you can have them fried.

I've nothing left in my list then, except to mix veggies and saute them in oil

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I've nothing left in my list then, except to mix veggies and saute them in oil

A South Indian Vegetarian goes on a low-carb diet

[bblost]

Weight Loss and the quest for a smaller waist line.

Its an ongoing battle that has to be fought everyday. You take a break due to what ever reasons. The enemy starts gaining on you. The sad thing is you don't even notice it happening.

I was on a good run till June when the decline in cycling started.
Very few kms got added in June, July and August. There was fasting month of Ramzan. Then it started raining. I had a couple of outstation trips.

Today the extent of damage was easy to realize. My pants got tight.

I have these set of pants that I call motivators. I bought a pair that was too tight when I started cycling. NO way could I wear them. Then around March they became comfortable. By May they felt very comfortable.

Today they went back to February.

I am gonna get back to my cycling with a vengeance.
In fact I have bought another set of jeans that are 2 sizes small.

They will be my new motivators.

I recommend everyone does the same. Buy a pair of NON stretchable pants. They should NOT fit. I mean. When you hold the two ends together. There must be about 2 inches of space no matter how much you try to put the button thru the hole.

Measure yourself using this.

Not the bathroom scale. Not how the mirror image looks. Not what people tell you.
But use this.

It works as a motivator. And it also helps in identifying when you have started losing.

[arup.misra]

Are the treadmill figures (Speed, Distance, Calories spent) accurate & reliable to plan out a cardio session.

Since most of them are US imports, are these figures in miles.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by arup.misra

Are the treadmill figures (Speed, Distance, Calories spent) accurate & reliable to plan out a cardio session.

Since most of them are US imports, are these figures in miles.

In the indian gyms I have seen, speed is in km / hr and distance in KM and weights are also in KGs. So I think they do export international version with SI units.

They are indicative and not precise , speed and distance can be more accurate as it is measured by belt movement over the rollers.
Calories spent depends on weight of the person as well ( a heavy person needs to spend more Calories / Kilo Joules / Watts) , Also while measured calories may be same for two person but actual energy spent depends on the technique of running as well just like engine HP and BHP.

Anyway you just need a relative mesure for benchmarking yourself, don't pay attention to calories too much just focus on the total time , distance covered and momentry speed everyday and as long as equipment does not change , you know you are doing better then before or not.

[KL54]

Originally Posted by bblost

Buy a pair of NON stretchable pants. They should NOT fit. I mean. When you hold the two ends together. There must be about 2 inches of space no matter how much you try to put the button thru the hole.

Measure yourself using this.

Not the bathroom scale. Not how the mirror image looks. Not what people tell you.
But use this.

It works as a motivator. And it also helps in identifying when you have started losing.

This is exactly what worked for me. But I wouldnt go so far as to buy two sizes below. That might seem to be an unsurmountable barrier for some at first.

A very valid suggestion.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by carbookie

Yes my diet is very high on fats and cholesterol. I was sceptical moving to this diet because of stigma attached to eating FAT. After all, there are around 14 doctors in my immediate family. They all discouraged me to go on this change.

In this six months, my cholesterol level dropped from 220 to 140. My triglycerides went from 150 to 37. My HDL has gone up, and LDL has gone down. After seeing my blood reports my brother, who is a doctor, was shocked. My body fat percentage is down by 9%.
My blood pressure is better. My ulcers have vanished. And for the first time in last 15 years, I can have spicy food.

• Eating Fat doesn't make you fat.

• Eating cholesterol does not give you heart attack.

• You cannot lose weight just by eating calorie deficient diet.

This is the basic premise of Gary Taubes research.

I'm very much tempted to try a low carb diet. Watched the full video you have pasted on the previous page, and yes - some of it makes full sense. I am 6 foot tall and weigh 90kgs. I was feeling healthy around and below 85, but now - signs like a fat belly and tiredness have lowered my confidence. Plan to start losing weight slowly - back to 80 - 85 levels.

However-

1. I plan to slowly decrease carbs in my diet, rather than go full-on from day-1. This would help me stick to the habit in the long run.

2. What about proteins and pulses like dal? No mention of them? Milk products are also not allowed, i believe?

3. My usual exercise is to walk an hour a day (Recent habit). Should that be enough?

4. Anything else I should be aware of - in the intial stages?

[carbookie]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

I'm very much tempted to try a low carb diet. Watched the full video you have pasted on the previous page, and yes - some of it makes full sense. I am 6 foot tall and weigh 90kgs. I was feeling healthy around and below 85, but now - signs like a fat belly and tiredness have lowered my confidence. Plan to start losing weight slowly - back to 80 - 85 levels.

However-

1. I plan to slowly decrease carbs in my diet, rather than go full-on from day-1. This would help me stick to the habit in the long run.

2. What about proteins and pulses like dal? No mention of them? Milk products are also not allowed, i believe?

3. My usual exercise is to walk an hour a day (Recent habit). Should that be enough?

4. Anything else I should be aware of - in the intial stages?

1. I also started with cutting out rice, sugar and refined things from my diet. Once I saw positive effects, I went to more carb restricted diets.

2. In the strict version of carb restriction, lentils of any kind are not allowed. Milk contains natural sugars. But you can have both in the slow version you are trying out first.

3. Don't change you exercise habits during the initial days of changing diet. Whatever you are currently doing, keep doing that.

4. Drink a lot of water. If you want to survive on low carb, Love water more than Michael Phelps. Join a community where you can get ideas about low carbing. I sometimes see www.reddit.com/r/keto

[Sawyer]

The most sensible book in recent times on the subject is Rujuta Diwekar's first book. Very relevant in the Indian context.

In another place, I found four simple rules for long term weight management - she writes on similar lines, but has a lot of India specific guidance. As in most cases, the rules are simple, but not easy to practice.

1. Eat only when and as soon as you are hungry.
2. Eat whatever you feel the need to eat, your body knows what it needs. Eat doesn't include fizzy or sugar/sweetener loaded drinks or alcohol. For the rest, anything goes - from healthy food to pizzas or chocolate cake.
3. Eat consciously and slowly. So, not while seeing TV, reading, or after alcohol has numbed this facility.
4. Stop when you are full. In fact the advice is to stop just before that, stop eating while you still want a little more to eat.

For exercise, a simple metric is 10000 steps on level surfaces a day. Every step you take in the day counts, some people will need to walk daily as a routine to meet this metric, more active and less automobile tied may not.

Exercising above this is for specific activity fitness, not for weight management.

Finally, weight loss isn't so hard. What is hard is keeping from gaining it back, the first is a project, the latter needs to be a sustainable lifestyle change, and changing the relationship with food.

[blue_pulsar]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

1. Eat only when and as soon as you are hungry.
2. Eat whatever you feel the need to eat, your body knows what it needs. Eat doesn't include fizzy or sugar/sweetener loaded drinks or alcohol. For the rest, anything goes - from healthy food to pizzas or chocolate cake.

Have some comments on this, based on personal experience. When you're at work or totally occupied with something, you can't read the hungry signals early. By the time you realize that you're hungry, you're actually very hungry. You end up eating like there's no tomorrow.

Rather than that, what works for me is to have meals at fixed timings. Usually, the recommended interval is to have a meal every three hours. But at work, even if you're very occupied, its okay if you have it half an hour late.

[faithless_1984]

Never thought ill be able to post in this thread but finally here i am.
The last few months have been very hectic and eventful for me and have changed me for the better.
In short i have lost 14kgs by strict dieting and jogging. Feel like a new man now.
Will post more details later along with the customary before-after pic.
Cheers.

[NMS]

Originally Posted by bblost

Weight Loss and the quest for a smaller waist line...........

It works as a motivator. And it also helps in identifying when you have started losing.

Hi bblost,

I too have started cycling almost after a decade. Got myself a road bike. Was wondering what is the best way to lose weight by cycling? Is there a pattern that you are following? Or just routine cycling. Though I have seen quite a few changes starting to happen in the past 3 weeks of cycling. I would like to know how to optimize my routine.
Currently I cycle for 16-18 Kms daily in about an hours time. On roads which have quite a few inclines and declines.

Any pointers !! Have quite a long way to go !!

[bblost]

Originally Posted by NMS

Hi bblost,

I too have started cycling almost after a decade. Got myself a road bike. Was wondering what is the best way to lose weight by cycling? Is there a pattern that you are following? Or just routine cycling. Though I have seen quite a few changes starting to happen in the past 3 weeks of cycling. I would like to know how to optimize my routine.
Currently I cycle for 16-18 Kms daily in about an hours time. On roads which have quite a few inclines and declines.

Any pointers !! Have quite a long way to go !!

I no longer cycle for weight loss. Made peace with my weight.

Get yourself a nice phone with gps in it.
Then install a Strava App on it.

Start logging your miles on the website. Then you can see how you measure up to others.
The strava website is quite easy to navigate. Try and cycle at a speed that is just a little faster than what you can.
Not so easy, but I guess it will help you quantify your cycling into lazy riding or active calorie burn.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

I've always thought of myself as a few kgs overweight at max! Excess fat around the belly was my major concern, and recently I had gained a few extra kilos than my usual weight.

Had been trying to reduce from past one month almost, but my targets were to lose 2-3 kgs that i gained recently - and I have almost succeeded in that. My usual jeans size became really tight a month back, and now - once again I'm comfortable in it.

However, a quick check at the BMI index yesterday showed that i am overweight by atleast 10kgs. I now see that my targets should be a lot more aggressive.

I am around 180cms tall and weigh 90kg when i last checked around a month back (I suspect it should be around 89/88 now!). I plan to reduce it to 80 by next march. This thread has been a big inspiration for me, and I guess - I will document my progress here itself so that I can keep my commitment and if I succeed - others can get inspired from it.

My plan is to try reducing carbs (As mentioned in the last page - Have been working on it from past 1 week), reduce sugar/ maida products, drink more water and strive for a more active lifestyle. Exercise will be a 1 hour walk daily. Trying to take up cycling, but not sure of the timeframe yet.