How you can eat to lose weight

Good news for all those trying to lose those extra kilos: You needn’t starve to get thin. For what its worth, those extra inches around your belly may not always be fat. Forget crash/fad diets, read on to know how you can beat the bulge by eating (right).

BEAT THE BLOAT

Dietician Suraj Bisht suggests the first step to weight loss is to figure out the reason for it. Most of the people he consults suffer from gastric problems like constipation and indigestion and many a time bloating is a result of that. One of the most common reasons for bloating is eating breakfast and dinner as main meals but staying pretty much hungry or eating a small fried snack in the evening. His advice: Kickstart your metabolism by eating at least six small meals a day rather than skipping meals, which further aggravates the problem.

NOT JUST FATS

Bloating also occurs due to vitamin D deficiency or hypothyroidism. Get it checked before you decide on a diet. Weight gain could also be due to lack of fibre in your diet, excess of grains (chapattis and bread) in your diet or just eating more starchy foods. “Sometimes it’s actually important to add useful fats like ghee in your diet as you don’t want to deprive your body of any important nutrient,” he says.

Nutrition experts advice following the six-meal rule for beating bloat. To follow it, eat at an interval of every two hours. Start with breakfast, follow it with snacks and eat a proper lunch followed by snacks again. End your day with dinner – preferably three hours before going to bed. Drinking green tea after every main meal is a good idea, as it boosts metabolism and aids digestion.

Try this

Mix 1 tsp ajwain in 1 glass of lukewarm water and drink it first thing in the morning to cure stomach bloating.

Mix a pinch of cinnamon, black pepper, haldi and ½ tsp ginger powder in a glass of lukewarm water – drink on an empty stomach.

Soak a piece ginger, lemon, cucumber and some parsley (or coriander) in water overnight. Drink this at least three times a day as a cleanse. Many a time bloating around the belly could just be food lining the intestines.