Healthy Weight Week: Tips and tricks to achieve ideal weight

Following fad diets or overexercising is not the best way to lose weight. Expert recommends simple tips to achieve your ideal weight in the healthiest way possible.

Working too hard to get that perfect body? You should try to reach your ideal weight instead which will not only keep chronic diseases at bay but also your energy levels high every day. Now whether you have a healthy or ideal weight or not can be determined by calculating your BMI (body mass index) with a simple formula on the basis of your weight and height. Being overweight or obese on this parameter means you are at risk of diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease and other such lifestyle diseases in immediate future. Being underweight can mean you have a low immunity, you may be at risk of osteoporosis, decreased muscle strength, hypothermia et al. Getting your basics right like eating nutritious diet, sleeping well, exercising regularly, managing your stress levels, and avoid being sedentary usually takes care of weight problems. (Also read: Brisk walking vs jogging; which is better for weight loss? Expert take)

Healthy Weight Week: Tips and tricks to achieve ideal weight (Freepik)

How to calculate BMI

The formula for BMI calculation is weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters that is BMI = weight (kgs)/height (mts) 2.

BMI is divided in to 3 categories for Asian adults

BMI of less than18.5 indicates under weight

BMI between the range of 18.5 and 22.9 indicates normal weight

BMI in the range of 23-24.9 indicates overweight

BMI of more than 25 indicates obesity

On the occasion of Health Weight Week, Vyuhitha Motupalli, Executive Nutritionist, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Electronic City Unit, Bengaluru talks about tips for healthy weight loss.

Maintain a food journal

Start your day by listing down all the foods to be consumed starting from first meal of the day to the last meal of day along with meal timings. Next day, re-evaluate and try to eliminate the foods which are unhealthy and try to instead replace with a healthy option. For example, if you had caffeinated beverages twice in a day, each time you had 2 tsp of sugar. You can make this 1 tsp of jaggery or date syrup.

Meal planning

Keeping a track on diet by maintaining a food diary will definitely make you to plan a healthy diet. You can eliminate all unhealthy foods in stock at home and add healthy options. This can be done by working on shopping list that has healthy and low-calorie foods. You can read the nutritional values on foods labels and avoid purchasing high-calorie foods like chips, cakes, sweetened beverages etc.

Meal timings

Sticking to right meal pattern along with right meal timings is very important. This way skipping meals and then consuming excess calories in the next meal can be avoided. Focus on small frequent meals instead of having a huge meal at one go.

Early dinner

Dinner should be the lightest meal of the day as there in not much energy expenditure post dinner. You can keep the dinner light by having one roti with any veg curry or having soup etc. It is necessary to finish dinner at least 4 hours before going to the bed as going to the bed right after having dinner can lead to weight gain.

Portion control

For weight loss, it is necessary to cut down approx. 500-600 kcal from daily calorie intake. Hence try to have measured amounts of food and stick to it. Use smaller bowls, plates, glasses etc.

Physical activity

Regular exercise is very important to burn the calories. It is necessary to work out for 1 hour, 5 days a week along with reducing the total calorie intake through diet which causes calorie deficit resulting in weight loss. Try to be active throughout the diet and avoid sitting for long hours.

Sleep and hydration

Manage stress levels and sleep for 8 hours to avoid excess hunger and be well hydrated. You can have 8 glasses of water per day as it helps to flush the toxins out of the body.

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