Lose a Dress Size in 4 Weeks

With New Year’s Eve and Christmas approaching in less than a month, the party season has just begun. Now is the time to impress your spouse and to astonish your friends with that diva look. However, there is a small hiccup. All that Diwali delicacies have made you put on weight. Don’t get disheartened! You can drop a dress size in four weeks. Losing one dress size – equal to about 10 pounds – is a healthy and achievable weight-loss goal for most of us, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. (You can safely lose about one- to one-and-a-half pounds per week, they say).

Priya Singh chalks out a plan in consultation with Nita Shukla and Kuljeet Kaur, Managing Director and expert dietician at Looks Essencia Slimming Centre, Noida.  Keep reading to know about the 30-day plan to lose weight.

More meals mean more weight loss.

Eat five times in a day: 3 meals (300-400 calories each) and 2 snacks of (200 calories each). Be sure to load up on veggies and lean protein suggests Shukla, and tells you how to achieve it.

• Breakfast: 1/2 cup of egg whites and two slices of whole wheat toast with one tablespoon of butter, or 1 small apple with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter on two whole wheat toast, or 8 ounces of plain low calorie yogurt with corn crunchies
• Snack: An apple or a bowl of seasonal fruits; roasted chana, fiber biscuits, suji toast or a protein bar. Take fruit for pre lunch snack while fibre biscuit or bar should be taken as post lunch snack
• Lunch: Salad made with 3 cups of steamed spinach with 1 piece of grilled chicken (twice a week). Try a large whole wheat wrap, stuffed with sprouts, or 1 chapatti and a bowl of green veggie.
• Dinner: Keep dinner light. Soups help weight loss. Drink as much you want. Your soup should not contain artificial preservatives or cream, as it will jeopardize your weight loss plan. Make the soup at home. Wind up your dinner latest by 9.30 to and if you must remain awake till late you are not allowed munching more than a cracker or two. There is a strict no to caffeine post dinner.

Change your behaviour for healthy and successful weight loss

• Eat breakfast within one hour of waking up to boost your metabolism by 20 percent for the rest of the day, says Shukla. It also revs up your body’s metabolism and you lose more fat.
• Maintain a food diary. Write what you eat to track the calories. This way you will know from where the calories are coming from, tells Kaur.
• Weigh yourself once per week. Monitoring your weight on a weekly basis provides a fairly accurate weight trend and, more importantly, an early detection of any weight regain, which allows you to adjust behaviours, accordingly adds Kaur.
• Go for moderate physical activity every day. Do aerobics, enroll in a dance class, play lawn tennis, or manage household chores like vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, etc to move your body. A 30 minute morning brisk walk also works wonders in losing weight.
• Watch less than 10 hours of TV per week. Most of us argue, we don’t have time to exercise, but when watching TV or surfing net comes in question, we spare hours to spend without any thought. Better to engage in activities where more movement is required instead of sitting continuously, argues Shukla. Avoid eating in front of TV as it distracts you and makes you eat more.

Compensatory Menu Plan

You binged the night before and now you are feeling guilty! We have a plan to atone your guilt. But, do remember that the below mentioned plan is an aberration only to compensate for that extra portion. You should resume the regular eating pattern the next day.

• Banana Plan: Take a banana for breakfast, two at lunch and a bowl of vegetable soup or 2 chapatti with boiled bottle gourd vegetable for supper. Follow this diet to lose the extra calories. Go back to your regular meal plan the next day.
• Sandwich Plan: It’s the best and healthiest way to banish oils from your platter and fat from your body. Slice cucumber, tomatoes and onion (if you prefer) and place it in between 2 slices of brown bread, sprinkle salt, black pepper and tomato sauce. You healthy sandwich is ready. Eat 2 sandwiches for breakfast and lunch and go for soup or a whole papaya platter for dinner.
• Stuffed Onion Chapatti Plan: It’s the best way to satiate your taste buds and keeps your weight gain in control. Make you stuffed onion paranthas without greasing it with oil or ghee and eat it crisp hot with curd or with a bowl of pressured cooked bottle gourd (lauki). Repeat this food with a day’s gap; you can feel real difference in your waist size.
• Bottle Gourd Plan: Low flame pressure cooked bottle gourd with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt and one green chilly is all you eat for your three course meals. Stock your stomach to the quantity you want. Get back to your regular meals the other day.

Note: Always remember to eat mid meal snacks and drink at least 8 glasses of water. So take fruits, low calorie snacks, sprouts, salads, while following the above suggested meal plans. And, never eat these as your regular diet, it is to apply only when you want to compensate for bingeing and should not be continued for more than a day.

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