#2 Do I need supplements for achieving BMI -24? Can I lose fat with a limited budget ?

This is article #2 in my series of Health Management. Earlier I covered topic in an overview but following articles are for in depth coverage of topics.

In the 1st half of this article let’s kill the bad side of fitness industry — supplements. In 2nd half, I will give ideas on dietary management with little to no extra expenditure on food items.

How did supplements arrive in market?

Supplements initially arrived in market in form of medicines for patients suffering from vitamin deficiency. Later fitness industry jumped in and exploited it for body building purpose. For building up a competitive physique one would need to push their body limits by eating more than required and taking in artificial vitals to make the process of building muscles faster and more efficient.

Science behind mineral absorption in body

Whenever you take in a food rich in required vitamins and minerals, it gets broken to small pieces via churning process in our stomach with the help of digestive juices. This food enters long chain of intestine for absorption process where alveoli absorbs nutrients from food based on body requirement. If you are involved into rigorous exercise plans then this requirement is greater compared to a non-exercising person.

I am a common man, do I need supplements to weigh normally?

Supplement industry has penetrated to depths of common man’s pocket and this is where things are going completely wrong. If you don’t generate enough requirement via exercise then how can you expect intaken supplement to be completely absorbed by your body.

Side Effects of Supplements

Things go wrong when you are not exercising enough and still taking supplements.

One of the side-effects of taking supplements as diagnosed by Dr.. Pradip Jamnadas is calcification of blood vessels due to excess intake of calcium tablets. If you are not generating requirements via excercise, not taking enough sunlight for vitamin D ( necessary vital for absorption for calcium) then excess calcium gets circulated in blood and sometimes get stuck in your blood vessel. This calcification of blood vessels can lead to cardiac arrests too.

Excess protein taken in via protein powder also gets stored as fat if you are not burning you muscle fibers enough during your daily excercise routine.

How much exercise is enough for weight loss?

Daily exercise is meant for only good blood circulation and not weight loss. Unless you are an endurance athlete running 5kms or cycling 10km daily. Weight loss might be painful for people relying on soft core exercise only.

Let’s be clear, you gained weight not due to skipping routine exercise but by your daily food eating habits, uncontrolled insulin secretion (covered in my last article) from carb rich diet, stress etc.

If diet can cause weight gain then diet management only can make you lose weight.

Diet Management

Let’s jump to solution:

Half plate meal and half plate salad method

Take you regular meal plate, reduce your regular meal to half and put other half with salads like cucumber, beetroot, tomato, radish etc. Consume all salad first, this would make your stomach feel half filled already and then consume your regular meal. For best results follow it in your 3 time meal lifestyle.

This way you ingest daily needed vitamins, mineral and fiber ( most of which gets destroyed while cooking) and control your carb intake too.

Eating full meal only 2 times a day

This method is my favourite and gave me results in a matter of 3 weeks.

Fix two timings in a day when you are going to have a proper and heavy meal. I will quote again “heavy and proper meal” full of carbs and salads.

Make sure you have 8 hours of gap between two meal. In initial days you would have uncontrollable hunger, but you need to have patience for 3–4 weeks at least.

After a month of patience you would start seeing difference in your body. You stomach would feel less bloated, a little weight reduction.

There are myriad of benefits of eating 2 times a day and some of them include :

Good sleep routine — If you have dinner at 7:30 then by the time clock hits 10 your body would start feeling sleepy.

Less food oil consumption — Calculatively eating 2 times instead of 3 times a day would make you consume oil less.

Increased immunity — You give your body a break between meals for other metabolic activities like building immunity, protein synthesis etc. which otherwise was mostly busy with digestion process as it requires a lot of energy for the process.

Alternative for afternoon hunger control

For people with uncontrollable hunger during afternoon, I have a bonus idea for you. Our digestive system is at peak of it performance when clock hits noon and this energy can be utilised for protein synthesis. Instead of taking in carb rick diet, you can go for full protein based diet with or some fruit with low glycemic index.

It can include protein food items like : eggs, meat, chick pea, kidney beans, seeds mix ( sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds etc.)

In fruits, you can take : Orange, guava, kiwi, avocado, grape fruit, lemonade etc.

That’s it for today. In next article we will discuss about full day schedule for fat loss.