How I got fit in 45 days and lost 10 kgs in the process

A lot of you have found one particular Before/After picture of me either via some random tweet or because I chose to place it in your inbox and asked me to write about my journey. They're both not very well-shot pictures and I'm not very photogenic, but I think there's a discernible difference which is seen and it causes people to ask me how I did it. So, I decided to sit down and write down a small account of what I did to get to this from that.

The first picture was shot on Feb 27th, 2015 and I think I weighed about 82 kilos on that day. The second one was shot on April 15th, 2015. I weighed about 72.5 kgs then. I have now dropped to 71.5 by the way. today is the 27th of April.

A friend on Twitter suggested I post a picture of myself in the same attire, so I went ahead and did that as well just to give you a clearer picture.

The first step is always an acknowledgement of the problem. I was a "foodie" whose lifestyle was sedentary and it was showing. I was fat and probably looked pretty bad even in person. I'm not photogenic. Really. People try not to hurt your feelings and never tell you that you look fat or ugly. They should, if they care about you. If you're clever or sharp enough, you'll realise and start working on it on your own.

No one told me to do anything. I was in a bad place in life in general and as someone who is quite blatantly narcissistic if I couldn't get myself to go "wow" while looking at the mirror when I was depressed, there was something that needed to be done. Crossing the 80 kg mark was also a major bummer. I'd hit rockbottom.

So, I decided to go back to the basics and do some good old homework on how to fix this. Now, our body requires a certain amount of energy to get through the day. You need those many calories to stay put at your current weight while going about your daily activities. This number can be found using a calculator like the one here.

Now, there are two ways to go about losing weight and getting fitter. You can reduce your intake to an extent below your maintenance level. You can also start burning more calories than you currently do by increasing your physical activity. I chose to go with a combination of both. My lifestyle was sedentary and my maintenance level was around 2200 Calories per day. I realised that my intake was actually around that mark or perhaps even higher on most days. I also started introducing some physical activity into the equation.

I know what you're thinking, how do I know how many calories I'm eating? Well, there's an app for that. Several, actually. The most famous one is called "My fitness pal" and is available on both iOS and Android. The one I use is called "Healthifyme" and has a nicer interface and better database for Indian foods at least. Personal preference. Download either or a similar one.

Next, I bought a kitchen scale. A decent digital one like this one which I have costs about 700 bucks (INR.) Great investment. Buy it. Tracking what food you eat and how much you eat is important because that way you cannot cheat or lie to the most important person; yourself.

I set myself a target of 1500 Calories per day and stuck to it on most days. It can be hard, but it is totally worth it. Some days I went as low as 1200 Calories and still had a full, productive day. Now, apart from how much you eat, what you eat becomes important too. I'm a vegetarian. Feel free to add healthy non-vegetarian alternatives to your diet if you're ok with that. Eggs are supposedly great and so is chicken.

The trick is to eat all your calories and not drink them. Seriously. Do not drink your calories when you're looking to lose weight. No alcohol. No milkshakes or lassis. No soft drinks. No energy drinks. No fruit juices either. Nothing with sugar in it. I'd say, avoid sugarfree fruit juices too. Eat a fruit instead. A juice which contains pulp from 6 oranges cannot make you feel as full as two whole oranges can. The trick is to eat your calories in the form of healthy food.

Avoid oily food and sweets like the plague. Avoid carbs as far as possible. Have your dinners at least 3 hours before you lie down. As a South Indian, rice used to be an essential part of every meal. Now, I restrict my rice intake to about 100 grams once or twice a week during lunch. These are all things you've heard or read before. You just have to get obsessed with getting fitter and apply all of them. Your breakfast has to be your largest meal of the day and each meal post that has to be smaller. Also, we have this unhealthy practise of having 3 huge meals. Having 5 smaller meals helps. Time them properly. Here's what my average day looks like in terms of food, now.
8 AM - a bowl of cereal with milk and dry fruits or Indian breakfast - about 150 grams.
11 A.M - A fruit or salad
1: 30 P.M : Two chapatis or 100 gms rice with dal and curds
5: 00 P.M Coffee with milk and no sugar or a tender coconut
7:30 P.M : Lots of salad and a chapati with dal or paneer

All of this is coupled with a lot of water, of course. I never leave home without a bottle of water and neither should you. Always drink loads of water throughout the day. I drink about 4 litres now and will probably up that number soon.

So much for the diet part of things. Next comes the exercise. At 82 kilos and with almost 36% body fat, there was no way I would survive intense workouts at the gym on a daily basis. So, I did not bother with a gym subscription. Instead, I wore my smartwatch and tuned on a tracking app on my phone every morning for a month and walked for an hour. In the evening, I went for another walk. Maybe 30 to 45 minutes. As the days passed, my speed got better and my stamina improved. I was able to walk briskly and clock at least 7 kilometres a day with ease. By April 1st, my body was ready. I was already within 74 kilos since I'd lost a lot of water weight and my stamina was pretty good. I got myself into a gym and started doing some serious cardio for 45 minutes a day and followed it up with about 30 minutes of strength training. One potential risk of dieting and doing a lot of cardio is the loss of muscle mass. I'm sure I lost some muscle mass while dropping my weight, but I'm rebuilding that muscle by working out and increasing my protein intake now. There are ways to calculate how many calories you burn in the gym too using the app. I burn about 600 calories give or take 100 per day. I'll up my calorie intake to 1700 soon though, since I don't like to look too skinny.
Since I'm a lot leaner, the little bit of muscle I have also shows. Ditto with the abs region. As and when your fat melts, your abs start taking shape. My trainer tells me that if I keep at it, I'll have well-defined 4-pack abs in a couple of months. That's not what I want though, I just want to stay healthy and feel fit.

I'm obviously no expert on the issue and have no formal training. I just did a lot of homework and figured out a bunch of things by asking people what worked for them. This is my way of paying it forward. Feel free to reach out to me and ask any doubts you may have. I'll try my best to guide you in the right direction.

Like any other goal or journey, this one requires a certain amount of dedication and a degree of obsession that many may not understand. If you do decide to go down this path, make sure you have a good support system around you and let them know that you're committed to being fit. My dad still cracks jokes every time I measure my bowl of corn flakes, but it is important to surround yourself with people who even if they don't help, don't discourage you or add negativity. The results take a while to show and patience is important too. There are no shortcuts apart from liposuction.

All the best! Do let me know if you decide to go down this road and keep me posted on your progress. Stay healthy, stay foolish.

P.S: I've exhausted my quota of cheese for the day's diet.