I am 22 and reside in a hostel. My height is 5 ft 8 in and weight is 60 kg but my physique is very slim. I want to know how I can put on weight. It is difficult as I do not get healthy food in the hostel.

Answered by our expert and nutritionist Neha Chandna.

To gain weight, you need to focus on some weight lifting exercises which can help you increase your muscle mass. A good workout complemented with the right kind of diet can help you add some healthy weight to your body. Since you are in a hostel, you need to buy certain foods and stock them with you to eat as mid-meal snacks. You can opt for bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, dry fruits like figs, almonds, walnuts, cashews, fruit yogurt, peanut butter, paneer etc. In every meal, try to eat little more than your appetite and eat six meals in a day at least. You can also opt for weight gainers available in the market which can give you your required calorie intake without any hassle. All you have to do is to mix and drink the shakes. 

Tired of reading? Check out our YouTube Channel  

Image source: www.tulasinstitute.com

I am a 28 year old girl and have been overweight for a long time. I manage to lose weight, but i put on double the weight very quickly. Could you tell me what diet and exercise regime I should follow to lose weight and keep it that way? 

I think what happens is that you go on crash diets to lose weight and the moment you stop you start to gain weight again. It’s a common phenomenon. What you need to understand that you need to eat and exercise properly for long-term weight loss. This won’t happen instantly and it will take time but all good things take time. Basically to lose weight you need to burn more calories in a day than you take in. If you eat a well-balanced diet and exercise regularly you will lose weight. Read this article to understand the importance of a wholesome diet. For diet and exercise ideas you can check out the various articles in the weight loss section.

I need to gain weight. My height is 5’11”and my weight is 60 kg. Can you please suggest what I should do? 

Some people find it hard to gain weight. This can be for various reasons, the most common being that they have a very fast metabolism which burns up calories quickly. To gain weight you need a proper diet combined with a good regime which combines weight training and cardio. To put on muscle weight you need a lot of proteins in your diet. You should ideally consult a nutritionist. Read this article for more tips.
 I want to lose weight but I don’t like gymming. I have heard that yoga can help you lose weight. What other techniques are there to lose weight without going to the gym?

 Going to the gym to lose weight is not necessary. As you mentioned you could try out Yoga, Walking, Swimming, playing some sports like badminton, tennis etc. Even at home exercise videos are helpful. Another important aspect of weight loss is to control your diet. Eating the right kind of foods will definitely help you lose weight. For more exercise ideas you can check out these articles: 

• Walking for weight loss
• Fun ways to lose weight
• Power yoga
• Zumba
• Pilates

 Does obesity have any specific risks for women between 20 and 40?

Obesity in young women has an impact on their psychological and social health and also on their reproductive health. Obesity is frequently associated with disturbances in the menstrual cycle. It affects fertility and also inflicts a number of serious risks during pregnancy such as diabetes and hypertension. Obese pregnant ladies have been linked with higher rates of caesarean section. Obese women in their 20s have increased risk of low back pain onset within 10 years.

Hi. I am a 30-year old lady. I work-out every day. However, I only do cardio and avoid weights. I have heard that women should avoid weight training as it could cause too much muscle gain. I have seen female bodybuilders who look as muscular as men and it makes me scared to take up weights. Is weight training bad for women?

Women should definitely not avoid weight training. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions out there. Its benefits are immense. It can keep osteoporosis away, improve flexibility, posture, strength, endurance and also improves cardiovascular health. And women who are scared that they will start looking like muscular caveman can rest assured that will never happen. Muscle hypertrophy, the kind we see on male bodybuilders is usually fuelled by testosterone. A woman’s body on the other hand secretes only about 1/100th of the amount of this hormone and unless a woman takes steroids, it’s impossible for her to look that bulky! Read more about benefits of weight training for women.

If you’ve any queries, you can ask them on our Q&A section. 

According to Ranveer, he has always concentrated on his fitness and maintained a good physique, but because Ram Leela demanded a much more muscular look, he decided to hit the gym with trainer Lloyd Stevens.

His workout: In order to get the body he wanted, Ranveer committed to a gruelling 12 week programme that required him to work out two times a day, for an hour and a half each. His trainer Lloyd Stevens (a friend of Hrithik’s trainer Kris Gethin) would schedule his workout sessions such that it included 45 minutes of weight training and 30 minutes of cardio. Based on the theory of ‘muscle confusion’ his work outs were high intensity and always very fast paced so as to achieve the maximum benefit. Lloyd Stevens also incorporated other exercises such as swimming and running into his training, in order to maximise the results. Just to keep you in the know, ‘muscle confusion’ is a workout technique where a person changes up his/her workout patterns, such that the body does not get used to the same routine, therefore helping in accelerating the muscle building and weight loss process.

His diet: A foodie at heart Ranveer confesses that maintaining a strict diet was the toughest part of building muscle. When asked about his diet for those fab abs, Ranveer emphasised that the secret to a successful diet regime is to eat every three hours, always eat right on time and not miss even one meal. His diet was essentially a high-protein, low-carb diet that included foods such as chicken, tuna, turkey, green veggies and sweet potato. His trainer, who also planned his meals, emphasised the need for a heavy breakfast to help fuel Ranveer through the torturous workouts. Ranveer’s breakfast was mainly omelettes made of egg whites plus a banana before every high intensity workout. In between every main meal he would have a light snack of either dry fruits like almonds and walnuts or maybe a protein shake. Lunch and dinner consisted of high protein foods such as fish and chicken. According to Ranveer in order to get a muscular body it is essential to supplement your diet with protein shakes, they help in repairing worn out muscles faster. A stickler for detail, Ranveer adds that maintaining a low-salt and a low-oil diet helped as well.

When asked about how important it was for him to sculpt his six pack abs, Ranveer said that abs should not be the focus of a exercise regime. They are products of good exercise and a sound diet plan. Work hard and the six packs will follow.

Watch how Hrithik got in shape!

1. Leave the bodybuilding routines for the bodybuilders

You’ve seen those hulks at the gym and are tempted to try that chest workout they are using. Stop. You should know what works for somebody on steroids doesn’t work for somebody who wants to be natural. Many hard gainers think more is better and end up doing an insane amount of sets and reps. They’ll often be in the gym for two or three hours. Instead, spending only 45 minutes to an hour with the weights and no more than two to three weight workouts a week.

2. To get bigger, go basic

Get rid of the so-called “shaping exercises” done with little dumbbells — such as shoulder raises, chest flyes and concentration curls — as these target only part of a muscle group. Instead, stick with barbell-type moves and heavier weights, and aim for compound movements that involve at least two or more muscle groups, such as the chest, shoulders and triceps for the bench press. Why? Your muscles respond most to lifting heavier loads, and the impact on the muscles can be considerably magnified by moves that involve more muscle groups. This will enable you to lift even heavier weights and build more muscle thanks to those bigger loads. Go for the bigger exercises like squats, presses, deadlifts, chin-ups and straight bar curls.

3. Challenge yourself

To maximize your gains, choose challenging moves and go hard during every set. Intensity is much more important to muscle growth than quantity. It is better you do two very intense sets to failure (until you can’t lift anymore) with heavy weights and with forced reps (four to eight) than four to five sets of 12 to 15 reps at moderate intensity. For example, if you get to 10 reps with a lot of muscle straining, then you’re going too light.

4. Pound up!

Many guys take the easy route in the weight room. They would rather do tricep press-downs than dips, or leg presses than squats, but they’re just cheating themselves of better muscle gains.

5. Choose ‘muscle cardio’

The last thing you need – after putting your muscles on the get-bigger track — is going through a long cardio session, which will only whittle down those gains. Inevitably, your body will extract the energy it needs for long cardio from your muscle tissues, no matter how fueled up you are before. Instead, further enhance the muscle-building process by adding some muscle cardioor explosive cardio – short bursts of power followed by longer bouts of rest two to three times a week. Do eight rounds of 10 to 20 seconds of high-intensity cardio, such as wind sprints or cycle sprints, followed by 20 to 40 seconds rest.

6. Master before-and-after eating

There’s no shortcut to the beefed up version of you. Frankly, a lot of it has to do with what you routinely eat including different kinds of carbohydrates and proteins, before and after workouts and before and after sleep.

After you wake up, you want to get your muscles back into the anabolic (muscle building) state and out of the catabolic (muscle breakdown) state they fall into by morning time. Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and author of Power Eating, recommends eating protein for breakfast to avoid that latter state — and that’s why eggs are a good start to the day. If you prefer to sip rather than chew early in the day, go with a whey protein shake — which your muscles rapidly absorb — with fruit. Overall, she says that each day hard gainers must consume at least 0.73 grams of protein per pound of body weight and 2.73 or more grams of carbohydrates. In other words, if you’re 180 pounds (81 kgs) you need 131.4 grams of protein and 491.4 grams of carbohydrates per day. If you have five meals per day, that translates to 26.3 grams of protein (equivalent to about four eggs) and 98.3 grams of carbohydrates per meal. A four-ounce chicken sandwich with a side of brown rice and vegetables would be a perfectly balanced meal.

Two to three hours before the workout, down a carbohydrate-protein mixture, such as a mixed-nutrient sports bar. This will provide immediate energy and decrease the negative effects of exercise, such as damage to muscle tissue and muscle soreness.

After your workout, don’t waste any time. Within 15 to 30 minutes after setting down that last weight, take in some carbohydrates to refill your glycogen stores, build new proteins and refuel for tomorrow’s training session.

Lastly, before bed, switch out the fast-digesting whey protein for slow-digesting, time-release proteins like casein protein powder and dairy food like milk, curd, paneer. This will help keep your body in muscle-building state.

Content modified for use with permission from Men’s Life Today

I am not fat!

A recent study at the University of Illinois showed that about 1200 in 3500 participants couldn’t tell their weight accurately. The study findings have serious implications for India where currently, 1 in 5 men and over 1 in 6 women are overweight. In some urban areas, the rates are as high as 2 in 5.  

A leading Cardiologist was of the opinon that in a country like India obesity is often a synonym for prosperity. “The paradox here is that fat people are considered healthy while thin people are considered weak in India. Most of my patients who lose weight after a heart attack come to me thinking they have become weak. One’s perception of being fat relates to whether people around you are health conscious or overweight. More overweight people don’t think they are fat because everybody around are like him. Obesity is one of the most important reasons for heart attacks as excessive body mass index increases chances of coronary artery disease,” Dr Seth said. 

A recent study also found that Indian women seemed to be getting fatter, while the men were doing better in controlling their weight. In 2008, 8 million women in India were obese (body mass index of 30 kg/m2) compared to 4.4 million men. According to standard BMI calculators a BMI of less than 18.5  is considered underweight, normal is 18.6-24.9, overweight is 25 to 29.9 and obesity is above 30. BMI or body mass index is calculated by dividing your height by weight. Click here to find out your BMI.

Excess bodyweight poses various health risks like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, arthritis, hypertension and musculo-skeletal disorders, causing nearly three million deaths every year worldwide.

Their beer consumption was placed into a number of categories, from “very light” to “heavy”. The researchers concluded that their study “does not support the common belief of a site-specific effect of beer on the abdomen, the beer belly”, Daily Mail reported Thursday. ”Beer consumption seems to be rather associated with an increase in overall body fatness,” they wrote in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A beer belly was defined as one that bulges distinctly as the waist and was proportionally large in comparison to hip measurement and body size.

Source: IANS 

Most junk foods, including your favourite brand of noodles, burgers and aloo bhujia, contain very high levels of trans fats, salt and sugar, which inevitably leads to severe ill health and diseases like obesity and diabetes in young people in India, according to a study by the Centre For Science and Environment.

“The younger generation, hooked to junk food, are vulnerable to heart disease in the prime of their life,” says a junk food and nutrition study conducted by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. 

“We all know junk food is bad, yet we still eat it. But, do we know how bad it is? Do we ever check what we are eating, and whether that packet of chips or Maggi noodles has what it claims it has? Our new study, which looks at the nutritional value of these foods, is to make people aware of what these foods really contain and what they will do to our health,” Sunita Narain, director general of CSE, told a press conference while releasing the new study here Friday.

She said that CSE lab tested 16 major brands of junk foods relished by people, particularly the young, including Maggi and Top Ramen noodles, MacDonald’s foods, KFC’s fried chicken and Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia, among others. 

“It was shocking that companies resort to large scale misbranding and misinformation. Many say their products contain zero trans fats, but CSE finds heavy doses of it, which is not good for health,” Narain said.

According to her, CSE’s study which tested a host of samples of popular foods such as potato chips, snacks like aloo bhujia, noodles, soft drinks, burgers, French fries and fried chicken, shows that having just one serving of these foods completely overturns our daily diet chart.

CSE, which is known for some ground-breaking studies on food and contamination, said this is the first comprehensive Indian study to have looked at nutritional claims made by junk food makers. “Our findings are pretty damning,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of CSE, who also heads the pollution monitoring lab which conducted the study.

He said the normal 80 gram packet of Maggi noodles that many of us gobble almost on a daily basis has over 3.5 gram of salt, enough to take care of over 60 percent of our permitted daily salt intake as per the National Institute of Nutrition and the World Health Organisation.

“Which means for the rest of the day, we will be restricted to have food which should contain less than 2 gram of salt. Not a happy choice at all for us in the sub-continent who love to have our salt and eat it too,” Bhushan said.

He said that salt is not the real or only problem. The real problem is trans fats or the bad fats. “CSE’s study reveals a dirty truth of misinformation, misbranding, wrong labelling and obfuscation indulged in by companies, some of whom are on the top of the charts. They show that many junk foods claim they have zero trans fats, some don’t even bother to mention how much trans fats they have,” he said.

For example, Top Ramen Noodles claims there is zero trans fats in every 100 gram. But CSE study found 0.7 gram per 100 gram. Similarly, Haldiram’s aloo bhujia says it has no trans fats, but the study found 2.5 gram per 100 gram.

“CSE study found as much as 3.7 gram of trans fats per 100 gram in PepsiCo Lays (snack smart) in a March 2012 batch which is a dangerously high dose. But PepsiCo never bothered to inform consumers,” he said.

The CSE researchers said the heavy doses of trans fats, combined with that of salt, which comes from all so-called fun foods, work together to trigger ill health which can lead to death. “And there is enough global evidence to suggest that more and more young people are succumbing to problems of the heart at a much earlier age. At an age when they should have been at their productive best, they are losing productive life by eating this junk,” Bhushan said.

Several experts stated that traditional Indian foods are not only healthy, they are also free from toxins. More than 50 journalists from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan attended the meet. ”I strongly love traditional Indian foods, they are best in taste, flavour and healthy,” Syeda Hameed, member Planning Commission, told media persons.

A Pepsico India spokesperson, however, said all products manufactured by the company in India are fully compliant with all the regulations, including those on labelling, prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

“We get our products regularly analysed at globally reputed and government-approved laboratories and these test reports clearly show that all our food products under the Lays, Uncle Chips, Kurkure and Cheetos brands continue to be trans-fat free as defined by Indian and other regulators, including those in advanced countries,” he said.

Source: IANS

This time he has asked Imran Khan to bulk up to play a rustic Haryanvi lad from the North. The young actor claims he is going to do it in a healthy manner and is steering clear of all supplements. He is gorging on all kinds of food items though and is working with his trainer to reach the target. The Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na actor is facing some hurdles because of his metabolism which keeps him naturally thin. He is also steering clear of steroids and other artificial muscle-builders which can help increase muscle mass short term but has some serious psychiatric and physical side-effects. All we can say he doesn’t need to look too far for inspiration, considering it was his maternal uncle Aamir Khan, who took the ripped look to the next level with his Ghazni 8 pack physique. It’ll be interesting to see Imran in this new look after his chocolate boy look in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and the edgy journo portrayal in Delhi Belly.

This can explain why couch potatoes and other sedentary behaviour makes you fat especially when combined with a lack of exercise. Even people with healthy diet and exercise habits will be affected if they spend long periods sitting behind a desk,according to researchers. Researchers found that preadipocyte cells – the precursors to fat cells – turn into fat cells and produce even more fat when subject to prolonged periods of ‘mechanical stretching loads’ – the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down.

Professor Amit Gefen, from Tel Aviv University, said: “Obesity is more than just an imbalance of calories. Cells themselves are also responsive to their mechanical environment. Fat cells produce more triglycerides [the major form of fat stored in the body], and at a faster rate, when exposed to static stretching.
“There are various ways that cells can sense mechanical loading. It appears that long periods of static mechanical loading and stretching, due to the weight of the body when sitting or lying, has an impact on increasing lipid [fat] production.”
These findings indicate that we need to take our cells’ mechanical environment into account as well as pay attention to calories consumed and burned, said Professor Gefen.
He warned that, while there are extreme cases of people confined to wheelchairs or beds due to medical conditions, many people live a too sedentary lifestyle – spending most of the day behind a desk.

Studying MRI images of the muscle tissue of patients paralysed by spinal cord injuries, researchers noticed that, over time, lines of fat cells were invading major muscles in the body.

This spurred an investigation into how mechanical load – the amount of force placed on a particular area occupied by cells – could be encouraging fat tissue to expand, according to the newspaper.

The research has been published in the American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology.

Source: IANS

In one family, seven members had a mutation in a gene called GALNT2 that allowed them to rapidly break down bad fats. In the other family, just one person had the “cream gene”, Daily Mail reported Wednesday. When family members were given pure cream to drink, those with the gene were much better at breaking down the bad fats, it said quoting the journal Cell Metabolism.

It is thought that normally GALNT2 hinders the breakdown of triglycerides. The mutation stops this from happening, and they are broken down and flushed out of the body more rapidly. Kuivenhoven, of Groningen University medical centre in the Netherlands, said the finding shows that the study of genes can shed important light on bodily processes.

However, he said it is too early to say whether having the “cream gene” has any long lasting health benefits. Cream is not the only “forbidden fruit” to lose some of its dangers depending on a person’s genetics.  A previous study found that smoking, drinking and fast food will not do you any harm – if you have the right genes.

Some of those who lived to a ripe old age had smoked for 85 years, others got through more than two packets of cigarettes a day. They also exercised less than their shorter-lived counterparts but were less likely to become obese, the newspaper said.

The bad news is that it is almost impossible to be sure if you are one of the lucky few blessed with the longevity genes.So there is absolutely no reason to stop exercising and increasing your smoking drinking and other bad habits.

Source: IANS