Six-pack to family pack — the lockdown side eect
Every athlete and celebrity is equally affected by the lockdown. The lack of training facilities, trainers, coaches, nutritionists and other experts has led to a slackening of focus. As a result, many have gained body fat percentages.
The Indian gene is prone to high fat deposition in periods of no exercise or high calorie intake. Most of this fat deposition is focused around the belly. The sixpacks disappeared to fourpacks in April and twopacks in May. In June, the packs will become the family pack or the beer belly.
Here are my nutrition tips to help you burn that belly fat.
Research has shown that a high carbohydrate diet leads to higher insulin resistance. When the body releases more and more of resistant insulin, the body begins to store fat. For sportspersons, this is a ne line between losing fat and taking too little carbs and eventually you lose performance and stamina.
A higher protein diet will ensure you prevent muscle loss. In weightloss programmes directed at losing belly fat, the athlete will overdo muscle training, thereby increasing microscopic trauma, which leads to loss of muscle if the diet is not replenished with protein. Post workout, a 20gm grams dose of protein from the diet or a supplement is one sure tip. Keeping protein intake a day at 1.21.■gm per kilogramme of the athlete’s body weight is best.
Plantbased foods have carbs in the form of indigestible material. This is commonly known to us as bre. Fibre helps in slower release of digestible carbs, holds back excess oils and creates a sense of fullness when we eat. Examples are white rice and brown rice. White rice digests faster, releases more sugar faster, and has more calories and hence contributes more to fat deposition. Brown rice has a brelike coating that releases the carbs very slowly, hence a lower calorie level,
The Indian gene is prone to high fat deposition in periods of no exercise or high calorie intake. Most of this fat deposition is focused around the belly.
and you feel full eating brown rice thus making you eat much lesser quantities. Green leafy vegetables are the best for a sixpack. I would recommend you eat spinach (palak), lettuce, salad leaves, red bhaji or lots of purple, red and green cabbage. Cauliower also is a good substitute as a vegetable.
Two role model athletes in this lockdown have been footballer Pritam Kotal and squash champ Joshna Chinappa.
Here are the things my athletes have committed to at the start of the lockdown.
Not overdoing eating. They are eating with moderation. In fact they sometimes started eating later in the day. This allowed an intermittent fasting situation. So we got a 1415 hour fasting period. They nished their dinner early by 7 p.m. Breakfast, the next day. would be post 10 a.m.
Their cheat meals were limited to ‘eating out was banned’ in the lockdown. So they experimented with home cooked desserts and portion controlled them. No sugar, no sweets except one serving per week. They could chose any sweet dish but it had to be under 100 grams weight.
We increased their protein post workout but consumed lesser or no carbs post the workout.
They focused on highintensity interval training (HIIT) and did a lot of core work.
We added probiotics to reduce bloating and we removed gluten and bread as much as possible.
We added a lot of walking to their regime — 56km a day of a light run or jog.
They were asked to strictly follow the table along with other food options.
The best way to lose weight is to design your rice dishes with lesser than 40 percent rice in it. This is my alltime favourite highbre, highprotein and lowcarb dish.
Ingredient
Rice
Onion
Capsicum
Beans
Carrot
Cabbage
Chicken/soya nuggets
Egg
Garlic
Soya sauce
Green chill (finely chopped)
Status
Cooked and kept at room temperature Finely diced
Finely diced
Finely diced
Finely diced
Finely diced
Precooked and diced
Finely chopped
Quantity 25gm
10gm
25gm
25gm
25gm
25gm
25gm
40gm (One egg) 2gm
1tsp
1gm