I am back with another weekly dose of nutrition and fitness to help you guys. I hope you are all managing to keep up with the long fasting hours this Ramadan. I know many of you have fat loss goals for this month (just like in previous years) but sadly, you may end up actually gaining weight instead. However, with some strategic planning, you can actually lose a considerable amount of weight. In my opinion, Ramadan is in fact, the perfect month to break the code to “excess body fat.”
Let me introduce you to some science to explain why Ramadan is a prime time to shed a few pounds. Ramadan or intermittent fasting, involves a lengthy period of time without any ingestion of food. We only consume food after a certain allotted period of time. So, what happens to the body when there is no food in the system?The science behind itThe first thing that happens is that the level of insulin remains very low. That is, no food leads to no blood sugar surges and thus no release of insulin. Absence of insulin means your body can access its fat store. As a result, better fat mobilisation takes place, leading to a loss of fat.
In order to gain the maximum benefit from this scientific phenomenon, we can take a few steps. If fat loss is the aim, then the first thing we can do is to add some exercise to our routine. It is better if you can do high intensity exercises, but I will not recommend that for people who are a bit overweight.
In that case, a simple inclined treadmill walk might just work. The best time to work out for fat loss is when you are fasting. You can pick a time that will allow you to finish your workout half an hour before you break the fast.
Now comes the nutrition part. If you wish to remain motivated regarding fat loss, then you've got to work on it. My advice would be to eat super clean. If you have decided to eat clean at least once a year, that time should be during Ramadan.Clean eatingSo what is eating clean and why is there so much emphasis on it? Eating clean is eating nutrition dense food rather than highly refined food. We should try to eat clean because when we are breaking fast, there is no point in stressing an empty stomach with food which of poor quality. Therefore, by eating quality food and avoiding those that are high in sugar or are deep fried, we can take a huge step towards our fat loss goal.
Your meals should have lots of fresh fruit which include healthy natural sugar, a good source of protein cooked or grilled in very little oil, and some greens to complete the quota of fibre for the day. Choose the right source of carbohydrate; I personally prefer rice to bread.
Water should be in abundance in all meals. Sugary drinks should be avoided in most cases if you want to see any sort of result.
Lastly, the majority of your food consumption for the day should be during iftar, while taking it easy during other meals in terms of volume.Sleep is the keySleep well through the night. One major problem of not sleeping is that it will keep you under tremendous stress. This will prevent you from performing optimally during the day without food and water.
Moreover, if you do not sleep at night, you will be more inclined towards snacking during the period from iftar till suhur and it’s not good news from the fat loss perspective. So get the right amount of sleep no matter what, and you will feel better.
If you can be a little strict on yourself this Ramadan, I believe that you will see a remarkable change in your waistline. You might pull off wearing that fancy Eid outfit better and even manage to keep on chasing away body fat even after Ramadan is over.
Remember that we just need a starting point and Ramadan can give us that. However, among the thirty fasting days, you can allow yourself one or two cheat days where you can treat yourself to a bit of greasy, deep-fried indulgence.
You just need to make sure though that it does not happen during every iftar.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
