My Battle Against Paunch, With Data & Strategy, Not Sweat

Long hours at office notwithstanding I jog 4-5 times a week. I wistfully skip desserts. But I still had a paunch. How do I get rid of the paunch without investing disproportionate time & effort into it?

Our first bastion of research, on-line, has little clinical evidence available. And lots of opinions. These conflicting opinions need to be reconciled for action. My approach was to make considered choices and keep moving. Now having lost 4 kilos in 2 months, the direction seems right. I want to share this journey & open-up for builds from your own experience.

To lose the paunch I had to lose weight. To lose weight, I looked at calories and key macro-nutrients (Water, Carbs, Fats, Fibre & Proteins). 

WATER is, surprisingly, a vital macro-nutrient

I always believed I was hydrated. I sipped water regularly during a jog. I am a green tea fan. I had water along with meals. Sadly, this was not enough. Did you know that the average requirement is 1 litre of water for every 25kg of body weight? Exercise and Indian summers each add another 500ml/day.

That meant I needed to double my current water consumption. You have to try it yourself to understand the struggle of notching up 3+ litres a day. My way was to corner a 1 litre bottle, that I jealously used to track my water consumption. I gulp down a quarter or a third of it every now & then. Honestly, this does make trips to the loo more frequent and a distraction to meetings & telecons. Hope my colleagues never notice my urgency to close discussions ??.

While initially tiresome, it soon became second nature to me. I started feeling thirsty if I didn’t drink at least a glass every hour.

As I felt full with water, I snacked lesser. Scientifically, as our body is 60% water, water is needed to flush toxins out.

Internet is full of recos about when to drink water. I decided to settle for drinking 30 mins before the meal, zero during the meal, and 60 mins after the meal. The philosophy of leaving digestive juices undiluted had an intuitive appeal. And it didn’t sound like too much of a compromise.

Even if you try nothing else, you must try water!

Four Key Macro-nutrients: Carbs, Fats, Fibre & Proteins

These four felt overwhelming. To set priorities, I started tracking my macro-nutrient consumption over ~3 weeks. See the graph below. This was a big eye-opener. 

As the above graph shows, for fibre I was consistently above 100% of my requirements. Fats, Carbs were acceptable @75% given the intent to lose my paunch. However, Proteins consistently at ~ 50%, needed attention. This exercise also simplified the task of managing 4 macro-nutrients to just focusing on Proteins.

The recommended norm for Protein is about 1g for every kg of body weight. That’s about 70g for me. With predominantly a vegetarian diet, it is challenging to meet this norm. To share the magnitude of the problem, my typical lunch (Dal/roti/sabzi/salad) had only about 20g of protein. And I don’t have 3+ lunches in a day ?

I looked at all the food cooked at home & the amount of protein in them. Most have 1-2g of protein per serving. Those with higher protein content are shortlisted in the table below.

From the above table I picked up 4 things: Milk, Egg White, Dal with every meal and curd/raita with either meal to reach a considerable 35g of protein. The rest of the food simply adds to the tally nudging the protein count to nearly 65+ gms/day. 

I have a sweet tooth. And by choosing milk-based, low sugar desserts I could indulge my dessert cravings and notch up protein as well.

Total CALORIES

I have always exercised a certain degree of restraint with Food. My daily calories were clumped around 3 major meals with cups of green tea/coffee in between. So it’s been perplexing that despite averaging 1600 calories per day, the baby bump persists.

Yet again, tracking was eye-opening. As the graph below shows my calorie intakes fluctuated between 1200 & 2000. It’s a sure tactic of signaling my body to store fat.

More than the average calorie intake, I changed the way I ate those calories.

First, I started eating smaller portions through the day. Each meal was curtailed earlier than usual. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is ravenously hungry and 10 is deliciously full (after a hearty meal at Khan Chacha/Bade Miyan), the goal became to stay at 6-7. The purpose is to stay light on the tummy. This also increases the number of meals you eat.

How do you get more meals cooked for you? To prevent a mutiny in the kitchen & retain our maid, the simplest solve was to break down every meal into two. Hence breakfast became BF1 & BF2. Say, carbs as breakfast, and the fruit (easy to carry) as a mid-morning snack.

Salads could be easily introduced to become the mandatory first course at Lunch. The usual lunch automatically reduced in quantity as well. Salads are easy to carry, and I could even eat them at work. And with simple additions (nuts, cheese) it’s possible to make them yummy & different every day. I was soon achieving tummy fill & taste while keeping the calorie count low.

Fruits or nuts in the evening became another snack between meals. They are incredibly handy when you are travelling. I was indifferent to all other spins around some fruits (bananas, mangoes etc) having more sugar than others (say an apple). Any fruit is good. Period.

As much as the smaller portions, its unintended consequence of eating salads/fruits has ensured that I am eating healthier. I passionately would scuttle questions around attribution. The best digital marketing professionals are also struggling with it. So why address this for such a traditional question.

Second, I moved to a calorie trend that was steady and avoided the peaks & troughs. I aimed for 1700 ± 200 cal. I include a brief 2-min check on status against this budget. This allows mid-course corrections within the day. In addition, smaller meals help you get back on track.

Together, these two changes reinforce each other and have a dramatic impact. They have made desserts possible! I moved from an abstain-binge, pull-push conflict to indulging if the budget permits. I find myself able to afford 1 or 2 pieces of Kalakand/Rasgulla/Peda easily. Or a bar of dark chocolate.

There have been many more delights along the way. Beer having lower calories than a can of cola is just one such discovery??. To many more such discoveries!

To summarise, I have three priorities: Water, Protein & Calories. And by focusing on this three I have been able to lose 4 kilos in 2 months. And I am looking forward to the day when it will start showing as well. 

In case you want to continue reading. these are some great references to get you started on your own journey.

1. Dietary Reference Intakes from USDA

• https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/fnic/interactiveDRI/

2. For Protein    

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3701462
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-need-every-day-201506188096
• https://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-eat/protein-guide-maximum-muscle  

3. For Water

• https://www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk/hydration-facts/faqs-on-hydration/
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256?pg=1
• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/How-much-water-should-you-drink-every-day/articleshow/20408856.cms

4.For Total Calories

• https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/3-hour-diet-or-3-meals-a-day#3
• https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Is-3-Meals-a-Day-the-Only-Way_UCM_449551_Article.jsp#.WsdbzIhubIU
• https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/eating-little-and-often-no-better-for-dieters-than-fewer-feasts/