How to Prevent Weight Gain During Indian Festivals

by varsha - October 02, 2020

Indian festivals are a time to celebrate, spend time with family and friends, and also a time to feast! Indian festivals, especially Dusshera and Diwali are incomplete without sugar-rich sweets like gulab jamun, burfi, and of course ladoos in a thousand varieties. It would need a gigantic will power to resist these sugary delights and that’s why weight gain during Dusshera and Diwali holidays is quite common, but those of us who are trying to lose weight and have lost considerable amount of weight, letting the guards down during the festive season would also mean “undoing” months of unceasing efforts in terms of dieting and exercise. So, what do we do, how to prevent that imminent weight gain during holidays? In this post, we list out some tips on how to prevent weight gain during Indian festivals.

1. Keep Active through the Day: Research has proven that certain fat-burning enzymes shut down when you sit for a few hours at one place, without moving. In fact, getting up and standing on the feet, will restart these enzymes and get them back into motion. So, it’s totally imperative that you do not sit around on the sofa or be a couch potato all through the day during holidays, to continue the fat-burning process.
2. Continue Practicing Portion Control: Portion control is essential to stop piling on the pounds, even if it’s a festival. Do not go for second servings, eat from a small plate. Here are 10 Tips to Portion Control for Weight Loss.
3. Practice Mindful Eating: Chewing slowly is a part of mindful eating because it recommends enjoying each bite of food and being aware of the quality and quantity of food that you are consuming. Avoid transfat, high sugar, high calorie food and include lots of vegetables and whole grains in your diet.
4. Don’t Get up from the Bed without completing 7 Hours of Sleep: We understand you are bound to stay up a bit late at night during Diwali, but do complete 7 hours of sleep to bring back fat-burning hormones into balance. Sleeping for less than 5 hours will put a break on the fat-burning process and even though you might practicing portion control and mindful eating, no fat burning will take place.
6. Include Metabolism-Boosting Foods: Metabolism is that fire that torches up calories, and keep that fire burning with these metabolism-boosting foods (25 Vegetarian Metabolism-Boosting Foods).
7. Balance Stress levels: In addition to ruining your sleep, increased stress can play havoc with your fat-burning hormones, lower metabolism, and also encourage the body to store more fat – a complete nightmare when you are trying to prevent all those extra calories from feasting from accumulating at the wrong places.
8. Eat a High-Protein Snack 15 minutes Before a Feast: Eat a high-protein snack 15 minutes before sitting down with the family to eat a heavy meal. Protein will make you full and there would hardly be any room for everything that’s there on the table. As we all know, protein increases the level of satiety hormones, reduces appetite, thereby also reducing the hunger hormone. By including a protein-rich diet, you boost satiety hormones and keep the hunger hormones in check, which in turn means that you will be less likely to binge and eat extra calories.
9. Eat Desserts and Sweet Dishes Slowly: It’s a secret of international supermodels – relish each bite when you are eating desserts and sweets. Yes, in fact, it’s a common habit of people who are slim. They tend to show restraint around sugary delights and usually savour every bite they take instead of gulping them down. So, by the third bite, they are usually satisfied and want to eat no more, and push the dessert plate away.
10. Look for Fiber-rich Food on the Table: Fiber-rich food helps to reduce appetite to a great extent by regulating the production of hunger hormone “ghrelin.” Fiber content also reduces one’s appetite by slowing the movement of food through the gut. Since fiber has low glycemic index, it also does not spike up insulin and thus reduces the chance of extra calories getting stored up as fat in the body.
11. Say no to Packaged Juices, Beverages, and Soft Drinks: These are loaded with sugar, artificial sweeteners and flavours, and also come loaded with empty calories. Leave them out completely.
12. Stick to your meal and snack routine: Do not frequently snack all through the day because it will cause insulin spikes and as we all know, these spikes will lead to creation of new fat cells. Stick to the meal and snack routine on Rati Beauty Weight Loss diet programs.
13. Make an aim to walk at least 10,000 steps each day: Strictly take time from your busy schedule and make it a point to clock in 10,000 steps every day, no less than that. As we have mentioned earlier, lack of physical movement will cause switching off of fat-burning enzymes, so keep moving, make each step count.
14. Cover Half of your Plate with Vegetables: Veggies supply the body with good carbs, vitamins, essential minerals, and antioxidants as well. Load your plate with veggies so that you feel full with healthy food.
15. Squeeze in time for some workout: Try to squeeze in at least 30 minutes to one hour for exercise, just basic stretching, yoga, and bodyweight exercises which do not require any equipment do a great deal of calorie burning.
16. Eat Salad at least 20 minutes before a meal: Eating a plateful of salad before a family lunch or dinner will help you cut down from piling on extra food during meal time.
17. Try Water Preloading: Water preloading is a healthy and almost effortless way to aid weight loss. In this strategy, experts recommend to consume 500 ml of plain water half an hour before each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Such a quantity of water before the meal will significantly stretch your tummy and as a result, there would be lesser release of the hunger hormone “ghrelin.” This means you would feel full with less food and fewer calorie intake. It is an effective strategy to tackle overeating. It’s a fact that most of us do not consume enough water through the day, and most of the times, we are just thirsty and not really hungry. Frequent hunger pangs are most probably caused due to dehydration and if you can provide your body with more H2O, you can lose weight rather effectively. However, if a person suffers from heart or kidney ailment, water preloading should not be practiced without the approval of the doctor because it lead to fluid retention and shortness of breath in such individuals.
18. Sniff Peppermint Oil: It’s not a gimmick! Certain studies have revealed that sniffing peppermint oil can curb your appetite and to a good extent. Try it for yourself this festive season!