The Scientist's Corner

Tag: diet

  • Step Four: Conquering the Double Digits and the Aesthetics of Weight Loss

    A week ago, I stood on the weighing scale – after a very long time. Not many people in the health industry are upfront about how stressful it is to stand on that little square that digitally tells you how much you weigh. Because those numbers, somehow, tell a lot about you.

    I started my weight-loss journey on the first of July this year. I weighed 112 kilograms – that’s about 246 pounds. And yes, I had all the wonderful complications that came with it: insulin-resistant Type II diabetes. Now, I’m writing this on the 28th of October, here in Hyderabad, India – and I weigh a cool 96.6 kilograms.

    It’s not something to boast about, yes – because I’m still obese, yes. But do you know why I’m so happy? The last time I weighed anywhere near that, I was a teenager. Now, I’m 27 years old. It means it’s been nearly a decade since I last saw double digits. And my diabetes? According to my specialist, it’s officially in remission – I’m now classified as prediabetic.

    I’ll be honest here. I’ve never been stringent with my diet – I don’t measure portion sizes or count macros and micros. I’ve always been truthful about that. I do occasionally indulge, but my healthy-to-unhealthy ratio is roughly 85–15. Any stricter, and I’d have gone bonkers and long abandoned this path. I still feel the aches, the stiffness after a hard workout – but my shins have visible muscle. I don’t even have to flex! And my biceps? Harder than ever. Clothes from years ago now fit me again – and that feels incredible.

    But before I continue to regale you with the sexiness of gaining muscle and losing fat, let me tell you about the other side – the ugly side – of going from obese to fit, especially as a woman.

    I’ve always been curvy, even at my fittest. Now, I sag in places I’d rather not – especially at 27. My abdomen has loose skin (a lot of it), and I suspect it will soon become a hygiene issue. I live in the tropics, and I sweat more than the average person. My arms jiggle. Luckily, I don’t have cellulite – at least that, I can be thankful for.

    So, you’re stuck in a paradox – you look good, you feel good… but you’re still scarred underneath it all. Weight loss might seem straightforward – diet, exercise, discipline – but the truth is, not all sides of it are discussed. Your skin follows the laws of elasticity, and once it stretches beyond a certain point, it can’t simply bounce back.

  • Step Three: The first 10. Yes, I lost my first 10 kilos… and yes, there is more to come.

    On the first of July this year, I embarked on a journey – a journey that involved caloric deficits, personal trainers, and the occasional cheat meal to keep me sane and on track. As I have said before, it is difficult. Very difficult. But it is worth it. Worth it in the long run.

    It has been 53 days since I began walking the path that many people do take – yes – but a lot of them abandon halfway through because it is unforgiving. I sometimes debate leaving it as well, especially when my legs hurt a little too much, or my back feels like a steel rod, or when I see foodstuffs that beckon me like a siren does a sailor.

    Then, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked at the readings on the glucose monitor… and suddenly, clothes that did not fit me a couple of years ago began fitting me. And I went – Woah! My neck is now visible. My friends say that I look nice. Compliments are raining upon me like the monsoon in Mumbai. It made me feel like dancing the conga.

    But weight loss has a serious side to it. Not many people talk about it. And that side will test you. Losing fat mass – and a little muscle mass along the way, despite resistance training – leaves me tired. The body is adapting, and adaptation takes energy.

    When your body has long lived with insulin resistance, regaining sensitivity is both a blessing and a bane. Glucose finally leaves the blood and enters cells, but if food intake doesn’t keep up, that dip feels like weakness. At the same time, leptin – my hunger hormone, ignored for years – suddenly works again. Less hunger means less eating, which only adds to the fatigue. Thanks, leptin. (/s)

    And suddenly, weights that once felt manageable now feel impossible. It isn’t permanent loss – it’s the temporary cost of being in deficit. I have to rebuild that strength, slowly. My desire to dance the conga? It is secondary to my desire to want to rest.

    As insulin begins working properly again, glucose leaves my blood faster. Without enough food intake to balance it, my sugar levels dip — and I feel it. The mental clarity I first gained with weight loss? It now wavers, like palm trees in a hurricane, every time my blood sugar dips too low. And my determination? Less that is said about it, the better. I begin resisting the temptation of wanting to abandon my post at the gym.

    I, too, sometimes want to abandon my post at the gym. Then I remember that it was not my dime, but my mom’s that paid for it. It was my mother and father who were worried like hell seeing my health fail in my early twenties. It was them who stayed up nights in Hyderabad, unable to leave because of responsibilities, while I was wheeled to the ER at 3 AM in an ambulance from my dorm room in Manipal as a grad student.

    At 27, I am inching closer to being back in the territory of the double digits. I cannot abandon post – it is akin to treason. To myself and my parents. So, if I feel weak, I will take a glass of electrolytes with just a bit of glucose and say “Chale chalo!” because only a battle has been won… not the war.

  • Step One: Introspection on Health Mistakes

    Step One: Introspection on Health Mistakes

    I am obese and my health is teetering on the cliff to the oblivion of ill-health with Type II Diabetes and all its symptoms. I need to prevent this from becoming permanent. Therefore, taking care of this one thing that is truly mine – my body – is my responsibility.

    My becoming obese was due to a combination of factors including irresponsibility, laziness, hormonal havoc, and stress due to hospitalization. Now that I have regained control of this chariot called life, I have decided that I have to do every thing I can to possibly make it healthy and happy.

    I initially tried group workout classes – Zumba, simple weight exercises, yoga, etc. But I noticed one thing, like a child with an open cookie jar and no parent to monitor them, my tendency to slip and imbibe in junk won over. Luckily, the workouts countered my idiocy and I did not gain any weight – but, I did not lose any, either.

    It has been a year, with a background in medical research I am well aware that Type II Diabetes can go into remission when it occurs as a consequence of insulin resistance due to obesity. Having a metabolic disease like diabetes in your 20s with a fully functioning pancreas is a disservice to one’s body – especially when it is a consequence of overindulgence and gluttony. What makes it worse is my craving control is hanging on by a thread which is threatening to snap.

    Some things here:

    1. Robert Lustig’s hypothesis about junk’s empty calories making us want to come back for more like an addict has some merit – especially during periods of stress which are more frequent than not these days.
    2. I love food and I need to learn how to redirect that love to better foods and wider cuisines not desecrated versions of the same. An Italian pizza is not the same as those sold by chains.
    3. Developing a healthy relationship with food is not as simple as avoiding it. It also means actively working on my mental health.

    The third point cuts especially deep as I know that working on my mental health means acknowledging a lot of fears and confronting them head on. But, if I won’t let them pass, they will consume me even more than they already have. I have been trapped in a vicious cycle of avoidance due to fear of success – a path that has led to me to failure and poor mental health; feeding into even more stress and on it goes again. I lost my hobbies, my attention span, and even my already small amount of patience to this monster. Now it is ready to consume my physical health as well. It is time that I won’t let it control me. I only have some confidence left in me. I won’t let it snatch that away.