Fitness should not be a short term goal!

Guest article by Shwetha Bhatia

Party season’s around the corner and suddenly we remember about fitting into that Little Black Dress! Making weight loss a short term deal for a few weeks is the worst thing you can do to your body. Making healthy New Year resolutions, following it through January and going back to being unhealthy come February is the typical YO-YO.

These weight loss and regain fluctuations seriously affect body composition which makes every subsequent attempt even more difficult. With every Kg of weight lost, you do lose a bit of muscle (and a lot more if the approach wasn’t correct) and gain more fat when you gain it back on a bad diet. This causes dips in your basal metabolic rate and hence more difficult to lose at your next attempt.

So what do you do? Think fitness as a lifestyle change year round; not just around events. Focus on your non-scale victories eg., better health, high energy levels, great immunity, better sleep quality, enhanced workout performance; weight loss will be the icing on the cake!

Shwetha Bhatia is a registered dietician with the Indian Dietetic Association. She runs her practice under the brand name “Metamorphosis’ in Mumbai. She is also a competitive fitness athlete (IBBF Bronze winner at the State & National Level 2015). She has also set up her own gym and nutrition counselling centre in Goa called Gym & Tonic. She’s also a columnist for the fitness magazine Krunch Today.