By Sneha Sadhwani,
Clinical Nutritionist and Diabetes Educator
Ramadan is a holy month of fasting. After an entire day’s fast, most of the people indulge in a feast. Such a practice can lead to undesirable weight gain and you may end up feeling tired and lethargic. Here are some tips to keep in mind during Ramadan, which can help with weight loss:
Stay Hydrated:
Once you break the fast, it is important to drink plenty of water. Water keeps you well hydrated and also reduces the sugar cravings. Do not replace water with sherbets, fruit juices and other such sugar-laden beverages, which can lead to weight gain. Drinking caffeinated beverages may cause dehydration. It is better to replace them with herbal teas.
Do Not Overeat:
Once you break the fast, be wise about the portion size. Eat small, frequent and healthy meals and avoid eating caloric-dense foods all at one go. People who continuously eat calorie-dense foods from the time they break their fast (evening) until the next morning, are sure to gain weight. Because the physical activity is also not much during the non-fasting hours, overeating during this time can contribute to weight and fat gain.
Make Healthy Choices:
More high fat and sugar-laden foods are consumed during Ramadan, as compared to the other non-fasting months. One should make sure that they eat healthy and replace refined foods with wholesome and nutritious foods. Here are some healthy food options:
- Replace refined wheat flour and breads with whole wheat or multi-grain flour and breads
- Replace sugar-laden desserts with natural sweeteners such as dates or fresh fruits
- Replace white rice with brown rice
- Rather than deep frying, opt other healthy cooking techniques like, baking, steaming, grilling and roasting. For example: Replace deep fried chicken or fish with baked fish or chicken.
- Last but not the least, if you cannot change your cooking techniques, have these calorie-dense foods in controlled amounts.
Say Yes To Veggies:
Vegetables are an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The fiber present in them keeps you full for a longer period of time and delays hunger pangs. This further prevents overeating and entry of excess calories into your system. Hence, weight-watchers must surely make fresh vegetables a part of their diet. Let’s have a look at how you can increase your vegetable intake during Ramadan:
- Start your meal with a big bowl of fresh vegetable salad. Adding high-fat dressing to your salad, can delete the weight-loss benefit of vegetables. You can simply add some lemon juice and olive oil to jazz up your salad
- Make your plain rice more interesting by adding some vegetables to it
- Replace potato paratha with high fiber vegetable paratha
- Replace dahi boondi with vegetable raita
- Home-made vegetable soups are healthy and tasty. Do not opt for packaged soups
Chew Slowly:
After fasting for an entire day, some people feel so hungry that they eat their food too quickly. They may not even realize that they have not chewed their food properly. Eating too fast encourages weight gain because it takes 20 minutes for your brain to realize that you are full and you should stop eating. The brain then releases anti-hunger hormones, which reduces your appetite and you stop eating.
When you eat quickly, your brain does not receive signals and you tend to overeat. This causes weight gain along with some digestive problems such as acidity and heartburn. Thus, slow eaters benefit the most, when it comes to weight loss.