Brief Answer: Congratulations for your effort and determination Detailed Answer: Hi, Thanks for the query. I congratulate you for your effort and determination. Losing weight is a time consuming process needing a lot of effort. There are two keys to it: Total daily calorie intake must be less than the daily requirement or more energy must be spent by doing exercise than the amount of calories consumed. So you must have a workout for 30 minutes to 1 hr for 5 days a week. The dietary modification is as follows: Basic principles are to eat 60% carbohydrates. They must not be in the form of simple sugars that is no sweets or chocolates. Eat cereals, pulses, and millets like wheat, daal, jowar, bajra, ragi flour. the rest 20-25% of the diet energy must come from protein and 10-15% from fat. Suggested diet and daily routine is as follows. Wake up early: have some water or lemon juice without sugar. Morning walk. Breakfast: 2 idlis or 2 dhoklas or low oil upma, or 1 cup cereal, or methi roti [preferably home made sprouts] and sugar less tea or coffee Lunch: 2 chapatis prepared form mixed flour containing the above pulses and millets, 1 katori daal, 1 katori vegetable [low oil] may have fat free yogurt or salt lassi and lot of salad. fruits like watermelon, XXXXXXX oranges, lemons and pomegranates can be used as fillers intermittently once or twice a day along with plenty of water. Dinner: preferably eaten 2 hrs before sleeping containing a similar combination as lunch. There is no hard rule. Eat less food and low calorie food that is no fried or sweet food. An evening walk after dinner and gym in the morning are also needed. Please do not stop exercise after a few days as it tends to cause bodyache for 1-2 months after beginning. It stops once your stamina increases and your exercising capacity increases. Weight loss is quicker initially and slightly slows down later. So do not stop the regimen. Adhere to this regimen for 6 months and you will start loosing. Wish you good luck in your weight loss program. Thanks for using XXXXXXX Feel free to ask for any more queries. Dr Madhuri Bagde

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Brief Answer: Yes you can Detailed Answer: Hi, Thanks for the response. You can take rice in small quantity. Unfortunately the problem with rice is that it provides really quick energy and gets absorbed easily in the body so it raises your sugar unnecessarily. This sugar converts into fat and is stored in the body. So people wanting to lose weight must not eat much rice. A spoonful can be taken at lunch, but try to eat chapatis and not rice. Regarding vegetables all can be eaten except potatoes and sweet potatoes. Even these can be eaten in moderate amounts provided you are not making them your staple diet. Eat as much green veggies as you can. Eat seasonal vegetables prepared with little oil as they are cheap and fresh and are the healthiest choice. Remember the key is not to eat very less but to workout and burn the extra calories that are stored in the body as fat. So even if you eat rice and then workout for 1-2 hours, it is ok as you have achieved your goal. So keep up the spirit, eat healthy and exercise and you will lose. Hope this helped. Thanks once again and feel free to ask more. Dr Madhuri Bagde

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