Before & After: How Portion Control & Running Helped This 21-Year-Old Lose 25 Kilos

With a feeling of accomplishment and being in a healthier space, Nikhil talks to us about his journey and it involves resilience, hard work and a fantastic result. Nikhil had a rough break-up post which he decided to take charge of his body. However, he channeled this angst into motivating himself to get fitter and leaner. Over a period of eight months, he lost over 25 kg.

The fitness plan was simple: he started playing basketball more, took up running and skipping {he highly recommends the latter}. Since he lives in Lokhandwala, he started going to his building gym regularly where he took to weight training.

To keep a tab on his running distance and time, he maps it on his phone and uses My Fitness Pal for measuring calories intake {which you can check out here}.

#LBBTip: Fond of running, Nikhil often hits up Lokhandwala back road. For him, seeing everyone around him walking, or running motivates him to push himself harder.

Telling us categorically that he does not enjoy bland food, Nikhil took a rather unconventional path in terms of planning his diet. Instead of cutting back on his favourite spicy dishes, he cut down on his portions. From a four-roti diet to two and indulging only in home-cooked food, he started seeing the changes. This is where My Fitness Pal came into play – he got an idea about the kind of calories he’d been in-taking and planned his meals accordingly.

When it came to ordering outside food, he switched to the thin-crust pizzas from Dominoes and started ordering non-oily, less spicy Tandoori chicken from Pratap Da Dhaba in Lokhandwala.

Since Nikhil’s diet centred around controlled portions, and not cutting out food he planned his cheat eats as well. Plain nachos and only cheese from The Irish House, Starbucks non-coffee frappes, Sweetish House Mafia cookies and for super indulgent days, kebabs and biryani from Kakori House.

Of course, he suggests running extra or skipping more to make up for the indulgence.

Fitter, healthier and happier Nikhil shares his best kept secret. He tells us, “Keep it simple. Understand your body, experiment with it and don’t stop eating. Eat less but don’t stop” while signing off.