Unable to lose weight due to night shift (Fitness query of the day)

I am 25 years old and my height is 5 ft and weight is around 62 kg. I have a night shift – my shift timing is 5.30 pm to 4.30 am. I get up by 3 pm to get ready for office. I have my lunch by 3.30 pm. By 5 pm, I reach office and have a glass of juice. By 9.30 pm, I have my dinner. I leave from office by 4.30 am and reach home by 5.30 am and sleep. Please suggest the right diet for me and how can I reduce my weight. Since my schedule is so tight, I can hardly exercise.

Answered by our expert Urmi Kothari.

From your schedule, I can see that you are sleeping for approximately 9 to 9.5 hours. In my opinion, you can very well fit exercise in your schedule by waking up only an hour early, say about 1.30 pm which still leaves you time for a good 7.5 hours of sleep. It’s not recommended that you exercise in an exhausted and fatigued state. No matter what job you are in, you have to make it a point to exercise in some form if you want to be fit and healthy. It’s true you can lose weight by eating right and having a good food plan but you will not get stronger or fitter without exercise. And you will definitely be more equipped to handle your job and its rigours if you are fitter, no matter what your weight is.

So first of all, join a class or hire a trainer or enroll in a gym or yoga class or just go for walks. Start off with:

1. Warm up and stretches
2. Core exercises
3. Lower body strengthening

Do these three times a week. After a week, do two rounds of each.

Although I am not a dietician, what I can see from the information you have given me is that you are eating only 2 meals a day. Since you have not mentioned what you eat, I cannot comment on it. A glass of juice, fresh or canned is probably doing more harm than good due to excess sugar and hardly any fibre.

General tips that I recommend are:

Eat every 2 to 3 hours. It will help increase your metabolism, but what you eat also matters a lot.
Try to eat protein, carbs and good fats in your main meal and eat protein or good fat rich snacks.

Some good sources of protein in vegetarian food are:

Sprouts, soya chunks, daal or pulses – they have carbs as well. Paneer, tofu, cheese has good fats (but are high in calories), curd or milk, eggs.

Some healthy snacks (these may not necessarily be low-calorie but are very healthy and can prevent junk food cravings):

Nuts like almonds, pistachios and walnuts, roasted chana, sprout bhel, coconut water, toast with peanut butter, fruits, oatmeal for breakfast.

For a definite diet, see a dietician. But at the end of the day, you have to understand how your body responds to different foods and follow what’s best for you. What I suggest is don’t look at losing weight as a ‘project’. Instead aim to eat healthy and get fitter. This will take longer because it involves a lifestyle / habit change. But once it happens, the benefits will be worth the effort.

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• 10 superfoods for weight loss

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