When many think of Diet, they think, “starving”. They believe that by staying hungry they will magically lose those extra 10lbs, however that not the case as Dom Singh (Damanjeet Singh), National level classic physique competitor further explains.
“In our Desi community, when it come to diet there is no in between, it’s either aloo parounte (potato bread) and gheo (butter) everyday to drinking nothing but nimboo pani (lemon water). There is no middle ground.” He states that “Starving doesn’t actually make you lose weight, it makes you retain more fat, which will in reality make you gain more weight, since it slow down your metabolism.” He further explains that eating is key to losing weight. If we ate every 2-3 hours about 5-6 high protein enriched meals a day, one will lose more weight as this will speed up the metabolism. Metabolism is our bodies treadmill, more energy we feed it, the faster it goes.
There is a significant void of dietary education within our community that Dom Singh has been trying to fill. Lack of education is the root of all evil, even in our daily diets. It is unfortunate that we do not have a “food pyramid” to reference that would include our desi roti (bread), subzi (spiced vegetables) and dal (lentils), so many of us do not know how to portion. According to Dom Singh, an idealistic meal is 8oz of protein (chickpeas, lentil, tofu) , 1 cup of carbs (1 roti, rice ) and 1 cup of vegetables. He states, “If we include those meal portions and eat every 2-3 hours, you don’t have to worry about weight bouncing back up once you start eating food again. It’s no longer just a diet, it become a lifestyle, a healthy one. “
