GOQii

Blog

Search Results for: weight loss

By 1 Comment

 ‘It is not about losing weight but, it is how you manage it’

Shobha Kunju                                                                                             Shobha Kunju

We are celebrating Women’s month and also women’s health. Here is another inspiring story of a woman who with her sheer grit and determination has been able to reverse her illnesses and get on a health path never to turn back.

It is said that it’s never too late to start if you have the right intent and the determination to do it. Shobha Kunju, 58, a mother of two grown-up children is a fine example of the above statement.

Shobha underwent several health issues between 2010 and 2015. She was first diagnosed with thyroid then she had a hysterectomy, and finally diagnosed with diabetes and put on a very high dosage of medications for both thyroid and diabetes. Apart from illnesses, she was also battling weight issues being on the heavier side. No amount of regular walks and exercises helped but, she was active. A ray of hope knocked on her door when her son introduced her to GOQii in 2015. Her eating and exercise habits bettered and she started targeting her step counts. On an average, she started clocking 10000-13000 steps daily. On weekends she goes for long walks -10 km. with better eating habits, exercise and sleeping better helped her in resolving her weight issues. Her weight reduced from 86 kgs 2 years ago to the present 78 kgs, in addition, she has also witnessed drastic inch loss around her waist. Shobha’s determination, self-motivation and discipline have helped her immensely to reverse her ailments and reduce medications. She is free from all medical issues thanks to her active lifestyle. She finds the idea of exercising on a Sunday morning together with other like-minded and motivated individuals very interesting and fun. Currently, she follows a regime of regular 5km walk in the morning with alternate day’s strength training and HIIT workout. Her message to one and all is: “Be disciplined and self-motivated to achieve your health goals”.

 

By 7 Comments

Best fat loss exercise for Indian women.

382361-woman-in-gym

In India, most women have only one fitness goal – WEIGHT LOSS

From my experience as a fitness coach, most young girls/women have similar goals – flat stomach or that thigh gap or those toned arms.

The biggest mistake women make in their fitness pursuit is that they are chasing “weight loss” when they really should be chasing “fat loss”.

Young girls and women have a very clear picture of their fitness targets. But, too many women are misinformed about the CORRECT way of achieving those targets.

KEY: CARDIO will not get you to your goals fast.

Losing WEIGHT by purely staving yourself and doing exhaustive cardio works, but neither is good for your overall well being, nor is it the most effective means of burning fat.

Let’s break it down. When you do any form of CARDIO exercise. Running, jogging, even some hipster cardio exercise like some form of dance or martial arts, you’re burning calories. You’re burning off the fat that is stored in your body and using it for energy.

So it is burning fat but, keep in mind that the fat burns only WHILE you’re doing that particular exercise. Once you go home, your body enters a period of rest and things are normal.

Now let’s consider what happens to your body during and after WEIGHT TRAINING.  So weight training is like any other EXERCISE. In order to go through with it you need to exert your body. You need to spend calories.

While you’ve undergone resistance training, while you’ve done squats or push ups or a bicep curl, your muscles are made to fight against that resistance. In doing so, your muscles undergo a number of minute tears.

After your exercise, when you go home, and you’re resting, these tears in your muscles are repaired by your body. In order to repair them, your body spends calories, and continues to burn fat even when you’re on your couch, watching TV and even when you’re asleep.

SIMPLE CARDIO – Burn calories only while you exercise.

RESISTANCE TRAINING – You’re burning calories while you exercise AND you’re burning calories even after the exercise, while you’re chilling out at home.

The added advantage of resistance training is the lean muscle you put on in the long term. The more muscle you put on, as a woman, the more fat you’ll burn.

The other big issue I’ve seen in Inida, is that many women are afraid to take up weight training because they think they’ll end up looking like a “bulked up bodybuilder”. They don’t wanna get “Bulky”. You need to know that these overly bulky women have taken a LOT of steroid injections to make their bodies turn into THAT.

Many of them have used testosterone, the male hormone. The testosterone is what makes those women bulky and it’s also what makes mens’ muscles bigger.

Rest assured you won’t become like that UNLESS you take testosterone injections. As a woman, your natural biological make up will make you look beautiful always, it will make you look “girly”, unless YOU mess around with it.

Priyanka chopra, Bipasha Basu, Alia Bhatt. All these women lift weights and have been lifting weights for a long time. They aren’t bulky by any means.

If you still aren’t convinced about this, I urge you to at least try it out for a couple of months. Go to a good gym, get a good trainer, see the results for yourself. As a woman, especially if you’re someone who has never tried resisitance training, you owe it to your body to give it a shot. You have only one body, its time to maximize its potential.

THIS IS THE FASTEST WAY TO BURN FAT.

By 2 Comments

Women and Weight Training

women-fitness

Most Indians associate the word ‘Gym’ with big muscles and this is the unfortunate truth about gyms in India. Gymming and weight training automatically gets you to picture a bulky man with veins popping out of his arm. I personally blame the media for this. But, it isn’t the 1980s anymore. The world has moved beyond this idea that gyms and weights are meant only for men.

As a fitness coach, and online influencer, the one thing I honestly believe is that woman all over the world should experiment with weight training or resistance training at some point. I am of the opinion that women benefit MUCH more from lifting weights than men ever will? Unfortunately, most women believe that weight training WILL make them bulky. But, it’s not as simple as that. Yes, I get that most women don’t want to look like female bodybuilders but, here’s what you need to know. Female bodybuilders (Insert picture) look the way they look because of injecting testosterone and steroids in their bloodstream.

The one scientific truth that women must be aware of is that weight training has different effect on male bodies and a different effect on female bodies.

Testosterone is the hormone that makes men manly. A part of being “manly” is having the ability to pack on muscle. And packing on muscle is enhanced with higher testosterone levels. That is also why the bulky bodybuilders you see on stage ‘look unnatural’ to some. They’ve injected themselves with heavy amounts of testosterone. But, if you’re a normal, everyday woman, you need to know this one thing – You DO NOT have as much testosterone as men do. This factor alone will prevent you from becoming bulky through weight training.

Most women have one common fitness goal – to lose weight. What most women don’t know is that there are slow ways to lose weight, and fast ways to lose weight. Conventional weight loss techniques like swimming, running or even something like zumba are just cardio exercises. They are primarily working your heart. So, while you’re doing the activity, you’re burning calories. This can be called an active burn of calories.

The biggest difference between weight training and these conventional methods of losing weight is that weight training is the most intense activity you can put your body through. It damages your muscles like no other activity. When you lift weights, you burn calories. But, the real charm of weight training for women, lies in the “after-burn effect”. Because of all the damage you’ve inflicted on to yourself through weights, your body continues burning calories 2-3 days after you’ve done the weight training. So you’re getting both the benefit of an active burn as well as a passive burn. And this form of damage and repair, if combined with a bit of cardio (running, swimming, zumba) will benefit you the most in terms of weight loss.

But, weight loss is a very short term goal. As a woman, you need to take a step back and understand what you’re becoming in the long term. The bitter truth is that women’s bodies disintegrate faster than male bodies. After the age of 25, women’s bones tend to become slightly more porous. They lose a bit of their density and strength. In this process, women also get more injury prone as they grow old. And strength training with dumbbells and weights can be the savior in this case as well. A good training programme, executed in your 20s, will pay off for the rest of your life. Long term strength training has been proven to benefit everything from women’s bone density to aging processes to strength and of course rapid weight loss.

This is what Indian women need to learn. Science is pointing in one direction. And as a 21st century woman, it’s time to open up to new concepts. Forget what you’ve grown up seeing in the media and forget what you’ve been told by the society you live in. The only person you should be listening to is science. And science urges you to step into the weight room. You grow as an individual ONLY outside your comfort zone.

By 1 Comment

‘Spices that help in losing weight’

India is popular for its spicy food. The sheer number of whole and ground spices used in Indian foods is sometimes intimidating. Each dish has its own combination of spices and its own unique flavour. The spices not just add flavour to your food but they also have many health benefits. Rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, most spices are good for your health. Some of the spices also improve your metabolic rate and help in losing weight. Here is a list of Indian spices that help your body to burn more fat. So, spice up your dishes!

Cinnamon

cinnamon

According to a recent study, cinnamon may boost your metabolism. This sweet, fragrant spice also regulates your blood pressure. It lowers level of total cholesterol, bad cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar in type 2 diabetes patients. Cinnamon increases the metabolism of glucose by around 20 times. This spice will help you lose weight faster.

How to Use?

You can prepare cinnamon, honey and lemon drink- boil a pinch of cinnamon in a cup of water. Sieve and add a tablespoon of honey and squeeze some lemon into it.

Turmeric

Turmeric

The pungent, yellow spice is known for its anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic and anti-fungal properties. It also helps you lose excess weight. The spice ups your body heat and this can result in improved metabolism.

HOW TO USE?

Use it in your curries, chicken and in milk to gain the health benefits of turmeric.

Ginger

ginger

The spicy ginger regulates your blood sugar levels and helps prevent an increase in the level of glucose. Like turmeric, ginger has thermogenic or fat-burning properties. You can add it to your stir-fried vegetables or tea or chicken. It improves the taste and helps you in weight loss.

HOW TO USE?

Prepare a Jeera (Cumin) Ginger drink.

Boil a tsp of Jeera and some crushed ginger in a glass of water. Boil till it starts reducing, sieve it and Drink after 30mins of lunch and dinner to ease digestion.

Black Pepper

black-pepper

Black pepper has a pungent flavour, thanks to the presence of the substance known as piperine and this substance also prevent new fat cell formation. The bioavailability of other foods is also increased by black pepper. It makes the food not only tasty but also healthy. If u eat fresh pepper and begin to perspire, that’s the pepper helping your body to get rid of excess water and toxins. But, you need to control consumption, a pinch with your food (one meal) is enough.

HOW TO USE?

Black Pepper Tea.

Easy to prepare and the best way to consume black pepper for weight loss. You can use ginger, lemon, honey, tulsi (basil leaves), cinnamon, or green tea bags to prepare the tea.

Use 1/2-1 tsp freshly ground black pepper and drink it before breakfast.

Regular consumption will not only help you in losing weight but also improve your skin and prevent gut problems.

CAUTION

Do not consume too much as it may cause gastrointestinal problems, burning sensation in eyes, stomach irritation. If you feel uneasy, stop the use of black pepper immediately.

Garlic

garlic

Adding garlic to your diet will help you burn the increased amount of fat and lose weight faster. Try to use fresh garlic instead of garlic powder or granules.

Here’s how it works…

  1. Garlic stimulates the satiety hormone which reduces binge eating, sugar cravings, junk food, and oily stuff.
  2. It releases the norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter which boosts metabolism.
  3. The allicin present in it lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels.
  4. Garlic inhibits the process breaking down stored fats.
  5. It is a powerful detoxifier and effective diuretic.
  6. It contains trace minerals (sulphur, selenium, and magnesium, zinc, copper and iron), amino acids and vitamins A, C, and E.
  7. It helps to dissolve blood clots that lead to Heart stroke.
  8. It has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.
  9. It helps to remove excess mucus from the body.

HOW TO USE?

  • Squeeze juice of 1 lemon in a cup of water.
  • Chew 3 garlic cloves followed by the lemon water.
  • Or add crush the garlic cloves, stir in the lemon water and drink.
  • Repeat the process every morning.

These spices will help you to shed those extra kilos but you also need to change your lifestyle to a healthier one and should have a healthy diet.

TRY THEM OUT!!!

 

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]