What to eat when you can’t exercise
(By Lisa Sarah John, Courtesy Bangalore Times, Jun 04, 2007)
Many of us at some point have faced an injury or accident and been advised bed rest for few weeks.
Not only is this very frustrating, for many of us who are weight-conscious it’s a nightmare. We know that the weight
will shoot up. So what is the best way to handle this?
The first thing most of us would
do is to cut down food intake or skip meals as we know we cannot burn as many calories as we would earlier. This is dangerous,
as the metabolic rate or BMR will slow down when the body finds that you are drastically cutting down your calorie intake.
You have to take stock of the quality of your food without cutting down the quantity. This is the time
to completely cut out foods that contain more fat and therefore more calories. You must continue to eat all three meals, properly
balanced with carbohydrate and proteins. You may season your food with minimum oil but all extra fat and fatty foods must
be completely cut out. Don’t butter your bread but
continue to eat two slices of bread for breakfast. Don’t
snack on deep fried foods; eat a low-cal cracker or dry toast at tea time. Have fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth and completely
avoid sweets, pastries and desserts.
The next step is to eat plenty of fibre. Fibre is hard to digest and every time you eat it, right from
chewing it to getting it broken down inside your body, there is more work happening and you will be burning more calories.
This helps finally to keep your metabolism up as well. One of the most important changes is to ensure that the carbohydrate
content of your meal, namely the cereals must be whole grains instead of polished cereal. Completely give up rice and rice
items such as idli, dosa, appam, akki rotti, pongal, beaten rice, etc. And substitute these with ragi items, cornflakes, oats,
etc. Also white maida bread must be replaced with atta bread and dry chapati. Rava, vermicelli, noodles, pasta must be avoided
and broken wheat or dahlia used in its place. Remember it’s only for a short duration of time. Rice must be avoided
and replaced with ragi ball, phulka or dry chapati. Juices must be avoided and fresh fruit eaten instead as much more work
is involved in chewing and digesting a fruit with its fibre. Apple, pear, orange, mosambi, pomegranate and guavas have plenty
of fibre.
Please note that for a normal healthy person it is harmful to try to lose weight by only dieting without
regular exercise, as there will be loss of muscles mass which, in turn, will lower the BMR. The above-mentioned plan is to
be used only in a situation where there is no choice and rest has been medically prescribed for a short duration.
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