How much weight did you lose in India?

herfimo

I put on so much weight that when I bumped into a friend of mine a day earlier than we had arranged she looked blankly at me and then said: 'Oh it's you! It looks like you've been blown up with a bicycle pump!'

A large appetite is a happy thing, especially when there's curry! My theory is that the more you eat, the healthier you are and so your body will be better at fighting off the bugs. When I'm away from home I've always enthusiastically tried any type of food going, I call it food tourism, and I never feel better!

sego

My wife lost 15 lbs, and thought it's a great way to loose weight and see India.

ren

You are right about the manufactured food. In America, we basically ONLY eat processed foods. Here, my lovely MIL cooks everything from scratch. No processed foods allowed in her kitchen.

The thing is, I eat ice cream or SOME sweet everyday. Just smaller amounts. And still I'm losing weight. Says alot about my poor eating habits in America.

Nick-H

I'm still loosing weight.

This is the only worrying thing for me about living here. The climate subdues my temperature, and I eat less (although enjoy the same) when the food is spicy.

Even though my stomach has come round to at least not minding Indian food (and my wife makes a lovely tiger prawn curry especially for me --- she is vegetarian) my stomach still would love to go to a caff and get a big plateful of roast lamb with gravy and spuds and veg.

I'm not eating chocolate every day either --- although I only recently found that Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate is easy to get, also a milk drink that tastes just like ovaltine.

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dhans

Nick,

You're supposed to gain weight now you're married

Hans

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Shaktipalooza

i think eating the processed food in the US is one of the most unhealthy things you can do to your body. though i have to admit purel out of convenience i eat more than i should.

i usually lose around ten pounds in india. instead of plopping my ass in front of a computer 10 hours a day i get up with the sun and spend most of my time walking about taking in the sights. it's just a totally different, much more active lifestyle.

a report came out a few months ago indicating life expectancies in the US are actually dropping, due mainly to a growing trend in obesity.

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Casey

I lost weight both times I was in India. The first time was just a bit and I came back in good shape from so much walking. This last time I had lost weight and then I got sick. I was down to 103 pounds when I came home. Everywhere I went people were asking how I lost so much weight. The first thing I did was buy a pair of pants that fit so I didn't feel like a kid dressed in grown-up clothes. I agree that it is not eating processed food and drinking 5 times the usual amount of water helps the weight loss.

Eve68

Some of us cook from scratch. I don't do processed, McDs, or any of that junk...It all depends what you're used to. My mom cooked a lot while I was growing up, never went to restaurants, and she's not American so maybe that's why I didn't acquire a taste for fast food and processed. You ever look at the sodium content in canned food? Yuk and Yikes!

jgv

I Lost 16 kilos in 8 weeks but I got giardia and it kicked in when I got back to Sydney.

I always tend to lose weight due the walking on holidays.

This reminds me of people that don't like to eat Indian food in India. There was this woman at our hotel in Bikaner who brought all her own food with her. She was walking around eating salami sticks or something like that. Crazy lady.

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Nick-H

She'd probably heard that most salami sold in India is counterfeit

robinsparrow

got here in Delhi a few weeks ago---and all my old clothes a bit tight----but I'm going to increase my activity level ,now that I'm back from Goa....hope to lose a little in time for The wedding in mid December,


any im meetings in Delhi. let me know/////


thanks......and anyone going to Goa soon take a hair dryer to take the dampness out of your clothes.

marcrey

While posts here are correct that so much of the processed foods in the West are really bad for you - high salt content, high fat, high calories, etc, many Westerners eat quite healthy. In fact, the trend, at least in the US, is towards less processed foods and more fresh healthy choice along with smaller portions.

On the other hand I have found here in India you can choose to eat healthy or not. Many of the veg Indian dishes are fried in oils, covered in rich gravies and equally fattening and unhealthy as some Western dishes. Of course, there are many Indian dishes that are quite healthy too.

My conclusion - you can choose to eat healthy here in India, in the US or just about anywhere in the world, but you need to be aware of your choices make them healthy choices.

Nick-H

Yes, I'm not sure about the perception that Indian cooking is healthy! Salt is used in everything: the Indian idea of a pinch of salt is a handful. Many dishes are, as marcrey just said, oily: when anything is fried it is fried in a lot of oil: I've been astonished to see an Indian friend pour an inch of oil into a pan to cook chicken (Ummm... hang about, meat contains oil...).

And to cap it all, food is cooked almost to the point of being unrecognisable. I wonder how many vitamins are left in the average curry?

As to anything processed: bread tastes of sugar, 'fruit' drinks proudly announce contains no fruit...

ren

I did not mean that ALL Americans eat loads of processed foods (although most do..especially the poor, which is a great pity.) I meant myself, and my family. I swear to God my dad (who raised me) never cooked anything that didn't come in a box or can. His idea of a healthy dinner is hamburger helper and canned corn. Maybe some little debbies for desert. I remember correctly.. the calorie contents of ONE little debbie cream cookie 300 calories. Holy moses

Casey

I think even high fat Indian meals are more healthy than their Western counterparts that there are not a lot of chemical added. If you compare a high fat Indian meal to a high fat Western meal, there is less processing going on. There are low fat versions of food in the West that people eat, thinking they are healthy, but in reality are filled with sodium and chemical additives. If you compare a couple of chapatis to two white slices of Wonder Bread (a brand that can sit on the shelf for weeks and still be fresh because of chemicals added) you can see that even the carbohydrate based meals are healthier. Yes, there are sauces and gravies but they probably don't originate from a can produced on an assembly line two years ago! I did notice more advertisements for convenience foods when I was last in India. Soups in a bag, and things like that, so as India changes, so may the diet. Again, not all Western people eat poorly, it's just that many of the foods that are available have the appearance of being healthy and are not. I have seen an advertisement for Aero chocolate bar advertising how it's a good source of milk!