Dieting is not about starving, but about having the right kind of food to your satisfaction. Tanya Elias Nicolas, Senior Dietician at Flex, in her interview to the Arab Times, demystifies the many myths surrounding dieting. She also throws light on the perils of following ill-advised diet regimens. Diet plans that make you starve render you weak, drain your confidence and willpower, and push you to regain more weight than you may manage to lose.
Tanya has the tips to make you enjoy your way to a healthy body and mind. Read on and find out how you can trim your flab indulging in delicious food.

Question: As a dietician, what sort of service do you offer your clients?
Answer: I am the Senior Dietician at Flex and I am responsible for gourmet diets. I meet my clients on appointment and after due consultation I chart out a diet regimen for them based on their calorific needs. After a thorough study of my clients, I design an appetite for them. We send them the food they need balancing taste, nutrition and calories.
My job is also to increase the awareness of my clients on nutrition and diet. From my experience I know that obesity levels are very high in Kuwait and that people are often misled by wrong advice and go in for pills and other unhealthy practices. They go to unqualified health practitioners. There is a lot of misunderstanding of what diet means.
When a client approaches me, I spend about 30 minutes with him or her. After a thorough talk, I calculate the ideal amount of calorie intake for them.

Q: You said obesity is a main problem here. What is the reason for that?
A: Yes, obesity is not just found in adults but also in children. If you ask me the reason for its prevalence here, I would say that it’s because of a deadly combination of sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet. Modern technologies have made life very easy for us. We hardly have to exert ourselves for anything these days. Secondly, food is available in surplus. We like to eat junk food, rich in carbohydrates.
Rice is a staple in this part of the world. Rice in itself is not bad, but people don’t know how to count their calories. There is a lack of awareness. This is the curse of the modern world.

Q: How do you calculate calories? Tell us about what exactly happens when a client comes to meet you.
A: Okay. Firstly, we measure the person’s weight and height. We also take a measure of fat percentage in the individual. We have a special device to do this. Measuring fat percentage is more important. Fat does not add much to your body weight and hence may not really show up on a weighing scale.
Based on all these measurements we arrive at a diet plan for the person. Every individual is unique and so every individual needs a unique diet program. There is no such thing as a one-size-fit-all diet.
The client’s physical activities, age, height and weight are factored in the calculation to find out his or her optimum calorific needs. We can’t give a person who measures let’s say 100-kg a daily diet of 1,200 cal. It would be grossly insufficient.
This is the biggest mistake that most dieticians do. They underrate a person’s calorific needs, aiming for quick results. But it can have very detrimental effects on health and can backfire.
What happens is when you starve a client without due calories, the person will become weak and tend to lose interest in the diet. This will discourage people from pursuing diet regimens and we see people regaining more weight than they have lost.

Q: Do you have any interesting experiences of having transformed people’s lives?
A: Yes, there was an interesting case. He was a child weighing 120-kg. He loved snacking on junk food, chocolates, chips and so on. I had a long chat with him. Nutrition is not just about food.

Q: You had a private conversation with him?
A: Yes, I always have private conversations with my clients. I don’t encourage families or friends to be with them, because then they might not open up fully. Some children are afraid to tell some things in front of their mothers.
So I spent a good deal of time with this child. He was a very intelligent child. His problem was that he simply couldn’t resist the temptation to eat. He just couldn’t stop eating.
This is a psychological problem. He wasn’t able to concentrate on studies without snacking. He had to eat something to be able to study. He believed that he wouldn’t be able to focus on studies without eating.
I had to convince him that having three big meals a day would give him enough energy to fully concentrate on his studies and do well in school. Now, he is under my diet plan and is doing well. There is great improvement. He has included vegetables and fruits in his diet. Earlier he wasn’t eating vegetables and fruits. He drinks a lot of water now.
Now, that is one important thing to bear in mind. Many clients who come to me with weight problems don’t drink water. They don’t feel thirsty, they tell me. Drinking plenty of water also helps us lose weight.

Q: What does drinking water do? Does it kill your appetite?
A: Not exactly. Often times your body confuses thirst for hunger, and you tend to eat when you are in fact thirsty. So, when you quench your thirst by drinking water you eat less. I advise my clients to carry water with them and take small sips on and off. They don’t have to drink in large quantities at a time. But little sips taken regularly will help.

Q: Coming back to the kid, I find his story rather strange because kids generally eat because they see it as entertainment. Now, here is a child who eats because he wants to study well. Can you throw more light on the psychology of why children over eat?
A: Yes, kids eat because they see it as entertainment. When they are occupied with playing with their friends, they forget about eating. Modern lifestyle throws many temptations your way. Kids indulge in eating when they feel bored and have nothing much to do. And there are fast food joints at every nook and corner. Fast food comes easier, it’s cheaper.
To complete the story of the child, he is now very happy with himself. He is eating more vegetables and fruits. He is confident and comfortable. When you are overweight you are not comfortable with yourself. You are not feeling good. He is also more active than before.
One mistake that parents usually make is that they think they can let their children gain weight in the hope that they can make them shed it when they grow older. But it is much easier to lose weight when you are young than when you grow up. Because as you grow up, your metabolism rate goes down, and it becomes very difficult to lose weight.

Q: You were able to motivate this child so easily. What techniques do you use to motivate people? There was a fitness expert who told me that he sort of shames his clients to motivate them asking them about how they feel in a party or when they look in a mirror and so on.
A: No. You don’t have to shame people. It is very important that people feel positive all the time and not be made to feel low or shameful. This could be counter productive leading to depression and so on. Rather than focusing on the negatives, we must focus on the benefits waiting them. However, we must not over promise. We must not give them unrealistic dreams. We must give them an idea of what they can really achieve, so they will have a sense of accomplishment at every stage of their progress. Otherwise, when they over expect, they will feel let down and will turn away from the diet regimen.
You should be very careful while dealing with clients, be they children, men or women. They are sensitive and don’t hurt them. Give them your time, listen to them patiently and motivate them. Give them real examples of success stories. They are coming to you looking for solutions and hope. Don’t make them feel low.

Q: What sort of advice would you give a person who lives a very hectic life with no time for exercise or to be finicky about food?
A: Our modern lifestyle has made many of us very busy. We have no time to take care of ourselves. If we really focus and plan, no matter how busy we may be, we can still find time for some exercise. It should not be very difficult for us to take out half an hour, just three days a week for some exercise. That’s all I ask them to do. Once you start out this way, and you feel the benefits of that half-hour exercise, you will extend the exercise time to an hour and more. But one has to try.
If exercising is totally out of question, then such people must at least work on their diet. They must go in for healthy food.

Q: The most difficult part of dieting is being able to sustain the diet for a long time. People often get into tough diet regimens and opt out of it as easily. How can a person be motivated over extended periods of time?
A: The trick is to make dieting easy. Allow yourself to indulge in a smart way. You should have your meals regularly, without starving. Have sweets and snacks. But make slight changes to make them all healthy. You should not put yourself in a position where you begin to crave for food. If you are left craving for food, then before long your craving will get the better of your enthusiasm to stay in shape. Dieting is not about starving but about sizing your calories. Also learn to cook healthy. Avoid oil, go for grilling instead of frying and so on. If you don’t plan your diet in this fashion, then you will end up frustrated.

Q: Can you give us an idea about the kind of diet you are talking? How can you keep yourself full without getting fat?
A: Go for high fiber diet like vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce. Fruits like apples and bananas are also rich in fiber. Take carbohydrates in small quantities. You don’t have to cut them down alltogether. Foods high in carbohydrates are potatoes, rice, bread, cereals and so on. Don’t forget to include proteins like fish, meat or chicken. A combination of fibers, starch and protein gives you a balanced nutrition. Your plate must be divided into three parts. Two fourth of it must be fibers, one fourth proteins and one fourth carbohydrates.
But remember to supplement healthy diet with exercise. For a well-rounded healthy living, you need to eat wisely and also exercise. I know people who exercise a lot, but then splurge in fatty foods soon after exercising. This leads to a zero sum result. What you lose by exercising, you regain by eating. That should not be the case.

Q: What is Flex Gourmet all about?
A: We provide three big meals a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with one kind of sweet. We make sure the meals are very delicious, tailored to the tastes of our clients. The aim is to provide a wholesome meal, but with measured calories, so that the clients get enough energy to feel sated but lose weight. Our meals are rich in fibers and we follow very healthy cooking techniques.
We provide a wide variety of cuisines to cater to everyone’s tastes. We have Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Continental cuisines. This way dieting becomes a pleasure rather than a trial. We home deliver the food every morning. The food is well packed in microwaveable packs. We also give instructions on how to heat the food and for how long and things like that so that it can be had in the healthiest possible way. By following the instructions you can rule out any possibility of food poisoning and such problems. Moreover, we constantly renew our menu so that clients don’t feel bored of our diet. We provide different combinations of food to keep dieters inspired.

Q: How long will a person have to be on your diet?
A: That depends upon his weight. If he is say some 25-kg overweight, then he will have to be on our diet for a slightly longer period. However, a good number of our clients is not subscribing to our diet to lose weight but to just stay healthy. Because the food we provide is well balanced and promotes good health.

Q: Do you insist that your clients should not eat anything else other than what you provide them?
A: Yes, they should not eat anything else. Then again, they wouldn’t crave for anything other than what we provide, because our food is wholesome, filling and delicious. They are allowed to have coffee, but only black, not creamy. They can have tea without sugar. If they have other foods, it will make it difficult for us to keep track of their calorie intake. They have to stick to our package.
At the same time, they have to eat all that we provide. Skipping a meal or a sweet that we provide could in fact make them gain weight.

Q: What is your opinion on Atkins Diet?
A: Yes, that’s an important question. People who claim to be nutritionists simply google certain diets from the Internet and prescribe them for patients. There was the case of a man who went to such a nutritionist who prescribed for him a diet very similar to Atkins Diet. It included a cup of coffee in the morning, salad with steak for lunch and an apple for dinner. The patient was 100-kg, and this sort of diet will starve the person. He lost weight and reached 85-kg. But this affected his health. He became weak. When you lose weight like this, it will affect your immune system. This man started losing his hair as well. And at the end of it all, he regained thrice as much weight as he lost. He is now 150-kg. That’s why it is very important that you don’t follow wrong diets.
I know women who have suffered hair loss because of ill advised diets.

Q: How is one to determine one’s ideal body weight, and assess how much he or she is overweight? Is BMI a reliable method?
A: Yes, Body Mass Index is a reliable measure to assess one’s ideal weight. Then there is the Metabolic Rate assessment. This is a formula factoring your age, height and physical activity. There are some points given to certain forms of exercise for certain duration.

Q: What sort of exercise would you recommend for a normal person?
A: I would say any type of exercise that a person enjoys is fine for him. One need not go in for high-intensity exercise. Any type of cardio exercises that increase your heart rate, will be enough. Dancing, swimming, bicycling... all these are enjoyable and effective exercises. Do any of this for just an hour a day and you will feel great.

Q: Is walking a good exercise?
A: Walking is a good exercise. If everyone walks for an hour every day, there will be no obesity here, provided you control your diet.

Q: For those who cannot give time for exercise, can they exercise in piecemeal, like five minutes of walk from the car park to office, a couple of more minutes in the office, a little walk after lunch and so on? If all that adds up to an hour of exercise per day will that be good enough?
A: That will not have much effect. You will have to work out for an hour continuously. It is good to be active. It is good to walk five minutes from the car park to your office. But that cannot substitute for exercise. You have to exercise for an hour at a stretch. Having said that, don’t exercise for at least two hours after having food. Only that will help you burn the extra calories.

biography
Tanya Elias Nicolas is the Senior Dietician at Flex. She has a BSc in nutrition and diet and is ISO certified in Food Safety course. Tanya has worked at many prestigious diet centers alongside training in many hospitals in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.