In today’s fast-paced world, where people are constantly bombarded with fitness advice on social media promising quick weight loss, 30-day transformations, and diet plans, it is easy to feel confused and fall for the trap. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, fitness coach Raj Ganpath, founder of the Slow Burn Method and a wellness expert with 18 years of experience, breaks down some of the biggest myths surrounding workouts, weight loss, protein, and diet.
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1. Why do so many people lose weight quickly only to gain it all back again?
Raj said, “In order to lose weight people start doing everything in extreme, from cutting out sugar to exercising six days a week, and so on, and naturally, body weight reduces. However, once they reach their fitness goal of losing a fixed number of calories, they often revert to their old habits. This leads to weight gain all over again. He recommends learning to manage weight, which is not too different from weight loss. “Weight loss is not the goal, weight management is the goal,” Raj told HT Lifestyle. “Weight management is something that everyone has to do for the rest of their lives,” he added.
2. What’s the biggest mistake people make when trying to lose weight?
Raj highlighted that most people make mistakes on nutrition, but a significant number of people make mistakes with movement. “As humans, we always tend to overestimate how much work we do and underestimate how much we eat,” Raj told HT Lifestyle. According to Ganpath, when people deprive themselves too much, restrict themselves too much, they feel like they are eating very less. But when balancing it out, if you look at the cheat meals, they are not eating enough. Another thing he mentioned is pushing too hard too soon, because most people want to lose weight quickly. Going too hard too soon makes it unsustainable.
3. Can people realistically lose weight without giving up foods they love?
According to Raj, fast food and weight loss can co-exist, but the key is portion control and moderation. “Moderation is the expert move, extremes are for beginners,” said Raj. He highlighted that the idea is to find balance. There is no such thing as good food and bad food. “So it’s always a balance of needs (nutrients) versus wants (fast food),” added Raj.
4. What matters more for fat loss: workouts or diet?
According to Raj, nutrition is the primary tool when it comes to weight loss. This is because exercise is not for everyone. But food, everyone has to eat. So, it is applicable to every single person. “When you think about nutrition and exercise, it is about burning energy. There is a limit to how much energy you can burn; if you burn too much, your system will shut down, but nutrition is about reducing the amount of energy that goes in,” Raj told HT Lifestyle.
He highlighted that exercise by itself has a minimal effect on weight loss. “When you exert yourself more, when you do more exercise, certain hormones in your body are secreted, and it increases your appetite and hunger levels. So even without your knowledge, you end up eating a little more. So if you just increase exercise without controlling nutrition, you will end up eating more, and that will balance out so you won’t really lose weight,” said Raj. This simply means exercise without nutrition is not effective at all, but nutrition without exercise is definitely active.
5. What are small habits that genuinely change body composition over time?
“There is no such thing as one or two small habits that can completely change your life,” said Raj. Fitness itself is basically a combination of many small habits. Every small habit, from waking up early in the morning to going for a walk in the evening, impacts your health in a multifaceted way. “This is because weight loss is directly related to your lifestyle, and lifestyle is basically a phenomenon of various small habits happening one after the other consistently,” added Raj. Any positive habits which involve nutrition, movement, hydration, sleep, stress management, or recovery can help in the long run, when done consistently.
6. Why is strength training especially important for women?
Raj said, “Strength training is very important because it is our only tool against muscle loss.” “After the age of 30, we end up losing about 3% of our muscle mass every decade, and this rate of muscle loss is higher for women,” added Raj. After a certain age, the only way to combat that is strength training. According to him, women should strength train specifically to retain or build muscle, weight management, metabolic health, bone health, and confidence.
7. How much exercise is actually enough for a healthy adult?
“It changes from person to person. So at the very least, you want to spend about 40 to 60 minutes, three days a week,” said Raj. However, he highlighted that walking does not qualify as exercise; it is a general activity. Exercise is meant to be vigorous. It’s meant to stimulate and strengthen your muscles. It’s meant to make you a little uncomfortable. He recommends moderately vigorous exercise, about 40 to 60 minutes, three days a week, is necessary, and out of these three days, two days should be strength training and one day vigorous cardio.
8. Is protein powder actually necessary for weight loss or for people who regularly go to the gym?
“Protein powder is certainly a useful addition to most of our diets today, because we are not getting enough protein,” explained Raj. It’s a macronutrient, and an everyday Indian diet is not structured in a way that it helps you with enough protein. Thus, protein supplements are important to balance it out.
9. Are store-bought protein powders really necessary, or can homemade alternatives work just as well?
Raj highlighted that making protein powder at home is not possible because the whole point of protein powder is processing the raw ingredient to a point where you’re able to extract mostly or only the protein. That’s not something we can do at home.
10. What should people check before buying a protein powder?
According to Raj, firstly, you need to decide whether you’re going for something like whey protein or whether you’re doing plant-based protein. “If you’re someone who can tolerate milk and curd, then you can go for whey protein; if you’re someone who’s not doing that, you can go for plant-based protein.” He also recommends checking out the nutritional information; you want to make sure that each scoop of protein contains at least 20 grams of protein, no more than about 150 calories.
11. What’s the simplest fitness advice that actually works for almost everyone?
“Keep it simple and take it slow,” said Raj. “All of us have to do these six things. We have to eat well, we have to eat less, we have to move often, we have to exercise regularly, we have to sleep enough, and we have to manage stress. These six things apply to all of us regardless of what we are doing,” added Raj.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
