I had always maintained my weight by engaging myself in outside activities like walking, cycling, swimming or Yoga. But during lockdown my workout literally stopped. Moreover, staying in Pune where there is no dearth of yummy snacks and sweets, added more weight. On 20 June21, I checked my weight I was shocked to see that I was 10 kg overweight. It was an alarming state for me. I was badly in need of some diet plan to reduce my soared weight and gain my confidence back. While searching for diet options I came across one video of Dr. Jagannath Dixit on YouTube. I had heard about Dr. Dixit’s diet plan from lot of people, but it never clicked me. This time I thought why not give it a try.
Diet Plan:
The diet plan is simple. Eat only 2 times a day when you really feel hungry, that’s it. You need to identify the two major timings when you actually feel very hungry and then stick to those two timings. In between the two meals you are allowed to eat things that do not cause insulin secretion. You have to eat your food within 55min. I am not going into details of insulin secretion here because it is well explained in Dr. Dixit’s lectures on YouTube.
You need to include proteins in your diet and reduce carbs. If you are a vegetarian then you can include sprouts, soybean, cheese or paneer in your diet to add proteins. For non-vegetarians it’s not a big deal. In this diet, you have to avoid sweets to get better results. For diabetic patients a strict no to sweets not even jaggery/honey or sweet fruits. At first, you may tend to overeat but in one or two weeks this habit will vanish. You may feel uncomfortable with this diet initially as we are tuned to munch on continuously, most of the times due to boredom. But be watchful and do not eat anything in between, not even a single bite of anything. Also maintain fix meal timings on daily basis. 20 to 30 minutes delay should not be a problem, but more delay can cause acidity.
What can you have in between the two meals?
· Water
· Homemade buttermilk made out of 2 spoons of curd (homemade) in one glass of water.
· Black coffee or black/green tea without sugar
· Normal tea made out of 25% milk +75%water (without sugar). Sugar free is not allowed.
· Coconut water
· 1 tomato
The above items are recommended for those, who are not suffering from diabetes. Diabetic or pre diabetics are allowed to have only first 3 items from the above list.
Exercise:
Brisk Walking (45min)
Cycling
Swimming
My weight-loss journey: I started this diet from 20th June and strictly followed it.
At 8am, I would have black coffee without sugar.
Around 10am, I would have 1 glass of homemade buttermilk.
· My lunch timing was 12.30pm and I still follow it. It consisted of 1 bowl of salad (mostly carrot, tomato, cucumber) and 1 bowl of cooked sprouts or boiled black chana/lobiya/ Kabuli Chana (not every day but at least 4 times in a week). Two chapatis and 1 bowl of rice with dal. Wheat chapati contains high carbs so you can reduce the number of chapatis from your meal. Stopping it completely would be difficult because you have to adopt this lifestyle for lifelong and cutting down wheat chapati from your diet would be very hard. So, it’s better to reduce the quantity than to stop it completely.
· My dinner timing was around 8pm and it consisted of rotis made out of jowar/bajra/ragi rotis most of the times. These rotis have low glycemic index. If you are a diabetic, then you should definitely go for millet flour rotis as millets have comparatively low GI that allows to maintain the blood sugar levels in your body.
· Initially I had green tea or buttermilk in between the two meals, but after few months I switched over to just water.
· In the initial few months my diet comprised of low carb diet but when I got significant results, I started including everything in my diet except for sweets. I had fried snacks, burger, and pizza once or twice (only during my meals) and believe me it didn’t affect my weight. I included ghee in my meals on daily basis.
· During these 5 months, the only exercise that I did was walking that too for 45 minutes (morning and evening). I didn’t try any rigorous exercise like aerobics, running or strength training. You can always try the combination of these workouts to get faster results.
· In every month there was considerable weight loss and I found myself more active.
· I checked my weight on 20th Nov. and I was thrilled to see the result. I lost 10kg with just walking and Dixit diet plan.
I am following the same routine now and this 2-meal diet has perfectly suited me. Since I have stopped taking tea/coffee my acidity problem has also gone.
Pre-Planning:
If you are planning Dixit diet don’t jump immediately. I would suggest, first cut down carbs from your meals at least two weeks prior to this diet. The reason is, processed food makes you feel hungry more often. I quit sugar and consumed less processed foods (maida, bread, biscuits, chocolates, potatoes) before starting this diet. By just cutting down sugar from your diet you can easily lose 2 to 3 kg of weight in a month. I prefer to eat dates and figs after lunch as sweet, that too in limit.
Results: The first result that will surprise you is loss of belly fat. We have to do lot of crunches, plank, and push-ups to reduce the belly fat. But this diet works on your belly fat first. Your weight reduces without affecting your health since you are not deprived of any nutrients. The diet recommends heathy food comprising of all the essential nutrients.
Dixit diet plan is beneficial for reducing obesity plus maintaining blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes. It has been observed in many type2 diabetics that after following this diet their diabetes has been reversed. Dr. Dixit’s diet works as a lifestyle modification technique which can be adopted effortlessly. By any chance you miss to follow the diet plan for 1 or 2 days, you can start it again from the very next day.
Precautions:
This diet is not recommended for:
*For children below 18 years of age.
*Pregnant or lactating mothers
*People with type1 diabetes.
*Diabetic patients who are already on medicines or insulin should not start the diet without consultation as it may affect their sugars.
* Persons suffering from any health issues or chronic ailments should consult their doctors first.
In this article I have shared my experience while following Dr. Dixit diet. I have tried to include maximum things. If you are truly interested to follow this diet, first go through all the lectures by Dr. Dixit and then follow this diet.