Weight Loss and Diet Books Read

I have been overweight and obese from last few years. After my son was born, within just a few months, I lost all my pregnancy weight. But within a year, I gained plenty of extra pounds due to hormonal changes and a more sedentary lifestyle. I even stopped going to supermarkets and started ordering everything from Amazon with an Amazon Prime subscription and from Google shopping express, as it was difficult to take the baby along for shopping. I had zero time for self care or exercise since life was already hectic with a small baby and full time job. On top of that, I had a stressful life, thanks to the horrible team (and manager) that I was a part of. With lack of sleep, stressful life and hardly any exercise, I bloated like a pumpkin.

Now that the job part got fixed and the baby is now a toddler, my next target for this year and next year is to fix my body weight. I am planning to exercise and also switch to a healthier diet. Since we are vegetarians, our diet is high carb and mostly consists of rice and wheat. My son is very picky and because of this pickiness, I need to cook a healthy meal for him separately. As a result, I usually go for a single pot, quick fix dinner/lunch for adults. This results in a not-so-healthy meal quite often.

I read few books which were on my TBR for quite sometime about weight loss and healthy diet. I want us adults to switch to a healthier diet this year and for that, I did some research (which means read books). If I cannot figure out something, I go and buy a book on that topic, like Hermione.

The first author I picked has many bestselling books and is quite popular in India. I had seen many people praise her books so decided to pick 2 of her physical books and one ebook, while I was in India. Rujuta Diwekar‘s most popular book is “Don’t lose your mind, lose your weight”. She shot to fame after she helped Kareena Kapoor get a size 0 figure. This book is full of mumbaiya Hindi, references to Bollywood and movie stars. The author touts that Indian diet is extremely healthy, while everything eaten by people from other countries is unhealthy. I would like to ask the author why she thinks there are so many diabetics in India, if the diet is that healthy? There is at least one diabetic person in every single family now. Anyway, I did some research on her methods and they do not seem to be that reliable. She is not a medical professional, so any claims she makes has no medical background. Her books are full of pseudo science claims and I would take everything she says with a grain of salt. I tried couple of other books by her – “Women and the weight loss tamasha” and “Indian super foods”, but still not convinced that her methods work. If anybody has tried her methods and obtained success, please let me know.

I owned a copy of “The South Asian Health Solution” by Dr. Ronesh Sinha from 3-4 years I guess. I somehow did not read it until recently. This is probably the best book on diet I have ever read. The author talks about south asians specifically and all his advice is tailored to our lifestyle. I found this book extremely informative. The author, being a south asian himself, knows south asians and their vegetarian diet issues very well and being a medical doctor, knows what he is talking about. If you read one book on diet change, let it be this one.

I wanted to read yet another book on diet and that is when I saw someone recommend “The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung” on a reading group. I looked it up for reviews and found it to be a bestseller on Amazon. I got a copy and finished reading it this weekend. This book is again written by a doctor, who has done a lot of research on this subject matter. He explains why we become obese and what causes insulin resistance in a simple language. Even those without medical background can understand the problem of insulin resistance and diabetes, thanks to this book. He gives ample evidences and bases his claims on previous research done by other doctors in the past.

And then I got myself the book that started the gluten free revolution – Wheat Belly Cookbook by William Davis. This is the book which asked people to stop eating wheat and switch to other gluten free alternatives. I am planning to cut down on carbs – mainly wheat and rice and hoping that this book will help me in the process.

I have also been trying to switch to a vegan diet from last few years, without any success. I am not able to get rid of milk and yogurt from my diet since I love them, though I have been trying out some vegan recipes. I have started doing some research on gluten free, paleo and keto diets now.

Next step is implementation of everything that I learned in these books, which will hopefully happen soon. I don’t think I can remove sugar or carbs from my diet completely. My goal for next few months is to reduce the intake. I will update you guys on the outcome.

So have you read any book on dieting or weight loss? Have any of the approaches or fad diets worked for you?