Freedom Diet: Expert Offers Tips for Healthy Weight Loss

Dr. Kalpana Gupta Shekhawat, Director, medical nutritional Consultant, Freedom Diet shares her experiences of treating obesity and discusses common mistakes people make when they try to lose weight.

Obesity has become a common health concern worldwide and globally at least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese, statistics from the World Health Organization reveal.

Dr. Kalpana Gupta Shekhawat, Director and medical nutritional Consultant of 'Freedom Diet', shares her experiences of treating obesity and talks about some of the most common mistakes people make when they take medications for weight loss.

Obesity - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Complications, Treatment
Obesity is a condition where there is excess accumulation of body fat which poses a risk to the health of the individual. It can affect children and adults.

At a time when obesity is killing triple the number of people who die from malnutrition, she says there is nothing to worry about this lifestyle disease and it is completely curable, but one has to take expert guidance for planning appropriate diet.

Dr Kalpana Gupta Shekhawat holds a medical degree from SMS Medical College Jaipur, India. Having pursued Family Medicine and Diploma in Fitness & Nutrition from Stratford USA, she is currently pursuing Post Graduation in Clinical Nutrition from Clinical Nutrition Certification Board (CNCB) Texas USA.

Q. Many medications are available in the market promising instant weight loss. How can a consumer know the misleading ones for sure and avoid them?

Body Mass Index
The BMI calculator helps you assess your weight indicating if it is normal or if you are underweight or overweight, based on your height.

A. Instant weight loss drugs designed to treat obesity should ideally not be recommended due to various side effects associated with them. As they inhibit fat absorption they also in turn reduce absorption of other fat soluble nutrients and can lead to multiple deficiencies, while having many side effects such as bloating, flatulence and loss of important minerals and vitamins.

Q. Do you have any experience treating people who have suffered side effects due to these weight loss medications?

A. Yes, in my clinical practice I have come across people who have tried everything to lose weight including weight loss pills and have accepted their obesity as part of life. I have treated some such people who have already manifested diseases like diabetes and hypertension, and with signs and symptoms including extreme fatigue, complete loss of appetite, brittle hair and nails, scaly dry skin etc.

Supplementing them with right antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, Liver detox etc such as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), Natural Vitamin E extract, Coq 10, Omega 3, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and so on plus mineral vitamins with a structured diet suitable and calculated to each individual needs, work best in reversing the existing disorders and motivating their system to lose weight.

Q. How important is it for people to consult a Nutritionist or Dietician for their diet plans and shedding extra pounds?

A. In my opinion it is extremely important to take professional help and plan your diet which is most suited to your body and is calculated for you. We all have a unique body and a unique metabolism so what is good diet for one person may not be the same for another. Random eating even if you chose healthier options may not necessarily be the right food in right quantities.

Body Fat Calculator
This calculator estimates your percentage body fat, your body type and the amount of calories you have to burn to lose 1% of your body fat and it uses U.S Navy’s Hodgdon-Beckett formula.

Q. What are the common mistakes people make while they plan for diet to lose weight?

A. Eating extremely low calorie diet (crash diet) or going by one-diet-fits-all philosophy is a common mistake. Also, covering up for the existing nutritional deficiencies before starting any diet is very important, to ensure that one does not get various signs of deficiency diseases.

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Q. How is Freedom Diet plan different from others? What is so unique about the approach and plan that you are trying to recommend to your customers?

A. Freedom diet is a structured weight and chronic disease management planning and with a difference as it is based on holistic medicine; Multidimensional approach towards Nutritional planning is practiced, compiling information such as basic health screening which includes detailed medical history along with basic blood tests, current body measurement, current health status, family history, current lifestyle (type of diet taken, alcohol consumption, physical activity, type of job, stress levels, sleep patterns etc…) all this is compiled together to generate a healthy weight loss diet plan as well as a supplement prescription to ensure covering up nutritional deficiencies and reverse lifestyle disease to the maximum possible extent depending on the existing health conditions.

Q. Can we prevent aging impacts with proper diet?

A. Correct diet and supplements can in reality make you look 10 years younger than your peer group if not more!!!

Q. Why is it that you have gone into this area as you are a qualified post graduate doctor?

A. As a medical practitioner it always intrigued me to see people suffer from various ailments treated for their symptoms and given general guidelines on diet and lifestyle management, which are ambiguous and are difficult to adopt, since it puts their lifestyle completely out of gear. I always was looking for a way to put it in such a fashion that people find it incredibly easy to adopt and see the difference in terms of weight loss, positive changes in metabolic and inflammatory markers, correction of dislipidemia, blood sugar and to reduce consumption of drugs which have harmful side effects.

Source-Medindia