UAE weight-loss story: ‘How I lost 55kg and kept it off’

If you’ve ever been on a fitness journey, you’ll probably concede that it’s not just the getting to your goal that’s tough, it’s also maintaining it.

Which is why, Shikha Aggarwal’s dip on the scale and her subsequent success in staying fit over more than a decade is so unusual.

The 40-year-old Indian expat began to struggle with her weight 14 years ago, when she was pregnant with her first child. The five-foot-seven-inch mum-of-two says owing to her health issues that called for medication to maintain a healthy pregnancy, she put on a few kilos. “I was 55 kilos before pregnancy,” she recalls, “by the end of term, I was 115. I had quite literally doubled in size.”

Her doctor began to urge a change in lifestyle. At first, Aggarwal, who is a “hardcore vegetarian”, considered going to the professionals to figure out her way forward, after all, trying to lose weight alone can be a daunting prospect. But something held her back. “I thought I should consult a dietitian. But then, I decided I would try to understand my body. And so, I started with the process of weight loss. In 10 months, I had reduced 55kgs.”

The Indian expat managed to keep this weight off for seven years after which she got pregnant again.

This time around, she put on 35kilos —which she shed in six months. She has stayed this weight for the past seven years.

“The complication and weight gain was caused by hypothyroidism during pregnancy,” she says, adding that she is on medication for her thyroid gland and will be on it for the rest of her life.

What matters when it comes to shedding or maintaining a certain weight, she stresses, is a person’s lifestyle. “You have to commit to a routine and a lifestyle. There is no escape from that. My body type is such that I put on weight easily, so I keep a check on myself even now,” she adds.

The point of no return

Aggarwal’s commitment to her new lifestyle came from a place of pain; she remembers being ridiculed and body shamed after she gave birth to her daughter. “People gave me that look,” she says. “To be frank, I was in depression, and I knew only I could get myself out of it. I’m very fond of clothes and dressing up, so that was also playing on my mind. Fortunately, I believed that if you really want to achieve something, you can make it happen. I began my journey with a strict diet.”

So what does a strict diet entail? “I had no carbs, no sugar, no cheat meals, even on my birthday. I ate homemade food.”

Want to follow in her footsteps? The first thing she recommends is not falling into the trap of fad dieting. “People who say for 10 days they’ll do this or that, not have sugar, not have salt, it’s not sustainable. Home-cooked food is the best thing and apart from that, you just need to keep a track on the calories you are consuming,” she says, adding that one should try to eat non-processed food. “Go to the gym thrice a week and give yourself a cheat meal once in a while.”

The importance of a cheat meal

While it’s important to stick to your schedule, it’s just as important to give yourself a break, explains Aggarwal. “You do have cravings, so if you let yourself indulge a bit, it’ll become that much easier for you to stick to your resolution,” she says. “On my cheat days, I’ll eat paneer and roti, carbs — whatever I want. But for six days, my last meal of the day is at 5pm.”

What should be on your plate?

Aggarwal is all for a colourful plate. “There should be more fibre, more colours on your platter,” she says.

And it’s important to be self-aware. “You should understand how your body responds to things. For me, if I eat too much salt, it affects my body. Once a week, I would eat meals without salt.”

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