While ‘fat to fit’ is a phenomenon adopted, or at least attempted, through diet fads, exercise, and other techniques that crop up, chef KS Mahesh shares the real secrets behind his transformation story
Danuska Da Gama | NT BUZZ
Being a full-time hotelier holding a senior management position, chef KS Mahesh’s job gave him complete liberty to indulge in food. Being constantly surrounded by temptations led to a high calorie intake. And all this fuelled his weight gain. “To top it up, socialisation, occasional booze, and calorie surplus due to frequent food tasting, took a toll on my overall health,” he shares. He became lethargic and began falling sick often.
“While paying less attention to meal time to counteract hectic schedules, lack of hydration was also one of the habits I had inculcated through the course of my tenure,” he recounts.
After he turned 43, he realised that he wasn’t too happy about his life and size.
“I started thinking about my fitness on a serious note when one of my blood tests and my health parameter report indicated that I was likely to succumb to various ailments such as diabetes, high LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and low HDL (ligh-density lipoprotein) and second grade fatty liver,” he shares.
He realised that sooner or later he had to buckle up. And not wanting to follow fads, he decided to be his own life coach.
His transformation journey took off in 2017 and he hasn’t looked back since. His trainer cum mentor Agnelo Noronha (football coach) and weight trainer and nutritionist Rajesh Desai showed Mahesh the power of belief and believed in his capability, which made Mahesh take it up with gusto and dedication.
“I had to believe in myself. It’s all in the mind. Our mind is designed in such a way that it can achieve whatever it conserves, we just have to believe in ourselves,” says Mahesh.
His diet, he tells us, wasn’t about eating boiled and boring foods. It began instead by eliminating the junk and processed foods. “I consciously moved towards a well-structured nutrition complex of carbohydrates, lean protein, good lipid, and dietary fibre to keep myself hydrated,” he says.
Fast forward to today, Mahesh’s weight loss is noticeable as he sports a muscular body and chiselled chin, all while looking stylish. And as he inches towards his 47th birthday, his clothing size is down from 44 inches to 36 inches and his body fat percentage is down to 16 per cent from 32 per cent.
But looking back, he doesn’t deny that he has faced his own demons on his journey but was committed to attaining a healthy lifestyle.
“It was tough to quit vices such as alcohol and cigarettes. Hitting the gym at 5:30 a.m. each day was a tough aspect I had to get used to,” he says, remembering the determination he had to put in.
However, he stresses that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), cardio and strength training are not the only route to wellness.
In fact, through his experience he shares that there should be a balance of mindful eating, walking, and Pranayama breathing exercises. All this, he learned from his spiritual gurus Alchemy Mitra Shiva (Chennai) and Yogini Megha Rao (Kundhapur).
And Mahesh endorses that each one should find their own method that works, both, for diets and work outs.
“Never expect your goals to be achieved in a specific time as everybody works differently and there is no science or calculation which can provide the exact time required for a specific transformation,” he stresses.
In fact, through his experience he has come to a conclusion that there is no best diet which will make you achieve results quicker. At the end of the day it’s to do with calories consumed.
Three years and counting, he still believes that there’s more to achieve and maintenance is the key. “I set practical goals and more than obsessing about the results, I tried focusing on fixing my clean eating habits,” says Mahesh, adding that he now “feel energised, calm and has attained a sense of inner peace”. Mahesh has now started his own group on WhatsApp and Instagram to share various ways of rejuvenating one’s life, food hacks to lose weight, or cure illnesses.
But, while his transformative journey took three years, he stresses again, that fitness is not a sprint race to reach the finish line at high speed and then stop.
“Instead consider it a marathon where you enjoy reaching different milestones and also get rewarded when you cross each of them.”
