Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Of Anant Ambani, me and weight loss

Raju Korti
If you believe that successful weight loss needs more of programming than will power, here is my repartee. There is a huge emotional quotient attached to it as well.
The immediate provocation for this argument is a talking point story according to which Anant Ambani, the young son of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, shed a whopping 108 kilos in just eighteen months. Anant has been a regular sight during the IPL matches, especially those involving Mumbai Indians. He would be seen occupying a broad sofa all by himself and each time the camera panned on him, I have seen people sigh in disbelief how anyone could bloat to that extent. But fact is stranger than fiction. Ask me whose weight loss has been noticed by just a few compared to the national headlines that Anant made.
Many people believe that Ambani's weight loss story is merely promotional and an example of "money speaks". That may be true given the super-rich glossy status of the family. However, you got to give it to the boy who went through a rigorous diet regimen and a gruelling work-out schedule to shed the accumulated flab. That certainly needs a sustained effort and control when you know the boy lives in the era of junk food and doting parents would do everything to keep him happy.
Excess exercise is known to be counterbalanced by excess hunger, exemplified by what is called as "working up an appetite." Only a very few can resist such hunger pangs but for the vast majority, weight loss through exercise is a flawed option.
Anant lost six kilos per month if my arithmetic serves me right. I roughly lost the same weight in a span of three to four days. And though we are different case studies, we throw up same results.
In Anant's case, all credit to him and his weight loss advisers. I didn't have any. Nature ordained it for me. After the debilitating bypass heart surgery, I had several other complications that necessitated hospitalisation three more times. In the first instance I dropped 18 kilos since I had stopped eating and drinking (water please!) completely and being a diabetic, the only thing I remember during that period is alarmed doctors telling my relatives to stuff me with Fruity and rasagullas as my sugar levels had dipped to a dangerous below 50.
Three days of continuous monitoring showed that I had dropped to 52 kilos from 70 kilos which was a terrible fall and certainly nothing to be admired. So bad it was that I couldn't stand on my feet. Circumstances had cut me to size.
There are two factors that tempted me to make a comparison between Anant and me. The amount of weight loss in both cases was phenomenal and almost in as much time. Although he went through an excruciating schedule and I through the knife, the emotional quotient that I talked about is same. It is peripheral to this comparison that he hit national headlines and became a figure of admiration while your's truly could only garner the sympathy of relatives and friends. These are wages of social dynamics.
I have thrown weight around, now I don't have any. The powerful Ambani son can still do it after shedding those heavy-duty calories. There is just no comparison here.

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