Continued from January 2020 article in The Citizen:
[…] On that, the latest announcement by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that he has lost 30 kilograms from 106 to 76 sent many tongues wagging.
Though President Museveni did not say how long this weight loss journey took him, many are guessing that it could have been for a long period of time given his advancing age.
The BBC quoted him saying that he avoided and only ate two potatoes and plenty of vegetables. He also went for indigenous vegetables and foods like cassava, millet flour towards achieving his ideal weight after doctors advised him to shed off some kilos. According to BBC, President Museveni told its Newsday presenter Alan Kasujja that, “I eat some cassava, because I don’t eat your European food and your Asian foods. I eat our food; which is cassava, some bananas, millets and our vegetables.”
“So I normally eat a little bit of that in the morning. Then no lunch, I just drink water and coffee without sugar because it’s very bad – sugar is not good. Then at around seven [in the evening] I eat two Irish potatoes because they have got low starch, and a lot of vegetables to deceive the stomach that I am putting there something when in fact it’s just the roughage,” he stated.
Many others like Museveni have chosen the path of crash diet to lose weight.
We share views of some people who have embarked on loss journey.
Agness Kisuko, 36, is one of them. After the birth of her second child, she was 
She decided to embark on weight loss as a fight back plan.
“I was so determined to show middie finger to HBP and depression so I embarked on healthy eating journey, which involved plenty of vegetables, a portion of protein and healthy carbohydrates like pumpkin and sweet potatoes. I also took of fruits in season. I had to be careful though to ensure my milk supply did not dip I was breastfeeding. The good thing that I started this when the baby was seven months.”
“My weight did not come as a result of eating wrong diet but baby fat due to pregnancy and could not embark on exercise immediately as I had caesarian section. As embarked on healthy eating. I cut sugar completely from my beverages and also reduced my intake of wheat products.” Agless says.
For Risper Wanja, 49, her weight loss journey was met with a lot of weight loss marketing gimmicks that promised false results.
It was about 5 years ago when Risper came across a social media post that advertised a certain kind of tea promising slimming results in a week.
“I bought into the idea of slimming tea and began taking them every night at home. To be honest, after a month, I saw no results. It was a waste of money and time,” Risper says.
Few months after, she came across a lady at Mwenge who was selling similar products for loss. “In fact, she used her own before and after pictures to market the loss products. But what stopped me from getting them was the price tag it had on them. It was too 
Though Risper never believed in diets, her neighbour who is a baker made her change minds. “I her and she looked good. I asked what she did and she gave 
Though Risper never sustained it for a very long time due to contents within the diet, she says she started noticing a change.
For 35-year-old writer, his extreme approach seemed to have worked for him. Frank Godlistner decided to shed off weight using a Crash diet. The reason he decided to embark on the extreme diet which led him to lose 10kgs, was because he felt back pain and he was unhappy and couldn’t walk even for a kilometre without stopping to catch his breath.
So he decided to take the weight loss matter into his own hands. What I did was in the morning. I would eat 2 eggs and 1 cassava/potato for breakfast. Then I would wait up to 4pm to have my lunch which included more protein and vegetables, less carbohydrates. Past 6pm, I wouldn’t eat at all unless I’m extremely hungry, then I would pick a piece of fruit.
After a period of two months, he started feeling the back pain was gone and he would walk for 3kms without stopping to take a rest.
Murtaza Mohammed, 37, a civil and structural engineer, has tried not one but two extreme diets in his weight loss journey
One was the low carb diet that involved cutting down carbohydrates from the diet like white bread, white flour, fried food stuffs and sugar. “It really worked because I lost about 10kgs. But the biggest problem with this kind of diet is that I used to get really bad food cravings – so what I decided to do is have one cheat day per week where I could eat whatever I wanted.” Murtaza tells.
The other approach Murtaza has tried is called intermittent fasting he used to fast for 16 hours a day and he would put aside 8 hours to eat his food.
“So I would have water, black coffee or tea when I am fasting. And the other 8 hours I would eat in moderation. For example I would have my lunch at 12 noon, have dinner by 8pm and then not eating anything till at 12 noon the next day. ‘This also worked but it wasn’t long term,” Murtaza says.
The biggest mistake in his weight loss journey was inconsistency, Murtaza confessed. But one thing Murtaza has learnt in his weight loss journey is that diets don’t work if you are looking at long-term results.
“You need to look at any approach as a lifestyle change and enjoy embarking on that change. Three things that one must do is healthy eating, healthy lifestyle such as getting enough sleep and exercising” Murtaza advises.
Why these diet don’t work: Expert talks
Dar es Salaam based dietician Nimtaz Walji couldn’t have agreed more to Murtaza’s school of thought. Ms Walji, the Food and Nutrition Services Manager at the Agakhan Hospital says, “Don’t diet, change your lifestyle — that is the sustainable way to go.”
Don’t diet, change your lifestyle — that is the sustainable way to go
On people who use bizarre and extreme diets to lose weight, Ms Walji has the following tips:
- Why you shouldn’t diet: Starving your body alternates your metabolism and with time your body thinks it is starvation time because we come from a hunter and gatherer system where food was only available on intervals, so the body knows how to adjust when it is starvation time.
So what happens is when starve your body, your metabolism down and then the next time you consume any food, your body tends to store it more and use up less because it thinks it has to sustain you.
- Sustainability: Any diet that can be sustained for the rest of your life should tell you that it is the right thing to do. But if you’re on a diet you cannot sustain for more than, let’s day a month or two months, then how can that possible be something that help you maintain that weight loss.
- Think about your goal: Do you want to Iose weight and maintain it or do you want to go up and down? Once your goal is clear, I believe your approach will also be more thought-through and results focused for longer term. For those who’ve tried losing weight, with extreme approaches, they may have lost the weight but may also have gained it back very quickly.
- Nothing in extreme can be right for your body: How can it possibly make sense for a person to believe that they can meet all their body requirements through eating a restricted diet and that even in high doses? For example, a diet I came across through a patient recently was a high cucumber diet- Just cucumbers, very little protein and fruits and vegetables.
How can you sustain your muscle requirements by not eating enough protein? How you get your vitamin and mineral requirements by not having enough vegetables and fruits. Though cucumbers are low in calories, they are not the most nutritious food.
- Also think about how culturally and socially appropriate your approach is to dieting For example, when you on a high protein diet and it asks you to eat everything in high amounts like huge amount of milk, fish, chicken — and all these that are not within the reach of your home environment — how are you going to be sustaining it? Why do some-thing that is going to disturb you.
Change your lifestyle
Ms Walji advises those keen on dieting to think of making changes within their lifestyle. “Avoid looking out for quick easy solutions. Think of your lifestyle, think of your environment, consider your culture and social practices.” she adds.
Here are three tips from Ms Walji on how to do it:
- Look at all the high-calorie foods that you may be consuming unknowingly or knowingly already in your diet, for example, our cultural habits that lead us to eating a lot of fried foods like mandazis, kebabs, samosas and think about all the sugary drinks we consume like packaged fruit juices, fizzy drinks — all those things are unnecessary for the body.
So instead of going through an extreme diet, how about, you take a deep look at what you’re already doing that you can change slowly.
Think of your whole day and what you consume. Don’t even consider cutting down on a food group, rather moderate everything. So if you have eaten out for lunch, where you ended up having a calorie dense meal — then your remaining day, you should to keep your calories to a minimum by eating low-calorie foods like salads.
- Avoid skipping meals, rather than that eat small frequent meals. Skipping meals just alternates your metabolism and your body ends up storing more because you have not eaten for a long time so your body gets confused as I explained earlier.
Lastly, Ms Walji advises that do something that will work for you but shouldn’t put you in a vicious cycle taking your metabolism up and down.
“Do something that fits social and cultural values. Food shouldn’t feel like a punishment, it is something you should enjoy,” Ms Walji tells.
Thanks for reading! Nimtaz values healthier lifestyles and believes that we can achieve meaningful development by eating effectively.
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash