Nutrition, weight loss and healthy living

Articles and notes by Nilesh Makwana — what I tried, what worked, and what I learned along the way.

• A Practical Guide to Cooking With Millets — Bajra, jowar and ragi were staples before wheat and rice took over. Here is what each one is good for, and how to cook them without producing a roti like cardboard.
• Eating Out Without Undoing the Whole Week — Weddings, restaurants, office parties and travel used to wreck my progress every month. These are the rules I use now to enjoy them and still stay on track.
• Gut Health, the Indian Way — We have been fermenting, souring and spicing our food for centuries. Most of what expensive probiotic supplements sell is already sitting in an Indian kitchen.
• Healthy Indian Diet Plan for Weight Loss — A complete guide to losing weight while enjoying your favourite Indian foods — roti, dal, sabji and more.
• Home Fitness Starter Kit: Best Equipment to Get Fit Without a Gym — Six essential pieces of home equipment that cover cardio, strength, flexibility, and recovery — everything you need to build a consistent fitness routine without stepping into a gym.
• How I Got My Sugar Cravings Under Control — Willpower never worked for me. What worked was understanding why the craving arrives at exactly 4 p.m. and removing the conditions that create it.
• How I Hit My Protein Target as a Vegetarian — Getting enough protein without eggs or meat felt impossible until I actually counted it. Here is the simple Indian food maths that changed everything for me.
• How Much Water Do You Actually Need? — Eight glasses a day is a number nobody can source. Here is how I worked out what my body actually needs and how I finally started drinking it.
• How to Read a Food Label Without Getting Fooled — Most packaged food marketed as healthy is not. Here is the thirty-second check I now run on every packet before it goes into my trolley.
• Intermittent Fasting, Adapted for Indian Life — I tried 16:8 for four months. Here is what it did, what it did not do, and why the version that finally worked looked nothing like the one on the internet.
• Iron: The Deficiency Hiding in Plain Sight — Constant tiredness gets blamed on work, age and stress. In India it is very often iron — and vegetarian diets make it considerably harder to get right.
• Kitchen Utensils Guide: What's Safe and What to Avoid — Not all cookware is created equal. This guide ranks every common kitchen material — from plastic to cast iron — by safety, health impact, and everyday practicality.
• Satvik Food Habits for Modern Life — Traditional Indian satvik eating principles adapted for busy professionals and families.
• Simple Home Workouts — No Gym Needed — 15-minute daily workout routines you can do at home with zero equipment for maximum results.
• Staying Healthy With a Desk Job — Nine hours at a screen was doing more damage than my diet ever did. These are the small changes I fitted around a full IT workday.
• Stop Letting the Scale Decide Your Day — The weighing scale measures one thing badly and five things it cannot separate. Here are the five measurements I actually track, and how often.
• Sunday Meal Prep for an Indian Kitchen — Most meal prep advice assumes grilled chicken and boxes of salad. Here is how I prep for a week of dal, sabji and roti in about ninety minutes.
• The Deficiency Almost Everyone I Know Has — We live in one of the sunniest countries on earth and most of us are still short on vitamin D. Here is what I learned after my own test came back low.
• The Month My Diet Was Perfect and I Still Gained — A brutal project quarter taught me that stress is not just a mood. It changes where you store fat, how hungry you feel, and how well any of this works.
• The Truth About Belly Fat — You cannot burn fat off one part of your body, no matter how many crunches you do. Here is what belly fat actually is and what genuinely shifts it.
• Top 10 Weight Loss Myths Busted — Stop believing these common weight loss myths that are holding you back from achieving your goals.
• Walking Is the Most Underrated Thing I Did — No gym, no equipment, no recovery cost. Walking did more for my weight loss than any workout I tried, and it is the only habit I never once quit.
• What I Did When the Scale Stopped Moving — Seven weeks without a single kilo lost, doing everything exactly the same. Here is what was actually happening and the five things that got it moving again.
• What is Immunity & How to Boost It Naturally — Discover simple dietary and lifestyle changes that strengthen your immune system without any supplements.
• What Six Cups of Chai a Day Were Doing to Me — I was not going to give up chai and I did not have to. But counting what went into it, and when I drank it, changed more than I expected.
• Which Cooking Oil Should You Actually Use? — Refined, filtered, cold-pressed, ghee — the oil aisle is designed to confuse you. Here is how I decided what goes into my kitchen and what I stopped buying.
• Why I Started Lifting (And Wish I Had Sooner) — I lost the first eight kilos with diet and walking alone, and lost strength along with them. Adding resistance work changed how the weight came off entirely.
• Why Sleep is the Secret to Weight Loss — The overlooked connection between quality sleep and effective weight management explained simply.

About Nilesh Makwana