Once again, the month of fasting -- and feasting -- has come round, and the word 'fat' pops into our heads. Yasmine El-Rashidi looks at how you can keep those jeans buttoned-up all the way through Ramadan Ramadan is synonymous with several things. Religion, definitely; prayer and fasting, most certainly; family and culture, of course. There is one thing, however, that features more prominently in our Ramadan minds than some of the above. Ramadan makes us think of food. And lots of it. When midday hits, and that second cup of coffee -- or tea -- has just been missed, we get edgy, and hungry, and begin to think, non-stop, of food. "What is there for iftar?" Many of us hear our colleagues whisper down the phone halfway through the shortened Ramadan day. "Mmmmmmm," the murmurs continue, "Yummm!" they indulge with exuberance. By the time the sounding of the iftar cannon goes, most of the population is ravenous. And we do little to hide it, piling our plates high and eating fast, furiously, and with little consideration for the feeling known as 'full'. We gain weight, we swear we don't know what we did, and we vow that next year will be different. And then it isn't, so we conveniently decide that Ramadan makes us fat because we eat so late in the day. The experts don't quite buy it. "The first thing that people have to remember, is that it doesn't matter when they eat, it doesn't matter that it's Ramadan, the equation stays the same," says Gina Grant, director of the recently-opened Weight Management Centre (WMC). "Energy out, and energy in," she continues. "The mathematical term that you put in between that -- whether it's equal, greater or lower -- stays the same. It doesn't matter that it's Ramadan, or Christmas, or Easter. It doesn't matter that you're in the middle of a huge training programme. The mathematical equation doesn't change." One thing that may not stay the same, however, is activity level. "If you are not as active during Ramadan," Grant says, "your equation has to change." The equation is simple: To maintain your weight, energy in must equal energy out. To gain weight, energy in must be greater than energy out, and to lose weight, energy in must be less than energy out. "The energy is food," Grant, group fitness instructor and APEX certified nutritionist, clarifies. "And food," she says, "is calories. If you're consuming more calories than you're putting out, then you will put on weight. It really doesn't matter that it's Ramadan." So what, we all holler, is the problem? "What it boils down to," Grant says matter- of-factly, "is that during Ramadan, we overeat." It is our mind, in part, playing games. "There's all this good food in front of us, and we think, 'oh! Not been eating all day. I'm starving, must make up'." And so we indulge. And we assume, when the trousers get tighter, that it is all that late-in-the-day eating. At the end of the day, Grant says, the excuse is just wishful thinking. "The calories you consume in a given period of 24 hours, if they're too many relative to what you've been doing for the whole day, whether you've eaten bit by bit or in one sitting, the body can't utilise them all. So, it stores them as fat." There are, however, some other things to consider. Metabolism, for one. It is common knowledge that your body needs a certain amount of energy (calories) each day to function and complete the basic tasks of waking up, brushing the teeth and combing the hair. To do a bit more than that, you need a bit more energy. And if you don't feed the body with enough energy to get through your given day, then it slows down -- in every way. "If you don't feed your body regularly," Grant says, "it sounds the alerts, and goes into conservation mode." It slows down, learns to operate on much, much less, and holds onto all the energy reserves it has. Your metabolism, in essence, slows down. By feeding your body at regular, three to four hour intervals throughout the day, you send signals to the brain that energy is being supplied to it on a regular basis, and so it burns, and burns more. Your basal metabolic rate, BMR, the number of calories your body needs to maintain itself at rest, is raised. In Ramadan, of course, the whole BMR issue brings with it concern. But it doesn't have to. "You can still keep your metabolism up during Ramadan," Grant says. "Through activity. And that doesn't mean jumping around like a lunatic... Take the stairs. Walk to the supermarket, don't drive. By keeping your metabolism up, it will give you a little bit more energy. It's tiring, not eating. It's tiring, not being able to drink. However, you can either be sucked into it, or you can take control." Control does not by any means imply intense exercise. "I do not advocate getting up at six in the morning, going for a mad run, sweating buckets and not drinking all day. It's just not healthy," she says. "But do I advocate exercise during the fasting period? Absolutely. But you have to modify it." At her facility, clients are offered complete packages of nutritional guidance, menu planning, and exercise programmes -- Ramadan is not going to be an excuse. Clients' weights, regardless of the time of year, will still be managed. There is absolutely no reason why one should put on weight during Ramadan. "Other than you ate too much," Grant insists. The key, then, is to work activity into the day, and break fast like the Prophet did. "You have to look at things in perspective," Grant stresses. "You've turned your schedule upside-down. Normally, you don't eat when you're asleep. When you're eating normally out of Ramadan, there's a thought process for your eating. You don't usually wake up and eat kofta and rice and kounafa," she laughs. "That thought process shouldn't stop just because it's Ramadan. If you've been lying on the couch all day, and then you get up and have a huge meal, and then go to bed, chances are you will gain. However, if you've been active all day, by iftar time you are in depletion. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to survive, without doing anything. Just for the heart to beat, the blood to be pumped around, the oxygen to go through, for you to be able to blink and swallow. If, for example, you need 2,000 calories a day to survive, then it really doesn't matter when you take them -- and I'm using that term loosely -- at the end of the day it's 2,000 calories. However, if you store them and eat them at one go, it makes it harder on the body. And in Ramadan, if you haven't managed to keep your metabolism up through the activity, then maybe that 2,000 is actually 1,700." To combat that, dates, milk and prayer can do the trick, as well as a little display of self-control. "Cut back on that extra piece of konafa or basbousa," she says. "You won't starve if you don't have it, but it could be that extra 200 calories that you don't need. It's all sugar, and will be stored as carbohydrate. So if you've already had your bread and rice and potatoes, how much more do you really need?" She pauses. "You know," Grant says, "Al-Nabi (prophet Mohamed) got it right. He used to break the fast with dates and milk. Protein and sugar. And then he used to go and pray, if I'm correct on this," she continues. "That gave his body 15, 20 minutes, maybe even half an hour to start digesting the food. To give the brain time to register, 'I'm feeding you now, no need to go into panic mode anymore.' It gives your digestive system and brain time to work. Then you go back and eat. When you sit down and eat your meal, it's basically the first meal of your day. Out of Ramadan, when you wake up, what do we all do? We eat something light -- we just woke up!" Ramadan should be no exception. "In Ramadan, we might not be just waking up, but our system is, and what do we do? Legs and hooves of lamb," she laughs, "and rice and pasta and turkey. And that's only one meal! I've been living here 10 years, I know!" That is not to say we should not eat the goodies, but as Grant says, 'bil-raha shwaya' (go easy). "People eat way too fast, they don't listen to their bodies. They forget that it takes 20 minutes for the brain to register that they're full, and I'm sorry to say that most people just become greedy. They feel they need to consume as many foods as possible in the shortest space of time." The good news is that you can actually eat whatever you want, with a few minor guidelines. "You need three parts carbohydrates (55-60 per cent), two parts protein (20-25 per cent), and one part fat (15-20 per cent), " she says; the percentage being in relation to each individual's required daily calorie intake. "The percentages don't change in Ramadan," Grant says. "If people are going to alter, they are going to alter their calories. So they can eat anything they want, but they just have to account for it. Sure they can have their desserts, but they need to calculate them into their counts." And suhour, of course, must be put into that equation. "The fuul and baladi bread and yoghurt is a great meal. Skip the juice, skip the dates, skip the citrus fruits. They'll send your insulin going, and end up leaving you with a low," she explains. "And if you have the fuul,, you have to watch the oil." Balance, as always, is critical. As is protein. "It's much easier to get too many calories on a high carbohydrate diet. Don't miss out on your protein," Grant advises. "I find it very strange that people don't eat fish in Ramadan. It makes a great meal -- fish, rice, some salad and a piece of dessert makes a great iftar meal. And it will fill you up." The whole fish theory, she believes, is a construct of society. "There's no nutritional reason why you shouldn't eat fish, or that it will make you thirsty," she says. "If it makes you thirsty, then you're putting too much salt on it." Simple. As is everything else she explains. "The sporting clubs are full one to two hours before iftar, and that's a great time to get some activity in. Your carbohydrate stores are depleted, and so you'll be metabolising fat as your source of energy," Grant says. "But if you can't do that, it's still easy to incorporate some activity into your day. If you live on the eighth floor, climb one, climb two, lift the rest. If you work on the third floor, take the three flights." It's not rocket science, and it's not unattainable. At the end of the day, it's a matter of weighing-up your wants and your needs. And that, simply, is a matter of the mind. illustration: Georges Bahgory
