VIDEO: Tanzanians should adopt better ways of cutting down body weight, urges MUHAS lecturer

Dar es Salaam. A researcher on lifestyle and body fitness Dr Fredrick Mashili says people who want to shed off their body weight can do so without necessarily cutting down their meals or doing what is popularly known as “dieting.”

Dr Mashili who teaches physiology at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas) cautions that eating less food or being limited to eating certain foods and not others, denies the body of important nutrients.

He spoke to The Citizen ahead of the 4^th Muhas-University-wide symposium, themed: Walking together in the control and Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)which will take place at Muhas on Wednesday September 25. Experts on NCDs are expected to present their findings during the symposium in Dar es Salaam.

For years, Dr Mashili, who will also be presenting his findings on NCDs, has been raising awareness in the media on how best people can become physically fit and prevent of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart diseases.

He says, “Many times, I meet people who want to lose weight. But, in trying to do so, they end up slimming their bodies…losing weight shouldn’t be taken to be a simple thing to do. It has its best practices.”

“The so-called dieting, which most people tend to practice usually involves refraining from eating certain foods. For example, people tend to stop eating carbohydrate-containing foods, while this is important for their energy. They also stop eating foods that could have added important minerals in their bodies,” says the medic.

Read: Domestic resources needed to curb lifestyle diseases, says MUHAS heart specialist

“Eating a balanced diet matters a lot for people who are on their weight control journey, instead of being choosy and abstaining from certain foods,” he advises.

“People tend to go online and read issues to do with dieting and make decisions based on that. Some of these guidelines aren’t well researched. Other people tend to use pills believing that would help them cut down weight. They need to consult experts first. Pills are of various types and some could be harmful.”

“Another thing is about exercising. People need to select the kind of exercises they do in order to cut down weight. They have to plan which kind of exercises they need and for which weight targets.”

“For instance, there are those who want to lose 6kg within a week. That’s not a good thing. One has to know the amount of weight that one wants to lose in what span of time. This helps in planning the diet too.”

So, what I should recommend here is that people should focus on physical exercises and a balanced diet. On food, here I mean, the kind, the amount and the timing (when to eat what food).”

“On the timing, for instance, a person should eat enough food for breakfast and the amount of food should be scaled down as the day progresses. Eat less for dinner because at night, the body will be relaxing as you go to sleep.”

“If a person eats too much for dinner (and if that food contains much carbohydrates) it means that the excess amount of carbohydrates won’t be broken down into energy but will be converted into fats that will deposited around the body make a person grow fat.”