How to Stay Fit While Fasting and Feasting

Those who fast during Ramadan often end up overeating leading to weight gain, acidity and digestion problems. Experts say one must follow a proper diet plan, avoid fried food and red meat and exercise regularly. A. Arun Kumar, fitness head at Snap Fitness India, shares a few workout and nutrition tips for happy and healthy fasting and feasting during the holy month.
Diet recommendations:

- Eat food items like grains, barley, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, bran, green peas, apricots, prunes and almonds. - Avoid big meals and eat slowly. - Drink prune juice to avoid digestive problems. - Drink at least 35ml of water. - Avoid deep fried food and red meat as it causes acidity and digestion problems. - Have proper protein intake after exercise. - Diabetic patients should be more careful and avoid hypoglycemia (low sugar level in blood).
Fitness Recommendations: - Do cardio exercises like walking or cycling. It helps burn calories and improves stamina. - One can go for low intense resistance training before Ramadan. It helps maintain muscle strength. - Do warm up and stretching exercises. Full body stretching helps improve flexibility and also in detoxification. - You can do mat exercises also like free squats, abs and push ups. - Yoga and meditation helps in detoxification. - Low intense group exercises helps burn calories. Also it's fun as you exercise with others. - Workout for at least 20 to 40 minutes. - Don't exercise when you are fasting. One should exercise either before Sehri (meal before dawn) or after Iftaar (meal after sunset). - Don't do high intense exercises like high speed running, stepper and heavy weight lifting as it can lead to joint or muscle injuries and complications like low blood pressure, hypoglycemia and dizziness.