The Beeryani Diet

Fifty packets of biryani consumed over a period of 60 days helped Nishanth Appari lose weight, put on muscle and stay fit. Sounds crazy? His parents thought so too, especially since Nishanth ended up spending more than Rs 5,000 on his ‘beeryani fit’ experiment.

“At that age of 23, I have had four surgeries and I still have a limp from a ruptured ligament from a basketball session in college,” says Nishanth adding, “When my parents came to know about my ‘beeryani’ experiment, they were terrified and it took a lot of time to convince them.”

But the results are here to stay. Nishanth consumed chicken biryani 50 times over a period of 60 days and ended up losing three kilos and also put up considerable amount of muscle. “This is how most of the diets work Quantity is important than quality. I knew that I had to cut down on my quantity of food, but the problem was biryani has lot of calories. In order to decrease my intake I had two options, to have less of the other meals or, skip a meal and follow an Intermittent Fasting protocol,” he says.

By eating biryani for lunch, which has more carbs and less of proteins, Nishanth would try to balance his other meals out. “I would eat a lot of salads or consume more proteins. Initially, I tried eating an entire packet of biryani and after struggling for 40 minutes, I told myself this is not going to work out and started eating less,” he says adding, “There was no set protocol for my workouts too. One week, I went to the gym for just two days and I’d go to the gym four or five times during other weeks. But I have to admit, this diet did make me crave for other junk food. But I was very particular to not have any.”

He updated his results on Facebook and in three days has received over 6,000 views. A Certified Personal Trainer from America Council in Exercise, 23-year-old Nishanth would often receive panic-stricken calls from clients, who had indulged in their guilty pleasures. “The clients, after eating junk food, would immediately call to ask whether it’s all right or what should they do now,” says Nishanth. “I started researching and found out that many international fitness bloggers consume junk food without letting it affect their health.

I wanted to do the same. Hence, I started with my ‘beeryani’ experiment Biryani, because not just me, but the entire city loves it and beer, because I love beer. Also, I wanted to come up with a ridiculous name that would get people’s attention.”