Weight loss: A Muslim's perspective?

in public interest:

http://www.gutsense.org/fibermenace/fm_intro.html

http://www.gutsense.org/fibermenace/fm_chapter1.html

 

against a book singling out wheat as the bad grain:

http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/plexus/cfw/pastissues/2012/OpenDocuments/CFW-57-4-0177.pdf

so wheat's it? science or pseudo-science?

 

from a comment on this page:
http://www.faboverfifty.com/intheknow/our-health/do-you-have-wheat-belly-0

 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-problems-with-modern-wheat/#axzz2XmdNl7Hj

apart from the above, here are few more views challenging the status quo:

cholesterol and saturated fats are good


on gluten intolerance

summary of whats good and what isn't

 

we find mention of wheat in ahadith which implies that it was consumed during the Prophetic era. and if there was any inherent harm it we would have been alerted to it by the Prophet(alayhissalaam) or the sahaba or the ahlut-tasawwuf. therefore saying that wheat's internal defense mechanisms have always been a bane for humans doesn't make sense. so we'll leave this line of thought out of the discussion.

but when it comes to modern wheat crops, then such thinks do call for some consideration:

http://www.infowars.com/modern-wheat-is-the-perfect-chronic-poison-says-expert/

http://chriskresser.com/9-steps-to-perfect-health-1-dont-eat-toxins

personal experiences:

http://greatist.com/health/modern-wheat-health-gluten

http://umdidkum.blogspot.in/

http://panhwar.com/Article111.htm

please give your opinions on the above.

jazakAllah. Wassalaam.

 

Jazakallah for the link, really liked it.

As for the hadith, it really sets an excellent principle to follow and also motivates by the words "we are a people", now who wouldn't want to be included in "we" with RasulAllah (alayhi salaatu wat tasleem)!

but here's the problem: most days of the week i DO eat only once a day ad guess what, I am the oddity. Parents and all: "you eat just once?" you're getting weak, blah blah.

i am in india and i see that FOUR and not three is the default, even if you don't work in a factory: evenings are 'tea-time', only you don't stop at the tea and want 'something to go with it'! and with students and late-nighters the 5th snack come at the solar 'day-break'.

now before anyone thinks that i am real cool, let me confess that with 1 meal a day, i usually have to keep a constant supply of beverages and lemonade, and if THEY too count as a meal then i'm a gonner! I'll be eating i dunno HOW MANY times a day!

but here's what i feel, having trained ourselves to eat 4 meals a day now our biological clock rings the hunger alarm 4 times no matter how much you ate at that last meal, so all would say, hey we do eat ONLY when we're hungry, but that's a false alarm, try passing the time with a glass of water or lemonade and you will see.

the main reason for this sort of behavior, i think is the wide availability of food and that too quick food. if you're bored and passing by a roadside stall of 'indian burgrer' then it really seems that there's no reason why i shouldn't give my taste buds a 'small' treat.

Wallahuaa'lam.

I earnestly entreat all sunni brothers to pray for me that i become a true 'qaleel ul ta'aam', ashura is around the corner, please please pray for me.

Jazakallah. wassalaam.

 

the famous hadith:

نحن قوم لا نأكل حتى نجوع، وإذا أكلنا لا نشبع

apparently this three square meals thing is an invention of the enlightened west, by their own admission

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243692

 

inshAllah(azzawajal).

well said. i'll try fasting. and no chicken karhai.

jazakallah. wassalaam.

 

the thing is how you want to control you nufs. Sayyiduna Dawood alaihisalaam used to fast on alternate days, Sayyiduna Nuh alaihissalam used to fast whole year, their were sahabah, tabieen (like imam abu hanifa alaihi rahmah wa riDwan), and mujtahideen (like imam bayhaqi rahimahullah) who used to fast throughout the year despite knowing this hadith sharif about fasting of Sayyiduna Dawud alaihissalam.

The least is to fast 3 days every month, then 2 days every week, then on alternate days, and if your circumstances permit then you can also fast 7 days a week, but majority of us have family responsibilities hence 7 days a week is very difficult, specially when we know the hadith of Sayyidunah Abdullah ibn Umar raDiAllahu 'anhuma about his fasting during the day and spending whole night in ibadah. however, fasting without breaks is only makruh tanzeehan,and only if you want to practice it like rahbaniyyah. if it is to worship Allah while fulfilling all of your family responsibilities then you spend your whole day in worhsip of Allah.

the crux of all the above is that follow the prophetic sunnah, in dietary habits and every other aspect of life, you'll live a perfect life.

quit reading or following western theories, it is waste of time even if it is due to curiosity, and might bring SOME benefits.

 

well, majority of people (sadly, i am one of them) cannot limit their eating habits at all regardless of food being tasty or not, wholesome or mere junk. but, it was obvious that i meant that you can eat every thing nutrient rather than limiting yourself to few of them.

if you fast and tell your wife to prepare chicken karhai for your futoor, then it actually kills the purpose of fasting which is taming your nafs rather than a weight loss program. don't make it special.

i am really amazed that to keep ourselves fit and healthy we need to seek guidance from those of worldly dogs, on the contrary we have every thing in the prophetic sunnah, an immaculate example to live a perfect, peaceful, and healthy life.

first, for your eating habits you should follow the sunnah that is 1/3 for food, 1/3 for water, and 1/3 should be kept empty - this program is for everyone that is awam (and RasulAllah alaihi afDalus salaat wat-tasleem set an example for everyone by doing it himself), and for those who want to take the path of suluk they should cut down even more on their diet. RasulAllah alaihi afDalus salaat wat-tasleem have said, two morsels of food are enough to keep your back straight, i assume this hadith sharif is for those who are not among common folks that is for those who are more concerned about their akhirah than indulging excessively into worldly matters.

imam ghazalli rahimahullah have said in ihya al-uloom that a salik should fix the (approximate) weight of his meals).

filling stomach to full, or pumping your muscles an hour or two every day doesn't make one strong. you may have seen elephantine body builders who cannot lift their arms over their head, or bend their body to an acute angle, or even turn their neck, probably very often they get cramps.

contrary to this imagine the 120 years old shaykh, a descendent of Sayyiduna Huzur Ghawth al-Azam aliahi rahmah wa riDwan, i mentioned in my previous post, he was very skinny, used to fast 365 days minus prohibited ones, consumed very little food, but had such an spiritual strength that he used to perform hajj every year on foot all along (he performed more than 60, if i remember what he told me), and usually without breaks so much so that he never took rest after rami, and immediately headed toward haram sharif to perform tawaf al-ziyyarah, again on foot. and, imagine i have seen young, tall, and perfectly healthy guys trudging behind him, taking short breaks, and kneading their legs.

 

Brother Noori, i do not suppose mawlana Ilyas Qadri will agree to 'eating anything', fasting or not. For one thing, most people cannot eat tasty-and-junk foods within limits and if anyone did, that would take a toll on their health because these foods have a very low nutritive value and unless you eat them in 'bulk quantities' your body's requirements will not be met. But if you do, then the the macro nutrients i.e carbs and fats, which are in excess in these, foods will again harm you. So its a lose-lose situation.

But yes fasting and eating wholesome foods will definitely improve your health. Junk foods once in a while are okay.

Did you know that there is a famous dieting regimen (which i have tried with good results) called 'Intermittent Fasting'? A well-known face in this field is Martin Berkhan who advocates an almost islamic way of fasting, in fact once he even referred to it 'ramadan style' fasting. Only thing is he allows non-calorific foods during it, such as diet-coke and black coffee without sugar and he advises men to fast for upto 16 hours per day. He says that the body's response to this sort of fasting is unique and these benefits cannot be obtained from other sorts of fasting which allow many foods and fruits during the fast.

In fact, currently, i AM following a sort of 'Intermittent Fasting' but i take tea and lemonade during it, both with sugar.

A purely ramadan style fasting is very difficult on the nafs, especially when you are not doing any physical work that would divert your attention. I think the 'sawm-e-Dawood' (alayhissalaam) would be a good practice.

wassalaam.

 

Jazakallah for all the replies.

So walking is back on the list, inshaAllah. (Earlier i used to walk briskly for about 30-75 mins after EVERY meal. I even used to workout at home for about an hour, six days a week. High Intensity Interval Training and resistance training. But then i stopped for fear that i was wasting too much time.)

I love audio books. Waiting eagerly.

 

yes, they used to participate in jihad, swim, or go on walks etc. they may have not been to gyms just to pump up their muscles. whatever they used to do had a direct bearing about their akhirah.

by the way, going to gym is not bad if the intention is to keep yourself healthy, but most of the times guys only go to gym to have a perfect shape which is kind of a vain indulgence.

 

suppose you are sick, and you know that a certain medicine works - is it right for you to forsake that medicine?

obesity/being overweight is an illness - or leads to serious illnesses and commonsense screams that, it is well within your religious duty to lose weight and be healthy. don't you see that ulama have said that if one eats with the intention to gain strength for worship, he merits reward?

conversely, if you exercise with the niyyah to be healthy and avoid health problems bestowed by obesity - you merit reward. indeed, getting some exercise can be proven from sunnah.

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that is inevitable and therefore, it is necessary to get at least some exercise. one can go cycling or walking in most parts in india and europe/america for the better part of the year. it is not easy in the gulf though, where you can get killed by SUVs, even if you survive the heat.

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is eating sufficient so as to not become weak and fall ill sunnah? will one be rewarded if he eats as much as necessary to survive and not be malnourished?

noble thoughts, but it could as well be a whispering of the devil. suppose you are overweight and become diabetic, does it not threaten your maqaSid overall? potentially, one could put their ramaDan at risk.

if diabetes, hypertension and heart problems cut short one's life, or at the least reduce opportunities in the future (cannot exert so much effort as another healthy person of the same age) or put you on the path of medications and operations...the cliche, 'an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,' in this case is sage advice.

farD ilm is only as much as you have to fulfil your farayiD, point-in-time. if you are not married now, learning about nikah and talaq is not farD for you; so also if Hajj is not farD for you NOW, learning about Hajj is not farD for you NOW.

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and there are many ways of making use of this time. i used to listen to habib umar's durus during evening walks; mawlana ghulam ghaus baghdadi's tafsir is also number of hours. there are a number of audio books in arabic and other durus. ridawi press will produce audio versions of important urdu books for non-scholars in the very near future, in sha Allah, bi idhnihi wa bi tawfiqih.

if you are not the listening type, you can do tas'biH, tahlil, durud etc on your circuit. may we remind that a mas'baHah (tasbiH, rosary) is a useful tool for reminding you and keeping you in the habit. one can reflect upon one's life, make plans, think about so many things.

إذا المرء كانت له فكرة
ففي كل شيء له عبرة

 

are these two really linked?

instead of following diet programs, i would suggest that you keep fasting and eat whatever you want during suhoor and futoor (of course within limits), other than maintaining your weight you will also not suffer from sugar, blood pressure, or heart diseases. need not to say that intention should not be a weight loss program.

i have seen a shaykh, who always used to fast (except on prohibited days). he never suffered from any serious illness or chronic diseases until only a couple of months before his demise, he was 120, however, he used to eat very little, usually half a bread and tea only.

 

okay. but are any of the pious people known to have 'worked out' just to 'keep in shape'? I mean when you're sitting in front of a pc all the time, or you're a student at a madrasa etc. how do you avoid weight gain? Is exercising just to lose weight a sunnah? will one be rewarded for it? especially, since you don't have the niyyah for jihad and your fardh ilm is still wanting, wouldn't workout time be better employed in the pursuit of knowledge?

 

man cannot thin on diet alone.

 

I like to come up with innovative ways to avoid food.

But almost every time i hit upon a diet plan, mr. google tells me that someone has already tried it before(!) and that the health 'high-priests' are in full swing already, telling 'sinful' dieters off for trying them.

Recently, i was told that Imam Nawawi (alyhirrahmah) would only eat two dry chapatis twice a day and that he didn't touch fruits as long as he lived in Damascus. So i thought, hey, that's a great idea. I tried eating only chapatis, and found that it can be done (although i couldn't limit myself to just two and also included beverages, yogurt and lemonade).

And here you are: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/191/can-man-live-by-bread-alone

According to another site:

But whole wheat chapatis have enough fibre and lemonade has lots of vitamin c. Only problem is about protiens. Now, i think Imam Nawawi must've had meat once in a while as eating meat is sunnah. So i think i'll continue with this diet for a while and see how things turn out.

A quote from Imam Ghazali's (rahimahullah) Minhaj-ul-Abideen:
" The pain a person suffers at the time of death is in proportion to the luxuries/tastes he enjoyed during his life "

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Eating bread with olive oil is a sunnah, isn't it? It is also a staple of many different cultures apart from the arabs, such as, France, Italy and the mediterranean. The effects of ONLY bread and olive oil maybe like this.

Which type of bread was prevalent during RasulAllah's (sallallahualayhiwasallam) time? was it wheat or barley?

And the 'sarid' that Imam Ghazali (rahimahullah) mentions in the ihya, was it just dates and milk?

Wassalaam.

 

Yes the stuff about living long enough to live forever can probably be ignored but the section on weight loss and diet is very good. I've tried many fad diets but this is the first one I've managed to keep on that's worked.

 

For dunyadaar people like US: 'Transcend' is like stomping on thin ice: looong hopes:




Piling of more wealth has kept you heedless. Till you saw your graves ........

Narrated 'Abdullah (radhiAllahuanhu):

The Prophet(peace be upon Him) drew a square and then drew a line in the middle of it and let it extend outside the square and then drew several small lines attached to that central line, and said, "This is the human being, and this, (the square) in his lease of life, encircles him from all sides (or has encircled him), and this (line), which is outside (the square), is his hope, and these small lines are the calamities and troubles (which may befall him), and if one misses him, an-other will snap (i.e. overtake) him, and if the other misses him, a third will snap (i.e. overtake) him."

Narrated Anas bin Malik (radhiAllahuanhu):

The Prophet (peace be upon Him) drew a few lines and said, "This is (man's) hope, and this is the instant of his death, and while he is in this state (of hope), the nearer line (death) comes to Him."

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Not lecturing you at all. Just read the preface of transcend and HAD to remind myself of the above verses and hadith to pull away from the snare of long hopes. That book's a real bad news for the kuffar. They'll read it, believe it, wait in hope and ...... snap......like the cracking of a dry twig....

" Allahumma man tawaffaytahu minna fa tawaffahu alal iman ". ameen.

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will check the ihya.

JazakAllahu-khayran-wa-ahsanaljaza.