Like many, Kusum Melwani struggled to maintain weight due to a poor lifestyle and health issues. She recalls that her weight started becoming an issue just as she began stressing about the daily hassles that come with being a college student.

Being a student with a copious workload, it was difficult for her to take care of her health independently, but she put in the efforts to push through, and the results speak for themselves.

Nutrition is often the missing key to a fitness journey. Without the proper nutrition, it is challenging to see the best results from workouts.

With Kusum, the primary focus was on weight loss. Keeping in mind her dietary preferences and goals, a custom calorie deficit diet and a high fibre diet was followed by her. Fortunately, increasing fiber intake is relatively easy — simply integrate high fiber foods into your diet, such as green vegetables, legumes and plenty of fruits.

A person can create a calorie deficit by not consuming as many calories as they need to maintain their body weight during a day or week. Weight loss might occur over time as a result of this calorie decrease.

Changing one's daily diet and beverage intake is one way to achieve a calorie deficit. A person's diet should include high-nutrient, low-calorie meals. Vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and foods high in protein, such as red meat and eggs, may all be included in the diet. Sugary beverages and trans fats should also be avoided. You may also want to drink more water to keep hydrated and substitute the sugar-sweetened drinks you usually eat.

Kusum was also taking additional protein supplements to meet her needs and complement the change in a calorie deficit, to maintain a healthy diet while working out and maintaining her dietary preferences.

She made simple but tasty recipes that kept her feeling full all day long. Being creative with meals always helps keep the motivation to continue with the goal-directed actions without compromising on delicious food!

What makes Kusum stand out from the crowd, though, is her desire to put in the effort to improve her physical fitness.

As a result of the common notion of increasing one's muscular mass and body dysmorphia, society often considers women's physical activity and workouts undesirable traits. India being patriarchal, believes that women mustn’t be as built and against the norms to be societally apt and validated.

Kusum broke the chains of mental and cultural stigma centred around working out and weight lifting with the proper psychological counselling and guidance. In achieving the desired result, she had a svelte figure and felt more confident in her own skin.

She overcame these obstacles by emphasising the avoidance of negative connotations of working exercises and encouraging others to do the same. Weight training was a part of her routine, and she also did bodyweight exercises at home. She was steadfast in her efforts, and the result was just what she had hoped for.

Here’s what Kusum has to say about her transformation:

“Optimum wellness will significantly improve your health and wellbeing if you are determined to work upon yourself. Alan sir and his team are true heroes and are here to create change! Seeing how hard they work and how much they care about their clients is very inspiring. It's a great platform for getting healthy that keeps getting better.”