Losing weight does not necessarily mean eliminating rice and roti, surviving on salads or spending hours doing cardio. For Mankirat Kaur, a reported 10-kg weight loss—from 65 kg to 55 kg—came from changing everyday habits rather than following an extreme diet.
In an Instagram post, Kaur outlined eight habits she deliberately stopped or changed while working toward her goal. Her approach focused on eating mindfully, staying active, managing setbacks and maintaining consistency.
While individual weight-loss results vary, several of the habits she highlighted reflect practical strategies that can fit into a sustainable lifestyle.
1. She Stopped Rushing Through Meals
Kaur said she previously ate her meals in roughly five minutes. She began taking 15 to 20 minutes instead.
Slowing down can make it easier to pay attention to hunger and fullness cues. Kaur said the change helped her feel satisfied with less food and reduced unnecessary cravings.
Eating speed is only one factor affecting appetite and overall food intake, but eating more mindfully can be useful for people who tend to eat quickly or without paying attention to their meals.
2. She Did Not Give Up Roti or Rice
Rather than removing traditional carbohydrate-rich staples from her diet, Kaur said she continued eating roti and rice.
Her focus was reportedly on portion sizes and maintaining consistency instead of treating carbohydrates as foods that must automatically be eliminated.
For many Indian diets, rice and roti are important staples, and carbohydrates can form part of a balanced eating pattern. The overall quality and quantity of food, individual energy requirements and activity levels are more relevant than simply removing one macronutrient.
3. She Stopped Trying to Eat Perfectly
Kaur also moved away from an all-or-nothing approach to dieting.
She said she followed an 80:20 approach, allowing herself some flexibility rather than attempting to maintain a perfectly restrictive diet every day.
That flexibility can make a routine easier to maintain. A highly restrictive eating pattern may be difficult to sustain, particularly if avoiding favorite foods eventually leads to overeating or abandoning the diet altogether.
4. She Stopped Weighing Herself Every Day
Instead of using the weighing scale as a daily measure of success, Kaur said she shifted to monitoring her progress weekly.
Body weight naturally changes from day to day because of factors including hydration, sodium consumption, food intake and hormonal fluctuations. A short-term increase does not necessarily mean an increase in body fat.
Looking at longer-term trends can therefore provide a more useful indication of progress for some people.
5. She Replaced Endless Cardio With More Daily Movement
Kaur’s approach also did not depend on spending hours performing cardio.
She said she concentrated on increasing her everyday activity, particularly by walking, taking more steps and remaining active throughout the day.
Regular movement can contribute to energy expenditure and overall fitness. For people trying to lose weight, a combination of everyday activity and appropriate exercise—including resistance training where suitable—can be more practical than relying exclusively on lengthy cardio sessions.
6. She Skipped Fat Burners and Detox Drinks
Kaur said she avoided relying on fat-burning products and detox drinks, instead emphasizing protein, balanced meals and whole foods.
The appeal of quick-fix weight-loss products can be strong, but there is no magic beverage capable of replacing sustainable eating and physical-activity habits.
Weight-loss supplements can also vary considerably in terms of evidence and safety. Anyone considering such products should discuss them with a qualified healthcare professional rather than assuming marketing claims are medically established.
7. She Stopped Treating One Bad Meal as Failure
Another major change involved how Kaur responded when she deviated from her routine.
She said she stopped believing that one unhealthy meal meant she had ruined all her progress. Instead, she returned to her normal eating pattern rather than allowing one setback to derail her efforts.
That distinction is important because long-term changes are measured over weeks and months, not by a single meal. A flexible approach can make it easier to recover from occasional lapses without turning them into prolonged periods of overeating.
8. She Stopped Skipping Meals to Save Calories
Kaur also said she stopped missing meals in an attempt to reduce her calorie intake.
According to her, skipping meals eventually made her excessively hungry and contributed to overeating later. She instead moved toward balanced meals designed to keep hunger and cravings manageable.
The right meal frequency varies between individuals, but deliberately going hungry can make it harder for some people to maintain a consistent eating pattern.
Her Approach Focused on Consistency
Kaur’s reported transformation from 65 kg to 55 kg was presented not as the result of one dramatic dietary change but as the cumulative effect of several behavioral adjustments.
She stopped rushing meals, continued eating foods such as rice and roti, allowed flexibility in her diet, moved away from daily weigh-ins, increased everyday activity, avoided quick-fix products, learned to recover from setbacks and stopped skipping meals.
Her experience illustrates a broader point about weight management: sustainable habits are generally more useful than short-term measures that are difficult to maintain.
