Akash Bathija is making his mark in Bollywood with his performance in Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’, wherein he plays the role of Amol – Nandini Grewal’s (Dimple Kapadia) junior who later goes on to join Pathaan’s JOCR team.
Did you know that the now chiseled actor was previously stereotyped in fat guy roles?
In an exclusive chat with Etimes lifestyle, Akash, who would next be seen in ‘Made in Heaven Season 2,’ shared his weight loss secrets that helped him shed about 40-44 kilos.
Talking about how almost all key characters in ‘Pathaan’ are super fit, he said, “So while we were being casted for this, a prerequisite was you should have a certain level of fitness and before shooting we trained for about a week or 10 days. We used to do like two hour workshops every day,” adding, “You could not take anybody who was not decently fit and tell them okay, we'll do it. It doesn't happen. You have to actually have a decent level of fitness which touchwood I thought I had.”
Akash further recalled what Deepika Padukone ate while they were shooting for ‘Pathaan’. “When on set we broke for lunch one of the days, I saw Deepika has her own chef obviously and he was making this amazing salad.”
Talking about her meal, he added, “It's very low in carbs, low in fat and everything like that. And I'm like, is this every day? She's on a diet every day. This is her lifestyle. You know, it's not like these guys are going off diet and then on diet. They are in that shape 24x7. They are fit 24x7. They have that abs 24x7.”
Opening up about his incredible weight loss journey, he shared, “I say that with pride but a little bit of embarrassment also that I was 126 kilos and now I'm about 84 kg. And so about a 40-44 kilo drop happened in two years.”
Emphasizing that it takes a long time for physical transformation to happen, the actor added, “We tend to underestimate the amount of time a body transformation takes. You know, we are like, yes, it will happen in three months, six months. It doesn't happen. It is such a slow process that nobody prepares you for how slow a process it is.”
Revealing how he shed so much weight, he shared, “My trainer was like, Akash, we're not going to go berserk. We're just going to drop 100-150 calories every day. When I'm not feeling like, “oh, I'm dying, I'm starving”. And I see food and I just want to jump on it. Nothing like this. A basic lifestyle, a basic diet, which is close to my lifestyle. So you can't be going on a no carb, only salad-chicken diet.”
“What worked for me was taking it slow. And as and when we progress, you made the calorie deficit bigger and increased my cardio throughout the session because your body gets very used to it. Body is super smart. Then shock the body a little again, drop more calories, increase the cardio again. So over two years, at the end of it, I had dropped around 500-700 calories a day and I was training for like 1000-1500 calories a day,” he explained.
As to how he maintains his fitness levels, Akash revealed, “The best way I maintain my physique is that I do about half an hour of cardio in the day. Later on I do weight training for about 45-50 minutes without fail.”
“Monday to Saturday I follow a clean, pristine diet, like very clean. But on Sunday, I eat whatever I feel like. It's not a cheat day. It's more like a cheat meal because once you make it a cheat day, then there's no stopping you. I decide on Monday only that I will eat Chinese or pizza or dessert on Sunday. One meal. Rest, my eggs, my salad and everything else stays the same on Sunday. And you stick to that and you keep working on it. You will maintain your physique. That's the only way to maintain your physique,” he signed off.
