Get in shape: India's HOTTEST fitness books

What must you read to stay in shape? We recommend these books!

The fitness books industry has been booming for a few years now, thanks to Rujuta Diwekar's Don't lose your mind, lose your weight that turned out to be a runaway bestseller a few years ago.

Since then there have been numerous authors writing about diet and fitness in a big way.

Here's a look at the ones we loved the most.

Namita Jain has been one of India's earlier fitness trainers and dieticians. Long before Diwekar came on to the scene Jain had been consulting successfully in Mumbai.

Jain is also rather prolific, having written at least three books in 2012 including one for pregnant women and another for senior citizens.

It is her 2011 book The Four-week Countdown Diet that suggests ways to control your eating habits. 

In the book, Jain argues that changing your diet suddenly can never lead to good results. She suggests instead that modifying your diet one meal at a time can bring about stupendous changes.

Jain picks dinner, asking her readers to watch what they eat in the night and works her way to modify the rest of the meals.

Read an interview with Namita Jain here, buy her book here.

The young mother who heads the digital businesses of the India Today Group wrote this rather unique 'weight-loss memoir'.

Unlike most of the books that have been penned by fitness professionals, this one was a first-hand tale of how a young girl who had been piling on the pounds took matters in her own hands.

At the time of writing the book, Kalli Purie had gone from 104 kg to a shocking 60, not a mean feat by any standards.

The book offers fascinating insights into the mind of an overweight person and what it really takes to lose that kind of weight.

Read Confessions of a Serial Dieter not so much for the extreme diets Purie went on as much as for what drove her to do it. It's unlikely you won't feel inspired.

Read an interview with Kalli Purie here and purchase the book here.

Narrating the weight-loss tale from the point of view of a model, How to love your body and get the body you love hands out practical eating advice as well has handy tips on beating that late-night hunger attack among others.

The book is also interesting in it that Yaana Gupta candidly talks about the extremes to which she'd go during her modelling days to stay in shape as well as the insecurities she had about her body all-the-time.

However the greatest lesson to take away from the book is in the first part of the title as the model explains just how one must come to terms with and love the body one has.

Read Yaana Gupta's confessions here and purchase the book here.

Veteran fitness trainer Vesna P Jacob recognises that there are two kinds of people -- one who are extremely conscious about their fitness levels and those who are not.

"This book, she writes, is not for them. This book is for all those for whom fitness is something they have to endure -- a painful process of sweat and breathlessness, with a mean trainer on their case, shouting to try harder."

Which basically means us!

Across 375 pages in Work it out without a workout, Jacob writes extensively about simple stretches and exercises we could do -- in bed, while driving or even at work.

In one of her most interesting approaches to working out, Jacob urges her readers to play with their children, which as she points out will do as much to lose weight as it will do bond with your little ones.

Read it and get started on the long path to being fit.

Read an excerpt from Vesna P Jacob's book here and purchase it here.

Kalli Purie calls her the Dominatrix Dietician in her weight-loss memoir and without naming her talks about her influence on her diet. Months after Puri's memoirs, Delhi's top dietician, Nishi Grover decided to come out with her own book.

Unlike Purie's book that has an informal, almost chatty narrative, Grover's book Lose a kilo a week is more structured. It contains strict rules, precise recipes, tonnes of questionnaires as well as images of workouts that she promises to whip you into shape.

As the back of the book reads -- If this diet doesn't get you into your favourite pair of jeans in a month, nothing else can!

Hmm!

Read an excerpt from Nishi Grover's book here and purchase it here.

This is a rare fitness book in India to have been written by a male author. Unlike all the books listed so far, celebrity fitness trainer Abhishek Sharma's debut book Fitness on the go focuses more on the workout than on the diet.

Sharma's regiment includes workouts that draw from elements of yoga and martial arts among others and can be done anywhere and without machines.

Simple workouts such as brisk walking, jogging, skipping and cycling can make a world of a difference to your health and general well being. Abhishek Sharma is one of the few authors who focus on these.

Purchase Abhishek Sharma's book here.

It wasn't that there weren't fitness books written before Don't lose your mind, lose your weight but Rujuta Diwekar's landmark book on losing weight pretty much started the trend opening up a relatively unexplored area of weight-loss books.

Fresh from the success of making her most celebrated client Kareena Kapoor fit into an itsy bitsy bikini for Tashan, Rujuta Diwekar penned her first book Don't lose your mind, lose your weight, writing extensively about eating less portions of food across lesser intervals of time.

The book has since sold over four lakh copies, which by Indian publishing standards has been a record.

Diwekar went on to write another book Women and the weight loss tamasha, which spoke about the need for women to get back into the kitchen and eat homemade food. She is in the process of writing her third book.

Read an interview with Rujuta Diwekar here and here, an excerpt from Don't lose your mind... here and purchase it here.