Kareena Kapoor Khan on Yoga, Parathas and Eating Right

Kareena Kapoor Khan has told the story of her best-known fitness phase more than once. Around the time of the 2008 film Tashan, her slim look became a national talking point. In her own account, it came from yoga and a customised meal plan by the nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, not from starvation. Two published sources carry her words: a 2009 book introduction excerpted by Rediff and a 2018 Mid-Day interview summarised by Cosmopolitan India.

The 2009 introduction

Rediff reproduced the actor's introduction to Diwekar's book Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight. Kapoor wrote that she used to think diets were about starving and punishing yourself, until she met Diwekar, who told her it was about "eating well, eating right and eating regularly". She said she replied, "I'm a Kapoor, I love my parathas, paneer, cheese," and was told she could eat all of that.

She said she began working with Diwekar around the time of Tashan, and that the media asked whether the result was diet, exercise or both. Her answer was seventy percent diet and thirty percent exercise, through a combination of training and yoga.

A plan that followed her schedule

According to the excerpt, Diwekar spent time understanding her work and lifestyle and gave her a diet customised to her needs. Meals differed between work days and shoot days, and even between shoot days that required dancing. In Mumbai she wrote that breakfast was muesli and milk, a chilla or a paratha, with no tea or coffee, while in Ladakh it was fresh fruit and mint tea without milk.

The plan also adapted to place. She mentions momos and thukpa in Ladakh, appams and idlis in Kerala, and half portions of risotto and pasta in Italy. She says she ate every two hours, with meals or snacks ranging from a sandwich to a glass of soy milk, and that Diwekar focused on nutrition rather than only calories.

The 2018 clarification

Cosmopolitan India, summarising a conversation with Mid-Day, quotes her saying the size-zero phase "was a result of a combination of yoga and Rujuta's meal plan". She added that the film's producer Aditya Chopra had asked whether she could be super fit for the role and that she took it up as a challenge.

The magazine notes that critics attributed her look to starvation and that a story about her surviving on orange juice made headlines. She said she wanted to make clear that she "lost weight the right way", that she cannot live without wholesome food, and that Diwekar balanced the right amount of fat in her diet, including parathas with ghee. She also said she called Diwekar for advice after late nights, and that the nutritionist would recommend a glass of chilled milk with gulkand, a rose-petal preserve, rather than medication.

By 2018, the magazine says, her team included Diwekar and the trainer Namrata Purohit.

Why the framing matters

The coverage of "size zero" in 2008 was often critical, and Kapoor's later comments are a response to that. Both sources show her describing a regular-meals approach, though they are her words, and an individual plan built by a nutritionist for one person's schedule is not advice for everyone. Anyone changing their diet should talk to a qualified professional.

What we could not confirm

We could not read the full Mid-Day interview and relied on Cosmopolitan India's summary. The 2009 excerpt is promotional, since it introduces Diwekar's book. We did not independently verify any claims about her weight or measurements and have not repeated numbers. We did not find a current statement on her present routine.

Sources

*Cover photo: Mohammed Mustafa Khan, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suhail_Galadari_hands_over_the_Asian_Icon_of_the_Year_Award_to_Kareena_Kapoor_Khan.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suhail_Galadari_hands_over_the_Asian_Icon_of_the_Year_Award_to_Kareena_Kapoor_Khan.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*