So, a lot of folks keep asking, “Hey, does Chyawanprash actually make you pack on the pounds?” I heard that question floating around a bunch, and you know me, I like to figure things out for myself. Not just read some fancy article, but actually try it, see what happens in real life, my life.
I figured, okay, let’s give this a real shot. My energy had been a bit low, especially with the changing seasons, and someone mentioned Chyawanprash. Then the weight question popped into my head because, well, it’s a bit sweet, isn’t it? I wasn’t looking to become a bodybuilder or anything, just wanted to see what this stuff did, if anything, to my weight. I’ve always been a bit up and down with my weight, especially after I hit my late thirties. You know how it is, one indulgent weekend and you feel it for days. It’s a constant dance. Anyway, I decided I’d take it for a solid two months. Got myself a jar from that local Indian grocery store, the one run by Mrs. Patel, lovely lady. Standard dose, one decent-sized spoonful in the morning, another in the evening. Sometimes with warm milk, sometimes just straight off the spoon if I was in a hurry.
Now, I tried to keep everything else pretty much the same. Big emphasis on “tried”. Life has a funny way of messing with your perfect little experiments, doesn’t it? Some weeks I was good with my diet, salads and sensible stuff. Other weeks, well, let’s just say my daughter had a birthday, and then a friend came over with a mountain of pastries. You get the picture. I wasn’t training for a marathon, just my usual routine – a bit of walking the dog, trying not to be a couch potato all day long. This was also around the time I was trying to fix that leaky tap in the bathroom, which was more stressful than you’d think, probably made me reach for an extra biscuit or two. So, it’s tough to say everything was perfectly controlled, but I did my best not to consciously change my eating habits because of the Chyawanprash, if you know what I mean.
So, I started taking it. The first week, honestly, I didn’t notice a massive difference in anything. The taste, well, it’s Chyawanprash. It’s got that unique, herby, sweet-and-sour kick. You either get used to it or you don’t. I didn’t mind it too much. After about ten days, I did feel a bit more, well, “peppy” in the mornings. Not like I’d had ten cups of coffee, but just a bit less sluggish. Placebo? Maybe. But my appetite, that definitely felt a little stronger. Not like I was starving all the time, but I definitely looked forward to my meals more, and sometimes felt like having a slightly bigger portion.
So, Did My Weight Actually Change?
Alright, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. After the first month, I nervously stepped on the scale. I always have that little moment of dread. And what did it say? Drumroll, please… I was up by about, let’s see, maybe a pound and a half, could be two pounds. Not a crazy amount, but it was an increase, no doubt about it. I continued into the second month, same routine. End of month two, another weigh-in. Pretty much the same story. Another pound or so. So, in total, over those two months of taking Chyawanprash fairly regularly, I reckon I gained somewhere between two and a half to three pounds. Maybe a touch more, scales can be fickle.
Now, here’s the kicker: was it the Chyawanprash directly “making me fat”? I don’t think it’s as straightforward as that. Here’s my honest take on it, from my own experience:
- It definitely seemed to stimulate my appetite. Like I said, I just felt a bit hungrier. When you feel hungrier, you tend to eat a bit more, right? An extra spoonful of rice here, a slightly bigger sandwich there. It all adds up without you really noticing.
- Chyawanprash itself has calories. Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s made with amla, herbs, but also sugar, honey, and often ghee. Those ingredients aren’t exactly calorie-neutral. So, you’re essentially adding a couple of spoonfuls of a fairly calorie-dense food to your daily intake. If you don’t cut back elsewhere, those calories have to go somewhere.
- Maybe, just maybe, because I felt a bit more energetic, I was also burning a tiny bit more? Or perhaps I was just more conscious of my body because I was conducting this little “experiment” on myself. It’s hard to isolate one single factor when you’re just living your normal life.
So, to answer that big question from the start: did Chyawanprash increase my weight? For me, in my specific situation, yeah, it seemed to. A little bit. But I wouldn’t go around shouting from the rooftops that it’s some kind of guaranteed weight gain potion. It’s not like I suddenly couldn’t fit into my jeans. I think it’s more of an indirect effect. It nudges your appetite, it adds a few extra calories. If you’re someone who’s already eating at a surplus, or if you’re very sensitive to extra calories and don’t adjust your food intake or exercise, then yeah, adding Chyawanprash into the mix might just tip the scales upwards a tad.
It’s like my old neighbour, lovely old fella, used to say about his garden, “It’s not just the sunshine, son, it’s the rain, the soil, the bees, and a whole lot of love!” Same kind of deal here. It’s not just the Chyawanprash in a vacuum. It’s the Chyawanprash plus your existing diet plus your activity level plus your own unique metabolism.
I actually stopped taking it regularly after those two months. Not because I was horrified by the slight weight gain, but life just got in the way. The jar ran out, I got busy with a work project, and I just sort of fell out of the habit. The couple of pounds? They pretty much disappeared over the next month or so as my appetite went back to its usual baseline and I wasn’t having those extra spoonfuls. So, no lasting damage done. Just my little personal investigation, shared for what it’s worth. Everyone’s body is different, so what happened to me might not happen to you. But that’s my story with it.
