How Priya Parmar Turned Grief Into a 23kg Transformation on Indian Home Cooking

Start: September 2025 - 95.5kg (~211lbs)

Progress so far: September 2026 - 23kg lost (~51lbs)

Checkpoint goal: 70kg

On 4 September 2025, Priya Parmar’s younger brother came to the breakfast table, started breathing heavily and collapsed. He was 47, slim, walked everywhere and had no known health conditions. He died of a sudden heart attack.

Four and a half months earlier, in April, Priya had lost her mum, who had been a stroke patient. Their dad had died of a sudden heart attack at 50.

Priya signed up with RNT on her very first call, and her programme started on 23 September 2025, 19 days after her brother died.

“While the iron is hot, I’m gonna do this now. There is no looking back. I have to do it for myself and my family, for my children, my husband.”

A Family History of Sudden Heart Attacks

Priya’s dad had no underlying health conditions and no blood pressure problems when he died. Her brother had none either. The family paid for private health checks every year, and Priya’s own blood tests had always come back clear.

“Strangely, we get ourselves checked out privately every year to make sure we are on board with it, and then it just happens like that. So I thought, this is a real eye opener.”

Her weight had crept up steadily over the years, a little at a time, and by the time she joined RNT she weighed 95.5kg.

“I am overweight, I don’t like the way I look. As like many people, I would hide behind cameras and everything else, and I just didn’t feel comfortable in what I was.”

“A year ago, nothing would fit, and every time we had to go out it was like, oh, what am I gonna wear? Whatever food was presented, I would eat. I would socialise, but I felt very uncomfortable inside. I would always look at baggy clothes.”

Weight Watchers, a Local Gym and “Just Eat Tofu”

Priya tried Weight Watchers for a few months when her two children were small. Then work and family life took over, and the weight came back. About five or six years ago she joined a local gym and trained early in the mornings. When she asked the personal trainer for help with nutrition, all the advice was built around meat.

“All they said to me is, for example, you can eat chicken and you can eat this and that. But I said, look, I’m a vegetarian, I’m not a meat eater. So they were like, OK, just eat tofu. There was nothing to help me, to guide me through how much I needed to eat, how much protein, how much carbs. There was no structure, basically, and then after that I thought, OK, I’m gonna give up.”

One of her cousins had joined RNT some time earlier, and Priya had watched her transform. She had been thinking about joining herself for a while.

“Everything else comes first, and all the excuses in the world.”

“I’ve Paid the Deposit and I Want to Do This”

Priya made the decision alone, on that first call with RNT. She walked out of the room and told her husband afterwards.

“I didn’t tell my husband, my family or anything, and then I came out of the room and said, do you know what, I’ve joined RNT. And he’s like, oh, have you? I was like, yes, I have. I’ve paid the deposit and I want to do this.”

Her husband had watched her yo-yo on Weight Watchers before, and he told her so.

“He said, you must stick to it, Priya. And a year down the line, he’s seen I have stuck to it, and I mean it, and I’ve done it.”

“My feelings were very raw, and I had to.”

Sunday Meal Prep and 15-Minute Lunch Breaks

In her first weeks, Priya had daily walks to fit in, new meal plans to prepare and training to learn.

“Initially it was a battle kind of thing, because you feel, oh, I have to do all this exercise and I have to prepare my new plans, and I have to do my walks every day. But I have to say, the best bit about RNT obviously is the meal plans. The worry has been taken away from you. The exercise, oh, what am I gonna go and do today, is taken away. You’re given all that.”

Priya’s lunch breaks last 15 or 20 minutes. Sunday became her prep day. She makes the week’s lunches, sorts out her dinners and portions everything into containers in the fridge.

For a week of pasta salad, she takes 150g of vegetables per portion and multiplies it by seven, which comes to 1,050g. She weighs the pasta the same way, cooks everything, mixes it together and divides it equally. She cuts the cheese into 20-25g pieces and puts one in each container.

“I literally go into the fridge, pick up my container for that day, and just have my lunch, and I’m on the go again. It’s made my life so much easier.”

Breakfast is protein yoghurt with blueberries and almonds. It took some getting used to.

“When I started I thought, oh my God, how can I eat yoghurt in the morning, first thing? It made me feel very claggy. But I tell you what, I love it so much.”

Lunch is the pasta salad with an apple or a handful of grapes. When she finishes work at around 4pm or 4:30, she blends protein powder, peanut butter, oats and a banana into a shake and drinks it while she cooks dinner for the family. This week, dinner is boiled mung beans cooked with onions and tomatoes, with a rotli (chapati), a little rice and plenty of salad.

Less Than Half a Teaspoon of Oil

Priya cooks for the whole family, and Indian food stayed at the centre of her plan from the first week. Her husband and son often eat the same meals she does, with their portions added in. Her coach built her plan around the food she already cooked.

“Being an Indian, I love my rotlis and my rice and my curries and all that, and I can eat all that. Different curries, different protein sources every week. I don’t have the same thing, but my God, I just love it, because I don’t have to worry about anything and it’s something that I enjoy eating.”

The changes to her cooking have been small. She uses less than half a teaspoon of oil, just enough to pop the mustard seeds. Her sauces are tomato-based, made with passata or fresh tomatoes, and cream and ghee have gone.

“It’s the palate that you really need to adjust to. You want all these nice sugary foods and all that, and the body doesn’t need all that. It’s not asking for it. I enjoy food. You can taste food much better.”

“It’s Not My Coach Who’s Eaten That”

Over the year, Priya went through a full cycle of birthdays and family celebrations. Before a birthday, her coach would suggest she enjoy it with a small piece of cake instead of a quarter of one.

“It makes you look at things. Do you really need all that much to eat? And then how do you feel afterwards? Very sluggish, lethargic.”

In the first months, she caught herself treating the plan as someone else’s rules.

“Initially I was thinking, oh my God, I’m not allowed to eat that, I can’t do that. But then that becomes a blame game, where, oh, my coach says X, Y, Z. But then I took responsibility. I’m accountable. It’s not my coach who’s eaten that. I have eaten it, so I have got to now take responsibility for my actions.”

Comfort eating in the evenings had been her hardest habit. For years, the first thing she did after work was make tea or coffee and reach for the biscuits. The afternoon protein shake took their place.

“It’s a year, I’ve had my vanilla protein milkshake with my banana and oats and peanut butter, and I’ve not touched biscuits at all. It just fulfils me so well.”

Before social events, she has her shake or eats before she leaves, so she arrives without being hungry.

“It’s lovely to see all this food, but I now pick what I want to eat rather than taking everything that’s there.”

From Bodyweight Squats to a 24kg Dumbbell

RNT was the first time Priya had trained properly in a gym. She filmed her lifts and sent the videos to her coach, who corrected her form and told her when to go heavier.

“Initially I felt very intimidated. Am I in the right place? Am I doing the right things? Sometimes I look in the gym and there are so many men or young, able-bodied people on the bench presses, and I’m the only lady, and being an Indian as well.”

In one session she was struggling through a set when another woman in the gym came over.

“She said, do you know, I think you can do a bit more than that because you’re doing so well. And I said, really? She said, I’ll help you, and she did, bless her, and I went another 2kg. She said, I’m behind you. If you need me, just shout, I’ll take them over. And you know what, I managed to do quite a few reps, and that instilled in me, actually, Priya, you can do much more.”

She started squatting with just her bodyweight, then moved up to 2kg and 5kg. She now squats holding a 24kg dumbbell.

“It’s such a good social network now that I’ve also got in the gym. People talk to me, and it’s nice, and even people in the gym have noticed and they have said how much weight I’ve lost.”

Butterflies on Her Walks

Priya hears her brother’s voice most on the days she doesn’t want to train.

“When I’m lifting my weights, I used to feel, oh, I can’t do this, and that’s when he would come into my mind and he’d say, come on, Priya, you can do this. One more push, you can do it, you’re strong. And days when I wouldn’t feel like going for a walk, he would come and talk to me in my mind and say, Priya, come on, go out for a walk. This is going to do you good.”

“One thing I’ll share, very personal, but when I go for walks, I see butterflies, and I feel he’s there somewhere, happy. He’s seen me, that I’ve come out for a walk.”

Akash asked whether she would have taken control of her health without him.

“Possibly not, because I’ve been putting it off constantly.”

Her husband came with her to a recent RNT event in London, and he now walks with her too. When their daughter comes home from university, she joins them.

“My husband’s been the pillar. He’s supported me through and through.”

“It’s such a good one-to-one time, I found.”

A Dress She Couldn’t Fit Into for 25 Years

When she recorded her Hall of Fame episode, Priya was 23kg down from where she started and past her original 75kg goal. At the start, her cousin had told her to persevere, and that a day would come when she looked in the mirror and liked what she saw.

“And I thought, when is that going to happen? Does this really happen? And I can truly say this, hand on my heart and soul, yes, it has changed. I feel so confident in myself. Whenever I go anywhere, I don’t shy away now. There was a dress, after my marriage, 25 years, I could not fit in it, and I’m so comfortable.”

Compliments now come from friends, family and people at the gym. Last weekend, a cousin she visited told her, “Oh my God, Priya, you’ve lost so much weight.”

“Whatever the challenges are in life, this has made my mindset much stronger compared to a year ago. Before, I would give in, and it’s that food that you feel is the comfort constantly. I know I have achieved so much with hard work and dedication. I don’t want to go back to where I was.”

“I Don’t Want to Be a Burden to Anybody”

Priya was 50 when she started with RNT, the same age her dad was when he died.

“My mum, bless her, she was a stroke patient, she was completely bedbound. I’ve seen that, I have helped her, I have done a lot for her. That is not a quality of life that I want to be in.”

“I want to grow old gracefully. I do not want to be in a Zimmer frame. As long as I can be strong and healthy, I’m able to maybe in the future lift my grandchildren and do all that. I don’t want to be dependent. I want to be independent.”

What’s Next

Priya has signed up for a second year with RNT. She and her coach are working towards 70kg and her checkpoint, and she wants to finish the year leaner and stronger.

“I tell everybody that weightlifting is very important, especially now that I’ve turned 50.”

Her advice to anyone who’s where she was a year ago:

“Join now. Join RNT now. Don’t even think about it. You will not regret it. It is a commitment, but it is an absolute fantastic commitment. It’s an achievement for yourself.”

“People are gonna be wondering if I planted all these answers for you. No, this is my own complete opinion, honestly. Join now, do it, don’t leave it.”

“If you don’t want to do something, you’ll come up with 101 excuses. But this is truly for your own health. If you are feeling good inside and outside, you’re good to everybody. But if you don’t feel good, you’re not good to anybody.”

“I’ve seen a huge change in myself, and I think if I can do it, anybody can do it.”

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