Kishwer Merchant: It feels nice to come down from an XL to medium size

Actor Kishwer Merchant Rai recently shared pictures and videos of her weight loss journey on Instagram. While the actor admits she wasn’t bothered at all about her weight during first few months after becoming a mum in August 2021, she did start getting conscious after a point and felt it was time to get back into shape.

“I was enjoying my motherhood journey, so I didn’t care much about the weight. In fact, I featured in three TV shows — Fanaa Ishq Main Marjaawan, Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan season 4 and Dear Ishq, with all the weight,” she tells us, adding, “But then, there was a time after my delivery when I couldn’t even sit on the floor, because my muscles and bones were all cramped up. They were so bad that I used to do a squat.”

Talking about the time when she became self-conscious, the actor adds, “I felt so because I had never seen myself like that (with extra weight). People who have always been on the plumper side in their childhood are fine with that. But I have always been small, so becoming an XL was very new to me. It took me some time and now I am back to being medium size. It just feels nice.”

It was in April this year when Kishwer started a strict workout regime and on May 26, she posted a video sharing that there’s “Still a long way too go though”.

Elaborating more on her physical transformation, the 42-year-old tells us, “This video was after I lost 10 kilos initially, right after my delivery. And additional four kilos in the last two months. While the weight loss hasn’t been much, I am more concerned about inch loss. The waist size I used to wear was size 34, and now I have come down to 31. So, I am just getting fitter. Also, I can now do a box jump that’s more important than just losing kilos.”

Kishwer credits her husband, actor Suyyash Rai for being her constant motivation behind her weight loss journey. “He is also in that zone to shed some extra pounds. He plays cricket and does cardio every day. We both put on a lot of weight when I was pregnant (during Covid-19 lockdown). But for him, it’s very easy to lose and put some kilos. But, that’s not the case with me, as I once I put on, it’s very difficult to get rid of that fat. So, he kept motivating me saying, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get there’,” says the actor, adding that she could take all this seriously because she has time now as “My son Nirvair is a bit older. He chews on his own, so I get my time for the gym and come back.”

Not someone to get bogged down by social media trolls, Kishwer was amused reading some nasty comments that people posted on her video. “Some wrote silly things like, ‘I can’t see the difference’. And I was like, ‘I’m not posting this for you to see the difference. I can see it.’ And that’s more than enough for me. So, I want to keep myself motivated like that,” she concludes.