This "virtual nutritionist" prescribes diets that include everything from chaat to pasta, meant for everyone from 'deskies' to travellers - tailor-made for the needs of the new-age Indian.

For every internet crime perpetrated against women or every faceless internet user spewing hate speech – the internet also has beamingly positive stories of women-run communities in the form of various groups & forums on social media sites, where people from all over the world bare their souls & talk to each other on problems ranging from body-image issues to PTSD.

Right from legitimate solutions to simply solidarity, support & a few encouraging words – these symbiotic “safe spaces” have been the watershed, turning points in the lives of many.

Khyati Rupani – once the youngest ever chief nutritionist in a major hospital in India, stumbled upon one such forum when she was battling weight gain, post pregnancy.

As she offered informed opinions & unbiased advice, the community, in turn, gave her the necessary groundwork for a flourishing business. Today, as she spearheads a 55-member team & works with a client base of 10,000, she tells us how it all began.

Serendipity

Khyati wanted to become a doctor. But when her CET scores only got her through colleges in remote areas for MBBS – it was a hard no from her family. So, she decided to reappear for the exams the following year & with a year at hand to kill, she signed up for a BSc in Nutrition. After that, she never looked back.

“I liked it so much that I decided to pursue my career in Nutrition & Clinical Dietetics. Having the aptitude for medicine, I found Nutrition very easy & excelled at it,” she recollects.

As is the case for any medical aspirant in Mumbai, she also hoped to work at the Lilavati Hospital. At the age of 23, she had not only cracked her dream job but also performed exceedingly well – enough to be appointed as a chief dietician - the youngest in India. She also worked in senior positions at various institutes gaining rich experience in weight loss & clinical dietetics.

“In India, it is mostly women who opt for being nutritionists & dietitians, so, the field is rife with opportunity for you, & you can grow exponentially like me as well if you if you are smart & ambitious,” says Khyati.

However, while her career thrived, she was diagnosed with PCOS & the hormonal imbalances led her to gain substantial weight. The tables thus turned, & she found herself in the shoes of the many clients she had counselled. “While battling my cravings, I understood the practical issues a person goes through during weight loss. I was told to lose weight to be able to conceive naturally too,” she recalls.

Compelled to create a scientifically-sound diet that would also allow her some leeway, she crafted her own cheats, incorporated rules to be able to eat meals at restaurants even, & arrived at a safe proportion of alcohol intake. Following that diet religiously, she successfully lost weight & delivered a healthy baby girl.

Fork in the road

As a working professional who was at home for the very first time due to her maternity break, she started getting restless & would spend time on Google & Facebook to read & stay connected to her subject of interest. It was then that she stumbled upon communities of mothers who had weight issues post-pregnancy. She started using Facebook & other social media, joined groups, & spoke to struggling mothers to keep up the momentum & swap notes. All the women who took her advice wrote back to her with positive reviews.

One Indian woman who was based in Singapore, in fact, asked Khyati if she could help her professionally because she was unable to find an Indian nutritionist in her city. “I made a basic assessment on a document & sent her a diet plan, what she could eat when out & even sent her a weight tracker online. I started getting many similar requests thereafter & therefore decided to make a website,” she says.

In six months, she had more than 150 clients for that diet programme – & that was all the validation she needed to turn it into a full-blown entrepreneurial venture. She made the Balance Nutrition Facebook page in December 2013 & the immense traction on it eventually led to the birth of balancenutrition.in & in August 2014.

While chalking out her offerings, she observed that a lot of the women she consulted with were either geographically separated or had time constraints due to their professional commitments. Moreover, it was highly unfeasible for executives to follow a textbook diet-chart, & needed a slightly more practical diet plan. Thus, she crafted balancenutrition.in with certain key differences in its model.

For starters, she began emailing the nutritional assessment sheet & diet plans to her clients, rather than calling them in for sessions. "Unlike other clinics, you didn't have to travel, wait in long queues or take prior appointments, our nutritionists are always available to answer all your queries over email & calls," she explains.

Secondly, since no executive could realistically avoid meals outside, she researched the various dishes that were relatively safe to consume at restaurants, spanning roughly 36 cuisines - from chaat to fine dining. These food guides could also be adapted to suit the needs of frequent travellers.

A business like a community

By January 2015, she decided to build a team & took up office space in Mumbai for her team of five, which, today, is 55-strong with departments like diet, care, tech, HR & admin, & social media marketing. Its client base, in turn, spans 10000 members across 65 cities all around the world.

In November 2016, she also opened her first retail franchise in Rajkot called Balance Nutrition EX2.

“Luckily, our field is gender specific in India & we, therefore, have only women nutritionists. The only challenges were to bust the myths that people have around the word diet & to build a competent team. We overcame the latter by offering a training programme to all our recruits,” she states.

Bootstrapped since inception, it has also been profitable since day one because Khyati already had 150 followers when she decided to turn the page into a business.

“We are looking at raising our first round in 2018 as we intend to invest heavily in developing our web & mobile-based platforms,” she states. She is rolling out two different products to cater to different needs, namely pregnancy & child nutrition programmes. Her corporate wellness Pision will encompass menu planning & cafeteria management consultancy services, & will even be partnering with gyms to provide consultation to their members.