Naveen Tewari, Founder of InMobi and Glance, on Why Fitness Should Not Feel This Hard
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
I have worked with founders, cricketers, actors and CEOs for over two decades. The pattern I see at the top is almost always the same. These are people with enormous discipline. They do not lack willpower. What they lack is accurate information about their own body.
I recently sat down for a conversation with Naveen Tewari, the founder and CEO of InMobi and Glance, and this pattern came up in the first two minutes.
Twenty Years of Effort Without a Result
Naveen Tewari was not someone who needed to be convinced to exercise. He had been doing it for roughly twenty years. Workout regimes, sprint regimes, running regimes. Before that, he played sport.
The problem was not effort. The problem was outcome. In his own words during our conversation, he would train and still not see himself get fit. And when he did get fit, it came only after months of what he called almost inhuman levels of exercise.
That was the thing that bothered him. His logic was simple and, frankly, correct. Generations of human beings have lived healthy lives. It cannot be that the only route to health is starving yourself or destroying yourself in a gym. Something, he felt, was wrong with the model.
He was right. The model was wrong. It was generic.
The Shift From Guessing to Measuring
When we began, I did not talk about weight loss. I want to be very clear about this because it is the single biggest difference between what I do and what most diet advice does.
We started with data.
Genetic testing. A DNA test tells us how a specific body processes fat, carbohydrate, caffeine, lactose and gluten. It tells us about inflammation risk, detoxification pathways and nutrient absorption. Two people can eat the exact same meal and have completely different metabolic responses to it. Genetics explains a large part of why.
Blood work. A full biochemistry panel gives us the current state. Lipids, inflammatory markers, liver and kidney function, thyroid, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron studies and HbA1c.
Omega 3 index. This measures the omega 3 content of red blood cell membranes. It is one of the more useful predictive markers we have for long term cardiac and cognitive health, and most Indian diets score badly on it.
His reaction to seeing all of this together was the reaction I want every client to have. He looked at the dashboard and decided to go fix the dashboard.
That is the whole game. When health becomes a set of numbers you own, it stops being a moral struggle about discipline and becomes an engineering problem. Founders are extremely good at engineering problems.
The Gluten Finding
The DNA test showed genetic level gluten intolerance.
This matters more than people think. Gluten sensitivity at the genetic level is not just about bloating or gut discomfort. Sustained low grade inflammation from a food your body cannot process correctly contributes to arterial plaque formation over years. That is a cardiovascular risk, not a digestive inconvenience.
Once he understood the mechanism, the decision took about ten seconds. He has been completely gluten free for the last nine to ten months.
This is what I mean when I say the reason has to be good enough. Nobody sticks to a restriction because a nutritionist told them to. They stick to it when they understand exactly what it is doing to them and they have a test result with their own name on it.
The Change Was Lifestyle, Not Punishment
Here is the part that surprised him, and it is the part I want readers to take away.
He assumed fixing the numbers would require some crazy amount of effort. It did not. The changes were largely logistical and structural.
One was a new chef, because kitchen execution decides whether a plan survives contact with real life. If the person cooking your food does not understand the plan, the plan is already dead.
The other was walking. That is it.
Why I Told a CEO to Walk for One Hour
An hour of walking a day, or yoga on alternate days. No punishing intervals. No two hour gym blocks.
Walking is metabolically underrated. It improves insulin sensitivity, supports lymphatic drainage, lowers cortisol rather than raising it, aids digestion and is sustainable at any age. High intensity training has its place, but for an executive already carrying a heavy cognitive and stress load, more intensity is often the wrong prescription. Cortisol from a brutal workout stacks on top of cortisol from a board meeting.
What Naveen Tewari does with that hour is the interesting part.
He described two kinds of walks. One is the call walk, where he schedules business calls during the hour and gets the movement in without losing time. The other, and the one he prefers, is the walk where he does nothing at all except let his mind wander.
He does not go out with a problem in his head. He lets it flow. He was clear that this is the best thinking time he gets, and that it is not something he ever had while running hard, because running is not thinking time.
He is fairly confident that good business ideas have come out of those walks in the last nine months. I believe him. There is solid research on this. Moderate walking increases cerebral blood flow and reliably improves divergent thinking, which is the exact type of cognition that produces new ideas rather than solutions to defined problems.
Founders spend a fortune on strategy offsites. An hour of walking with no agenda may be a better return on investment.
What This Means For You
If you have been training for years and your body has not changed, stop adding effort. Start adding information.
The sequence I use is the same every time:
Test the genetics so you know what your body can and cannot handle.
Run full blood work and the omega 3 index so you know where you stand today.
Remove the specific foods your genetics flag, not the foods a generic internet diet flags.
Fix the kitchen, because execution beats intention.
Walk daily. Protect that hour as thinking time.
None of this requires you to be miserable. If your health plan requires misery, it is not a health plan. It is a punishment schedule, and punishment schedules do not survive a busy quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Naveen Tewari?
Naveen Tewari is the founder and CEO of InMobi and Glance, and one of India's most prominent technology entrepreneurs.
What diet does Naveen Tewari follow?
In our conversation he shared that he follows a completely gluten free diet, based on genetic testing that identified DNA level gluten intolerance, along with an hour of daily walking or yoga.
Who is Naveen Tewari's nutritionist?
The nutrition and testing protocol discussed in this conversation, covering DNA testing, blood work and the omega 3 index, is the protocol I use in my practice as a sports and celebrity nutritionist.
How does Ryan Fernando build a diet plan?
I begin with genetic testing, comprehensive blood work and an omega 3 index before recommending any food changes. The plan is then built around what that individual's biology can actually process.
Is walking enough exercise for a busy executive?
For most executives carrying high stress loads, an hour of daily walking combined with corrected nutrition delivers better metabolic outcomes than sporadic high intensity training, and it is far more sustainable.
Good information