Aathira Sethumadhavan - The Entrepreneurs of India Magazine

At 25, Aathira Sethumadhavan found herself back at home, unsure of what came next. A trained chef and ex-hotelier with a degree in Culinary Arts from Manipal University, she had started her career on a high note, topping her class. But life didn’t follow a straight path. Despite her academic achievements, she was rejected by two major hotel chains simply because of her weight. Eventually, she joined Taj Hotels as a Management Trainee and moved from the kitchen to customer-facing roles, managing restaurants and sales at Taj West End in Bengaluru.

Food was always her passion, but health? Not so much. A self-proclaimed lifelong foodie, she rarely thought about calories or nutrition until the pandemic triggered a downward spiral. In December 2020, she was diagnosed with hypertension, cholesterol, PCOD, IBS, and anxiety. Weighing 100 kg, she hit rock bottom. She took a sabbatical and committed to working out daily for months—but saw no real change. That’s when she turned to nutrition, not out of curiosity but desperation. Aathira began studying food in a different light. She treated nutrition the same way she once approached cooking — with focus, creativity, and curiosity. Combining this with regular workouts, she lost 26 kilos in 7 months and reversed all her conditions. But more than that, she discovered something powerful: she didn’t need to give up her love for food to get healthy. She just needed a better way of eating — one that was enjoyable, sustainable, and personal.

She started posting her meals and journey on Instagram for accountability. She had barely 1,000 followers then. While pursuing her Master’s in Food Business Management from the Culinary Institute of America and a nutrition certification from Stanford, she continued sharing — and people started noticing.

More and more messages started flooding in. Could she help them too? By July 2022, she was coaching 45 clients using just WhatsApp. No big plans, just one strong belief — people didn’t need rigid, restrictive diets. They needed support, empathy, and something that worked for them. That philosophy resonated. Today, her business has grown into a full-fledged platform with a team of six, a website, and nearly 4,000 clients coached. On Instagram, her follower count has crossed 550K — all of it rooted in her personal experience and honesty.

Getting here wasn’t easy. She faced the same mistake many early entrepreneurs do: assuming clients just “get” your offerings. She learned the hard way that transparency is everything. Every detail — what’s included in a plan, what isn’t, how feedback works — had to be clearly explained. And she realized quickly that no two clients are alike. The same plan doesn’t work for everyone. So she began offering hyper-customised diet plans built from scratch, aligned with each client’s preferences and lifestyle. Building a team was another challenge. She learned that qualifications alone weren’t enough. What really matters is emotional intelligence, shared values, and culture fit. “A great team is not just about great resumes; it’s about cohesion, communication, and mutual respect,” she says.