Lose Weight With The Glycemic Index
There is a tool that can help you lose weight or maintain that trim figure as you get older: the Glycemic Index. This is basically a listing of numbers that reveals how quickly certain foods produce a spike in your blood sugar levels. The faster the spike the worse the food is for your waistline. This may seem confusing, but it is actually a very simple way to lose weight if you understand how to use it.
The fad of cutting carbohydrates completely out of the diet has now been replaced with clear thinking about how to control carb intake instead. Since your body needs high quality carbs to function properly, this is a much more sensible approach.
The Glycemic Index is the only tool that will help you quickly determine how a food is going to affect your blood sugar. This is not only important for those with diabetes, but it is crucial for anyone looking to lose weight. Thousands of other people have already used this one tool to take off considerable amounts of weight.
Plus, if you start choosing better foods and stick with it for the rest of your life, this will be the last time you ever have to lose weight!
For starters, it is important to understand how the Glycemic Index is designed. It only covers carbohydrates, so protein sources will not be listed. The carbohydrate category actually includes a wide variety of foods from vegetables, fruits, and whole grain pasta, bread, and rice to refined white bread, pasta, bread, and all types of sugary sweets that are made from any variety of flour.
It is quite mind blowing for most people to realize how much of what they eat on a daily basis is a carbohydrate. Since this one category of food makes up the bulk of most people's diet, it is obvious why cutting it out completely is so difficult to stick with long term.
All carbs have sugar, both naturally or added in during processing for the market. The issue is what else is present with that sugar and how your body will break it down into energy.
Whole grain sources of carbs and vegetables, fruits, and beans are broken down slowly in your system. The fiber must be separated from the natural sugars, which are then slowly released into your blood stream. The result is a slow, steady supply of energy that helps your body function properly.
Refined white bread, pasta, rice, and sweets with lots of added sugar are quite different. Since the natural fiber has already been stripped out for you, the sugar simply rushes directly into your blood stream at once. You will get a sudden rush of energy but it quickly leads to a drop in blood sugar. What comes next? You start craving more food, especially refined carbs which will give another big spike of energy.
Obviously, craving more food is not good for weight loss or a trim figure. It also is not good for your energy levels when your sugar drops so drastically.
The fastest and most accurate way to judge which foods are going to have this undesirable effect is by looking at the Glycemic Index and learning which foods have a higher rating. The higher the GI the worse it is for your body. Therefore, make the bulk of your food choices from low GI foods and you will find yourself feeling and looking better in very short time.