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.
In the recent past everyone was trying out diets that completely eliminated carbohydrates, but luckily that fad has been replaced with more sensible thinking. Your body needs carbs for energy, but not all carbs will do the job. It’s a matter of selecting your carbs wisely, not cutting them out completely.
So, how do you learn how to control your carbs? You get a clear understanding of what this index is and how to use it in your daily life. In fact, paying attention to just this listing and choosing lower indexed foods has led to dramatic weight loss in many people.
Even better to hear is that most of them kept those eating patterns and the weight stayed off long term.
First, let’s get a clear understanding of what the Glycemic Index is. It deals exclusively with carbohydrates, so you will not find meats or other exclusive protein sources on the list. Carbohydrates range from vegetables and fruits to all varieties of grains, cookies, cake, and other sweets that use 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 of these carbs are either cooked with lots of sugar or will have sugar in them naturally. The issue is how your body processes them.
Your body must work hard to break down whole grain bread, pasta, rice, vegetables, beans, and fruits. The high fiber content has to be separated from the sugar before it can be released into your blood stream. This creates a long term source of energy that keeps your blood sugar level stable.
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.
If you are trying to lose weight or keep a trim waistline the brutal cravings for more food are going to work against you.
If you want to take off the weight you have to keep your blood sugar stable and provide your body with the nutrients it needs from natural fiber sources. This means sticking mainly with lower Glycemic Index foods to avoid those big spikes and dips in energy.
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