The Easiest Diet for Successful Weight Loss
Mar 04, 2010
The Easiest Diet for Successful Weight Loss
Now that the New Year is here, are you finding yourself
looking for a new diet to start? Recent research found
that one of the most consistent predictors of weight gain
was people who had been on a diet! That's right, 95% of
people who go on a diet weighed more 12 months later than
they did before they started the diet!
The best way to lose weight is to change the way you eat on
a regular basis, not simply try and restrict yourself for a
few weeks. However, there is one diet that many doctors
and nutritionists recommend, because it aims to do exactly
that - change the way you eat on a permanent basis.
The GI diet:
The GI diet aims to teach you which foods you should focus
on long-term - and which you should avoid! The GI diet
wasn't developed by a celebrity, or someone trying to make
a fast buck (though plenty have cashed in since).
The GI diet is based on the glycemic index (GI) of foods -
a ranking of carbohydrates based on their immediate effect
on blood sugar levels. In other words, it helps you to
identify (and avoid) the foods that lead to the insulin
response.
Thus carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion
have a high GI score, while those that break down slowly
have a lower GI score. Foods are ranked as:
- Low GI (55 or less)
- Medium GI (56 - 69)
- High GI (70+)
The aim of the GI diet is to eat foods that are low on the
GI scale. Low GI foods, which release glucose gradually
into the blood stream, have the following benefits:
- They produce a smaller rise in blood sugar levels
- They can help you lose weight
- They re-fuel the body's glycogen stores better
- They are a better source of energy for prolonged physical
efforts
All of this makes the GI diet both an effective way to lose
weight, and a healthy way to eat. Eating low GI is easy if
you follow these simple rules:
- Try to choose most of your carbs from the low GI list
- Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables (except potatoes)
- Choose whole grains as much as possible; in general whole
grains have a low GI, because their high fiber content
slows digestion
- It's the GI score for the whole meal that counts, so
adding quality protein or fat will lower the GI level of a
meal
- Don't use this plan as a license to fill up on low-GI
foods that are high in calories, such as Snickers!
Some other considerations:
- Eat regularly
- Drink plenty of water
- Avoid highly processed foods - if there are more than two
ingredients you can't pronounce or don't know what they
are, avoid it.
Focus on:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Lean protein
- Whole grain carbs
There are literally hundreds of GI books on the market now,
plus innumerable web sites dedicating themselves to weight
loss, so finding information and recipes is easy.
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Take Care Project Inc is a wellness company dedicated to a
mother's health. http://www.TakeCareProject.com is a
one-of-a-kind wellness community that features articles,
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