So what is a low GI Diet anyway?

It’s a diet rich in low GI foods, has a moderate level of medium GI foods and one that avoids high GI foods like the plague.

GI, or Glycemic Index, is the rate of carbohydrate energy release into your bloodstream.

Glucose is your body’s premium fuel and almost all of it is sourced from dietary carbohydrate. However, although all carbs supply glucose, the rate they are digested and then release that glucose into the bloodstream, where it is absorbed, varies a lot.

In short, the higher the GI level, the faster the glucose is released and burned. Not good. For me it explains the old ‘sugar rush’ sensation and that feeling of hunger and craving I get not longer after eating something with a high GI like most breakfast cereals or a chocolate bar.

On the other hand, foods with a low GI level like hazelnuts, pasta, oats, beans, milk and low fat yoghurt, slowly release releasing their carbohydrates. That means they produce only a gentle rise in blood sugar (and a small insulin response), making it easier for your body to maintain it’s optimal blood glucose levels.

OK. Why is a Low GI Diet good for weight loss?

In my humble opinion a low GI diet is the most effective weight loss strategy. That’s because low GI foods are plentiful, good for you and, most of all, keep your hunger satisfied for longer.

A major benefit of a low GI diet slow releasing carbs is, for a given calorie/kilojoule consumed, blood glucose levels are sustained in the ideal range for longer than quick release carbohydrates, high GI are eaten. This delays the pangs of hunger (useful when weight control is your goal).

Where do I start on my low GI diet?

Think fresh food. Think unprocessed food. Think flavour. Think under 55 (any food with a GI level below 55 is consider low GI).

Don’t think snack. Don’t think sugar.

Go for:

Sweet corn 55
Sweet potato 54
Kiwi fruit 53
Carrots 51
Oat bran 50
Mixed grain 49
Peas 48
Grapes 48
Baked beans (tinned) 46
Porridge 46
Pineapple juice 46
Orange 44
Apple juice (clear) 44
Spaghetti (white) 43
Peach 42
Pinto beans 40
Spaghetti (wholemeal) 39
Apple 37
Pear 36
Chickpeas 33
Hazelnuts 33
Yoghurt (low-fat, sweetened) 33
Strawberry 32
Milk (skimmed) 32
Plums 32
Apricot (dried) 30
Banana (unripe) 30
Peanut butter 29
Kidney beans 28
Milk (full fat) 27
Cashews 22
Cherries 22
Peanuts 22
Soya beans 20
Yoghurt (low-fat, unsweetened) 14

And enjoy!

About the author

Justin Smidmore is the owner of The Metabolic Food Company, makers of SuperStart breakfast blend. He likes to give people commonsense information regarding weight loss, weight management and healthy eating. He is quick to add he is not a dietician (he’s not even sure how to spell it) or nutritionist.

Most weight loss plans simply ask too much -  they ask us to tip our lives completely over. We are often asked to make all our meals around highly processed foods that we didn’t select, cook, or even choose. Someone else make all of these decisions for us. No wonder most diets are not maintained, goals aren’t met and weight put straight back on.

So now what?

The better idea is to look at what you enjoy and work around that, at least to a degree. Eat more of the healthy stuff and less of the unhealthy, weight-increasing stuff.

• Alcohol – no doubt giving up drinking will help shed loads of weight. But some responsible adults enjoy a beer or glass of wine. You gotta enjoy life! So if you normally have a glass of wine a night, make it a glass every second night.
• Breakfast – bulk them up with fresh (or quality canned) fruit. Try low GI cereals which make you feel fuller for longer.
• Coffee and tea - have one less cup a day. Instead of sugar use a natural sweetener like Stevia.
• Snack on almonds and seed mix – sure it’s high in fat but it’s good fat, filling and natural.
• Dessert – instead of ice cream go for low fat yoghurt. Add some of that low GI cereal for texture and added satisfaction.
• Dinner – stir fry your favourite vegetables with lean chicken or beef. Use a herb and spice blend (with no sugar) for flavour boost.
• Carbs – reduce the amount, especially in your breakfast and dinner. Try your stirfry without rice or noodles -you’ll be surprised how easy it is.

These are just a few ideas. Remember the key is to maintain your diet until you reach your goal weight. To do this the diet has to fit into your life, not you into it.

Enjoy!

Eat Less, Eat Better, Move More
Or put another way, if you eat less food and calories, eat better, more nutritious and less processed and sugary food and move your body more you will lose or control your weight.

The general idea
Most diets fail because people can’t/won’t maintain them for long enough. They are either too hard, complicated, faddish, unrealistic, impractical, boring, hyped, over-promising, questionable, costly, time-consuming and ineffective.
Most overweight people, however, do have a good idea of what makes an effective diet. There’s plenty of information in all forms of media.
The Eating Diet program addresses both these insights by offering a method to lose and manage weight that’s realistic, practical, effective and impossible to argue.

Eat less
The Problem: overweight people eat too much for the amount of exercise they do or their basic daily requirements; food is often enhanced with flavours, esp sugar and salt, which only encourages people to eat more than they need.
The Solution: Products and ideas to feel full longer, Low GI, give more flavour to healthy, filling dishes, reduce calorific intake, minimize hi-GI carbs,

Eat Better
The Problem: overweight people more often than not eat food lacking in nutrition…empty calories, junk food, processed food, sugar-stuffed, overly salted, lacking in vitamins, minerals, greasy fast food, fried, fatty.
Often people find nutritious, fresh foods boring, unappealing and unsatisfying. Not morish like fast food.
The Solution: Products and ideas to help people enjoy more nutritious foods more often. But not by just adding sugar or salt or fat to these healthy foods.

Move More
The Problem: if we don’t burn more calories than we consume then we put on weight. Simple as that. Overweight people don’t exercise or just move enough.
The Solution: a simple, easy and doable exercise program, starting with walking.

Walk, walk, walk.

Start off just walking at least 15 minutes a day. That doesn’t include the walking you may do throughout your day. It’s new walking.

Build it up week by week, or quicker if you want to accelerate your weightloss.

Stay tuned for more on less.

About the author. Justin Smidmore is part-owner of The Metabolic Food Company of Booker Bay, New South Wales, Australia, though he’s quick to point out he lives in Bondi.

Justin Smidmore - SuperStart owner and non-nutritionist

Metabolic are makers of SuperStart – super Low GI breakfast blend. SuperStart helps people in Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. to lose and manage their weight by filling them up for longer. So they have less hunger and snack less.Check it out at: metabolicfood.com.au

EatSlim makes diet food taste wicked.

Metabolic also makes the EatSlim range of gourmet herb and spice blends. They make boring diet food taste wicked. Check it out at: www.eatslim.net.au

1. Rate of food digestion relative to glucose
1. Compared to glucose or white bread as the control
2. High glycemic food adverse effects
1. Hyperglycemia may persist for 2 hours after meal
1. Stimulates higher Insulin release
2. Hypoglycemia results within 2 to 4 hours after meal
1. Stimulates appetite
2. Raises free fatty acid levels
3. Glycemic load (GL)
1. Corrects glycemic index for serving size
2. Examples
1. Scone GI is high at 92, but GL is low at 8
2. Arborio rice GI is only 69, but GL is high at 36

Indications: Focus on lower glycemic index foods
1. Obesity Management
2. Diabetes Mellitus Management
3. Coronary Artery Disease Management

1. A ranking of the relationship between various foods and glucose blood serum levels. The carbohydrate composition of the food directly effects the concentration of glucose in the blood.

2. A numerical system of measuring the rate of BLOOD GLUCOSE generation by a particular food item as compared to a reference item, such as glucose = 100. Foods with higher glycemic index numbers create greater blood sugar swings. These numbers do not correspond to calories or amounts of food intake but rather, depend on the rates of digestion and absorption of these food items.

(source: http://www.fpnotebook.com/Pharm/Nutrition/GlycmcIndx.htm)

T’dah!

Yeah, right. Eat less food and I’ll lose weight. Easier said than done. Too good to be true. Too simple to be effective.

Eating Less can be done.

Here’s just a start of the filling, appetite suppressing, hunger pang thwarting ideas from reputable sources. There’ll be lots more to follow.

…. In fact, carbohydrates are natural appetite suppressants, because gram for gram, those carbohydrate foods with a low glycemic index are the most filling and prevent hunger pangs for longer periods of time.
Glucose Revolution by Thomas Wolever MD PhD, page 1

Remember, too, that fiber, for the most part, does not contribute calories. Also, that it helps you feel full and encourages appetite control because it absorbs fluid, expanding and creating the satisfied feeling the dieter craves.
Complete Guide Health Nutrition by Gary Null, page 141

Enjoy eating less,

Justin

Most people find that creating diet meal plans that are effective work best if made on pay day. Making meal plans on a weekly basis when a person gets paid every two weeks will usually result in week two requiring extra emergency shopping trips and more fast food.

When creating diet plans it is important that the person create an individual meal plan that meets their needs. For many people who eat several times a day, a standard 3 meal, 2 snack meal plan will not be effective. To benefit from a meal plan, it must be a doable plan that will keep a person from getting hungry. This means that it must include proper foods for all of the times that a person eats during the day.

Diet meal plans give an individual more control over how many calories are in the foods they eat on a daily basis. In addition, a person has control over the types of foods they are eating. The key to a healthier lifestyle is to eat healthier foods.

When each food group is covered on a daily basis in diet meal plans a person can easily lose or maintain weight. They will feel better, save time shopping and have a lower intake of fast and fried foods.

Including important fruits and vegetables in diet meal plans takes the guess work out of eating healthy. A person can plan each meal and snack to insure that it is providing the types of vitamins and minerals that are important for health. In addition, diet plans make it very easy to plan calorie intake without reducing food intake. An individual can decide on the healthy alternatives for snacks to replace foods that have more calories.

There are many diet meal plans available through different sources. When deciding on the meal plan that will be right for an individual it is important to think about eating habits and how a meal plan can be used to adjust the foods that are eating during the times when a person would normally be eating junk food. By incorporating healthy alternatives into the meal plan and having them on hand, one will find that staying on a diet is much easier.

Learn more about Diet Meal Plans. Stop by Clyde Chu’s site where you can find out all about Diet Meal Plans and what it can do for you.

categories: healthy meals, healthy food, diet meals, diet plans, weight loss, weight management, diet food, nutrition, lifestyle, women, health

A good way to start is by packing a lunch and skipping the fast food. Fast food is full of empty calories and costs a fortune over time. You could just have a sandwich but that isn’t very filling or nutritious. I prefer to take a full meal with me for lunch. If fast food is a must on some days then choose something from the light menu or a salad.

If your work place doesn’t have a refrigerator then you can get and insulated cooler. Then all you have to do is heat it up when you are ready to eat. I usually cook enough for several days at once and then just fix my plate before work and go. Another option would be to order healthy meal plans that suit your budget and dietary requirements.

When you put the meat on your plate then add some vegetables as well. These give you a lot more nutrition and energy. They also help you fill fuller. They have vegetables that come frozen if you don’t want the canned variety. Either way you can usually just put them on you plate and heat them up with the rest of your meal.

Baking and broiling meat is so much better for you than fried. If you don’t like the taste of baked meat or if you just want to jazz it up some then try coating it in bread crumbs or baking it in your favorite salad dressing. They have bread crumbs in different flavors and it helps lock in the juices to prevent meat from being dry.

Take out can be very tempting after a long hard day; however it isn’t very healthy for you and cost a lot as well. They have family size and single size meals in the frozen food section that you can buy. They may not be as healthy as home cooked but they are still better than take out. And they can be ready in a matter of minutes; probably less time than you would spend getting the take out. They also have meals for slow cookers that you can just put in a slow cooker and leave. What ever you choose remember to add vegetables at home as well.

Whether you are looking to save time or money, or just eat better, these tips for healthy eating are just what you need.

Want to find out more about Healthy Meal Plans , then visit Clyde Chu’s site on where to choose the best Diet Meal Plans for your dietary needs.

categories: healthy meals, healthy food, diet meals, diet plans, weight loss, weight management, diet food, nutrition, lifestyle, women, health

If you are searching for the greatest weight loss exercise program and you have yet to discover something that really works, look at the kinds of programs that you have been using. Because your body is different and will react to exercise differently, you might need to concentrate on one type of exercise plan over another. Resistance training is time and again a highly successful system to help burn off those additional calories and develop the core muscles you’re looking for.

A weight loss exercise plan that offers you a good variety of options for working your trouble areas will help you tone up and thin down sooner. You wish to be able to work your abs and work your arms and legs just as much as you want to encourage your overall heart rate and hourly caloric burn.

You will want to skip your workout less often and you will notice results much earlier because you are dedicated to the process. You only require about one session every other day in order to develop the slimming that you crave.

Nearly all people go for the aerobic work out because it seems like it is more fun. You can just pop in a DVD or download some streaming video so that you can get in a good workout. With some bubbly personalities running the show, a cardio based DVD can appear like a good plan.

In some cases it can be enough. Though, when you are able to develop additional muscle thanks to resistance plans you are able to increase the number of calories that you burn on a daily basis.

Working out 4 days a week with an efficient weight loss exercise plan is all it takes to get your body in gear. You don’t have to devour exercise into every waking moment so that you can lose the weight that you fancy. In the event that you develop a consistent schedule you are more likely to lose weight regularly and attain your goals.

If you have been focusing on cardio for your losing weight exercise and you haven’t lost further weight even with your commitment to your own fun way of getting in a work out, you might need to add more resistance training to your daily routine. You normally only need to work out about four times per week so that you can develop a strong response within your body.

Well, for some they probably canbut it will only be temporary. Losing weight in a slow, steady manner is the healthiest way you can do it, and it’s also the only way to keep it off for good.

It requires not just a diet plan, those don’t work. It requires a change of lifestyle. You know why so many people can’t lose weight, or have such a hard time trying? Because they don’t want to accept the truth that there is no quick, fast, easy way to do it.

You must change your habits that made you gain all those extra weight. And you must move your body more. I know that the word ‘exercise’ makes you cringe, but it does not have to be that way. Exercise can be something that you don’t dread and it doesn’t have to consume much of your time. You just need to move. Once you get used to it, it may even become something that you actually look forward to and miss when you can’t fit it in your schedule.

Healthy weight loss takes time and typically you’ll see only a pound or two per week. Can you accelerate this with exercise? You bet. The combination of a healthy, sensible diet, balanced with all the food groups and exercise 3-5 times a week for 30 minutes will show you hard proof that you don’t need the latest fad diet making the rounds to get to your ideal weight.

You don’t even have to turn your world upside down all at once. Start making small changes that cumulatively will make a huge difference. If you’re hooked on soda, try to change to water. If you repeatedly skip breakfast, make it a point to eat breakfast at least 3 times a week. This one really works, you’ll find you feel so much better on the days you eat breakfast, you’ll soon be doing it by choice.

Phase out some of the fast food you eat, and some of the overly processed food that offers little if any nutrients for your body to use. Choose whole grain bread instead of white bread. Little changes. One at a time. As you discover what healthy actually feels like, you’ll naturally be drawn to want more of it.

Losing weight the healthy way doesn’t mean cutting foods out completely, even ‘bad-for-you’ foods. It’s unreasonable to think you’ll never again eat another piece of birthday cake or Thanksgiving stuffing or Christmas candy. If you’re watching what you eat, even 80% of the time, the other 20% you can relax a bit.

Overweight people are also missing something else from their lives, and that is oxygen. The body can burn fat much more quickly when enough oxygen is present. I have created a program which will provide your body with the oxygen it needs.

Your weight loss efforts will be enhanced by using the ‘Weight Loss Breeze’ program. With just a few minutes a day of simple exercises, the program will have an astonishing effect on your weight loss efforts. Combine it with sound nutrition and even without exercise, you will see your weight go down.

Are you looking for a method to lose weight easily, effectively and permanently, you should definitely check out Christian Goodman’s weight loss guide which has been called the best weight loss guide available online. This is just one of many natural health alternatives Christian offers.

Today programs which promise quick weight loss are everywhere. It is hard for anyone who watches TV, or reads newspapers and magazines to miss these weight loss advertisements. These fad diets are very convincing, and are hard to resist for many people in our health-conscious society. Unfortunately, individuals who have quite a bit of weight to lose are frequently the true target audience for these programs. If fat diets worked, this would be fantastic. Sadly, most do not work. Overweight individuals spend a fortune on fad diets, only to be left in the same condition, or worse than before the “diet”. Many of these people are left feeling like they failed, rather than realizing that the fad diet program failed.

It is important to understand that the “diet industry” exists as a money making enterprise. It is not a charitable organization, and they do not operate out of the goodness of their hearts. Notice, most will not tell you “here is what you need to achieve healthy, permanent weight loss. Here is everything that you need, no charge”. Why is this? Because they are in the business of making money, not the business of making people successful, and healthy.

Now, the truth of the matter is that lasting weight loss requires very little financial obligation. Most of what is needed in order to become strong, slim, and fit is available to everyone. The ability to change, the desire to succeed, and the determination to stick with a healthy plan is what is most needed. Most overweight individuals have been taught that this is what they lack, and therefore why they have “failed”. The truth is that if these individuals did not posses these important qualities, the “diet industry” would not be generating the amount of wealth that they have. There is no magic cure, and no easy solution. Fad diets are a sham. Overweight individuals have made this industry quite wealthy. This has shown their determination and desire to change.

It is very important to forget just about everything that has been learned about weight loss through the “diet industry”. It is time to except the truth, which has existed all along. Just about all individuals possess the ability to achieve healthy weight loss, with very little, and usually no assistance. Stop blaming yourself, and lay the blame where it belongs. Now it is time to move forward to success.

Here is the truth of successful weight loss, and here is what you will need. Get a comfortable pair of sneakers. They do not have to be special or expensive, just comfortable, and well fitted. You will also need loose fitting, comfortable clothing. A sweat suit, or shorts and a tee-shirt are fine. You will also need a water bottle with a cover. Follow a healthy meal plan, which includes mostly fresh vegetables and fruit, and eliminates most sugar.

Make it a goal to exercise everyday. Even if you are just starting out, a small amount of exercise is better than none. As your stamina increases, so should the amount that you exercise. Make it a goal to increase each week, even if just by a few minutes.

Eat foods that are good for you, and taste good. Find ways to have fun with exercise. Drink plenty of water, and be good to yourself. You will eventually find that you are achieving your weight loss goals.