Anyone follow a low GI diet?

I

itsMeFred

New member
I had a lot of luck with the Zone diet. (Got *so* tired of tracking blocks!) I lost, and have kept off, about 30 pounds. However something that stuck with me so far as that approach was the dire need for protein to balance out each meal. (And lots of fresh fruits and veggies)

So I've been looking at a low GI diet but don't know if this is just another fad diet or not.

Thoughts?
 
I don't believe it's a fad diet, but like anything else, it doesn't work as an eat-all-you-like-and-get-thin diet. The idea of the low GI diet is that low GI foods release their energy slowly over a longer period than high GI foods, and help to keep your energy levels stable. In turn, this helps you stick to a healthy diet because you don't get "slumps" when you crave something sugary to give you an energy boost. Do a search in Google. There are a lot of reviews of the GI diet, and most of them are quite positive.

BUT, at the end of the day, the only thing that will work is calculating your energy in vs. energy out. You need to be expending more energy than you take in to lose weight. Eating low GI foods might just help you to stick to that.
 
:eek: Hi I too want to start this low GI diet. I got a book from the library and it teaches all the good things that can come from eating the low GI way. Its very healthy. The book is called The New Glucose Revolution life plan.It explains also a section on omega 3 fatty acids .
 
Hi Erin (or is it Fred? :)),

I was just writing about the low GI diet on another forum and came across your post here while I was reading up on the latest research.

I wouldn’t call it a fad diet as such, since it’s one of the few diet plans that does NOT suggest drastically lowering calories or eliminating certain food groups. However, it does have its limits which is why I wouldn’t personally recommend any diet that relies on the GI scale.

I’m a firm believer that for permanent and lasting weight (fat!) loss you want to focus on making lifestyle changes, and while a low GI diet plan is far more easier to implement than many fad diets you still have to check the GI rating of each food which can be inconvenient.

Not only that, but the GI table can’t be relied on by itself, it simply doesn’t make sense since chocolate bars and potato chips have a low GI but are anything but healthy, whereas other foods which are healthy such as potatoes, watermelon and carrots have high GI ratings.

Fortunately, the glycemic load diet addresses some of the disadvantages, but that too has its weaknesses. For example, being relatively new, it’s not always easy to the find the GL ratings of many foods, especially if you don’t follow a typical American or English diet.

What I told the other dieter was that what it comes down to at the end of the day is having a basic understanding of nutrition and using common sense – if a food is full of fat and/or sugar then clearly it’s not healthy for you, regardless of it’s GI rating, and vice versa.

I say go ahead and use GI/GL reference tables to help you choose your foods, but don’t rely on it exclusively. Rather focus on a balance of natural healthy foods with lean protein and healthy fats. This is what I teach in my book and what works for many people who want to lose the fat, and keep it off for good!

Hope that helps.

Best of luck,

Joseph Cole
 
Dieting with GI diet is healthy because unlike other diet plans , GI diet does not cause side effects like headache, weakness or deficiency states. It recommends healthy and intelligent eating with low GI food with low fat . Reports suggest that eating a low GI diet cuts down the risk of developing diabetes. GI diet has also been shown to increase good cholesterol, thereby decreasing the risk of heart diseases. GI diet is absolutely healthy for the body as well as mind.

You may read more detail about GI Diet here:

Hope this help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top