The Glycemic Index: Key To Weight Loss Diet or just another gimmick?

The glycemic index (GI) is a scale of how quickly carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose measures. The original purpose of helping the glycemic index was, diabetics keep their blood sugar levels under control. The glycemic index has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world and even has the central theme in numerous best-selling diet books as a method to the foods that can best decide to lose weight.

According to proponents of the glycemic index system, foods that are high on the GI scale, such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, or grape juice are “unfavorable” and should be avoided because high GI foods are absorbed quickly to increase blood sugar rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat or cause health problems.

Instead we are asked to carbohydrates, which consume too little on the GI scale as black eye peas, old-fashioned oatmeal, peanuts, apples and beans because they do not raise blood sugar quickly.

While the GI has some useful applications, such as the use of high GI foods or drinks after the workout nutrition and the strong emphasis on low GI foods for those with blood sugar regulation problems, there are errors in closely Select the glycemic index as the only criteria for carbohydrates on a weight loss program.

For example, the glycemic index eating carbohydrates, based themselves in a sober state. If you are looking for effective principles of fat burning and muscle building nutrition, you should eat small, frequent meals to increase your energy and optimize lean body mass and metabolism for fat loss. Since, developed the glycemic index of various foods based on eating each food in the fasting state, the glycemic index loses some of its importance.

In addition, if addressed on a diet program to improve body composition (lose fat, or muscle), you will usually combines carbohydrates and protein together with each meal for the purpose of improving your muscle-fat ratio . When carbohydrates are in mixed meals, protein and some fat, the glycemic index loses even more important because the protein and fat slows the opening of carbohydrates (dietary fiber included, as well as eaten).

mashed potatoes have a glycemic index near that of pure glucose, but combine the potatoes with a chicken breast and broccoli and the glycemic index of the entire meal is lower than the potatoes by itself.

rice cakes have a very high glycemic index, but if you have a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter on them to exercise, so the fat would slow the absorption of carbohydrates, resulting in the glycemic index of the combination.

contain far more important and relevant criteria for selecting carbs – like all other foods, proteins and fats – is whether they are natural or processed. To say that a healthy person with no metabolic disorders should completely avoid natural, unprocessed foods like carrots or potatoes, because they are high on the glycemic index is ridiculous.

I know many bodybuilders (myself included) who eat high glycemic index and foods such as white potatoes every day to the days of a competition and they reach single digit body fat percentage. How they do it if high GI foods “make you fat?” It’s simple – high GI not necessarily make you fat – Selection of natural foods and burning more calories than you consume are far more important factors. Although it is not correct to say that all calories are created equal, a calorie deficit is the most important factor when all the fat loss is your goal.

The glycemic index is clearly not a “gimmick” and should not be completely disregarded, since it is a definitely a legitimate nutritional tool. Is it a good idea to eat low GI foods in general? Sure. Is eating high GI after training a good idea? Absolutely. But diet programs which hang their hats on glycemic index alone as a “cure” are just another example of how one single aspect of nutrition can be used as a “hook” in marketing will be used and said all “of fat on the ‘end loss if it really is just a small piece of the puzzle.
Eating low glycemic index food

alone does not guarantee you will lose fat. You have to take in the bigger picture, which includes calories / energy balance, meal timing and frequency, macronutrient composition, choice of processed versus refined foods and how all these factors to interact with your training diet.