Total Pageviews

Saturday, October 26, 2013

The glycemic index: key to weight loss or just another diet gimmick?


The original purpose for the glycemic index was to help diabetics keep their blood sugar under control. The glycemic index has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world and even become the central theme of many best-selling diet books as a way to select foods that are best for losing weight. according to the advocates of the glycemic index system, foods high in GI scale such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, or grape juice are "unfavorable" and should be avoided because high GI food is absorbed quickly, raise blood sugar rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat or cause health problems.

Instead, we are urged to consume carbohydrates that are low on the GI scale such as black eye peas , old fashioned oatmeal, peanuts, apples and beans because they do not raise blood sugar as quickly. while the soldiers have some useful applications, such as the use of high GI foods or drinks for post workout nutrition and the strong emphasis on low GI foods for those with blood sugar regulation problems, there are flaws in strictly using the glycemic index as your only criteria to choose carbs weight loss program . example, the glycemic index is based on eating carbohydrates by themselves in a fasted state.

If you are following the principles of effective fat-burning and muscle building nutrition, you should be eating small, frequent meals to increase your energy, maintain lean body mass and optimize for fat body loss. However, since the glycemic index of various foods was developed based on eating each meal in fasted state, the glycemic index loses some of its significance. added, when you're on a diet program aims to improve body composition (losing fat or gaining muscle), you will usually be combining carbs and protein with every meal for the purpose of improving your fat to muscle ratio.

When carbs are eaten in mixed meals that contain protein and some fat, the glycemic index loses more of its significance because the protein and fat slows the absorption of carbohydrates (in the fiber). mashed potatoes is closely glycemic index pure glucose, but combine the potatoes with chicken breast and broccoli and the glycemic index of the whole meal was less than the potatoes by itself. rice cakes have a high glycemic index, but if you were to put the

A couple of tablespoons peanut butter on them, the fat will slow the absorption of carbohydrates, thus lowering the glycemic index of the combination. a far more important and criteria for selecting carbs - as well as all of your other food, proteins and fats included - is whether they are natural or processed. say that a healthy person with no metabolic disorders should completely avoid natural, unprocessed foods like carrots or potatoes simply because they are high on the glycemic index is ridiculous.

I know many bodybuilders (myself included) who eat high glycemic index foods such as white potatoes every day right up until the day of the competition and they reach single digit body fat.

How do they do it if high GI foods "you fat?" It's simple? high GI foods does not necessarily make you fat? choosing natural foods and burning more calories than you consume is far more important factors. Although it is not correct to say that all calories are created equal, a calorie deficit is the most important of all factors when fat loss is your goal. glycemic index is clearly not a "gimmick" and not be completely disregarded, as it is definitely a legitimate nutritional tool.

Click here to read more.

No comments:

Post a Comment