Glycemic Index and Its Effects on Weight Loss Programs
Glycemic index is helpful in identifying the right carbohydrates for inclusion in your weight loss diet.
Many believe that having a high-protein, low-carb and low-fat diet is the easy and fast way to lose weight. However, this is an incorrect impression. You need daily carbs intake to supply the nutritional and energy requirements of your body.
Among the carbs available, some are good and others bad for weight loss purposes. To identify the good from the bad, glycemic index is helpful.
What is Glycemic Index or GI?
Glycemic index or GI of a food item is the quantitative value of the effect caused by carbohydrates present in it on your blood sugar levels. To say it in simple language, it indicates the effort required by your body to convert the carbohydrates into glucose or blood sugar.
Glycemic index is assessed on a scale of 1 to 100. Pure glucose is used as the point of reference, with a GI score of 100. Foods with high GI increase the blood glucose level rapidly, while those with low GI do this gradually.
Why is GI important?
It is ideal for our body when the blood glucose level remains stable. However, this is not possible, as whenever food is consumed and the glucose enters the blood stream, the blood sugar level goes up. Similarly, when we are not eating, the blood sugar level depletes, as it is being used up continuously for performing various bodily activities.
When our blood sugar level goes up or down, the body has mechanisms to bring it back to normal level. Too much fluctuation in glucose levels is not good for the body. By having a better understanding of the GI of the food consumed, these fluctuations can be kept minimal.
Foods with low GI are considered good for health and weight loss. Low GI foods raise the blood sugar levels gradually, which is helpful to keep hunger away longer. Some foods with very low GI have no effect on blood sugar.
Which foods have low and high GIs?
Even among foods with high carb content, its composition is a deciding factor. While some carb-high foods like white bread, potato and pasta have high GI, rye bread and whole grain have low GIs. Fruits and vegetables are also low in GI.
How does GI affect your weight loss plan?
By identifying the foods that keep us hunger-free longer, GI is immensely helpful in planning weight loss diets. Ideally, GI less than 55 is considered the right choice.
A thorough understanding of the glycemic index is helpful to recover fast from workout fatigue. When you consume food with high GI after an intense workout, the blood sugar level becomes normal faster. While low GI foods are useful for maintaining blood glucose for longer bouts of exercises.
Glycemic Index helps in categorizing foods as good and bad. This will ultimately help you gain maximum advantage from your weight loss program.
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