Minus Ten

It took me a while to publish this post because somehow there is a bit of shame and the lingering question how it happen. I know how it happened; it has been medication mainly and the side effects of these horrible pills. I do not regret taking them, I had to anyway, but I wish I would've been a bit more careful with the side effects. I knew something was wrong but couldn't put my finger on it and here I am now...

It's the first day of my GI diet and I need to lose 10k in 10 weeks. No matter what others say: 'you look perfect', 'you're not fat at all', 'I can't see it', 'you're not obese', 'what do you need that for' etc. I'm going to do this. It's how *I* feel isn't it? And yes, I'm still in the health range but it doesn't feel good to me at all. I stopped excercising since I stopped carrying 30k heavy crates for an hour twice a week and walk all day long twice a week... When I gave up the job at the store it all went terribly wrong.

So, I'm on a guided GI diet [Glycaemic Index] which provides me with recipes and fitness plan, a gift from A.. I told him I had enough of it and wanted change, so he offered to pay for the online help. I will cook for two so it will affect him too but that is what he wants; he wants to lose some as well. So after a wonderful but very unhealthy weekend with S. and J. I am officially on a diet. I had made two types of lasagna on Friday. A salmon one and a minced meat/chorizo/olives one. Very high in carbs! But I knew I was going to change so it didn't really matter.

1200 calories a day instead of the normal 2000-2200. I never really liked calculations and today I started to calculate things, measure everything etc. I made a nice soup for lunch and had a slice of rye crisp bread with a tablespoon of lower fat hummus. I wish I could have one more... I can still have 4 little cherry tomatoes though. I am craving! but I won't give in, I really want to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling. Anyway, enough of this, I will give an update next week; if things go well, I will have lost a kilo...

Here's some info:
-------------------------------
What exactly is the Glycaemic Index?
In 1981, professor of nutrition Dr David Jenkins was looking at how different carbohydrate-rich foods affected blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and discovered that, contrary to popular belief, many starchy foods affected blood sugar levels quite dramatically, while some sugary foods had little effect. From his research, he developed a scale called the Glycaemic Index, which quite simply ranked foods based on the effect they had on blood sugar levels.

How it works
The Glycaemic Index runs from 0 to 100 and usually uses glucose - which has a GI value of 100 - as the reference. The effect other foods have on blood sugar levels are then compared with this. In simple terms, the GI index tells us whether a food raises blood sugar levels dramatically, moderately or a little bit. Foods that have only a slow, small effect on blood sugar have a low GI value, while those causing a rapid and massive rise in blood sugar have a high GI value.

So what's the link with weight loss?
The theory behind diets based on the Glycaemic Index is that foods with a low GI value slowly release sugar into the blood, providing you with a steady supply of energy, leaving you feeling satisfied longer so that you're less likely to snack. In contrast, foods with a high GI value cause a rapid - but short-lived - rise in blood sugar. This leaves you lacking in energy and feeling hungry within a short time, with the result that you end up reaching for a snack. If this pattern is frequently repeated, you're likely to gain weight as a result of constantly overeating.

How does it differ from the Atkins Diet?
Unlike the Atkins Diet, which bans most carbohydrates, especially in the early stages, GI diets actively encourage you to eat many carbohydrates and antioxidant-rich fruit and veg. The diet is also high in fibre which means you're less likely to get constipated and, because carbohydrate isn't restricted to any great degree, you won't get the other unpleasant side effects associated with the Atkins Diet, such as bad breath and headaches. GI diets also tend to follow healthy eating guidelines and are low in fat, especially saturates. And if that's not enough, GI diets are much easier to follow if you are a vegetarian!
-------------------------------

Low GI diet reduces fat and bad cholesterol
09:59 25 July 2006
NewScientist.com news service

A diet that scores low on the "glycaemic index" helps overweight people lose body fat while also reducing levels of "bad" cholesterol that contributes to the risk of heart attack and stroke, a study shows.

The glycemic index (GI) measures the impact of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Food with a high GI score, like a biscuit, causes sharper peaks in sugar levels than a low GI food, such as pasta. Earlier research has shown that low GI foods make people feel fuller for longer, and may promote the breakdown of fat. These foods also tend to contain more soluble fibre, which reduces total and low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol.

In a study of 189 overweight and obese adults, Joanna McMillan-Price at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues found that a diet high in either protein or carbohydrates, but with a low total GI score, brought about the biggest reduction of body fat. They also found that a high-carbohydrate and low GI diet caused the greatest drop in total and LDL cholesterol levels.

Risk factors
"This study provides evidence - and there hasn't been much before - that a low GI carbohydrate diet is as good as a high protein diet in terms of weight loss," says Peter Clifton, director of the CSIRO Nutrition Clinic in Adelaide, Australia. The Atkins diet, for instance, advocates high protein and very low levels of carbohydrate.

The research also helps to clear up confusion over whether changing the total GI rating of a diet can affect risk factors for cardiovascular disease, says Simin Liu, of the University of California in Los Angeles, US, in a related editorial.

McMillan-Price and colleagues studied men and women aged 18 to 40. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four reduced-calorie and reduced-fat diets for 12 weeks. The first diet was high in carbohydrate (55% of total energy) but scored low on the GI index. The second was high-carbohydrate and had a high GI rating. The third was high in protein (25% of total energy) with a high GI score, while the fourth was high-protein and low-GI.

Red meat
After three months, all the volunteers lost a statistically similar amount of weight: between 4.2% and 6.2% of body weight. But those on the low GI diets lost the most body fat. For example, those on the high-carb, low-GI diet lost about 80% more body fat than those on the high-carb, high-GI diet.

When it came to cholesterol levels, however, the effect of each diet varied. Those eating the high-protein, high-GI diet saw their LDL cholesterol level increase while those on the high-protein, low GI regimen, saw cholesterol levels go down slightly. "So it seems that you can eat a lot of red meat - but it's important that you combine it with low GI foods in order to have the best heart health," says McMillan-Price.

People on the high-carbohydrate, low-GI diet, saw total and LDL cholesterol levels decreased significantly, compared with levels at the start of the study. "I think that's because low GI foods have such intrinsically high levels of soluble fibre - and that has the effect of lowering cholesterol," McMillan-Price says.

Journal reference: Archives of Internal Medicine (vol. 166, p. 1466, p. 1438)