If you want to lose weight, then looking at your diet is the first place to start, more specifically your carbohydrate intake. Your carbohydrate intake can make or break the results of your weight loss. Carbohydrates can be divided into 2 basic types: simple and complex. You have probably heard these terms before, but many people do not know what they mean.
Carbohydrates are a good source of fuel for your body; we need them to exercise. Lack of fuel in our body can lead to low energy, illness, and low mood. On the other hand, excess fuel can lead to increased body fat and poor health.
Carbohydrates fall on the GI scale, a scale of 1 to 100, which is a measure of how quickly the body digests carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates have a low GI index, simple carbohydrates have a high GI index.
Examples of low GI carbohydrates:
– Oatmeal
– apples
– Integral rice
Examples of high GI carbohydrates
– White bread
– Cookies, Cake
– White rice
The lower the GI of your foods, the less your blood sugar will be affected, and the higher the GI, the more your blood sugar will be affected.
If you eat some low GI food, your body will feed slowly and over time. If you eat foods with a high GI, your body has to deal with A LOT of fuel at once and if your fuel system (metabolism) is unable to do so, it will become overloaded very easily. Therefore, the excess fuel will be stored as fat for use at a later date. The problem is, we never need this extra supply as food is readily available!
Getting the right amount of fuel is essential to keep your metabolism at its highest and a high metabolism = more calories burned at rest!
I encourage you to do a little research on the GI of the foods you eat regularly and aim to lower the GI of your carbohydrates and ultimately reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat, especially if you are overweight!
Any ideas:
– Try to replace white products (white bread, cereals, white rice, etc.) with whole grain products.
– Reduce the total amount of carbohydrates you are eating, replacing them with protein or fat.
– Cut back on the amount of carbs you eat after 5pm – unless you’re training hard at night, you probably won’t be using the fuel!