A diet that works and doesn't leave you hungry (GI Diet)

Member Name: low_rider

Product:	GI Diet
Date:	13/02/09 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great lifestyle, healthy food, you never get hungry!

Disadvantages: Fresh fruit and veg can be expensive, everyone has a different GI rate.

It has been said time and time before by dieticians far worthier of the title than I (not least because it is a legally protected title to which I am not entitled): fad diets don't work. The Carrot diet (where you can only eat carrots), the Grape & Milk diet (where you can only eat grapes and milk) and The Zone diet (where you can only eat parking zones, or so I am led to believe) do little for you.

What is needed when it comes to dieting is a common sense approach. You often hear people explaining that the reason why they are overweight is because they have tried dieting, and it just doesn't work for them.

This is a lie.

What people mean when they say this is, "I had a bit of a go but I didn't take it too seriously and I ended up cheating by buying that third tub of Chocapocalypse Ice Cream from Morrisons when it was on better than half price roll back".

Dieting is simply a matter of basic science: our body requires energy and nutrients in order to function. There are very few things that we do not need to eat at all; all the food groups that people consistently try cutting out of their eating habits are essential to some degree. Yes, even saturated fats.

However, what is important is the types of food that you are eating. It doesn't take a genius to work out that only eating fried food is bad for you. However, only eating raw fruit and veg isn't the best either, as you will be missing out on a lot of other essential nutrients.

So, basically, the key to losing weight is: eat healthily, don't eat too much of the stuff that is bad for you, and exercise.

That is literally it, folks.

And if you don't believe me, then you should look at the GI diet, formulated by a lovely American doctor based on the glycemic index (GI) of food. What this does is measure how quickly food is absorbed by the body - sugar, being pure carbohydrate energy, is given a rating of 100, and everything else is given a relative rating from 0-100. In the introduction to the book, he clearly and concisely lays out the science behind it in easy-to-understand language, and examines the benefits.

Then, common foods are given a rating of Green (eat as much as you want), Yellow (don't go mad) and Red (avoid!). Whilst this all sounds quite fancy, what it means in practice is that the food you should be eating is lean meat, vegetables, small amounts of carbohydrate rich things such as rice, pasta and potatoes and plenty of fruit - which is the very definition of healthy eating. What is advised is to avoid the unnecessary "red" items such as the butter we put on our potatoes, or the creamy sauce we pour over our chicken breast. Also advisable is a few small lifestyle changes - swapping whole milk for semi-skimmed (or better yet, skimmed), and switching white bread for brown.

The way the diet works is that "red" food, which is absorbed quickly, leaves you feeling hungry soon after, whereas "green" food, which typically contains a lot of fibre, takes longer to digest and therefore leaves you full for longer. For all those dieters who are defeated by that mid-afternoon snack, this diet will work wonders!

The diet is divided into two stages: the first is the weight loss stage, where you are encouraged to only eat "green" foods. Once you have achieved your target weight (it can happen quickly - I lost a stone in 5 weeks), you then move onto the second stage of the diet, the lifetime diet to maintain your weight, where you are allowed to introduce a few yellow items, but still keep it mainly green.

Of course, rich, fatty foods are delicious, so what is recommended, once you have achieved your target weight, is to follow the diet 6 days out of 7, and on the seventh day, allow yourself the pizza (or whatever) you have been craving. The aim is not to rob life of all its fun but simply restrict excess. And, what I found is that after eating wonderfully healthily for all this time, eating that crappy junk food left me feeling crap. I actually didn't want the food!

Possibly the best thing about this diet is you never need be hungry. You can snack as much as you want, as long as it is "green" food like fruit, and you can swap a lot of the carbs in your main meals with extra vegetables. I have never felt fuller than when I was on this diet.

Of course, no diet is complete without exercise. Obviously what you do must be tailored to your requirements, but you won't lose weight even with the best diet in the world if you just sit on your bum all day.

Included in the diet book are a number of recipes for making GI green food, including a number of delicious sweet treats. Once you get the feel for it you can make up your own; I invented a delicious GI green spaghetti bolognese that I still eat today.

Onto the downsides: Not many, as far as I am concerned. You eat very healthily, you are not completely denied all those sweet treats you love and it is a fantastic lifestyle. However, buying all the extra fresh fruit and veg is very expensive (added about 30% to our shooping bill when we were doing it), and it is important to be aware that the diet is not perfect - no diet is. Do not treat the GI rating as gospel - you do need to be aware that some foods will be worse than suggested depending on how fresh they are; and, of course, everyone has a different reaction to food and therefore you must work out your own ratings - what foods you know work for you, and what don't.

Part of the reason I am writing this is because I plan to go back on the GI diet. I am getting married in August to a beautiful woman, and want to look my best. Believe me, it does work - just don't kid yourself. No diet will work without discipline, but this is the best diet I have found because it is just common sense backed up with science: eat healthily, and exercise. That's the secret!

Summary: Don't kid yourself, do it seriously and you will notice the benefits!