There are as many ways to lose weight as there are to cook food. All of them boil down to one simple (or simplistic?) four-word reduction: Eat less, move more. If it were that simple we'd all be of normal weight. I would say that I'd seen all the diets, but that's not true by any stretch of the imagination.
So how did I decide how to lose weight? I saw many options, from WeightWatchers, skipping past Slimming World, to things like DietChef and LighterLife... but no, I didn't go for any of them. I finally settled on the GI Diet by Rick Gallop*. Why? Simple - I'd already got the diet book and recipe book from a previous (abortive) attempt to lose weight several years ago. It wasn't the diet's fault that I only lost a couple of pounds and gave up; it was entirely mine. That's about £20 saved even before we started.
*It should be noted that Gallop did not develop the diet; he brought it to the market and seems to have got his pension sorted quite nicely from it. He's not a doctor - at least that I can see. His background seems to be in advertising rather than medicine, so he should have a way with words. The diet was actually developed by Dr. David Jenkins.
I re-read the book and he makes some very interesting - and valid - points. In simple terms, here's how it works. Go and get yourself a green tea, take a deep breath, and start reading.
Food is absorbed into the bloodstream and converted into glucose. The more quickly this happens, the greater the sugar spike you get - and with it the corresponding sugar crash. Each foodstuff is assigned a glycemic index rating, with 100 being the highest - this is pure glucose. The basic idea is that foods with lower GI ratings are better for you.
Hunting down exclusively low-GI foods isn't going to work. The glycemic index works basically on carbohydrates, so things like chicken wings, sausages, full-fat cheese and chocolate - all have low GI ratings. You still need to eat a balanced diet, and much of this can be done simply by swapping out certain foodstuffs.
Foods to avoid (examples):
White bread, baguettes and bagels
"Normal" pasta (made with refined durum wheat)
White rice
Foods high in saturated fat
Fruit juice or dried fruit
Salty food (or food high in sodium, to be more scientific)
Foods to stock up on (again, examples):
Brown basmati rice
Wholemeal pasta
Fruit in its natural state - but not dried fruit, juice, or melon, apparently. That's fine with me, I don't like melon enough to miss it anyway.
Lean protein - so chicken breast, turkey breast, pork tenderloin
Fish - in natural state (i.e. not battered/breaded)
Vegetables - in pretty much any state
Pulses and legumes (so beans, lentils, bulgur wheat, quinoa)
Unsaturated fats (so things like olive oil)
It's also useful to revisit portion sizes: protein should be lean and about 4oz (120g). Starchy carbohydrates (so your pasta, rice, etc.) should be no more than 25% of your plate - nor should the protein. It's so easy to overdo them. So pasta should be about 40g (1.5oz) and rice 50g (1.8oz) Vegetables and legumes should make up 50% of your plate - like this.
Also watch your caffeine intake. Caffeine has the well-known effects of making us happier, more excited, or just plain hyper - and it also raises blood-sugar levels, thus making food easier to absorb. And the bit that I thought would be hardest - no alcohol while you're trying to lose weight. It's high in sugar and is just empty calories - i.e. it has no nutritional value. Surprisingly, that's been the easiest part of it. Since I started the diet, I've had one 500mL bottle of 5% lager (last Sunday) and half a bottle of wine (Valentine's Day).
In Gallop's defence, he isn't too dogmatic about it. He says (in a later version of the book) that if you can stick to 90% of the diet, you're not going to do any major damage to your weight-loss campaign. So don't worry if you've been invited out for a night on the town - the odd one won't kill you.
If that sounds too strict for you, then you need to get a bit more backbone.. Compared to most diets I've seen, it's not very restrictive, it still means you can eat good food and a balanced diet. The other major thing in its favour is that it is the only diet I've seen that has been approved by the medical community at large.
If you like it, why not try it?
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