Low Glycemic Index Diet questions

Maybe your doctor can help you or a dietitian?
But welcome and I hope you find the support you need to reach your goals!

Consider reading the old South Beach Diet book. It was an early version of a low glycemic diet.
Or, for something more up to date, Dr. Ludwig's book "Always Hungry" provides a good blue print of low glycemic (Load) eating. Neither requires "counting" per se, just eating to satiety. The DASH diet weight loss solution book is also a good low GI diet plan. Good luck.

One way to look at this would be to take more of a process approach. What I mean is this:

If you're logging your food now, take a look at what foods are your highest sources of carbs: Could you reduce or eliminate some of those, and eat something else you enjoy that has fewer carbs, but more fats and protein, that would still leave you happy and satisfied with how you're eating? Start with reducing the ones that are relatively less important to you, from a taste or satiation standpoint. Experiment with that a bit, just keep chipping away at it until you're feeling happy with your eating, and getting to a lower percentage of carbs consistently within your calorie goal.

Same thing with the high GI foods: Take a look at what you're eating and logging now, look up what's higher GI (going to tend to be the more highly-processed carbs and sugary things, if you still are eating some of those), and think about eating less of those, more of something you like that is lower GI (typically whole grains, nuts, legumes, veggies, etc.). Again, gradually repeat and work in alternate foods, or different proportions of current foods, to get to a point you feel happy with.

Some of the experimental alternatives will work, and stick; others won't . . . for those, just try something different.

Once you're logging your eating here, the diary can be a really helpful tool for this kind of "gradual remodeling" approach to eating. You can chip away at it as you have time, do some experimenting, and end up in a good place without having to go through a massive change in eating all at once. Evolution, rather than revolution, basically.

Just a thought. Best wishes!

redraidermgr wrote: »

Thanks,

I had always been told that low fat or low carb is the way to do it but yeah low carb can be challenging for me because I tend to crave carbs but I think the Low GI would be easy enough to do. I am just having to get into the habit of calorie tracking which shouldnt be too hard. Thank you for your input and encouragement.

Calorie tracking is great since you can see where you are and make changes. For you it would be really interesting to see your calories, carbs, protein, and fiber. Things that are very often helpful with hunger include adding more protein (usually leaner protein) and adding more fiber. Lots of carbs without much fiber is often counterproductive for satiety. So one easy piece of advice (and consistent with the low glycemic index idea) is to add more fiber and reduce carbs without fiber. When you track you can see what you are getting and think of swaps or adjusting portion size. You can also make notes about days you felt more or less hungry and learn from that.

redraidermgr wrote: »

Thanks,

I had always been told that low fat or low carb is the way to do it but yeah low carb can be challenging for me because I tend to crave carbs but I think the Low GI would be easy enough to do. I am just having to get into the habit of calorie tracking which shouldnt be too hard. Thank you for your input and encouragement.

Once you reduce your carb intake you will begin to find that you will crave them less. The sugar cycle is vicious- spiking and crashing and then craving your next spike. I find that cutting my carbs to less than 100 grams a day is totally doable and should be sustainable for the rest of my life. Try it and your massive carb cravings WILL subside!! Best of luck to you.

I would ask the question, why do you think you failed at low carb before? Was it because you had too much monotony in your diet, was your deficit too aggressive, additional stress in your life, or etc...? The good news is, you can certainly get fit and lose weight without low carb or low fat. If you want, the low GI diet with zone or variable macros can certainly be effective.

I would certainly recommend the advice that @lemurcat12 is recommending about adding protein and fiber to each meal preference. It's a great way to feel full. From there you can add fats or other carbs based on the meal/satiety cues. Additionally, you should play with food combinations. For example, I find that adding avocado or guacamole to foods has a huge impact on my satiety, even though it's calorie dense. This in turn allows me to go longer periods without eating. If I just have a 5 egg omelet with veggies, salsa and cheese, I am hungry within a few hours. But if I add avocado, I can go for 6 or more hours. Another good example, I tend to stay more full if I use chicken thighs vs lean chicken breast. So for me, it's a combination of protein + fiber + fat.

ETA: I would also work on eliminating or reducing added sugars and processed foods. They are not filling and don't provide any benefit to a diet, outside of personal enjoyment. There are tons of way to get a sweet fix using things like fruit. Or you could also make healthy versions of desert for occasional use.