The glycemic  index is a method of categorizing foods by way of the effect they have on our blood sugar level. Low Glycemic foods will have less of an insulin producing effect and are less likely to produce a glycemic spike.

The index is an indicator of how much your blood sugar levels will rise after eating certain foods, so a low glycemic index means that the food will release glucose into your system at a slow and even rate.

Of course this is also relative to the amount of food you eat, so even if you’re eating something with a low glycemic index rating, it will defeat the purpose if you over eat, as that will still give you a glycemic spike, which results in weight gain, and for some, that typical after dinner energy slump.

So how does a glycemic spike make you put on weight?

There are a number of reasons for this, the first one being that a sudden high glycemic spike after a meal will also have a corresponding crash, leaving you hungry again, but more importantly, when your body receives a sudden rush of glucose, the only way for your body to effectively handle it, is to store it as fat.

Balancing your body’s intake of glucose in such a way as to minimize sudden surges in blood sugar levels will help prevent your metabolism from slowing down, which further aids in the battle to lose weight.

The faster your metabolism is, the faster you burn calories.

Losing weight is a challenge, and when you’ve finally managed to slim down to your desired weight, the next part can be almost as tough. For some people it’s even tougher, especially seeing as now that you’re the weight you wanted to be, the next thing you want to do is reward yourself with a little of something you’ve been missing out on. Here are a few guidelines to help you keep the fat off.

Don’t change your eating habits

It’s important to keep up the same diet and lifestyle that you used to lose the weight in the first place.

Due to certain chemical and metabolic changes that happen in your body when you go on a weight loss diet, if you go back on the changes you’ve made to your diet and lifestyle, the weight will come back a lot faster and be more difficult to get rid off.

Think right and stay slim - It’s all in your state of mind

Keeping the right state of mind is crucial to maintaining your success with any weight loss program. Someone once said that the price of freedom is constant vigilance and a willingness to fight back. When it comes to maintaining the right thought patterns and sticking to what you know works for weight loss maintenance, I would say that’s the right attitude as well.

You could also try using affirmations and visualization to keep up a state of mind that serves you well.  The mind has a tendency to seek out the most pleasurable thing to do, and if you keep it trained to think about the pleasures of being slim, and how much better that is than eating the wrong foods, then half the battle is won.

Carry on with exercise

Obviously, any physical activity will use up calories, but it’s important to find some form of exercise that you enjoy, otherwise the temptation to skip it will be stronger. Exercise is crucial to maintaining any long term success with weight loss, but first check with your doctor to see whether your choice of workout will be okay, and not too strenuous for you.

Moral support can help, whether it’s a support group or not

I think a great idea to help keep motivated with your weight loss efforts is to do it together with a friend, and preferably one that has a positive attitude towards losing weight. If you can find two friends, that’s even better.

Make your weight loss intentions known to those that matter to you. If you keep it all to yourself as a secret, then the chance is always there to backslide without losing face. Friends and family can also offer moral support and encouragement.

Stay away from negative people. Apart from making you give up on your weight loss program, they’ll encourage you to give up on anything.

Losing weight can be a fun and exhilerating endeveour, especially when you don’t go it alone, and you start seeing positive results.  Your mind will tend to seek out pleasure, so try and make it as fun and rewarding as possible. The joy of success lasts longer than a pizza.

Many people looking to lose weight are exposed to many inaccuracies being bandied about concerning weight loss.

While it’s true that any attempt to reduce your intake of food will have an initial effect, very often the effects are short lived, and before long you could end up in worse shape than before.

The First Weight Loss Myth: Stay away from Carbohydrates.

This teaching is prevalent in well known high protein diets like the Atkins diet, South beach and a bunch of other popular diets that promote a high protein, low carbohydrate diet.

These types of diets may help you to lose quite a lot of weight fairly quickly, but the results tend not to be that long lasting so as soon as you begin to eat normally again, you end up with the same weight gain problem as before, and sometimes it may be even worse.

The Second Weight loss Myth: It’s all in the genes.

Sure, genetics can play a part when it comes to the speed of your metabolism, but dont let the condition your parents or grandparents where in become a reason to give up. There is hope.
Here’s what’s important when it comes to weight loss:

Calorie intake - What you eat and how much of it, so if you eat low calorie foods, you’re already on the right track.

Exercise, physical activity - Whether you walk or jog is up to you, but that all boils down to how many calories you burn up in a day.

Your genetic makeup does play a part in how many calories you’ll use up in a day, seeing that if you have a slower metabolism you burn calories slower than those with a faster metabolism.

There are ways to speed up a slow metabolism though, so genetics or not, there is a way.

The Third Weight Loss Myth: Avoid eating food with high fat content.

The key to effective weight control lies in reducing your intake of “Bad” fats and replacing that with eating more of the “Good Fats”.

You should make every effort to avoid taking in any Trans fat and saturated fat while at the same time increasing your intake of the healthy fats like polyunsaturated fats and Omega-3, which you get from foods like fish, olive oil (preferably cold pressed), and avocados.

The Fourth Weight Loss Myth: Skipping your meals

When you skip meals you slow down your metabolism so your body converts more calories into fat. A short fast may be good for your health for other reasons, like detoxing every now and then, but eating regular meals is important.

What you need is to eat more of the good foods, like more salads and vegetables. Nuts and fruit are also good for you.

You could also try substituting sweets and chocolates for something like dried fruit (unsweetened of course), or even better, an apple.

It takes some discipline at first to get your mind around it, and you may even experience mild withdrawal symptoms from all the sugar, but if you stick it out long enough, your system will adjust.

Weight Loss Myth number Five: Avoiding the white foods

This one is way too simplified to be taken seriously. Sure, there are certain white foods that may be bad for you, and - or high in calories, but there are plenty of white foods that are excellent sources of nutrition like fish, pears, nuts etc

The Sixth Myth about Losing Weight: The Grapefruit Miracle

There are some people who say that eating grapefruit will help you lose weight, supposedly due to a magical enzyme that helps to burn fat. Just how true this is has yet to be proven by any substantial research.

While grapefruits may be rich in lycopene, which is a good source of ingredients that provide nutrition and health right down to the cellular level, and helps prevent cancer and heart diseases, we have to leave weight loss out of the equation.

It’s my viewpoint, and the viewpoint of many, that the most effective weight loss programs and diets for long term sustainable weight control, should focus on a healthy intake of the right foods to supply the body with all the nutrition it needs, while at the same time reducing the calorie intake to below the number of calories used up by the body on a daily basis.