The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies by Meri Raffetto Read Free Book Online

happen overnight. I know you want to lose weight fast. That's a given. However, fast weight loss often goes hand in hand with a diet regimen that you can't stick to long term. Remember the old fable of the tortoise and the hare? Slow but steady wins the weight-loss race too.

    After the first two weeks, you'll start to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. This is a moderate rate of weight loss that indicates you're losing body fat and not muscle. It takes into consideration that with exercise you'll actually be increasing your muscle mass. So if you lose a pound of fat, you may also gain a pound of muscle, which means the scale won't tip drastically. Gaining muscle is a good thing because it helps increase your metabolism and gives your body a nice shape.

    You may lose a lot of fluid weight right away. The human body is made up mainly of water, and your water weight can fluctuate quite a bit based on your hydration, sodium intake, medicines, and other factors. You may celebrate if you lose 5 to 6 pounds in your first week on a low-glycemic diet, but keep in mind that some of that lost weight may have been fluid weight, not just body fat. However, that's still good because you don't need that extra fluid on you. Just don't get discouraged if your weight loss slows down in the following weeks.

    You may not lose weight every week. Don't fret if the scale shows the same weight for a few weeks in a row. The reason may simply be that you haven't created enough of a calorie deficit with the dietary and exercise changes you're making. Review your food journal (see Chapter 6 for how to create one if you haven't already) to evaluate how you're doing with your changes and see whether you can make adjustments in some areas.

    I bet this isn't exactly the news you were hoping for. After all, when you want to lose weight, you want immediate results. Following a low-glycemic diet will help you lose weight, especially if you have insulin resistance (see the later "Do You Have Insulin Resistance?" section for more on this condition). However, slower weight loss simply makes sense when you look at the big picture.
    Here are the facts: It takes 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of body fat, and consuming low-glycemic foods helps ensure you don't store more calores as fat than necessary. So in order to lose 2 pounds a week, you have to make a 1,000-calorie deficit every single day. For most folks, creating a 1,000-calorie deficit requires immediate and drastic changes to their diet and exercise every day. (Note that it takes about six weeks of consistent exercise before you begin to see changes in your body shape.) They may decide to turn to one of the many very-low-calorie diet programs out there in order to achieve that 1,000-calorie deficit. However, consuming too few calories on a regular basis may decrease your metabolism (check out Chapter 8 to discover other factors affecting metabolism). Plus, that's just tough to live with long term.
    The majority of people gradually enter into a diet program and aren't always consistent in the beginning. That's a normal part of making changes and is perfectly okay, but it also means that expecting to see major results in the first few weeks of any diet isn't very realistic.
    Just because you don't see immediate results doesn't mean your weight-loss efforts aren't working. You're just creating a smaller calorie deficit each day; that deficit will still lead to weight loss but over a longer period of time.
    Reviewingthe pros and cons of different approaches to weight loss
    The following sections break down the pros and cons of taking a fast, aggressive approach to weight loss versus a slow and steady one. There's no right or wrong answer here; the goal is simply to become aware of how these two weight-loss approaches work. If you want a better long-term success rate, then allow yourself some time to make lifestyle changes that will stick. If you want to see quicker results, you absolutely can. Just be prepared to