End of week 4 results

Here are the results from this mornings weigh in!

Weight 91.7 kg a loss of 0.5 kg or 1.1 lbs

Blood sugar level 6.3 which is the same as last week.

 

This weeks results are good, but once again I am feeling dissappointed! On Thursday I weighed myself and I was only 91kgs, so I thought, or I was hoping that by today I would have lost even more. So why have I gained weight since Thursday?

 

Glycemic Loading.

During the week I read a lot of interesting articles on Glycemic Loading (GL) of foods. This is the effect foods have on the bodys blood sugar levels. Foods that are generally high in Carbs produce a spike, a high level of blood sugar about 15 minutes after being eaten. What I was interested in was the fact that some foods that seem to be moderately high in carbs, actually have a low GL. With my diabetic hat on I decided to introduce some of these foods into my diet with the hope that they would have a significant effect on my blood sugar levels. One food that stood out to me was peanuts. Quite high in carbs but has a very low GL, meaning that if eaten with other foods they would, or should, lower that blood suger spike after eating. As you can see the effects on blood sugar was nil and the only significant effect was putting on 0.7kg in 3-4 days. Needless to say the peanuts are out!

 

Other ways to reduce that blood sugar spike after eating.

If we think about what happens after we eat - the energy in the food is converted into sugar to be transported around the body in the blood stream. Therefore if you can use this extra energy up, your peak blood sugar level will be kept down. We can do this by burning this energy. After a meal, if you exercise (Lightly) your muscles will use that extra energy. Recently I have, after the days main meal, jumped onto an exercise bike and pedalled for between 10 and 20 minutes. Each 10 minutes burning just less than 100 calories. I think the effect this will have will be more apparent next week when the peanuts are out of the diet. I will also be doing another mid-week weigh in to see if the effect kicks in early.

 

I hope you are doing well on your diets. I know people who are losing a pound a day! My target of 85kgs remains in the distance, but I strongly believe that fine tuning of this diet will soon bring it closer to me. See you next week.