The stupid woman doing the GI managed to put on 2 lbs - GREAT, real motivation for me She really didn't look like she wanted to be doing it though so I'm hoping that she cheated.
If I don't loose anything I might have to swap to Zone which seems similar.
I didn't see it but don't give up on the GI thing. It teaches you mega healthy eating habits. It probably is possible to gain on the GI but only if you eat A LOT! I personally wouldn't trust myself on the GI and would try and count the calories in the foods I was eating while I was following the principle.
I don't really think a control group of ONE person could really count as being a proper test!
If it works for you stick with it - if not do something else!
I saw it, the woman didn't seem to want it to work for her. Don't give up on it because of that programme, one person trying something (we don't know if she actually did follow it, probably not) doesn't prove anything. Compare it to the others they tried...cabbage soup! We know it is a million times better than that!
I was quite disappointed with that show, in my opinion they should have had a larger group of people on the diet, a mix of old and young, male and female because not all bodies work the same. We all know that what works for someone else might not work for us, just keep trying!
I won't give up - I'll give it a couple of weeks first.
I agree they should have had a better sample, pretty unscientific. The did the diet for 3 weeks each, except for the cabbage soup which you were only meant to do for a week.
Think they did it for three weeks, we were supposed to believe it was live and they had been doing the diets over Christmas which seems a little far fetched if you ask me. Also, they didnt say if anyone was exercising or not...that can make a huge difference...
Three weeks is not enough time to see a difference on a low GI plan, really it's a lifestyle change not a quick fix. I hate those sort of tv programs. Your right about the BBC survey, it was brilliant.
I'd rather lose slowly (or even gain at first) but teach myself better habits that will let me take it off eventually and keep it off than starve myself for three weeks to get a good result for the show and then give up because I can't live off cabbage soup or shakes for the rest of my life.
And it's about making your lifestyle healthier not just about losing weight. GI foods are generally healthy and good for you, so you will benefit long term, which is what it's all about.
I don't actually follow the GI diet, but I do eat a lot of low GI foods and am probably fairly close to it, albeit intentionally.
I do Rosemary Conley, but have an eye on the GI of everything.
The whole premise of that show was to trial fad diets from the 70s onwards... so I thought it was a bit unfair to lump GI in with those fad diets at all, when it clearly follows slightly more sound principles.
It clearly wasn't an attempt to do a scientific fair test with big sample sizes, control groups, etc - I don't think it had any pretensions to be that, though! It's obvious to most of us that in the first week or two of your diet, you lose the most weight - and a much heavier person will lose dramatically more than a less heavy person. (It's why they often use morbidly obese people on these dieting shows - because they are capable of exciting-looking weight loss figures!) Also, there was no way they could either stop them all frome xercising, or force them to do the same amount.
I think the point of that programme was to just trial fad diets from the past, over a very short period of time. The one that won would no doubt give you fantastic results anyway short-term (in terms of calories it was literally a starvation diet), but that weight loss is from a diet which is unsustainable. A diet is for life, not just for xmas, in other words! My bet is, the minute that woman comes off the Cambridge Diet - she will revert to the old habits that got her fat in the first place... and pile it back on. The GI diet, on the other hand, re-educates your eating habits/behaviours and is healthy in itself. So long term is sustainable.
I thought it was very interesting that one of the experts said she lost a lot of weight on the GI Diet and since she reached her goal weight, *haven't really come off it*. I doubt the guinea pig doing the Cambridge will be able to say the same thing a year or five years from now!
Also they did make the point not all diets work for all people. I know women with PCOS who have put on weight on the diet I've lost 30lbs with - and I put on tonnes of weight on the South beach, which others have had success with!