Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load Food Chart

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Foods That Negatively Impact Fat Burning

In today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing the difference between the glycemic index vs glycemic load food chart and how they affect your fat burning.

Table Of Contents: Jump Links

But first, here’s a little story.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You wake up, then of course, you go to the bathroom.

Then you come out to the kitchen and make yourself a “healthy” breakfast consisting of Special K cereal.

Since you’re on a fat loss diet, you pour some skim milk over top, then you top it with some healthy sliced bananas.

Other days when you’re in a rush, you may simply opt for a low fat bagel with margarine.

Sounds like a healthy breakfast for fat loss, right?

Well, maybe if healthy meant spiking your blood sugar with a quick overload of sugar.

Think about it.

What is this breakfast mainly comprised of?

Carbohydrates.

In addition to this, every carbohydrate in this breakfast has a higher glycemic rating on the glycemic index.

What is the Glycemic Index?

The glycemic index (GI) is simply a number from 0-100 that measures how fast a food containing 50g of carbohydrates can raise blood sugar levels after they are digested and converted into glucose in the blood.

The higher the number on the glycemic index, the quicker and more drastic rise in blood sugar levels occur, 2-3 hours after a meal.

Foods that raise blood sugar levels quickly are classified as high glycemic carbohydrates.

The lower the number on the glycemic index, the slower the sugar finds its way into the bloodstream.

These foods are classified as low glycemic foods.

Foods with a glycemic index (GI) rating:

• GI Above 70: are classified as high glycemic foods since they are quickly converted into glucose in the blood.
• GI Between 55-70: are classified as medium glycemic foods since they are moderately converted into glucose in the blood.
• GI Less than 55: are classified as low glycemic foods since they are slowly converted into glucose in the blood.

As I showed you in this post called Insulin Resistance: What Is It, Causes, How To Fix It, when blood sugar quickly rises, excessive amounts of insulin is required to remove the sugar from the bloodstream.

This secretion of a lot of insulin also releases that fat storing LPL enzyme, that turns on your body’s fat storing switch on.

Even though cereal is often marketed as part of a healthy balanced breakfast, most cereals have a 60-110 ranking on the glycemic index.

If your goal is fat loss, I typically recommend people limit the amount of foods with a glycemic index rating higher than 55.

What Is The Glycemic Load?

The glycemic load (GL) of a food calculates how fast a food containing a serving of 50g of carbohydrates raises blood sugar levels.

The lower the number on the glycemic load, the less negative impact on your blood sugar.

Foods with a glycemic load (GL) of:

• GL Under 10: is considered low and have little negative impact on your blood sugar.
• GL Between 10-20: is considered to have a medium impact on blood sugar.
• GL Above 20: is considered to have a high impact on your blood sugar.

Foods with a higher glycemic load are also often classified as “trigger foods”.

Trigger foods tend to be addictive as they can increase your hunger and your cravings, leading to you eating more and more of them.

What Is The Difference Between The Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load?

You may be asking, what is the difference between the glycemic index and the glycemic load?

To put it simply, the glycemic index measures how quickly carbohydrate foods break down and enter the bloodstream, thus raising blood sugar levels, based solely on its carbohydrate quality.

However, the glycemic index does not factor in the amount of carbohydrates in a standard serving size of the food.

In other words, a food could be a high glycemic index food, but it could have very little carbohydrates in a standard serving size.

The glycemic load takes both the glycemic index and the amount of carbohydrates in a typical serving into account.

Therefore in my opinion, since the glycemic load factors in the standard serving size, it is a better measure of how a carbohydrate will affect blood sugar levels.

To further explain this, let’s use the watermelon as an example.

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load Of Watermelon

A watermelon has a high glycemic index of 72, meaning it is classified as a high glycemic carbohydrate.

So does this mean you should never eat watermelon?

Well the answer is no, you should not avoid eating watermelon.

Remember, the glycemic index rating of a food is based on consuming a serving of 50 grams of carbohydrates.

However, a standard serving size of 1 cup of watermelon contains only 11 grams of carbohydrates, thanks to it’s high water content.

This means in order to measure the glycemic index of watermelon, you would need to consume 5 cups of watermelon, which is five times the standard serving size, to reach the required 50 gram serving of carbohydrates.

Therefore, even though watermelon has a high glycemic index of 72, its glycemic load is only 7.2, since it is mainly comprised of water, therefore a standard serving size doesn’t contain many carbohydrates.

This classifies watermelon as having a lower glycemic load, meaning it has a lower impact on blood sugar levels when consumed in normal portions.

Before judging the glycemic effect of a certain food based solely on its glycemic index, it’s more important to consider its glycemic load for a clearer understanding.

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load Chart For Common Foods

Below is a list of common foods that fall within the low glycemic (best), medium glycemic (ok), and high glycemic (limit) rankings for both the glycemic load and glycemic index.

Foods with a glycemic index of:

• Above 70: are quickly broken down into sugar.
• Between 55-70: are moderately broken down into sugar.
• Less than 55: are slowly broken down into sugar.

Foods with a glycemic load of:

• under 10: low impact on blood sugar.
• 10-20: medium impact on blood sugar.
• above 20: high impact on blood sugar.

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Cereal And Baked Goods

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Fruit

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Vegetables

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Candy

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Drinks

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Legumes

Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load: Dairy

How To Reduce Glycemic Index Of Foods

There’s also a way to limit the negative effects when you eat high glycemic foods.

If we lived in a perfect world, you’d eliminate all high glycemic foods, if your goal was fat loss.

However, as a Live Leaner, we live in reality, meaning we strive for balance.

Therefore, there is a food combining strategy that can help reduce the glycemic response of higher glycemic foods.

You can do this by eating lower glycemic foods, with higher glycemic foods.

This will help the body trigger less insulin production, thus reducing the amount of damage typically caused by excessive production of insulin.

What Foods Have The Lowest Glycemic Response?

Foods that lower the glycemic response include:

1. Berries
   • Blackberries, blueberries, cherries, and strawberries
2. Healthy Sources Of Fats And Foods High In Healthy Omega 3 Fats
   • Coconut oil, grass fed butter, fish oil, and olive oil
3. Herbs And Spices
   • Make sure you mix in some herbs and spices, including fenugreek and cinnamon, as they can improve blood sugar response and insulin sensitivity.
4. Pickled Foods
   • Sauerkraut can help improve insulin sensitivity.
5. Lemon, Lime, and Vinegars
   • Flavor your foods with lemon, lime, and vinegars, including apple cider vinegar.

The next time you have a craving for:

• Pasta: simply add some coconut oil to it.
• Cereal or Oats: add a serving of berries on top with a few dashes of cinnamon.
• Toast: add some natural strawberry jam or look for gluten free bread made with the herb fenugreek.
• Yogurt: add some berries and cinnamon on top.

“Fat Free” Foods Are Not Helping You Lose Weight

Always stock your fridge with lower glycemic foods.

Remember, “Fat Free” doesn’t mean these foods won’t make you fat.

Fat Free simply means they are low in dietary fat, which in a lot of cases, is not a good thing.

This is because when food manufacturers remove the naturally occurring fat from the food, they need to add something back in to replace it.

More often than not, “fat free” typically means that the food manufacturers have added in high glycemic ingredients like sugar back into the food.

Join Team Live Lean

If you’re ready to eat the Live Lean way, I highly recommend you join our group coaching platform called Team Live Lean.

This is where we share weekly meal plans, including video cooking recipes that are quick, healthy, easy, affordable, and delicious to make.

You’ll also get a monthly workout program, access to our private Facebook accountability group, and so much more.

I always say to commit to invest in your body, your food, and ultimately your health.

Think of the grocery store as your pharmacy.

Invest your money into food, not medication.

Keep Living Lean.