SW ... or GI?

Crumbs

Member
Oh advice please? I was all set to give SW another go - I've lost on it before but the books arrived and it looks so complicated nowadays and what I really want to do is not think so much about food!
So is GI the best option for me I'm now wondering?
I fancy really simple menus eg Weetabix _ banana for breakfast, salad sandwich for lunch and maybe cheese omelette and veg for tea.
I could make up a week's menu's like that, buy the stuff in one go and not have to think too much.
It's when I think about food I get distracted into tasty extra's.
I'd be glad to hear any thoughts.
 
Hi Crumbs- I really don't know anything about SW so I can't help you there I'm afraid. I find that lowGI/GL really suits me- its all normal healthy food rather than overpriced slimmer ready meals and special supplements and having different coloured days etc. Low GI foods stop you from getting so hungry, so I find I just naturally eat less when I stick to it. And once you get into your head whats low/med/high GI, its easy to follow : ) I think it's more a way of eating long term rather than a short fix diet : ) Good luck with deciding!
 
Hi Crumbs I'm on SW and find it relatively easy (once you get your head round Super Speed and Free and all the others).

I tend to sit with my daughter on a Friday evening after work (while the dinners cooking) and together we'll look through the books and choose meals for the week and write a shopping list of the things needed. It makes things easier all round as you know what you need to prepare, the syn value and the cooking times also by including her she doesn't turn her nose up at the food as she helped to choose, (she's almost 18yrs btw) and without realising is maintaining a healthy balanced diet. Win, win I think ;)

Good luck with whichever you choose to do.
 
Hi Crumbs, I did SW before moving over to GI. I enjoyed the food on the Extra Easy plan and found it to be really healthy but for me personally it was easy to eat too much or too little and not really know why I wasn't losing much despite sticking to it 100%. In hindsight eating what was effectively a higher GI/GL diet didn't work for my body. I agree with Sammie G that planning a menu ahead of time is key which may not be great if you don't want to think about food much.

I really like GI/GL as it helps keep the blood sugar even, I don't usually feel hungry and can have meals and snacks through the day. And I can foresee eating this way for a long time to come. I know people say that about SW too but honestly? If I'd gotten to target and stayed there for awhile I don't think I would be too keen on counting the syns of everything that passed my lips. But that's just me. :)

Looking at your proposed daily menu, it looks more like a SW day to me because of the Weetabix, banana and the bread at lunchtime. Those are mostly medium/high GI choices (which are ok occasionally) and there isn't any protein with them. Similar low GI options might be porridge with apple, pear or berries and nuts or seeds, or AllBran with fruit, yoghurt and nuts for breakfast and an open-faced chicken salad sandwich on stoneground wholemeal, rye or multi-grain seeded bread for lunch.

If you wanted to look at a simple way of getting started with low GI, Rick Gallop's Express GI Diet for Busy People has a lot of simple/on the go suggestions and a straightforward green/yellow/red light system of classifying foods; might be worth finding it in the library or a bookshop to have a leaf through and see if the kinds of food he suggests would suit you.

Best of luck with whatever you decide and if you do join us here we'll be glad to have you. :)
 
Hi Crumbs, I've never done SW as I don't live in the UK. But I do find low GI/GL diet really easy to follow. It's not really a diet, but more of life long way of eating. You learn to eat what's better for you, and technically nothing is off limits, just some foods should not be eaten often.

I didn't have a book to follow in the beginning, just picked up stuff from the ladies here, and ran with it. If you plan ahead you really don't have to think at all, about preparing food. I usually make a lot of food at once, and the leftovers we eat the next day, or I freeze down some things for another time.

If you have any questions we're all more than happy to help :)
 
Hi I'm on sw at the moment but did loose weight before on GI.
I have decided tonight that I'm going to switch back to GI as I find having to check the syns on everything is a bit annoying and I don't want to do that forever and plus I've lost hardly any weight since febuary.
I do agree that GI is a lot simpler once you get the hang of it.
Good luck :)
 
Hi Tracy831,

Welcome to the GI section. Good to hear that you find GI easier to follow :) You should start your own diary on the GI section of the forums. I look forward to reading it :)
 
CaliSweden said:
Hi Tracy831,

Welcome to the GI section. Good to hear that you find GI easier to follow :) You should start your own diary on the GI section of the forums. I look forward to reading it :)

Thanks for the welcome:)
Will maybe start a diary in a few days once I've got back in the swing of things :)
 
I usually get ideas from the ladies on here, from their dairies, we post what we eat daily. Or basically something I want to eat but try to make it low GI/GL. I think that's the best part of low GI/GL, just trade high GI/GL for something low, and it works well :)
 
Yes, that's a good way to go.

Also, I still get a subscription to SW magazine actually (it was for a year) and red day recipes are usually very GI friendly. I also have an embarassingly large cookbook collection to draw inspiration from but the less said about that the better! (nooo, can't imagine how I ever put on weight!)
 
I do have the rick gallop books that I used last time ,and I have noticed that tescos do put low GI on their stuff which is helpfull.
I will still get sw mag and I also buy Rosemary Conley too .
Do you still really restrict your portion sizes ?
 
Personally I try to restrict carb portions (rice, pasta, potatoes etc) to the suggested serving sizes for low GI. Ie 40g pasta, 50g basmati and so on. I think the Gallop books have these guidelines. Seemed small to begin with but now I'm used to it. Portions of other foods, I try to keep 'sensible'. Main meals are smaller than they used to be, but big enough and the snacks keep me topped up in between. I don't ever feel really hungry.

Also, I track calorie consumption because my health makes it hard to lose weight and that way I know which side of the fine line I am on. But for a lot of people this isn't necessary!
 
I know this thread is 3 weeks old but I just wanted to say that I had originally started the SW diet with high hopes and went ahead and brought the online subscription and majority of the books that were for sale on their site.

The fact that you can eat as much of certain foods as you want did not seem to work well with me as I had gained 2lb in the first week which really disheartened me so much. A positive thing about the SW diet was that my energy levels were crazy, I was doing insensitive uphill walking for 2 hours a day and that kept my heart rate at an average of 150, but the basic principal was still calories in to calories out and I will admit that I was eating a hell of alot of food.

On the SW diet I felt as though I could eat as much food as I could and when I could feel that my stomach was full up I still felt hungry, it was such a weird experience.


I have been on the GI diet for a week now and while I’m only consuming 2100 calories the weight is pouring off of me compared to the SW diet.

My maintenance daily calorie intake is 3500 so by consuming 2100 calories a day gives me a loss of just under 3lb per week without any exercise.

The GI diet is great in my opinion because it includes complex carbs that make me feel fuller for longer. I can literally feel my stomach shrinking and I feel comfortable eating only 2100 calories a day.

I am doing the Tesco GI diet that includes all of my daily recipes worked out for my specific weight. I no longer have to look for recipes, I just go to the Tesco website, take a look at the recipes to make sure I am happy with the choices, then click on add to shopping list. Tesco adds my entire shopping list to Tesco’s online shopping so all I have to do is pay for it once a week.

All I have to do now is cook the recipes, no more working out what to eat and no more going shopping for the foods.

The diet includes about 80 grams of protein a day and 70 grams of healthy fats, the rest are all complex carbs.

I really am pleased with this Tesco GI diet even though it has only been a week. My weight loss of 10lb this week has really got me pumped. I did 1.5 hours of uphill walking yesterday and will do more today.
 
Hi Tim, and welcome! What a great first week of low GI! :D The Tesco plan is very convenient especially as you use their online shopping option. Look forward to seeing you around the board!
 
I'm very impressed with your weightloss this first week. I am not surprised that you are feeling great. :)

Tesco GI diet sounds perfect for you as it takes all the hassle out of shopping and planning your food. All you have to do is cook 9if you want to) and enjoy!

Good luck with the weight loss and, hopefully, see you on this board.
 
Hi Tim, that's great that you're enjoying low GI diet, and also great that you've got new energy. It was the same way for me too when I switched over to low gi/gl diet.

The Tesco gi diet sounds like a really great plan. I wish we had things like that here with our grocery stores :) I look forward to reading your updates:)
 
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