Having problems with a Low GI diet
 

I've been wanting to switch to a low carb diet for a while now. At the moment I don't think I have enough time to make the complete jump so I'm trying to switch to a low GI diet for the moment. However, I'm having problems with it. I don't really have a "normal" amount of energy throughout the day, and the only time I feel awake is when I've had foods or drinks with lots of sugar in them.

That's not to say that my energy levels are horrible. I can still get around but I can't really concentrate on complicated problems when I stick to low gi meals, which just won't work for me being a math student. So I've been sipping on OJ while I get homework done but after a few hours my energy levels crash and I just want to take a nap.. This sucks..

Anyone have any ideas why this could be? Switching to a real low carb diet isn't really an option at the moment. I have several bags of basmati rice I have yet to finish, and switching my eating habits will be a huge chore that I can't afford to do, timewise, until until midterms are over and I've actually learned how to cook..

You say you do low GI and feel down and that high sugar peps you up.Is there a difference in the amount of carbs your injesting when you go from the lowGI to high sugar foods?

OJ is basically sugar dude.Your body will divide the sucrose and you get half fructose.Fructose is bad for you.Just a suggestion but have you tried a meal with alot of starch?

My main meals have been tofu with brown rice and red beans and whatever vegetables I get my hands on, cucumber, spinach, onions, broccoli etc.. I hadn't gone about counting all the other macro-nutrients so I may very well be deficient in one of them I have no idea.

(Edit: An initial search tells me those three staples are high in starch, but feel free to do better research than me)

Yeah, I'm well aware that OJ is mostly sugar and is not good for you... As I said in the original post, I don't feel completely awake without it, and I have obligations that require my full concentration. I want to get off sugar but for whatever reason I'm not getting much energy from the other foods I'm eating.

Ugh, you only weigh 120 lbs and you're a 5'6'' male. Are you even eating enough ?

I eat as much as I can until I get full. Is that enough? :)

Robinhoode,I am same way as you.I love the sugar rush and work better until I crash.It just freaking sucks its like that but it is.But you also get these brain enhancements while in ketosis.

Also and this is a big one is caffeine makes your brain sharper by large magnitude.Without my caffeine I am like a vegetbale in the morning.:D

How much rice and beans u eating compared to the sugar and what is the sugar source?If its soda then trust me your taking in ALOT of caffeine.

For the most part, I have been off of sugar for a least a couple of weeks now. Maybe a piece of fruit was thrown in that time interval, but it did not seem to affect my energy levels much. This is only the past 3 or so days that I've been getting back it so I can concentrate enough to do my HW. I would love to get into ketosis but as I said, I don't really have a lot of time to make that kind of switch at the moment. I will make a genuine attempt during the summer.

As far as caffiene goes, I don't even touch soda anymore. I don't even like the taste of the stuff anymore. I have been drinking green tea on occasion, but it doesn't seem to affect my energy levels that much. Maybe my wit is a bit sharper, but it's too subtle to notice.

Your probably suffering from low blood sugar.You weigh a small amount and you say you eat till full.Try eat 3 meals with alot of starch like rice potatoes etc.

This COULD be whats happening.Like your stuck in limbo trying to do a carb diet but just not eating enough carbs to feel energized.

There is a drink called Glucozade that is pure glucose that I would sip instead of orange juice with its high fructose content.Its big in Europe though I dont know where your from.

Do you mean hypoglycemia? (https://health.google.com/health/ref/Hypoglycemia) I don't really get those kinds of symptoms. About the closest I could say I got to that was when I was 8 to 12 years old, I would get semi-frequent headaches because I did not eat enough. But that hasn't happened much at all, anymore.

I will look for Glucozade or whatever similar alternatives I can find when I'm at the grocery store next. I'm from Philadelphia, if that helps..

Maybe you wont get the sugar lows hypoglycemic style but your sugar can still be low giving that unenergetic feeling.

Give the rice to a homeless shelter and get on a low carb plan. You will thank yourself.

Do you mean Lucozade ?

It is a very high glucose energy drink which originally was made for patients in hospital. We always were given some when ill when I was small. I'm under the impression that it is now popular with people who undergo intensive sports activity.

http://www.snackcheck.co.uk/product...ucozade-orange/

I have a problem with the whole "low GI" theory in general.

My son is a Type 1 diabetic and his reaction to carbs has taught me a lot.

In my healthy 16 year old's non-insulin resistant son's body, a carb is a carb is a carb. His body reacts to sugar carbs exactly the same no matter what form that carb comes in. (Fiber is "free", but all sugar carbs raise his BG in the same way.)

The diabetes educators insist that if he only eats low GI carbs, his BG will rise gradually and whisper back to earth like a feather.

BS.

We've tested it. He's eaten 15g of carbs in the form of fast carbs and we've tested every 5 minutes for an hour to see how much and fast it's risen. We've done it with slow carbs, too. The ONLY difference is that the sharp rise in BG may happen later with low GI foods, but there's still a dramatic rise over a short period of time.

Does my body care if it's being hit hard with sugar at 15 minutes or 30 minutes?

I don't think so.

(If anyone's irritated with me "experimenting" on my kid, don't be. We started this whole thing to figure out his changing insulin needs so we could get him in better control. We did part two of the experiment because the advice given by the diabetes educators wasn't working and we were trying to figure out why.)