Law #11 - Only consume refined carbs (those high on the glycemic index) after a workout and at breakfast time. At other times of the day, slow and medium release carbs are better

After a workout, muscles are depleted of carbohydrates, and need protein and other nutrients to rebuild. Fast release carbs create an insulin surge, quickly turning you anabolic (in a potential muscle building state), and halting catabolism by shuttling the protein to the muscles, so they can rebuild and grow, and shuttling them carbs to restore glycogen levels.

One of the reasons why you wake up in the morning is because cortisol wakes you to get you to eat as part of your circadian rythym. This is the time of the day when you are most insulin sensitive, such that insulin does a better job at managing carbs. One of the reasons this occurs is because the body tends to be carb depleted in the morning. A rush of carbs at breakfast will quickly turn you anabolic, or at least neutral, blunting the cortisol that woke you up. At breakfast, the body has been in a food-deprived state for the whole night, and the body is craving carbohydrates. The chances of carbs being stored as fat in the morning is highly unlikely, so at this time, refined carbs are okay, but it would be better mix them with some slow release carbs to slow down the overall insulin spike (unless you lifted weights before breakfast, in which case you would use fast-release carbs).

Other than at breakfast, and after a workout, you don't want a large insulin surge at other times of the day, because at that time the muscles may be full of glycogen, in which case excess carbs are stored as fat. So at other times of the day, except breakfast, and after a workout, you want to use slow and medium release carbs. Also, slower release carbs will satisfy your appetite better.

Many diets, and your conscience seem to tell you that you shouldn’t eat sweet cold breakfast cereals, candies, baked potatoes, white rice, white bread, and similar fast digesting carbs. Low carb diets tell you to avoid all carbs. But the BestLodging.com diet sets the record straight on carbs, and lets you know why, instead of leaving you in the dark.

It is because insulin is a fat storage hormone for those who refuse to exercise, leading to storage of extra carbs as fat, because glycogen levels are full in the liver and muscles, such that your body is forced to shuttle excess carbs to fat cells. But insulin is also potentially the most anabolic hormone in the body, because it also delivers protein to muscles to repair and rebuild. The biggest bodybuilders get that way using insulin to their advantage. You will control insulin to get lean, and use it to preserve muscle mass as you diet. This diet could be thought of as a muscle building plan, because you're keeping you're muscle as you diet, unlike other dieters around you.

The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index is a measure of how fast a particular food's carbohydrate content spikes insulin levels, relative to white bread, or relative to glucose (there are two different scales). On these scales, white bread or glucose are set at 100. White bread is one of the fastest digesting carbohydrates, but glucose is almost the highest of all. With glucose set at 100, white bread is 70. As you can see, the table below has glucose set to 100, not white bread. This standard is a lot more common than with white bread set to 100. By definition, only carbohydrates can have a glycemic index. So proteins and fats don't have a glycemic index.

So when choosing your carbohydrates on the BestLodging.com Diet, you'll use items in the red after a workout (all the "forbidden" stuff on other diets). You MAY also use them at breakfast, however try hard to mix it with a slower digesting carbohydrate in the blue or white columns. At other times of the day, stay to the blue or white (preferably blue).

To help configure your diet, please choose three fruits and 3 vegetables from each of the red, white and blue columns. Then choose another 5 of your favorite items from each of the red, white and blue columns. 

Low GI < 55	GI	Low GI < 55	GI	Medium GI 55-69	GI	High GI > 70	GI
Hummus	6	Refried Beans	38	Honey	55	Melba Toast	70
Chana Dal	8	Tomato Soup	38	Oat Bran	55	Melba Toast	70
Red Peppers	10	Fish Stick Fingers	38	Brown Rice	55	White skin mashed Potatoes	70
Onions	10	Tomato Juice	38	Fruit Cocktail	55	White Bread	70
Mushrooms	10	Meat Ravioli	39	Oatmeal Cookie	55	Golden Grahams Cereal	71
Broccoli	10	Plum	39	Papaya	56	Grapenuts	71
Cabbage	10	Minestrone Soup	39	Raisins	56	Kavli Crispbread	71
Lettuce	10	Pinto Beans dried, boil	39	Fudge Cookie	57	Popcorn	72
Yogurt, artificially sweet	14	Apple Juice	40	Potato Chips	57	Bagel	72
Cannelloni (Spinach)	15	Strawberries	40	Apricots, fresh	57	Watermelon	72
Walnuts	15	Pumpernickel Bread	41	New Potatoes	57	White Rice, Short grain,	72
Peanuts	15	Orange, Navel	42	Pita, whole wheat	57	Kaiser roll
Fructose	19	Chickpeas, canned	42	Whole Meal Rye	58	Cupcake (strawberry iced)	73
Lasagne (Vegetarian)	20	Blackeyed Peas, canned	42	Rice vermicelli	58	Soda Crackers	74
Cashews	22	Peach, fresh	42	Basmati Rice	58	Cream of Wheat Instant	74
Cherries	22	Spiral Pasta	43	Bran Chex	58	Bread stuffing	74
Kidney Beans (boiled)	23	Ice cream, low fat	43	Kiwi	58	Cheerios	74
Plum (raw)	24	Pear, canned	43	Blueberry Muffin	59	Bran Flakes	74
Mixed Nuts	24	Muesli	43	Pastry	59	Graham Crackers	74
Grapefruit	25	Milk Chocolate	43	Corn, fresh	60	French Fries	75
Barley, pearled	25	Carrot Juice	43	Pizza	60	Shredded Wheat	75
Lasagne	25	Rice, Long grain, White	44	Raisin Bran	61	Pumpkin	75
Kidney Beans, dried	28	Chocolate Chip Cookie	44	Figs, dried	61	Pancake Syrup	76
Chickpeas, dried	28	Lentil Soup	44	Hamburger bun	61	Waffles	76
Peach (raw)	28	Sweet potatoes	44	Kudos Bar	62	Doughnut, cake type	76
Navy Beans	29	Capellini	45	Corn Chips	63	Total Breakfast Cereal	76
Prunes	29	Linguine	46	Macaroni and Cheese	64	Whole wheat (100%)	77
Lentils	29	Grapes	46	Black Bean Soup	64	Coco Pops Cereal	77
Apricots, dried	30	Pineapple Juice	46	Shortbread Cookie	64	Water crackers	78
Tortilla (wheat)	30	Bran Buds	47	Apricots, canned	64	Jelly Beans	78
Black Beans	30	Butter Cookie	47	Beets	64	Corn Pops Cereal	80
Whole milk	31	Macaroni	47	Cantaloupe	65	Rice Cakes	82
Yellow Split Peas	32	Marmalade	48	Canned Potatoes	65	Rice Krispies	82
Lima Beans (frozen)	32	Baked Beans	48	Couscous	65	Corn Chex	83
Fettuccini (egg)	32	Green peas	48	Jams	65	Pretzels	83
Skim milk	32	Grapefruit Juice	48	Pea Soup	66	Baked Potatoes	85
M & M Peanut Candies	33	Carrots	49	Pineapple, fresh	66	Instant Mashed Potatoes	86
Raspberry Smoothie	33	Oatmeal	49	Quick (1 Minute) Oats	66	Wild rice	87
Yogurt, sweetened	33	Cheese Tortellini	50	Cream of Wheat	66	White Rice, Instant	87
Soy Milk	36	Vanilla Crème Filled Wafers	50	Pancakes	67	Red Skinned boiled potatoes	88
Spaghetti, whole wheat	37	Mango	51	Stoned Wheat Thins	67	Gadorade, orange	89
Yam	37	Whole Grain Bread	51	Puffed Wheat	67	Strawberry Fruit Bars	90
Rice, Converted, White	38	Cranberry Juice	52	Croissant	67	Rice Crackers	91
Spaghetti, white	38	Kidney Beans, canned	52	Cornmeal	68	Corn Flakes	92
Pear, fresh	38	Banana	52	Cranberry Juice Cocktail	68	Scones (plain, from packet)	92
Star Pastina	38	Tortilla (corn; mexican)	52	Taco Shell	68	French Baguette	95
Apple	38	Orange Juice	53	Sucrose	68	Parsnips	97
Ice cream, premium	38	Sourdough Bread	53	Ryvita Crispbread	69	Rice, Glutinous (Sticky)	98
Peach, canned in juice	38	Coca Cola	53	Special K	69	Glucose (50 g test portion)	100
All Bran with Fiber	38	Buckwheat	54	Aborio	69	Dates	103

Law #12