Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:
GI = glycemic index
GL = glycemic load
The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.
Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.
You need to use both for weight loss as there are many foods that contain the similar figures. I use a combo of both for reference. It can get really scary when there are so many diet rules out there but use your commonsense and you can't fail. I try to follow LOW GI/GL, Low Fat, Low sugars and depending upon time of the day LOW CARBS (after 4pm).
Hope this info helps and good luck!
