New to forum and just obtained a blood monitor

Patricia21

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1,764
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Apple not to good 3 teaspoons of sugar in a apple,I have five strawberries and cream,any berries and cream.
One slice of bread a day.
Cheese , tomatoes cucumber,salad onions eggs just cut the carbs,and eat as much as you want anything else.
 

Nick..

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Other
I thought I read somewhere here that apples ok; bananas bad!

Oh well.....I do have strawberries coming with this week's shop

My blood sugar is 13.5 now, couple of hours after dinner, so at least things seem to be coming down from the 26 when diagnosed

It might take me a while to eliminate carbs to a satisfactory degree, but at least moving on from lunches of white bread, crisps and kitkats should get me going

I'm a BIG dude, and the Dr said weight loss should be the absolute priority. He said weight and food intake were equally responsible for Type 2
 

Patricia21

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1,764
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Animal crualty
I dont believe that weight is all that responsible.I have never had weight problems.Its genes,you cut carbs to get BG down,but it does make you lose weight.so the medics say your BG has gone down because you have lost weight,But in fact the BG as gone down because you have low carbs,regardless of weight loss.Does that make sence?
 

andcol

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Retired Moderator
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3,176
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
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I do not have diabetes
I thought I read somewhere here that apples ok; bananas bad!

Oh well.....I do have strawberries coming with this week's shop

My blood sugar is 13.5 now, couple of hours after dinner, so at least things seem to be coming down from the 26 when diagnosed

It might take me a while to eliminate carbs to a satisfactory degree, but at least moving on from lunches of white bread, crisps and kitkats should get me going

I'm a BIG dude, and the Dr said weight loss should be the absolute priority. He said weight and food intake were equally responsible for Type 2
Have a look at my 3 month thread in my signature. It isn't weight as such it is fat around and in your organs that are causing the issues. Shake that and things will improve. For me they reversed so I can now binge on half a pound of liquorice and only see my bloods peak at 7.5 all after losing nearly 6 stone. I was also a very big lad and never realised just how big. There is no harm in losing the weight so give it a go. For me it was very low calorie and an increase in exercise.
 
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Sirmione

Well-Known Member
Messages
477
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
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Donald Trump
Soups vary a lot, with all soups you buy you must read the label, varieties and manufacturers have vasty differing sugar and carb content.

Much the same goes for bread even whole grain bread you have to check the info on the label, it is carbohydrate so you must minimise the amount you eat. Keeping mind your body is only clearing glucose from your blood at a restricted rate, even though it may be able to deal with X amount of carbs in 24 hours it can't deal with the same X amount in a single meal without your blood glucose soaring.
Personally in my case this means my standard early lunch of bacon, egg, sausage and a potato scone is fine but if I have another potato scone or half a slice of toast my blood glucose will take 3 hours to get back to my normal limits.

Fruit also varires in sugar and carb content, I personally don't have any problem with a eating one small "kids fun sized" apple but eating two full sized apples would send my readings sky high.
Pears are also lower in sugar than apples.
Small cherry or plum tomatoes can be a handy as a snack to replace traditional fruit.
 

Nick..

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
after losing nearly 6 stone
Have a look at my 3 month thread in my signature. It isn't weight as such it is fat around and in your organs that are causing the issues. Shake that and things will improve. For me they reversed so I can now binge on half a pound of liquorice and only see my bloods peak at 7.5 all after losing nearly 6 stone. I was also a very big lad and never realised just how big. There is no harm in losing the weight so give it a go. For me it was very low calorie and an increase in exercise.

Great thread, and well done, you did superbly.

I'm starting out, ahem, a bit bigger than you, but I don't think I was eating as much as you. Perhaps I'm a bit older! My weight basically went up all my life.

I'm fairly sedantry, same sort of job as you, sitting at a computer screen getting stressed all day, but I do have spells of exercise. I golf a lot this time of year and have had a noticeable drop in weight. Whilst it sounds like a pleasant walk, golf is actually 4 hours of brisk walking up and down slopes, and in warm temps this time of year. I eat like a hungry bear after playing golf (if bears could get served kebabs), yet my weight has noticeably fallen since taking it up again.

It was my astonishing, unquenchable thirst during my recent games that actually convinced me to go to the docs.

There's clearly a very low carb centric approach on this forum, and it seems to work. Like it works for anyone who has wanted to lose weight and went down that route. It almost feels as though we were lied to about what was healthy, when you consider what a bad rep the foods that are considered good on a low carb diet had through the 80's and 90's.

I do believe that low carb is really what everyone should aspire to, diabetes, overweight or not.

.........that said, I think if you exercise a lot, you can have carbs in your diet without having too detrimental an effect (when it comes to weight loss anyway, diabetes may be very different), so I will look to focus more on exercise and overall weight loss than completely eliminating carbs, just because I consider that a more achievable way of getting my weight down. Maybe over the years I will reduce carbs further, time will tell I guess.

I saw you mentioned you were eating a lot more carbs in May, do you mind me asking what sorts of foods and in what sort of quantities?

I'm making copious notes from this forum and diabetes sites to aid my shopping and meal planning, and to take to the diabetic nurse next week

The problem for me with a VLCD is that, for vanity reasons, down the years I've tried diets like this many times and failed, and I think I have a bit of "scar tissue" when it comes to living on very, very low amounts of calories

I'd really like to make a change now that lasts the rest of my life
 
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andcol

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3,176
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
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I do not have diabetes
Great thread, and well done, you did superbly.
Thanks
I saw you mentioned you were eating a lot more carbs in May, do you mind me asking what sorts of foods and in what sort of quantities?
I think the best way to answer that is my last weeks diet - you will all be shocked but it was what it was. Went out at the weekend with my wife on Saturday and had chicken and chips in a well known restaurant with ice cream and chocolate sauce and then helped finish my wife's chocolate fudge cake. In the even I had bar of chocolate. On Sunday roast dinner with 2 yorkshire puddings and 3 roast potatoes, on Monday I bought some liquorice and ate the whole bag at 2PM sat at my desk (that's a whole 250g) in about 30 minutes! The rest of the week I have eaten normally except for an extra bag of peanuts at lunch time on weds and today and a 150g bar of chocolate on weds. Normal diet is a bowl of porridge for breakfast, lunch is normally meat of some form, carrot battons, lettuce, nuts, raspberries and blueberries, dinner is meat and veg and nuts. BTW I never saw a single number over 7.5 even with the 1/2lb of liquorice. Whilst I was on holiday I was eating lots of french toast and pancakes and chips, tropical fruit. So my normal diet isnt particularly high carb any more but do have regular blow outs of which my body handles perfectly.
Not a good example to people so don't follow my lead but is good to know what can be achieved from very high numbers that the nurse reckoned I would be in insulin within a few years when I first seeing her.

The key for me is that I tend to eat fairly low carb (except the blow outs) but not dramatically low and I tend to eat carbs and fat in different meals and I tend to live with my cells on the edge of glucose and fat burning so it is easy for them to switch. Interestingly after my blowouts as I am switching back to low carb levels my always get cramps in my calves and tingling in my toes... This will be for about a day.

There's clearly a very low carb centric approach on this forum, and it seems to work. Like it works for anyone who has wanted to lose weight and went down that route. It almost feels as though we were lied to about what was healthy, when you consider what a bad rep the foods that are considered good on a low carb diet had through the 80's and 90's.

The low carb seems to work for most, I play at it really (as you can tell) and found a diet I liked, which isn't high carb or low carb, and just go with it. I don't worry about eating fat nowadays but do tend to think about the carbs. So yes we have been loed to and the medical bodies/government are culpable and responsible for the health issues we have. Although, they could not have afforded and still couldn't to feed everyone on a high fat and protein diet - carbs are cheap fat isnt.

BTW I do have another thread where I talk about my increased carb experiments at the time of doing them - you should be able to find it with a search
 
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Nick..

Member
Messages
12
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Hi, just a quick update on my mmo/l levels....

I know it's the significant amount of metformin I'm taking (and temporarily 1 glyclazide per day) but my levels have fallen from 26 last weekend to 8.9 just now

I change my diet the instant I was diagnosed (though it's nowhere near as healthy as most people here), and I think the metformin is a bit of an appetite suppressant? but I have unreal levels of energy at the moment

Of course the thirst and too many visits to the loo was a nice thing to lose, but the amount of energy I have is incredible

a few weeks ago I'd wake on a weekend and be lethargic, do a bit of work in the garden and come in and snooze

I've done bodyweight circuit training every other day this week, and some walking on the other days. exercised this morning, worked in the garden in the heat all afternoon, and I feel wide awake and am looking around for more jobs to do!

I think I'm probably eating around 2,000 calories per day, which is clearly not a low calorie diet, but as I'm so big I think I will see a lot of weight loss from the change in diet, reduction in calories and increased exercise

I think I must have had high blood sugars for some time, because it's been a long time since I felt this good

If my blood sugars get to a normal level by my next doctors visit, can anyone suggest what might happen next?

I assume they'll drop my dosage and remove the glyclazide (i have one month's worth)

If I lose a lot of weight over the coming months, is it likely they'd try me without any drugs?
 
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Sirmione

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477
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Tablets (oral)
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Donald Trump
Metformin has a number of different side effects and seems to effect everybody differently, for me in the first month or so the two main unwanted side effects were hunger between meals and to use used in the term in the literature "rapid digestive transit".
Just a few months ago my numbers weren't that different from yours.
If you get the carbs right down your the total number of calories are much less important. You need to get the carbs down and get your body to work in fat burning mode, it took a while with me and then happened quite suddenly.

The downward trend is contining my current dailly average for this week is 5.5 mmol/l for the month is 5.8. Just 45 minutes after a very large meal which contained some carbs my reading is sitting at 5.8mmol/l
 

Pinkorchid

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,927
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Thanks for that; Scotch eggs just made my trial list for lunches :)

The most important thing for me is that the crisps, white bread, crackers, biscuits and chocolate are gone for now, and possibly gone for good for most of that. Those were the harmful staples I was eating every day, and also the ones that got over-eaten after a few too many drinks.

I'd love to be able to have a bit of chocolate or pudding from time to time, I guess time will tell whether that will be ok for me.

My blood sugar test have dropped somewhat, still probably horrifying numbers for some of you, but as I was up at 24-26 over the weekend, I'm seeing max of around 16-17 now so hopefully they continue to fall.

Reasonable day today, probably still reliant on bread too much (had a few slices of wholegrain with break fast and lunch), eggs for breakfast, soup for lunch, ham as a snack this afternoon, couple of apples, chicken, veg and (horror!) bit of mashed potato with dinner....
Don't cut out everything all at once let your body get used to lowering carbs slowly try reducing the portion sizes before you cut them all out altogether and if you test you may find that you can still eat small amounts of bread. Many here have the Burgen and Linseed bread and if you are near a Lidl try their high protein rolls but trouble is not all the stores do them but those members here that can get them say they are delicious and don't raise their BG