Jennifer's Update Thread

[JenniferG]

Just created this thread to share my updates

I eat a low carb diet and my A1C went from 9-10 (for the past several years) down to 5.3. My lipids have went from high risk to normal/ideal. Blood pressure is now normal. I weighed 440 lbs (31.4 stone, 199.6 kg) just over a year ago and now weigh 365.2 lbs (26.1 stone, 165.7 kg) for a loss of 74.8 lbs (5.3 stone, 34 kg).

 

[JenniferG]

Saturday Morning Weekly Update (9/16/2017)

So I started weighing myself each morning after I get up and go to the restroom, but before breakfast, and I record it. Each Saturday morning, after weighing, I sum up these seven daily numbers and divide by seven, to get my average weight for the entire week. (I find this a sane solution to the crazy fluctuating water weight I have from day to day -- thanks Dr. Bernstein for this suggestion.)

This weekend my average weight for this past week is 365.2 lbs (26.1 stone, 165.7 kg). Last Saturday I calculated my average weekly weight to be 370.2 lbs (26.4 stone, 167.9 kg). So this is a loss of 5 pounds (2.27 kg) this past week. I had 5.5 pounds (2.49 kg) of weight loss the previous week. 165.2 more pounds (11.8 stone, 74.9 kg) to lose to achieve 200 lbs (14.3 stone, 90.7 kg). Down 74.8 lbs (5.3 stone, 33.9 kg) from 440 lbs (31.4 stone, 199.6 kg) last year.

For the past two weeks, I am eating an average, per day, of about 45g total carbs, 15g fiber, (30g net carbs), 96g protein, 112g fat, 1543 calories. My average blood sugar this past week as been 92 mg/dL (5 mmol/L) -- a weekly average of the daily averages; highest spike this past week was 112 mg/dL (6.2 mmol/L). My average insulin injections have been 23 units per day -- down from over 80 units per day a few weeks ago.

I bought a Fitbit Charge 2 and like it -- it encourages me to walk. I am getting a good number of steps in but I think it's too much for my weight, as I am developing metatarsalgia in both feet (mostly my left) and an outer callous on my left foot; seeing a podiatrist soon. I also like how Fitbit monitors pulse rate and sleep patterns throughout the day, providing detailed graphs/charts.

Been reading up on intermittent fasting and how people used to eat 40-50 years ago. After reading Jason Fung's "The Complete Guide to Fasting", I decided to start with a 12 hour fast. That is, to make sure I don't eat anything after 6pm, not until breakfast 6am following morning. This gives the body a good amount of time to rest, heal, detoxify, catabolize etc.. autophagy at work etc.. Since I've been doing this I have been getting better sleep and feeling better the next day. (Before I always used to eat right up until bed time -- usually midnight.)

 

[Peerless67]

Congratulations on the BG numbers and the weight loss, good luck on the rest of your journey.

 

[Brunneria]

That weight loss is FANTASTIC!

Sorry about your feet. Can i ask what shoes you are wearing for the walking. The older i get, the more vital i find arch support. I've been buying orthotic inserts (bought at local chemists, then online) for a few years, because they make such a massive difference to pain levels after walking and standing. I used to have pain every step. Now i only get it after prolonged standing. Walking is fine - but only with the arch support.

Interestingly, those arch supports seem to have also improved lower back pain, which was an added bonus.

I also do some calf stretching exercises, which help a lot, but since your problem is metatarsalgia and mine is/was plantar fasciitis, those won't be relevant

 

[Resurgam]

Do you use walking poles?
I find that I can go further faster with the Nordic walking poles and it has less impact on my back and legs - presumably my feet too.They give me the confidence to attempt longer walks on our uneven pavements.

 

[Guzzler]

Well done, lots of hard work there. Keep it up.

 

[Kentoldlady1]

Amazing work. Well done. I know its not easy.

 

[seanj67]

More inspiration, well done you.

 

[JenniferG]

Amazing work. Well done. I know its not easy.

Thanks. What's interesting is though, it's almost effortless . Hunger is totally zapped with ketogenic & 12 to 16 hour intermittent fasts.

 

[JenniferG]

Cut basal insulin to 12 units per day, down from 23 units.

After a 39g protein lunch, (3g net carbs), my blood sugar rose from 85 mg/dL (earlier in the day) to 105 mg/dL. Probably not the lunch (doubt protein digests in 1 1/2 hours).. I dunno.. maybe a liver dump.

Wasn't having that and not going to correct with 5 units of humalog like I would of. Instead I walked around like a crazy woman, for 15 minutes while playing some Thrash Metal on Amazon Echo -- waving my arms around playing air drums, head banging etc lol. Managed to walk briskly and first 10 mins I was at 130 heart rate. after 15 mins I was at 140, by the end I got up to 150 BPM.

Checked blood sugar right after (while pulse was still around 130 bpm) and it was 85 mg/dL.. so I dropped20 mg/dL in 15 mins without meds, due to cardio.. Can't wait to get the recumbent bike, will be easier on my joints.

I might be off basal insulin soon we'll see.

 

[JenniferG]

As of today, I am INSULIN FREE !! In fact totally free of all diabetes medications!

Now maintaining my blood sugar in 80-99 mg/dL range all day (with no spikes over 100), with just diet and exercise only.

Diet: very low carb diet: 30g net carbs, 20g fiber carbs, (so 50g total carbs), 75-90g protein, 100g to 150g fat. Average calories about 1500 calories.

Exercise: 10,000 to 15,000 steps per day, with 20 mins of "cardio" 1 hour after my biggest meal (that has the most carbs). For cardio I just walk around to thrash metal for 20 minutes, head banging and playing air drums and air guitar. That really seems to get my bpm up in the 130-140 range pretty quickly -- I can't run and other forms of exercise hurt my joints more.. I just walk briskly and move my head and arms around as much as possible. This "cardio" drops my blood sugar down from say 95 mg/dL to 80 mg/dL in like 15 mins.

Just last month I was injecting 80 units of insulin per day. But I wasn't restricting my protein, which I found is very imporant. I was eating like 150g of protein per day then.. cut that in half and made huge improvements to blood sugar lowering insulin requirement. Also just cut down calorie intake in general from the "safe" 2400 calories per day for "slow weight loss" (2lb per week).. to like 1200 to 1400 calories instead. Way better for diabetes to cut it down I say.. I don't inject anymore! . (Additonally I am losing like 4-5 pounds each week as well, which I think is also helping with the insulin resistance/sensitivty) Also I try not to eat anything at all after 6pm until breakfast at 6pm for 12 hour fast each day. I also try to make dinner my meal with lowest amount of protein in it, so during that 12 hours fast I have more catolization & autophagy. My dark scars I've had for years seem to be fading much faster as of late.

In strong nutritional ketosis now, with only trace ketones in urine. My Ketonix 2015 reads 68. Which according to the graph is around 3 mmol/L of BHB in blood. My blood alcohol meter ($12) reads 0.054%.. highest reading I got so far

. Really that's all you need to check your nutritional ketosis.. a cheap $12 blood alcohol meter

(The BAC meter picks up the acetone in the breath.)

 

[JenniferG]

Saturday Morning Weekly Update (9/23/2017)

So my average weight for this week is 360.9 lbs, for an average loss of 4.3 lbs this week.

For some reason my body's basal insulin injection requirement tapered off from 24 units on Sunday to zero units as of yesterday. From Sunday to today, my units injected were: 25, 14, 11, 6, 4, 0, 0.

So I no longer inject insulin or take any diabetes medications for that matter. But I do have to carefully control it with carb intake, protein intake and do about 20 mins of cardio a day to keep it under 100 mg/dL all day. I think the 10k to 15k steps per day are probably helping with the numbers as well.

 

[Kentoldlady1]

Oh my goodness!! All I can say is wow! My I ask just what prompted you to do this now? You are going so well, what has changed for you? (Of course you have no need to answer such a personal question, buti find other peoples motivation to be very helpful).
Have a great day.

 

[JenniferG]

Oh my goodness!! All I can say is wow! My I ask just what prompted you to do this now? You are going so well, what has changed for you? (Of course you have no need to answer such a personal question, buti find other peoples motivation to be very helpful).
Have a great day.

What prompted me to change things was back in May of 2016. I had suffered A1C of around 10 for several years and was feeling REALLY bad; neuropathy was getting worse day by day. It was horrible! I thought I probably wouldn't live another 10 years at the rate I was going. I had tried dieting and even injecting insulin, but I didn't know enough about diet and proper use of insulin and I ended up just gaining a lot of weight with blood sugars still very bad.

So I finally started LCHF back towards the end of May last year and it brought my A1C down to about 6.1. I was feeling a lot better. But I wasn't injecting basal insulin at the time and my blood sugars stayed in the 110-140 mg/dL range all day. Since I was doing LCHF with intermittent fasting, and had higher blood sugars, the uric acid and ketones kept building up to where I had dark purple urinary ketones and uric acid level of 8.1. After a month of it, I was suffering some pretty bad dehydration and whole body gout (gout for the first time in my life). Anyways, that put my progress to a halt last summer.. i.e. the gout (it runs in the family). So I had a period of about 9 months where I just sort of maintained an A1C of about 7.1 or so.

But back in April of this year I got back into LCHF and started on Allopurinol. I also made sure to inject basal insulin to keep blood sugar in the 80-100 mg/dL range all day. Things looked up since then. Only trace amounts of ketones in urine now, with good strong levels of BHB in blood, uric acid levels kept lower due to keto adaption and allopurinol. No more dehydration. Gout is improving day by day -- takes some time to clear out of all the joints I guess. From April to the end of August I was injecting about 75 units of insulin per day on average.

And for some reason earlier this month the basal insulin injection requirement got cut in half.. well I cut my protein intake by almost half as well. Then I started getting some steps in on the pedometer. I found that I could control my blood sugar by walking. I was taking about 24 units per day of basal insulin up until this past week.

Now I don't inject anymore and can maintain 80-100 mg/dL with just diet and exercise. This *requires* me to do 20 mins of cardio, once per day though. I check my blood sugar a few times per day and when it's close to 100 mg/dL, I do the cardio; and I end up with around 15 mg/dL less blood glucose.

This whole thing was a learning process. I knew nothing about low carb diet just over a year ago.. I felt hopeless. No doctors could help me. I got support from the forums and learned about low carb. Then I had to learn about keto adaption, uric acid, gout and all that.. that set me back. Then I got that sorted out with medication (both allopurinal and basal insulin). Then recently I found out that exercise really does help with blood sugar control for me, if I get into the "cardio" range, which for me is above 120 BPM.

I am going to keep up the LCHF diet along with daily exercise for the rest of my life. Hopefully I'll be waking with blood glucose in the 70's and not really go past 95 mg/dL. Hopefully I'll find my HOMA-IR improves along with my Triglycerides/HDL ratio. (My last HOMA-IR a year ago was 3.95 and my last Trig/HDL ratio was 125/57.)

I expect my next A1C to be 4.8-4.9.

 

[Kentoldlady1]

I am.so impressed. It must have been even more difficult with gout. My step father had it in one foot and was in agony. To have it in all joints must have been awful.

Do you have family support? Mine want me to be healthy but still dont get the lchf thing and keep trying to feed me potatoes!!!

 

[ringi]

Great results

As to exercise I expect you are over walking. But some simple very light weight resistance training may have benefit. Given how quickly you are losing weight it is not worth risking long term damage to your body from too much exercise at this state.
In the long term being able to walk etc will be key weight maintenance, so don’t damage your body by making it walk too much with your current weight.

Research have shown that just standing up every half hour walking 10 steps and sitting down again gets great results, hence no need for you to walk miles until your body is ready. Swimming may be better then walking as less risk of damage to your body, just moving about in a swimming pool if you can’t swim lengths would be worthwhile.

Have you thought of getting a drums kit and having some lessons? (It’s the best exercise my wife gets, and the lessons are no more than a personal trainer at a gym.)

4-5 pounds each week weight lose is about the max rate most people’s body can burn fat don’t try to lose weight faster. You will already have lost a lot of the fat from your liver hence greatly reduced your insulin resistance, as you lose fat from the rest of your body your insulin resistance will slowly reduce more. As you lose fat from your beta cells your body may become better at making its own insulin hence in a few years time you may be able to eat some carbs once a week or maybe even more often.

 

[JenniferG]

I am.so impressed. It must have been even more difficult with gout. My step father had it in one foot and was in agony. To have it in all joints must have been awful.

Do you have family support? Mine want me to be healthy but still dont get the lchf thing and keep trying to feed me potatoes!!!

My boyfriend lives with me; I have my own house. He loves all my LCHF cooking . He has no problems with it and losing some weight himself

Sorry about your family, maybe just give them some time to catch on. Hopefully time will fix it!

 

[JenniferG]

Great results

As to exercise I expect you are over walking. But some simple very light weight resistance training may have benefit. Given how quickly you are losing weight it is not worth risking long term damage to your body from too much exercise at this state.
In the long term being able to walk etc will be key weight maintenance, so don’t damage your body by making it walk too much with your current weight.

Yeah I worry about overwalking. I'll pay attention to what my body is telling me and take less steps if I need to. I have however found out something very low impact that is much better than power walking for me. I just got a DeskCycle and sit it front of my sofa. I can lay back in the sofa and pedal, moving around arms at same time, and get a good sweat worked up and have an average heart rate of about 130 beats per minute. I do this for 20 mins and my blood glucose drops 15-30 mg/dL. SO this is how I've been controlling my blood sugar as of late. I don't want to go back on insulin. Last night I was at 109 mg/dL and did 20 min cardio on the DeskCycle (totally impact free and didn't hurt knees or butt since on sofa), after the cardio I was at 78 mg/dL . Drop of 31 mg/dL.

As far as drums go, I can actually play them with a decent beat . It's been many years and I don't own a set. Plus my circulation / butt won't allow it. Start getting edema really bad and leg goes numb.. but gets really painful with sharp pains etc. Hips throb etc. But anyways, for now I just air drum fast while on the DeskCycle and listen to some speed metal to keep me going fast

 

[ringi]

Have you tried some light wrist weights while air drumming?

 

[JenniferG]

Have you tried some light wrist weights while air drumming?

No I haven't. Perhaps I should? Will the workout my arms will be getting then be anaerobic? Because anaerobic releases lactic acid and raises my blood sugar. I really only do the cardio to lower the blood sugar and it does it well . Did two 20 min cardio sessions today and lowered blood sugar by 24 mg/dL then 30 mg/dL