New to this

[ickihun]

I have been eating a low fat diet, will look that up thank you, yeah I love walking have invested in a treadmill too.

Low carb diet will reduce blood glucose in your blood and organs.
Low fat diets get mixed press but no benefit alone to reducing high bgs.
Fat slows down the digestive system making many feel fullier for longer. A benefit for some but not all. I think I have a slow digestion already but I've been diabetic for decades. Hopefully your body hasnt been diabetic long so no such worry.
Try low carb, high fat. Many many success stories on it.

 

[Guzzler]

Hi thank you, how long have you had diabetes?

I was diagnosed just four months ago and it was a bolt out of the blue. I had no symptoms. In those four months I have lowered my numbers, lost a little weight and gained so much knowledge about food, health and the emotional pitfalls of the diagnosis.
I am the original panic merchant but with the guidance of the super members here I have made good progress and have had a good laugh along the way.

 

[kim2109]

Welcome! I'm four months from diagnosis. Once I was over the initial shock, I saw it as the proverbial kick up the bum to get healthier. I was started on Metformin and tolerate it well now after a bit of stomach upset in the early days. I wasn't advised to eat low carb, but stumbled on this forum by chance and took up low carb dieting and self monitoring. To date I've lost nearly three and a half stone and got my HbA1c down significantly, all due to the advise I got here
I'm sure you'll do it too!

Hi and thank you well done you sound like you've got this,

 

[kim2109]

Hi @kim2109. Lots of good advice above. I would expect you may hear that you don't need to test and that you should eat a "healthy diet" (including carbs etc) unless your nurse is more informed and more bold than the average. The NHS is, for various reasons, taking time to get up to to speed with low carb dieting and the best ways for Type 2s to monitor themselves...so it's good to know you have the initiative to buy a meter and investigate LCHF dieting. I was diagnosed well over two years ago following a transplant (required due to inheriting a kidney disease). I have been managing it purely by eating mainly a low carb diet (I am a bit more relaxed about it now due to real progress) and by reference to my meter (an with info form initially keeping food/meter reading diary). My HbA1c has dropped down well and level is generally in the "normal range". I am by no means unusual on this site. Weight has never been an issue for me but I understand that it really is the carbs which lead to weight gain rather than certain kinds of fat in foods. The fewer carbs there are in the diet, the more the body will burn off fat for energy...so remember to include "good" fat in your diet (oily fish, avocado, nuts etc). I really would urge you to record times, levels and food eaten for a while - you will learn a lot from the patterns that emerge. Good luck.

Thanks for all the advice it's mad how much information there is to take in, I can't wait to get my blood sugars normal and feel better than I do right now am only a few days in and they are still up in the 19's so hoping LCHF Diet will help

 

[kim2109]

Hi @kim2109 .. and welcome
I agree with all the advice that you have been given above and you will have realised by now that you have certainly made a good move coming here. A key point that I would add is that managing and controlling your diabetes through exercise, diet and testing your blood glucose seems to be the best way forward for many people.

I would also mention that you will probably come across a lot of conflicting and sometimes confusing information .. most of us do .. and it can cause worries and doubt. However, a way that I have found to deal with this is by employing a couple of useful little mantras that I use in appropriate circumstances - eg:

When Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are giving you typical NHS "advice" ..
# Listen
# Nod
# Smile and say thankyou
# Ignore

and when they are "advising" about diet as you are developing your LCHF lifestyle ..
# Only eat real food
# Only eat when you are hungry
# Only eat until you are full

Hope this helps

Hi thank you for your reply I will take all this on board

 

[Rachox]

Hi thank you. It's crazy how hungry I am I really don't think I can continue a low calorie diet so will look at this thanks, how long have you been diabetic?

I have been overweight since after my son was born (he's 21 now!). I've tried all kinds of diets and they all left me hungry. After about two weeks on a low carb diet I began to realise that I was rarely hungry. The odd time I am, I consol myself that I'm resting my pancreas so it can work as well as possible

 

[kim2109]

Ok I'll do that, I think other than the blood sugar test and kidney function the only other test was a full blood count will that show a breakdown of results I need to monitor? I.e liver, cholesterol and thyroid etc? I'm keeping a diary of my blood sugar results but finding they are still high perhaps it will help once I'm on the metformin? Wow well done on maintaining your new weight that's excellent, thank you for all your time and information.

 

[kim2109]

When you see your nurse, ask her for a print out of all your test results. Not just the HbA1c but also the cholesterol, breakdown of cholesterol, liver and kidney functions and anything else they threw in. These are all important to diabetics and we need to keep an eye on all of them. It is best you know where you are starting from. Sadly, we know on here that we can't always trust our doctors to tell us if something is still normal but verging on the abnormal. They don't notice! They only notice the abnormal - and not even then sometimes. This is why we need the informatiion in black and white. You could also ask if your surgery puts test results online and how to register for it.

Well done for buying a meter. You can use it to work out a suitable diet for yourself.
Test before you eat
Test again 2 hours after first bite
Look at the rise from before to after, which you should try to keep under 2mmol/l (preferably less).
If more than this, there are too many carbs in that meal so you need to reduce portion sizes or eliminate.
Keep a food diary of all the ingredients in your meal including portion sizes
Record your BS levels alongside and look for patterns.
This is called eating to your meter.

I was diagnosed in January 2014. I started on a low carb diet and lost 4 and a half stone in 9 or 10 months and got my BS down. I have maintained my new weight ever since. I still follow a low carb diet and higher fat. (no low fat products and I don't actively avoid fats)

You may find Slimming World is a bit too carbohydrate heavy. All carbs turn to sugar once inside the system, so the fewer you eat the lower your BS will be. This includes all the wholemeal versions. The worst for raising blood sugars are bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals. We also need to be careful with fruit - and milk also has carbs. For fruit, berries are best, bananas and grapes are worst.

Sorry this is a bit long and sorry if I have confused you even more. Just read round and ask as many questions as you like.

Did my reply come through to you?

 

[Bluetit1802]

Did my reply come through to you?

Ok I'll do that, I think other than the blood sugar test and kidney function the only other test was a full blood count will that show a breakdown of results I need to monitor? I.e liver, cholesterol and thyroid etc? I'm keeping a diary of my blood sugar results but finding they are still high perhaps it will help once I'm on the metformin? Wow well done on maintaining your new weight that's excellent, thank you for all your time and information.

Thank you.

A full blood count is useful as our red blood cells (haemoglobin) is where our blood glucose ends up. Liver and kidneys are important as the functions can deteriorate with diabetes, also the liver may well be fatty and markers for this will show in the results. Cholesterol breakdown is very important (HDL/LDL/ and triglycerides). Do ask for your print outs - they will all be on the same sheets (usually 2 sheets of paper). You will see that alongside your result for each of them there will be a reference range. If you are outside this range, it will be highlighted which draws your doctor's attention to it. However, your level may be within range but very much near the edge. Your doctor is unlikely to notice, but you need to know so you can do something about it. This is why print outs or on-line results are so very important.

Metformin helps only to a very limited extent with insulin resistance and also helps reduce the amount of natural glucose the liver produces. It is mainly an appetite suppressant. It won't lower your BS levels very much. A good diet will.

 

[AM1874]

Hi thank you will remember that, I'm finding my way around with this illness there is so much to take in, how long have you had diabetes?

Hi @kim2109 ..
I was diagnosed T2 in early Feb and, like you and many others, I was a bit shell-shocked with little information and no real idea of what was happening to me. Since joining this forum, though, the folks here have given me so much info, advice and support that I am now much more confident about the journey ahead. So ask your questions and be assured that you will receive the answers that you need. It can all seem uphill to start with but, in my experience, it gets easier .. very quickly.

You have said in your posts above that you have tried other diets, including Slimming World, but you are always hungry. The reason that I mention this is that diets never, never work. LCHF is completely different because it is in fact, a lifestyle change .. and it takes some time for you, and your body, to get used to this but you will soon reap the benefits if you continue .. and I'm talking only a short time ..

Hope this helps

 

[kim2109]

I was diagnosed just four months ago and it was a bolt out of the blue. I had no symptoms. In those four months I have lowered my numbers, lost a little weight and gained so much knowledge about food, health and the emotional pitfalls of the diagnosis.
I am the original panic merchant but with the guidance of the super members here I have made good progress and have had a good laugh along the way.

Well done on your progress so far, I had all the classic symptoms but ignored then stupidly for a while. It's nice to chat to another worrier I worry about worrying lol

 

[kim2109]

Hi @kim2109 ..
I was diagnosed T2 in early Feb and, like you and many others, I was a bit shell-shocked with little information and no real idea of what was happening to me. Since joining this forum, though, the folks here have given me so much info, advice and support that I am now much more confident about the journey ahead. So ask your questions and be assured that you will receive the answers that you need. It can all seem uphill to start with but, in my experience, it gets easier .. very quickly.

You have said in your posts above that you have tried other diets, including Slimming World, but you are always hungry. The reason that I mention this is that diets never, never work. LCHF is completely different because it is in fact, a lifestyle change .. and it takes some time for you, and your body, to get used to this but you will soon reap the benefits if you continue .. and I'm talking only a short time ..

Hope this helps

Thank you this page has been great in helping me, just less than a week since diagnoses and I'm beginning to feel more positive. How quickly did you turn things around on the LCHF?

 

[AM1874]

Thank you this page has been great in helping me, just less than a week since diagnoses and I'm beginning to feel more positive. How quickly did you turn things around on the LCHF?

Hi @kim2109 ..
Three months after diagnosis my HBA1c had dropped from 98 to 40 .. cholesterol and trigs were also good
Six months after diagnosis HbA1c was 34
So there's a target for you

 

[leslie10152]

Well done on your progress so far, I had all the classic symptoms but ignored then stupidly for a while. It's nice to chat to another worrier I worry about worrying lol

BEen down that road!

 

[Kentoldlady1]

Hello from another newbie. I was diagnosed on 26th june. No idea about what to do, just had a phone call from gp and an appointment in a month with the diabetes nurse. I thought I would eat fruit and porridge and wholemeal pasta. How wrong can you be.
Since then I have lost weight and my numbers are in the 5 and 6's, never going above 8, even after eating. This forum is fantastic. I have been lchfing since beginning of july. I will try and follow this way of eating for the rest of my life( or until evidence backed studies show something different).
There is loads of info on here, there is a weighing in thread and a whats your morning blood thread. All very inspiring.

The lchf woe works. It brings down blood sugar and keeps it low. But it is a big shift. I have down slimming world and ww in the past and didn't stay with it because I was always hungry. With lchf I still get hungry, but then I eat until I'm not. But, as I said, it does take a few days to get into it.

Take sometime and have a read. Then a cup of tea and then more reading. You can do this. You have already done the hardest bit and decided to do something about your health. Good luck with it all.

 

[Guzzler]

Well done on your progress so far, I had all the classic symptoms but ignored then stupidly for a while. It's nice to chat to another worrier I worry about worrying lol

I saw a meme on Facebook once, it read "Worrying works, 99% of the stuff I worry about never happens".
lol

 

[kim2109]

Hello from another newbie. I was diagnosed on 26th june. No idea about what to do, just had a phone call from gp and an appointment in a month with the diabetes nurse. I thought I would eat fruit and porridge and wholemeal pasta. How wrong can you be.
Since then I have lost weight and my numbers are in the 5 and 6's, never going above 8, even after eating. This forum is fantastic. I have been lchfing since beginning of july. I will try and follow this way of eating for the rest of my life( or until evidence backed studies show something different).
There is loads of info on here, there is a weighing in thread and a whats your morning blood thread. All very inspiring.

The lchf woe works. It brings down blood sugar and keeps it low. But it is a big shift. I have down slimming world and ww in the past and didn't stay with it because I was always hungry. With lchf I still get hungry, but then I eat until I'm not. But, as I said, it does take a few days to get into it.

Take sometime and have a read. Then a cup of tea and then more reading. You can do this. You have already done the hardest bit and decided to do something about your health. Good luck with it all.

Hi sounds similar to me tested last Tuesday morning and diagnosed last Wednesday afternoon not got an appointment with the diabetic nurse until next Tuesday the 19th am really concerned as although my blood sugars are coming down they are still 16.4 just now and 22.8 this morning I am just on my own with this so thank god I stumbled on to this page it's been so helpful and all the advice so thank you will keep you all posted

 

[kim2109]

I saw a meme on Facebook once, it read "Worrying works, 99% of the stuff I worry about never happens".
lol

Haha @Guzzler very true

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi sounds similar to me tested last Tuesday morning and diagnosed last Wednesday afternoon not got an appointment with the diabetic nurse until next Tuesday the 19th am really concerned as although my blood sugars are coming down they are still 16.4 just now and 22.8 this morning I am just on my own with this so thank god I stumbled on to this page it's been so helpful and all the advice so thank you will keep you all posted

Those are worrying levels, but you are not on your own, you have everyone here.

Have you started a new diet plan, cutting down on all those nasty carbs?

 

[Resurgam]

When I was first diagnosed I did not eat carbs for just over 24 hours, then I had some salad stuff with my next few meals, got some cream for my coffee and took it from there. I did try to take tablets but they made me feel really ill, so I stopped taking them, just kept to low carb foods and reduced my Hba1c from 91 to 47 in 80 days, then reached 41 at the second test after 6 months. Fewer carbs means lower numbers for most type 2 diabetics, though after a few months I did not need to test much.
I did a test tonight after a stressful drive in the dark, wind and rain - it was 7.9 so I don't think that I need worry about it.