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Long Term Low carb

H

Hupio

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi

How long can you continue with a low-carb diet? Initially when I started 4 years ago I thought it was a diet for life, now that I've reached my target weight (80-82 kgs from being 118 kgs 4 years ago) I find it a struggle to maintain my weight without putting on too much, and I'm not sure I'm meeting my nutritional requirements. After I first reached my target weight I relaxed my low-carb rules a bit, allowing for bread, occasional chips with fried fish and so on, and I seemed to cope ok. Now however that tolerance seems to have gone out the window, as if the carb intakes have had a cumulative effect, and I feel like I'm on a tightrope. I would like to talk to a dietician, is anyone in the Leeds area aware of a dietician with knowledge of diabetes and low carb diets?

Thanks
 
Goonergal said:
Hi @Hupio both dietdoctor.com and the Public Health Collaboration maintain registers of doctors using low carb diets. I’ll have a look for the direct links and come back and post them.
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Thanks for that Goonergal! I found an organisation over the other side of Halifax from your links and I will give them a ring tomorrow! :)
 
Hi @Hupio

I'm in a similar situation to you in some ways, low carb for 4 years and I still have to watch my weight, I'm happy with my BG control.

My own 2 pence worth of thought is this ;) -

I think that perhaps relaxing carb limits may gradually push me back into insulin resistance and producing more insulin.
Since it's your insulin level that is the switch that triggers whether your body is storing or burning stored energy (don't think we can do both at the same time), this would then mean I'd gain more weight but still be hungry because the excess insulin will store the food I input as body fat instead of using it, leaving me hungry again relatively quickly and short of energy :(

I can tell when I've pushed my carb limit too far too often because I put on weight at a higher than normal rate (for me) so I cut back to a lower level of carbs.

That's just me so things may be different for you.

Sounds rather like your own 'cumulative effect' thought but for 'cumulative effect' read increasing insulin resistance.

I do keep a food diary because of this to help me monitor my carb intake.

Hope you get some helpful input if you get so see a dietician :)
 
Hupio said:
Now however that tolerance seems to have gone out the window, as if the carb intakes have had a cumulative effect
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I think you are probably correct. If, as some suggest, too many carbs are the initial problem and weight gain the result not (sole) cause of developing/aggravating insulin resistance then reintroducing too many carbs will impact your metabolism negatively. But what is too many? I suspect there is some sort of threshold dynamic (pure speculation you understand) where your body can cope with x number of carbs but not x+1! That x will probably vary with age and activity and even source of carb. Really interested in what you discover.
 
Hupio said:
After I first reached my target weight I relaxed my low-carb rules a bit, allowing for bread, occasional chips with fried fish and so on, and I seemed to cope ok. Now however that tolerance seems to have gone out the window, as if the carb intakes have had a cumulative effect
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That's exactly what happens.. excess carb intake got you to where you were before going low carb so excess carb intake will take you back to where you were at the start.
 
I'm more interested in controlling my glucose levels than my weight, though I lost about half that which I apparently needed to. :oops: As soon as I dropped my carbohydrate intake my glucose levels improved, before I really started to lose weight. And after an initial and fairly fast loss, my weight's remained stable, and doesn't seem to adversely affect my glucose levels. My GP originally suggested Atkins for weight loss and is quite happy with me eating low carb.

I've eaten LCHF quite happily for six and a half years now and intend to continue indefinitely - it suits me fine!. My diet is better/healthier now than the high carb one I ended up with for the last few years pre diagnosis and which partly caused my T2, and is fairly close (though somewhat lower carb and slightly higher fat) to what I ate previously for most of my life.

ETA GP told me recently that all diabetics in our practice are now being offered low carb diets as a management option.
 
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Low Carb can be a diet for life - in many cases it is how our ancestors ate. Actually diet is the wrong way of thinking about Low Carb, since you shouldn't feel you are starving yourself like on a low Calorie diet. Low Carb is just a 'Way Of Eating'.

I wonder what form of Low Carb you were doing since you are wondering if you are deficient in some nutrients.
There are no nutrients that you can't get from eating Proteins and Fats. Carbs are the only non-essential macro nutrient.
Of course its possible to be low carb and nutrient deficient by avoiding certain foods, but that is less likely than for somebody consuming a High Carb Low Fat diet.
 
lcarter said:
This is interesting, one if the drs listed isn't too far from me, but is an NHS dr. Would I just call the surgery even though I'm not a patient? Sorry, just confused! Thanks
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Lcarter - why not just give them a call and see what happens.

Many NHS doctors do private work; even GPs. I'm not suggesting you'd be charged a fee as I have no clue, but the worst thing that can happen is it gets you nowhere?
 
lcarter said:
This is interesting, one if the drs listed isn't too far from me, but is an NHS dr. Would I just call the surgery even though I'm not a patient? Sorry, just confused! Thanks
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Same here - it’s a surgery which I would love to transfer to because they have a good reputation and mine is not the most proactive etc but I am about 2 miles outside of the catchment area and they won’t take me.
 
I'm in Australia so would love to have information of medical professions who agree with the LCHF way of living. I just will continue to get regular blood tests which should my liver and kidney are happy, not short of other things and my blood sugars under control. I would love to have a dietician to work through some other suggestions but I have to say they would have to be pretty awesome to beat the resources here.
 
VashtiB said:
I'm in Australia so would love to have information of medical professions who agree with the LCHF way of living. I just will continue to get regular blood tests which should my liver and kidney are happy, not short of other things and my blood sugars under control. I would love to have a dietician to work through some other suggestions but I have to say they would have to be pretty awesome to beat the resources here.
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Vashti, have a look at dietdoctor.com - https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/doctors

Have you come across Dr Paul Mason? And there were a group of Australian medics that Dr David Unwin from the UK visited a couple of years back (actually it may be the other way round and they came here). Look at the lowcarbdownunder you tube channel.
 
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