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Partner is T2, has lost weight, taken control but is really weak and tired?

N

nooboots

Member
Messages
21
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi, I am new here I hope this is the right place to post this.

My OH was diagnosed with T2 about 10 years ago and never really took it seriously.

This summer, he was told that his levels were consistently too high and at the next check she was going to put him on insulin.

So, following my years of nagging he finally discarded much of the NHS standard advice as it was then, and stopped eating starchy carbs to the degree that he was.

He has now lost nearly 2 stone, his levels dropped within days of starting his new regime. When we went back the diabetic nurse was amazed and said that obviously he would no longer need the insulin but she didnt change any of the other meds.

He now eats porridge with milk, then large salad for lunch (he was having protein with this but has since stopped) then for dinner protein and veg. So in a nutshell he has no potatoes, wheat, pasta, rice or bread, (apart from the porridge).

He started this on 1st May. However within a few weeks he started feeling really tired and weak and this has not improved since then.

Physically, he should be much healthier but seems to feel very lethargic. This weekend in particular he had 2 hypos. I have put this down to drinking okra juice. I am desperate for him to go back to the GP for the next review and hopefully they can take him off some of his meds. He is on so many Im not sure exactly what they are but they are metformin, glicazide, sitaliptin and various others (Ive probably spelled some of that wrong)

Has anyone else done a 'lower' carb diet and lost weight and improved their BS levels but felt pretty tired and weak at the same time?
 
Hello and welcome,

Tell your husband well done for taking control and doing something about his diabetes, and well done you for all the nagging!

I'm not on any meds, but I have read on here many times that once your levels have dropped as much as his, his meds need to be reviewed. Losing weight will have reduced his insulin resistance, so no need for as many insulin promoting drugs. I would advise him to go back to the GP or his diabetic nurse and put this to him/her, and to do this as soon as possible.

Another reason for lack of energy might well be that he has cut his carbs down without replacing the necessary nutrients. Is he eating enough protein and enough fat? One or the other or both of these are necessary on a strict low carb diet. Why isn't he having protein at lunch time?

I follow a low carb diet, have lost 27% of my weight, and my BS are under good control, but I have never felt tired or lethargic - I did ditch all the low fat rubbish and start eating butter, cheese, plain yogurts and lots of eggs.
 
You say he's 'lower' carbs .. Is he getting enough fat in his diet .. I cut my carbs to 30 mg a day and upped my fat intake .. No a huge amount .. Just swapped anything low fat to normal fat .. And I feel good ..
What meds is he on at the moment ? Do you have a bs meter ? What's his before and after bs like ?
I expect he needs to pay more attention to eating to his meter and he should feel a bit better soon I hope
 
Thanks for replying.

Yes I hope he is eating enough fat because that is what we have been doing, replacing the carbs with veg, protein and fat.

He eats nuts constantly and I mean constantly, we are spending a fortune on them and they are full of fat.

As an example today,, he ate a double portion of porridge because he felt so sweaty and shaky yesterday, then lunch was a large salad with chicken livers cooked in chilli peanut butter (bleugh), dinner he will have lentil soup, followed by oven baked fish with lentils and cauliflower. This is a usual sort of intake. His salads are every single vegetable under the sun (it seems!), tomatoes, avocado, olives, gerkins, cucumber, some leaves, beetroot, celery, onions and so on.

However on work days, he doesnt take any protein in the salad at work. He also squeezes in half a banana and maybe some strawberries or pineapple and blueberries during the day.

I thought he should go back to eating some cheese or fish with the salads in the day, do you think he should?

The levels have been since 10th September before breakfast and before dinner - 6.4/4.7, 4.3/4.1, 4.5/4.5, 5/4.3, 7.2/4.3

When he was getting used to his new diet in the summer he was testing about 5 times a day and nurse told him not to do so many tests but it showed slightly higher levels than those I have posted but very stable. So they have definitely gone down since the okra juice experiment.
 
Porridge and milk are both high in carbs. Bananas and pineapple are also bad. you should check out the carb content of the things he eats and try to reduce it.
 
those are nice numbers, I think he is just not use to have them and is having a false hypo
what med is he on, metformin and a gliclazide or similar? he can hypo on a gliclazide like drug, so keep an eye on them
if he gets up during the night, it wouldn't hurt to see what his BG is

this site is good
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php
 
Gosh .. Could not eat most of this myself .. Porridge, banana, Lentils, pineapple will send my bs sky high .. Maybe he needs his meds looked at ..
 
this is too difficult two said:
Porridge and milk are both high in carbs. Bananas and pineapple are also bad. you should check out the carb content of the things he eats and try to reduce it.
Click to expand...
We're not going to cut the carbs anymore than he has, he has to have a breakfast (after years of refusing to eat breakfast), and he wont eat eggs and cant stomach anything else so porridge it is. We have pineapple maybe once a week or once a fortnight so he doesnt have a huge amount,if there is any left he might put a bit in his salad at lunch thats all.

We are happy with the levels, although we're wondering if they are too low really. His high one this morning of 7.2 was due to him having to have a glucose tablet yesterday we think for the hypo.

We check the carb content of everything we eat by the way!
 
jack412 said:
those are nice numbers, I think he is just not use to have them and is having a false hypo
what med is he on, metformin and a gliclazide or similar? he can hypo on a gliclazide like drug, so keep an eye on them
Click to expand...

Its funny you say this, because my theory is that surely after 10 years of having results around the 9-12 mark, a 'normal' level of 4-5 may make him feel unwell do you think?

He wont have it and says he's ill!

I dont know the exact ins and outs of amounts but he is on metformin, glicazide, sitaliptin, ramapril, simvastatin,
 
nooboots said:
We're not going to cut the carbs anymore than he has, he has to have a breakfast (after years of refusing to eat breakfast), and he wont eat eggs and cant stomach anything else so porridge it is. We have pineapple maybe once a week or once a fortnight so he doesnt have a huge amount,if there is any left he might put a bit in his salad at lunch thats all.

We are happy with the levels, although we're wondering if they are too low really. His high one this morning of 7.2 was due to him having to have a glucose tablet yesterday we think for the hypo.

We check the carb content of everything we eat by the way!
Click to expand...
I suggested it because he may be able to reduce the medication if he cut the carbs a bit. I am not an expert in any way though. I think Jack412 knows much more about it than I do.
 
Enclave said:
Gosh .. Could not eat most of this myself .. Porridge, banana, Lentils, pineapple will send my bs sky high .. Maybe he needs his meds looked at ..
Click to expand...

Yes we had to practice with the porridge. We tried quinoa and bulgar wheat porridge but not only did he not like them, they werent that different for the BS levels anyway. So he eats a quarter of a cup of raw porridge cooked in normal milk. We were also using goats milk for the less carbs but it didnt make any difference to the levels so we didnt bother. The banana is around half a banana every other day. Pineapple once or twice a fortnight. He cant seem to eat any other breakfast.

Lentils we are really getting into, he eats a huge amount of them, most evenings, maybe every other day. We noticed they are fairly high in carbs but then we're not doing 'low' carb, just cutting out the main starchy carbs which he used to eat a lot of.
 
QUOTE="nooboots, post: 633499, member: 128147"]Yes we had to practice with the porridge. We tried quinoa and bulgar wheat porridge but not only did he not like them, they werent that different for the BS levels anyway. So he eats a quarter of a cup of raw porridge cooked in normal milk. We were also using goats milk for the less carbs but it didnt make any difference to the levels so we didnt bother. The banana is around half a banana every other day. Pineapple once or twice a fortnight. He cant seem to eat any other breakfast.

Lentils we are really getting into, he eats a huge amount of them, most evenings, maybe every other day. We noticed they are fairly high in carbs but then we're not doing 'low' carb, just cutting out the main starchy carbs which he used to eat a lot of.[/QUOTE]
Carb is carb. It all turns to glucose.
 
Oh yes I know but what I meant was the amount he is eating now which is a lower density is far removed from what he was eating before and this seems to have worked its magic on the levels. He would for example, have nearly a whole loaf of walnut or olive bread with a tub of taramasalata BEFORE dinner. Then dinner would be accompanied by a mound of potatoes. This would be in addition to probably rice or lots of sandwiches at lunch, then before that would be breakfast of double the porridge he has now. Also a couple of bananas per day, plus bunches of grapes, plus loads of beer in the evening.
 
don't listen to me, I'm guessing, put everything to the DR
when does he feel ill? a time of day or night
when he does feel ill, take a BG reading
while he's not well,I'd also take before lunch and 2 hr after eating for a few days
low 4's could be too much of a shock to the system and reduce the glicazide with nurses ok
 
nooboots said:
Oh yes I know but what I meant was the amount he is eating now which is a lower density is far removed from what he was eating before and this seems to have worked its magic on the levels. He would for example, have nearly a whole loaf of walnut or olive bread with a tub of taramasalata BEFORE dinner. Then dinner would be accompanied by a mound of potatoes. This would be in addition to probably rice or lots of sandwiches at lunch, then before that would be breakfast of double the porridge he has now. Also a couple of bananas per day, plus bunches of grapes, plus loads of beer in the evening.
Click to expand...
Better than **** is not necessarily good:)
 
jack412 said:
don't listen to me, I'm guessing, put everything to the DR
when does he feel ill? a time of day or night
when he does feel ill, take a BG reading
while he's not well,I'd also take before lunch and 2 hr after eating for a few days
low 4's could be too much of a shock to the system and reduce the glicazide with nurses ok
Click to expand...


Thanks, yes the levels have definitely gone down since this okra stuff, although he has been complaining that since the new lifestyle he has felt tired and lethargic (although not unwell). I just thought that he would have loads of energy, having lost weight and levels at normal.

Yes, he's going to test again in the way he was earlier in the summer, he does test himself when he feels actually unwell like yesterday, I think the one from yesterday when he did it in the middle of the day was 3.9. His before lunches have been early 4s too.

I wish she had taken him off some of the glicazide earlier in the summer actually, it worries me he is on this amount of medication.
 
this is too difficult two said:
Better than **** is not necessarily good:)
Click to expand...

No, but it has to be sustainable for both of us, cutting out those basic groups is easy for us, it wouldnt be easy for us to 'low' carb, we just wouldnt stick to it. In any case, the objective was to lose weight and cut the BS levels so we are happy with that. Obviously its always on review as things go on, especially if his meds change.
 
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