Type 2 2 Questions one about metformin reduction and the other testing after a meal

[sallyj123]

My doctor has reduced my metformin down to one tablet a day, and I seem to be struggling to keep my levels down, should I go back to her or wait and see what happens, I have been on the reduced meds now for 1 week.

Also I had dinner at 5 then at 7 had a cup of coffee tested my levels just now and they were 8.4 should I have waited a bit longer given I had just had a coffee with cream or would that not have any effect on the levels.

My diet is virtually carb free and I have lost 14 kilos, so I feel I am doing things right as far as diet in concerned, but something seems to be going wrong somewhere.

any ideas or advice would be welcome.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Well one of the things that seem to have gone wrong is that you are supposed to test two hours after nil by mouth. Cream will probably have an effect on your levels and since you don't say what kind of cream ..............

 

[Bluetit1802]

Also I would ask, what were you immediately before dinner? The rise is more significant than the actual levels if you are testing out foods. What exactly did you eat?

The metformin reduction won't have made any significant difference. It builds up in your system and takes a long time to work its way out. Also, it has no effect on post meal rises. It works on the liver to help reduce the natural glucose the liver produces when it thinks you are short on glucose.

 

[sallyj123]

Also I would ask, what were you immediately before dinner? The rise is more significant than the actual levels if you are testing out foods. What exactly did you eat?

Before dinner 5.2 I had beef cooked in ale butter beans and sweet potato mash

 

[sallyj123]

Well one of the things that seem to have gone wrong is that you are supposed to test two hours after nil by mouth. Cream will probably have an effect on your levels and since you don't say what kind of cream ..............

Single cream, I find sometimes if I do that it reduces cravings for sweet things.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Before dinner 5.2 I had beef cooked in ale butter beans and sweet potato mash

That probably explains the high rise then. Beef cooked in ale? Loads of carbs in that. Beans? Plenty of carbs in those. Sweet potatoes? Almost as bad as ordinary potatoes. (especially if mashed) Sorry, but that is the truth. Your meal was not low carb. Was your beef in ale home made or bought? If bought, have a look at the total carbs on the packet.

Have a look also at the tub of cream. How many carbs? Double cream is much better.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Single cream, I find sometimes if I do that it reduces cravings for sweet things.

You could have waited for two hours before testing which is the official test without having coffee and cream in the interim and you could have had extra thick double cream in your coffee which is 50% fat and does not have sugar in it.

 

[sallyj123]

That probably explains the high rise then. Beef cooked in ale? Loads of carbs in that. Beans? Plenty of carbs in those. Sweet potatoes? Almost as bad as ordinary potatoes. (especially if mashed) Sorry, but that is the truth. Your meal was not low carb. Was your beef in ale home made or bought? If bought, have a look at the total carbs on the packet.

Have a look also at the tub of cream. How many carbs? Double cream is much better.

My beef in ale was home made with no thickening just speckled hen ale which says its carb free and Oxo's butter beans 1/4 of a tin and 1 med sized sweet potato.

cream was single

 

[Robbity]

My diet is virtually carb free
...

What is the actual total number of carbohydrates that you eat in a day? "virtually carb free" may mean different things to different people - e.g. I've seen someone recently claim to be eating "NO carbs" when in reality they were eating a fair number of high carbohydrate foods. But LCHF will generally range from 130-150g down to less than 50g carbs a day - so a fairly wide range, and different quantities suit different people.

Where did you get the information that Old Speckled Hen contains no carbohydrates? The information I've seen suggests it contains around 18-19g carbs, although Morelands appear to be a bit shy about providing such information. A 100g weight portion of butterbeans contains similar amounts, and sweet potatoes slightly more. So that can make for a fair number of carbs in one meal and as Bluetit says, would not be considered low carb.

If your levels are high then you should definitely be watching your carbohydrate consumption, specially the more starchy variety. Keep testing - both immediately pre meal and two hours after you take the first bite, and take heed of what causes higher levels so you can adjust your diet accordingly..

Robbity

 

[sallyj123]

What is the actual total number of carbohydrates that you eat in a day? "virtually carb free" may mean different things to different people - e.g. I've seen someone recently claim to be eating "NO carbs" when in reality they were eating a fair number of high carbohydrate foods. But LCHF will generally range from 130-150g down to less than 50g carbs a day - so a fairly wide range, and different quantities suit different people.

Where did you get the information that Old Speckled Hen contains no carbohydrates? The information I've seen suggests it contains around 18-19g carbs, although Morelands appear to be a bit shy about providing such information. A 100g weight portion of butterbeans contains similar amounts, and sweet potatoes slightly more. So that can make for a fair number of carbs in one meal and as Bluetit says, would not be considered low carb.

If your levels are high then you should definitely be watching your carbohydrate consumption, specially the more starchy variety. Keep testing - both immediately pre meal and two hours after you take the first bite, and take heed of what causes higher levels so you can adjust your diet accordingly..

Robbity

Morlands Old Speckled Hen 500 Ml Bottle - Beer

1. Servings:

Calories 188 Sodium 0 mg
Total Fat 0 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 0 g Total Carbs 0 g


*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

this was from a website called my fitness pal

 

[Robbity]

Unfortunately Myfitnesspal is only as accurate as its users choose to make it and that information is incomplete - someone has only bothered to add calorie content and nothing else - and that sort of selectivity can throw your total carbs way out if you tend to rely on it for completely accurate data; there's also several more (duplicated) entries that give more details:

(See also: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/nutrition-facts-calories/old-speckled-hen)

Robbity

 

[Bluetit1802]

@sallyj123

Yes, I agree with Robbity. My Fitness Pal is not a diabetic aid, it is a weight loss aid and concentrates more on calories than anything else. Most of the users are only interested in calories, so often that is all they enter. We have to be very careful if we use it. I don't use it now, but when I was doing I checked the food contents myself from either Carbs & Cals book, the manufacturers/growers websites or a supermarket website. Tesco (and others) details the nutrition contents of all the products it sells. It is a useful website. Once I'd done that I entered my own figures on MFP and used those.

Maybe you will have to go back to the drawing board with your carb counting.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Morlands Old Speckled Hen 500 Ml Bottle - Beer

1. Servings:

Calories 188 Sodium 0 mg
Total Fat 0 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 0 g Total Carbs 0 g

Thank you for clearing that up. I was puzzled how there were 188 calories and no fat or carbs. I don't use myfitnesspal and didn't know you could leave it incomplete.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Morlands Old Speckled Hen 500 Ml Bottle - Beer

1. Servings:

Calories 188 Sodium 0 mg
Total Fat 0 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 0 g Total Carbs 0 g

Thank you for clearing that up. I was puzzled how there were 188 calories and no fat or carbs. I don't use myfitnesspal and didn't know you could leave it incomplete.

You can enter exactly what you want, whether it be true or not, and many people do. You should see some of the vitamin and mineral entries. Fruits with no vit C.

 

[Keesha]

I have been reading the above posts and my conclusion is that the meal is definitely high glycemic as well as high carbs. That will explain the spike.


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