New, posting for advice.

[ryouga]

Ok, so I am a very obese guy, weight has fluctated between 20-23 stone for about 8 years due to mental health issues, 5 years ago I changed from sugary soft drinks to diet (but have the occasional treat day) but blood sugar was always fine until the lockdown, I put on 4 stone or so in part as I ate more take out, ate chocolate/sweets at least once a day.

I felt rough around September and had a blood test, and another in November.

I was told the first came back as 6.4 and 6.7 and if it gets higher than 7 it will be classed as diabetes.

Also I forgot to mention I bulk bought sweets for the month and went through about 1kg of them per week and that was around same time as my tests so may of made them higher.

Anyway I did good for first few weeks until Christmas, and whilst I have cut back I still have sweet things, but in smaller amounts but panicking, rather than a big bag of sweets, maybe I will have nothing for 2 or 3 days then something like a bag of Haribo, then next day a king sized Mars bar. Much less than I was and my cravings have gone down.

There was one occasion last week though which is more a dip, I didn't eat anything from about midnight to 6pm next day and was in supermarket, I started shaking and feeling weak and literally just saw the sweet things on shelf and my brain was saying "just grab something sugary" Luckily I had been to another shop so went into my bag and had a small drink and slice of chicken and within 10 minutes I was fine.

I have had that problem for many years though, even when I was about 17 stone, and normally in winter months far more.

How can I keep an eye on my blood sugar bar eating nothing but the best foods (I mostly eat butchers meat) should I be panicking at the numbers I was given?

 

[Resurgam]

You can get a test meter to check your blood glucose actual numbers - though your experience is probably a good indication that you can lower your levels my diet, so all to the good but you don't want to do it too often.
I use a tee 2 meter from Spirit Healthcare.
I went and registered on the site, confirmed I was diabetic by email and then ordered a meter strips, lancets etc. but I am told that if you phone up and put in an order for strips they will give the meter out for free.....
As you are not yet diagnosed diabetic (I don't know if prediabetic counts) you might have to pay the VAT which we get let off from for being bad diabetics - but having a meter means you can see how what you eat is affecting your blood glucose.
I can only suggest that you swap to more nutritious foods, steak and mushrooms for breakfast for instance, and putting the sweets somewhere out of sight - and maybe watching your weight drop. I lost 50lb at least and 12 inches off my waist, without even trying.

 

[ryouga]

My issue is more MH related I think, I only eat when I am hungry or overtired, and that means I can crash and then my body goes into eat everything I can in front of me.

I remember when I first stopped sugary drinks I was drinking 2 litres a day and thought by cutting that my blood sugar would be low, this was 5 years ago but even before that my blood sugar was normal and cutting down did nothing except make me crave sweets more, before I stopped drinking it, maybe I would of had 1 bag of sweets every fortnight, then it went to 2 or 3 times a week, and the first month or two I had crashes so bad that at least twice in middle of night I ran to kitchen and downed 2 litre of sugary drink in about 2 or 3 minutes. I have no sweets at moment bar a bag of chocolate coins, ate none for a few days, I did have a few sugary flapjacks on Sunday night though, today my food was a few onion rings for brunch, chicken pakora and curry for tea with rice, nothing else but I feel like a few biscuits. yesterday was 2 smallish steaks and sweet was half a vienetta, thats all I ate all day though had some orange juice and milk for drink.

 

[ryouga]

Rice and orange juice are murder for your blood sugars. Quite apart from the soft drinks which are just as bad. You're dicing with full blown diabetes, the LAST thing you need. Please heed the advice

The curry was a one off, orange juice I have twice a week, and the soft drinks are sugar free ones I do admit my regular once a week take out is often like a chicken kebab with naan bread though, but it just made me think of likely the biggest offender for me.

I have a lot of sauce with take out, and many home cooked meals.

But is 6.4 or 6.7 extreme for a non diabetic?

 

[Bluetit1802]

But is 6.4 or 6.7 extreme for a non diabetic?

Was this just a finger prick blood test, or one from your arm? Can you tell us what the measurement units were, and when the test was taken ie were you fasting for 10 hours or so before the test, or had you recently eaten or drunk anything? Only a diagnostic HbA1c test will tell you if you are diabetic.

 

[ryouga]

It was done after fasting, think it was around 10 hours, but about a hour or two before midnight when I was told to fast I did eat quite a lot, thats my vice I starve all day and eat late at night sure that was when I had a bag of sweets literally about 11pm.

I can't remember if the appointment was 10am or 11am

It was just a blood test to check various things just stuck needle in arm and think it was 2 or 3 tubes nurse took.

The doctor didn't say pre diabetes or anything just a reading of 7 or above is diabetic and to cut down on carbs as its reversable.

 

[Resurgam]

It reads as though you need to make a decision to nourish yourself rather than starving and then eating anything, including things that you'd be better off without.
I was a full blown type two, and rarely ate breakfast.
These days I have about 10 gm of carbs from all sorts of fresh foods, with protein and fat and a mug of coffee with cream. After that I don't need to eat at all until 12 hours later. I avoid grains, as they are too high carb for me, and I avoid sugary stuff as well. You might only need to cut back a little in order to bring your metabolism back into line - but I would advise making the change sooner rather than waiting for things to get worse. Cut out little by little so it is not a shock, and you should begin to see things changing, and feel a lot better too - I feel about half my actual age these days. and I am no longer classed as diabetic being at the top end of normal with my Hba1c test since 6 months after my diagnosis.

 

[VashtiB]

Hello and welcome,

Fellow carboholic here. I loved carbs- unfortunately those of us with type 2 diabetes do not tolerate carbs. I can't tell whether you have diabetes or not as I'm unsure whether the test you had was a HbA1c which is an average over 3 months or just a test of your levels at the time.

My advice is to get a meter. Test before meals and 2 hours after to see what your levels are. That will give you some idea of whether you are a diabetic.

What you experienced feeling shaky may have been what is known as a false hypo. When you start eating to bring down your levels your body can fight back for a while and you can feel horrible. After a period of time your body will get used to the new normal and you won't feel horrible.

when I went very low carb 3 things happened. the first was that my blood sugar levels went back to well within the normal range. The second was that I lost weight without counting calories and doing a lot of exercise for the first time in my life. The third thing was that after a period very low carb the physical cravings for carbs disappeared. I'm still working on the mental cravings. I also felt full and able to stop eating without being stuffed.

So while I miss carbs my life is much better without them. It is totally up to you what you do but my opinion (opinion only -not an expert) is that if you continue to eat the carbs you are describing you may well end up a diabetic.

Go0od luck.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Ok, so I am a very obese guy, weight has fluctated between 20-23 stone for about 8 years due to mental health issues, 5 years ago I changed from sugary soft drinks to diet (but have the occasional treat day) but blood sugar was always fine until the lockdown, I put on 4 stone or so in part as I ate more take out, ate chocolate/sweets at least once a day.

I felt rough around September and had a blood test, and another in November.

I was told the first came back as 6.4 and 6.7 and if it gets higher than 7 it will be classed as diabetes.

Also I forgot to mention I bulk bought sweets for the month and went through about 1kg of them per week and that was around same time as my tests so may of made them higher.

Anyway I did good for first few weeks until Christmas, and whilst I have cut back I still have sweet things, but in smaller amounts but panicking, rather than a big bag of sweets, maybe I will have nothing for 2 or 3 days then something like a bag of Haribo, then next day a king sized Mars bar. Much less than I was and my cravings have gone down.

There was one occasion last week though which is more a dip, I didn't eat anything from about midnight to 6pm next day and was in supermarket, I started shaking and feeling weak and literally just saw the sweet things on shelf and my brain was saying "just grab something sugary" Luckily I had been to another shop so went into my bag and had a small drink and slice of chicken and within 10 minutes I was fine.

I have had that problem for many years though, even when I was about 17 stone, and normally in winter months far more.

How can I keep an eye on my blood sugar bar eating nothing but the best foods (I mostly eat butchers meat) should I be panicking at the numbers I was given?

From the sound of it, you're basically bludgeoning yourself with food. Either with the withholding of it or the eating the wrong things. Try and find some equilibrium. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ might help. And stay away from the king sized Mars bars.

 

[EllieM]

The doctor didn't say pre diabetes or anything just a reading of 7 or above is diabetic and to cut down on carbs as its reversable.

That reading could be a fasting blood sugar or could be an hba1c measured in %. Usually doctors diagnose diabetes based on hba1c but the dividing lines are country dependant. Can I ask where you are located (country)? (Measurement units vary by country so eg if you were in the US those figures would definitely be referring to an hba1c).

Carbs are addictive so it's easy to crave them when you don't need them. Also, if you've been running high figures for a while you can get symptoms of low blood sugar when your levels go down to more normal levels....

 

[ryouga]

It's in Scotland, my friend who is diabetic says its low for someone like him, but I am aware someone with diabetes would have different numbers.

Like I say its a bit of a mental health thing, during the day nornally you can shove food in front of me and I won't feel like eating, should I actually eat it takes until the end of what Im eating to actually feel I need to eat then my brain switches on the false "hunger" mode its like now I am eating don't stop no matter what.

Before the lockdown I used to somewhat balance it by going to a cafe or somewhere like Subway at lunchtime and get a sandwich and diet drink (yes I am aware Subway is packed with sugar, didn't know then) then after work get another sandwich then in evening basically eat nothing this was to ensure I had 2 meals a day and then I rarely felt weaker in evenings bar the twice a week I ate take out.

Overall its the day after I eat take out I feel far worse by a large amount but thats also more of a gut thing, I get really bad gut issues, I have been on tablets for about 3 months for that (no idea if they affect blood sugar)

 

[erin40]

I am a likely T1 with gut issues and some mental health stuff as well, so, for what it's worth... It sounds like you are self-medicating with food. But you seem pretty aware of this. I would wonder about the reason for your food cravings, as I would suspect that you might have a neurotransmitter imbalance. Supplements like 5htp and tyrosine might be able to help you to rebalance this (if so), and then in turn, control your food cravings more easily. Over the longer term though, I would wonder (re: mood issues) about things like, how is your sleep? Do you get enough sunlight?

Re: gut issues, you might want to look in to kefir and/or acidophilus. I find these helpful. Improving your gut will help your mood. Sugar is not great for the gut, conversely, so if you can find a way to cut down, it could be good.

Thirdly, I would wonder aboout your nutrition. Especially if you have the gut issues, it might not hurt to cover your bases by taking a multivitamin (if you are not already).

Cheers.


----

* The 5htp and tyrosine suggestion is only for if you aren't taking an SSRI. 5htp increases serotonin, so if it is taken together with an SSRI it can produce a dangerous level of serotonin in the brain ('serotonin syndrome'). I am not sure about the tyrosine, but I would be concerned about some sort of interaction.

 

[TeddyTottie]

Couple of things.... firstly the ‘gut issues’ probably won’t be helped by carb overloading and erratic eating patterns. My chronic indigestion , bloating and acid reflux completely resolved after a two or three months of low carb eating, so hopefully you might find yours respond well too.

Secondly, you talk about sugar all the time. Sugar is bad, no doubt about it, but what we T2s are concerned about is blood sugar - glucose in the blood. And this is generated from all carbohydrates and not just those that are obviously sweet. I think it might help you to make that mental switch.

A friend who has suffered from eating disorders in the past has told me that she learned to ignore normal hunger - I was wondering if perhaps this is what you have subconsciously trained yourself to do, too? Although on low carb/keto we would normally advocate eating when hungry this does assume that you have a normal appetite response, and perhaps for you, ensuring you had a satisfying low-carb breakfast and/or lunch might help you back towards this.

 

[ryouga]

I mention sugar overall as a way to see where the most obvious things are.

And before I forget, thanks to everyone who has posted so far.

Me personally I always found pasta gives me energy without any lows and actually fills me up for real compared to anything else, potatoes are 2nd best.

Going back to my younger years, up until the MH issues I had (always had them but something that caused the most severe of them) I used to literally only eat when I was hungry, if I was given food during day if I did eat it I felt hungry again at night, it was more about 6pm my stomach rumbled and up to 9pm is when I ate, then ate nothing more until the next day as didn't even feel the slightest hunger but then that was because I was occupied with video gaming or watching a movie so brain didn't focus on hunger.

Now I feel hungry of sorts all the time but not actually wanting to eat, I only eat when my energy dips below a certain level and then my brain thinks about eating non stop.

I do sleep terrible, at my worst about 7 years ago I slept up to 18 hours a day, now I sleep 9 which is magic number but due to lockdown and time of year a few times in past few weeks I have slept up to 15, which not out of actual enjoyment as any more than 10 I feel dizzy but I just don't wake up.

And I live in a block of flats so not much light comes into my house.

I do know over my lifetime when I have multivitamins, and things like cod liver oil capsules my health is a little better, many years I get low iron levels in winter and thats when my diet is at its worse too.

 

[erin40]

Hmm. Re: feeling hungry but not wanting to eat.. I don't know that I've ever experienced that before. For me, when I feel hungry is when I want to eat, automatically. I'm not sure what this could be. Maybe someone with a T2 problem would have more of an idea...

Personally, I used to eat high carb plus lots of sugar. Breakfast was oatmeal with apple and either chocolate chips or sugar, which is more of a candy than food. I would then have sugar crashes late in the day. When I switched to lower carb eating my sugar cravings diminished drastically and my blood sugar was much lower. I didn't get that feeling of a sudden crash and need to eat immediately anymore. So maybe incorporating more healthy fats and proteins, and non-starchy veg's could help?

Re: sleep, you might want to check out Satchin Panda's The Circadian Code. He argues that the circadian (daily sunlight) rhythm is very tied in to health - including, mental health, digestion & diabetes. These things have gotten worse for people over the last fifty years or so because we no longer adhere to natural daylight rhythms as much, due to various reasons. Anyway, he suggests trying to get sunlight in the morning (easier said than done, obviously, especially in the winter, but, for what it's worth...).

A lot of people are deficient in iron and Vitamin D; these things can have a big impact on almost every process in the body I think.

 

[Rolle]

Ok, so I am a very obese guy, weight has fluctated between 20-23 stone for about 8 years due to mental health issues, 5 years ago I changed from sugary soft drinks to diet (but have the occasional treat day) but blood sugar was always fine until the lockdown, I put on 4 stone or so in part as I ate more take out, ate chocolate/sweets at least once a day.

I felt rough around September and had a blood test, and another in November.

I was told the first came back as 6.4 and 6.7 and if it gets higher than 7 it will be classed as diabetes.

Also I forgot to mention I bulk bought sweets for the month and went through about 1kg of them per week and that was around same time as my tests so may of made them higher.

Anyway I did good for first few weeks until Christmas, and whilst I have cut back I still have sweet things, but in smaller amounts but panicking, rather than a big bag of sweets, maybe I will have nothing for 2 or 3 days then something like a bag of Haribo, then next day a king sized Mars bar. Much less than I was and my cravings have gone down.

There was one occasion last week though which is more a dip, I didn't eat anything from about midnight to 6pm next day and was in supermarket, I started shaking and feeling weak and literally just saw the sweet things on shelf and my brain was saying "just grab something sugary" Luckily I had been to another shop so went into my bag and had a small drink and slice of chicken and within 10 minutes I was fine.

I have had that problem for many years though, even when I was about 17 stone, and normally in winter months far more.

How can I keep an eye on my blood sugar bar eating nothing but the best foods (I mostly eat butchers meat) should I be panicking at the numbers I was giv