Newbie feeling a bit lost

[MichaelTimothy]

Hello.

I received a blood test result, ordered by a cardiologist that I was consulting for hypertension, which gave a HbA1c reading of 8.8%. This was a week ago, and I haven't yet had the return consultation: the cardiologist is being elusive and keeps cancelling appointments! So what I am about to write is probably very premature.

My first reaction to the result was outrage: I feel that this is an affliction I have brought upon myself and I am filled with self recrimination. I understand that 8.8% is serious, and I realise that many of the symptoms (relatively mild to be fair) that are now clear to me were ignored for some time.

I am male, 73 years old and weigh 92 kilos. I am overweight. While waiting for the medical professionals to get back to me, I have decided to act, and to act decisively.

I have started a diet which consists of:
- 850 calories a day
- 50 carbs a day
- as much protein as I can get within the above limitations
- nothing with a GI above 50

I am favouring: white and oily fish, chicken, turkey, lentils, lots of onions, garlic, chillies and sliced turmeric root. I made an oriental beetroot purée that was divine and very filling! My hunger pangs have pretty much gone by the end of 1 week, and I am hitting my targets.

I have gone cold turkey on alcohol - don't miss it to tell the truth.

I exercise by: 40 minutes swimming in the morning and again in the evening. And I do 10 minutes each time on my wife's power plate. It has been suggested to me that lifting weights is an excellent way to lose weight and to head towards reversal or remission.

In the space of one week, I have shed 5.5% of my body weight.

Nevertheless, I feel some anxiety as to whether I am doing the right thing in what is after all a very short term. But I am determined to beat this thing: I am aiming to get reversal, and to do it fast...

Am I barking mad?

 

[Resurgam]

You are certainly wrong to blame yourself, when carbohydrate is pushed so hard as a healthy food.
Personally I do not limit calories. I lost weight with no effort just by keeping my blood glucose in the normal range.
After decades of being lectured about my weight and being told not to eat fat even though I was feeling unwell on their diets I could not cope with calories restrictions anyway.
You could find that your body adapts to the lower calories and it becomes harder to lose weight, or to exercise without feeling wrung out.
I just do what I feel like, to be honest, but my weight continues to drift downwards and my GP has not mentioned diabetes for years.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hello.

I received a blood test result, ordered by a cardiologist that I was consulting for hypertension, which gave a HbA1c reading of 8.8%. This was a week ago, and I haven't yet had the return consultation: the cardiologist is being elusive and keeps cancelling appointments! So what I am about to write is probably very premature.

My first reaction to the result was outrage: I feel that this is an affliction I have brought upon myself and I am filled with self recrimination. I understand that 8.8% is serious, and I realise that many of the symptoms (relatively mild to be fair) that are now clear to me were ignored for some time.

I am male, 73 years old and weigh 92 kilos. I am overweight. While waiting for the medical professionals to get back to me, I have decided to act, and to act decisively.

I have started a diet which consists of:
- 850 calories a day
- 50 carbs a day
- as much protein as I can get within the above limitations
- nothing with a GI above 50

I am favouring: white and oily fish, chicken, turkey, lentils, lots of onions, garlic, chillies and sliced turmeric root. I made an oriental beetroot purée that was divine and very filling! My hunger pangs have pretty much gone by the end of 1 week, and I am hitting my targets.

I have gone cold turkey on alcohol - don't miss it to tell the truth.

I exercise by: 40 minutes swimming in the morning and again in the evening. And I do 10 minutes each time on my wife's power plate. It has been suggested to me that lifting weights is an excellent way to lose weight and to head towards reversal or remission.

In the space of one week, I have shed 5.5% of my body weight.

Nevertheless, I feel some anxiety as to whether I am doing the right thing in what is after all a very short term. But I am determined to beat this thing: I am aiming to get reversal, and to do it fast...

Am I barking mad?

No, it's not premature.

I would advise you to ease off a bit, especially on the restriction of calories. Eat more protein if you can together with the fat that comes with it naturally - this will help you feel satiated and ensure you have enough energy. You don't want your body to start shutting down into starvation mode because this will make your weight loss much harder t to maintain.
Diabetes remission is a marathon not a sprint, it needs to be sustainable over the long term.

5% weight loss in a week is too fast - even though since you're doing Low Carb, some of that will just be water. If you lose weight too fast then as well as the problems of reduced resting Metabolic Rate, you will also likely get unsightly loose skin.

No, you aren't barking mad, just a little too keen.

Get yourself a Blood Glucose meter (either an SD Gluco Navii or a SpiritHealthcare TEE2+ ) and aim for no more than a spike of 2 mmol from just before a meal to 2hrs after 1st bite. Test you meals and you may find you can ease up a little on cutting the carbs (though I had to cut down hard but that was probably because I was a TOFI). It will be easier in the long term if you can relax a little, since we keep being bombarded with adverts and n=messages about carby food. If I could handle more carbs, I would 'spend it' on eating more fruit or perhaps carrots.

 

[bulkbiker]

Am I barking mad?

No but like many who undertake a severe dietary change you have to be very self critical about how long you intend to keep it up.
Crash dieting is rarely an effective way to achieve sustainable weight loss. What is far more important is to stop insulin overproduction which can be achieved by not eating the foods that trigger it. There's no real requirement to starve yourself too.
Cut back on the carbs a bit more ditch the lentils maybe and concentrate ogn good sources of protein. You might want to raise your fat consumption a bit too. So whilst fish, chicken, and turkey are good protein sources you should replace some the of the carbs with fat too to provide some satiety.
Your new way of eating has to be for life not just the next few weeks so maybe make a few tweaks that will make it sustainable.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hello.

I received a blood test result, ordered by a cardiologist that I was consulting for hypertension, which gave a HbA1c reading of 8.8%. This was a week ago, and I haven't yet had the return consultation: the cardiologist is being elusive and keeps cancelling appointments! So what I am about to write is probably very premature.

My first reaction to the result was outrage: I feel that this is an affliction I have brought upon myself and I am filled with self recrimination. I understand that 8.8% is serious, and I realise that many of the symptoms (relatively mild to be fair) that are now clear to me were ignored for some time.

I am male, 73 years old and weigh 92 kilos. I am overweight. While waiting for the medical professionals to get back to me, I have decided to act, and to act decisively.

I have started a diet which consists of:
- 850 calories a day
- 50 carbs a day
- as much protein as I can get within the above limitations
- nothing with a GI above 50

I am favouring: white and oily fish, chicken, turkey, lentils, lots of onions, garlic, chillies and sliced turmeric root. I made an oriental beetroot purée that was divine and very filling! My hunger pangs have pretty much gone by the end of 1 week, and I am hitting my targets.

I have gone cold turkey on alcohol - don't miss it to tell the truth.

I exercise by: 40 minutes swimming in the morning and again in the evening. And I do 10 minutes each time on my wife's power plate. It has been suggested to me that lifting weights is an excellent way to lose weight and to head towards reversal or remission.

In the space of one week, I have shed 5.5% of my body weight.

Nevertheless, I feel some anxiety as to whether I am doing the right thing in what is after all a very short term. But I am determined to beat this thing: I am aiming to get reversal, and to do it fast...

Am I barking mad?

Nothing you've said indicates you're barking mad, unless you omitted talking to little green men in your backyard at 3 a.m. (And then, who knows, they may be real!). But as others stated, you've gone a tiny bit overboard. In a way that's good though: shows you're eager and serious about getting on track. First off, you can forget about calories: Those don't actually matter when carbs are your main problem, and considering your HbA1c, it's safe to say that they are. Keep under the daily requirement of calories for too long however, and malnutrition's around the corner. Which isn't good for anyone and will do more damage than good. So forget about those and just eat proper foods that are nutrient dense. So you can skip the white fish and switch it for salmon and the like: fatty fish contains vitamin D, is more filling, and over all, healthier than white fish. Also, you might want to forget about low GI as well... How fast carbs are processed is more an issue for T1s. They need to know whether to split their insulin or not, for instance... And for you, it doesn't matter how long you need to process carbs, as they will need to be processed sooner or later, whatever GI they are. They might spike less, but if they keep you slightly elevated for longer, than that's not exactly something to aim for either. Eating doesn't have to be a numbers game with complex calculations. Just cut the carbs as far as you can manage or are comfortable with, up the natural fats, up the protein, and you should see improvement soon. Get yourself a meter and check what your blood sugars are doing around meals. If you see a rise of no more than 2 mmol/l between before a meal and 2 hours after your first bite, it'd be a meal worth repeating and you'll steadily make progress towards normal blood sugars, and likely, weight, in the near future. No need to do yourself an injury going too far. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ should help you get started on a little more nutritious path. Also, you might want to test around the lentils: some can handle them just fine, some can't.

Good luck!
Jo
PS: You're going to be fine!
PPS: Add in steak! Nothing wrong with red meat, and it'll keep your iron up some.

 

[EllieM]

Get yourself a Blood Glucose meter (either an SD Gluco Navii or a SpiritHealthcare TEE2+ )

Though these meters are excellent choices in the UK they may not be the best choice for @MichaelTimothy who may not be located there (he is measuring hba1c in %). If you are self funding (which also depends on Geography) it's very important to factor in the cost of the strips, as well as getting a meter that is reasonably accurate.

 

[MichaelTimothy]

Thank you all so much for your advice and encouragement!

Actually I did figure out that the very low cal wasn't the way to go, it was exhausting me, and I worked out that it was limiting my protein availability. So I have changed tack. I was/am happy with the initial weight loss, but it was always intended to be a short term thing. I was actually also limiting carbs simultaneously: for several decades I have been gluten intolerant, so I am well versed in low carb dieting. Whenever I have done low carb in the past I have had dramatic success in the first week, and then it became harder: and I expected it this time.

I did finally get a blood glucose monitor, and I have started using it. I have been surprised by the results, even if it is early days. Today was day 1, and I measured 119 gm/dl both fasting and before/after a meal, the number didn't budge. After 45 minutes moderate exercise I was 109. From what I understand, both numbers are comfortably within the "normal" band.

The meter I am using is an Accu - chek Instant. As far as I can tell it is a respected brand? We don't have a very good range of choice here (Egypt), and it has taken a week to even find one. I am worried about sourcing the strips and lancets going forward.

 

[Bluetit1802]

The meter I am using is an Accu - chek Instant. As far as I can tell it is a respected brand? We don't have a very good range of choice here (Egypt), and it has taken a week to even find one. I am worried about sourcing the strips and lancets going forward.

I have never heard of the Accu Chek instant. I use the Accu Chek Mobile. Its the one with strips incorporated in internal cassettes rather than separate strips. The replacement cassettes are very expensive, but I buy mine on eBay at half the price. As for lancets, you will find the majority of us use the same one for a long time. I bought a box of them when I got the meter 7 or 8 years ago and have still not finished it.

 

[MichaelTimothy]

So having used my glucose monitor for a couple of days, I have registered a number of readings between 109 and 127. including pre and post-prandial. I relaxed the low calorie diet, and concentrated on getting more protein and less carb. All seemed well, and I was getting a little cocky, thinking perhaps I never had diabetes at all. But then today, I got a pre-prandial of 126, but a post- of 144. Is that a big jump? Should I be concerned?

 

[ianf0ster]

@MichaelTimothy No need to be concerned, just be aware that it could be better. The 144mg/dl is within the maximum that I set as my target maximum 2hr post-prandial, but a little lower would be better.
It isn't the rise from 126 to 144 that is the problem, so much as that it would be nice to have a lower starting point e.g. below 120 (eventually). But don't worry, that sort of number isn't so far away.

Since my HbA1C got back into the normal range (not even pre-diabetic) I don't do BG tests much but did several a few days ago and each one (both before and 2hrs after 2 meals) were around 123 (6.8mmol). I think the lowest I have ever measured pre-meal was 106 ( 5.9mmol). But I probably go much lower overnight before my Dawn Phenomenon kicks in again .