low carbing to try get my blood glucose back under control

[MichaelUK]

Hi guys
Currenly weigh 19 stone 10 lbs so i know this is a major issue and the reason for beginning low carbing for weight loss and bg control.

Need some advice, been off my metformin for 6 days due too ongoing bowel problem i have had for the last two year even with using the SR metformin.

Eating less the 80-100 carbs per day at moment since coming off meformin and was wondering roughly how long for the low carbing to take effect. i have a good idea it will take longer in me due to the reason of my control being real bad for the last 6 months, i have been comfort eating and bingeing due to depression, but i feel much better now and i am determind to kick my type 2 in the **** and own this disease, Like i say my control been ****, had some nasty readings on saturday i woke to 17.5 this is not good.

I have began walking each days i am currently walking in the morning for an hour which is bring my bg levels down nicely but its not coming down enough, been abit more careful and testing more today woke up to another 17.4@ 7:49am, had breakfast(omlette red and green peppers with musroom,cheese and ham and then went for an hours walk and retested before lunch 3 hours later was down to a 11.5@ 12:15, had a tuna salad and then retested before tea and had a 11.4@17:45, had steak with mushrooms and greenbeans, cauliflower and brocolli with butter on the veg, and had a reading of 13.6 at 9:55 tonight.

Would i be better with the exercise to do 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins after tea, not sure if i can fit in more then 15 min after lunch due to only having 30 mins for lunch, or just stay with the hour on a morning.

So currently i am on Januvia 100mg a day and thats it for my type 2 meds, doctor is saying i need to go on insulin but i am not happy to do this yet as i feel there must be more tools in the box before insulin and need some advice, are there alternatives to going on insulin.

Thanks in advance

Michael

 

[xyzzy]

Re: low carbing to try get my blood glucose back under contr

Hello Michael

Well I started out at roughly the levels you are on and it took me around 6 to 8 weeks at 60g / day to be able to consistently get readings under 8. The killer is always the DP effect in the morning to start with and you may find you wake up in double digits for a couple of weeks or so before you start to see an improvement. For the first week I never got one score under 9.5. What you should see is a gradual improvement. I look back at it as a drying out period where the excess glucose in my body gradually got used up. What you are eating looks great so no problems there that I can spot. Exercise is good after you have eaten. I use to do a brisk 5 or 10 minute walk after breakfast then with me it is walk the dogs for an hour most evenings. If you mean exercise in the proper structured sense then I think there is something that says you shouldn't do a lot of strenuous exercise if your BG's are in the teens but others may correct me on that pretty please if I'm wrong.

So I would advise you do a similar kind of thing to me and look for that improvement day by day. The important thing no matter how much it freaks you out is to recognise if they don't improve. Low carbing will only work if you are producing some insulin. So don't kid yourself Michael. If they don't drop you should go back to the doctor as you will be doing yourself far more damage long term than going on insulin. If you end up on insulin then although the rules are slightly different a low carb approach that still makes you lose some weight is still advisable but you'll need to come back and ask the insulin using diabetics the best way to do things.

Hope that helps and just ask anything you want to.

 

[zhaith]

Re: low carbing to try get my blood glucose back under contr

hi Michael.

I'm more or less in exactly the same position as you, for the last 6 months or so I have not been in a good place mentally (not helped by my doctor/DN) and have completely ignored my diabetes, my levels haven't been quite as high as yours but when i have tested it's been around 14-15. I also have major stomach problems with glucophage SR and whilst they are not as bad as they were or standard metformin I have quite a lot of discomfort daily. Oh and i'm 15st 2 lbs

Basically my last Hba1c was over a year ago, and was 9.7% which led to my doctor telling me that I had to go on insulin, something that due to my job i was unwilling to do, so I started to low carb and as boring as it was it worked my levels went from 14+ to around 7-8, my DN and doctor were very happy, i explained that i had run out of my alloccated 50 test strips per year, and that I had paid for my own test strips so i could continue testing and therefore control my diabetes, which both my Doctor and DN commended me for. So i asked could my prescription for strips be upped as they are a good means for me to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Yup you guessed it got the reply "your type 2 you only need to test once a week" and that by testing regularly I was just stressing myself out!. That was the last time I went to my doctors and I have ignored every phone call they have made to me requesting that I make myself an appointment for a check up.

Anyway i'm starting to feel like myself again so I've started to low carb again, this time starting with the induction phase of atkins which is basically 20g of carbs a day and have stopped taking my medication. Now bearing in mind I only started this yesterday my levels today maxed at 8.1 two hours after breakfast and after my dinner it was 7.3

I know everyone is different but maybe for a couple of weeks dropping your carb intake to a lower level might have a similar effect for you. But if your levels dont drop then you really do need to speak to your doctor I know coming from me that's a bit hypocrital but low carbing should start to have an effect once you reduce your carb intake.

My breakfast this morning consisted of bratwurst sausage, eggs, bacon, mushrooms and a few cherry tomatoes, dinner was rancero pie, basically chilli topped with sweet potato minus the potaoes