Scared Lost & Confused

[Daphne917]

Hi @cratat nuts are a handy substitute for sweets and if I fancy some chocolate I have a couple of squares of either Green&Black's 85% dark chocolate or Lindt Orange and Almond which is about 70%.

 

[photognut]

Hi @cratat nuts are a handy substitute for sweets and if I fancy some chocolate I have a couple of squares of either Green&Black's 85% dark chocolate or Lindt Orange and Almond which is about 70%.

I believe the OP wants to lose weight? Nuts are high in calories a 90g bag of KP peanuts = 500 calories. Only eating a couple of squares of chocolate amounts to a huge level of self control and re-training of habits. Giving a green light at this stage of the game for @cratat might not be such a good idea

 

[Daphne917]

I believe the OP wants to lose weight? Nuts are high in calories a 90g bag of KP peanuts = 500 calories. Only eating a couple of squares of chocolate amounts to a huge level of self control and re-training of habits. Giving a green light at this stage of the game for @cratat might not be such a good idea

I'm not giving the OP a green light as they will make their own decision as to what to eat. It was merely a suggestion that may help the OP wean themselves off the sweets etc and which can be factored into their eating plan should they want.

 

[Serena51]

Those little pots of sugar free jelly can be helpful for a sweet taste or greek yogurt with some berries.

As with everything though, you really need to test before and 2 hours after eating to see if it affects your blood sugar levels too much.

It would benefit you to buy a meter and some strips so that you can test frequently until you know for sure what affects you and by how much. The code free meter appears to be the cheapest and quite popular on here.

 

[Emma1980]

What kind of type 2 diabetes do you have that requires you eat six times per day and a lot of carbs?

My type 2 diabetes is best managed without any medication at all and a very low carb diet. And I only eat twice a day usually. Eating too often is bad for the teeth and spoils your appetite.

Hi, I go off what my specialist nurse tells me. My pancreas was damaged during a procedure at the hospital which should have blasted gall stones but instead blasted air directly into my pancreas, whilst it functions, it now functions sporadically. Add to this I was put onto sitagliptin for 2 years after the resulting procedure gave me acute pancreatitus and left me in hospital for over a month, if you read the instruction pamphlet, you will know, this is bad for people who have had this illness. This once again gave me pancreatitus.

I am sorry I don't fit the a-typical type 2 format, but my aunt has type 2 and shes managed differently to me (diet and metformin) also so its not a "1 label fits all illness". My doctors surgery told me to quit as many carbs as possible, 1 meal of carbs per day, no more so I went the route everyone here is throwing out there. My morning sugars were around 18-22 because I am advised that my body didnt have enough carbs to function over night (my last meal was around 6-7pm, breakfast 7:30-8am) so my liver kicked in and took them from my body which long term we all know is bad.

When I was referred to my diabetic specialist, she said 3 meals per day with carbs was essential because of the damage to my pancreas and not knowing how well it was working, plus snacks - not 6 meals - that would be both stupid and fattening. My day snacks are usually 2 oat cakes (approx 100 calories total each time) - similar to eating a piece of fruit (which as I said, I cant tolerate anymore as sugars cause my pancreatitus to flare and leaves me stuck at home the whole day). As I said in my post, I make healthy choices in my carbs but do not eliminate them and that works best for me, it may not work for others. I do not eat a high fat diet, and follow low GI with my carbs but don't forget I am also on insulin and as such I can suffer hypos on the days my pancreas decides to kick some insulin out so carbs assist me in maintaining my sugars whilst I am at work throughout the day. As an example, I ate a roast turkey dinner with 2 potatoes (boiled new potatoes no fat), cabbage, carrots and swede. That left me with a hypo because there were not sufficient carbs for my body in it for the afternoon... I was full as a frog but too ill to function which left me craving sugar and shaking at my desk unable to drive home until I fixed it.

Each of us if different, I am working at the gym to remove my excess weight, currently 5 stone down, but this has not had any affect on my blood sugars at all. If I was simply diabetic because of my weight, it should have had an affect by now. Lucky you that you have found something that works for you, I have my specialist working hard with me to figure myself and my body out.

 

[Emma1980]

I've never heard of carbohydrates regulating the liver? Could you explain what you mean? Looking at, what I'm assuming is your HbA1c, I would suggest that you try the advice on here to the OP; no one needs carbohydrates and as a diabetic they are the key macro-nutrient to avoid. Metformin won't do very much to elevated blood sugars. Cutting out carbs will.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

Dillinger

Hi Dillinger,

I spent 2 years trying the low carb diet and all it did was give me worryingly high sugars. Eating regular carbs works for me and maintains my sugars around the 7-9 mark throughout the day right now (I started a new course of drugs a month ago so whilst high, its actually better than my low carb days). My hbA1c results are from when I was following the low carb plan - when I know this years (approx 3 weeks til I see my specialist for results) I will update them accordingly.

Sadly, I have tried too many suggestions, and as such I follow my specialist teams advice - within 2 weeks of meeting them in March this year, my am sugars went from 18-22 down to 7-8... ensuring carbs in my system stopped my liver looking around my body for something to burn in its place. I had to switch from dapafliglozin to canafliglozin because of the side effects, not because they don't work (huge advocate of these 2 drugs), but the side effects caused my doctor major worries.

I replied at length to Totto's comments so won't bore the forum with it again.

Thanks for the welcome xx

Em

 

[Totto]

Hi, I go off what my specialist nurse tells me. My pancreas was damaged during a procedure at the hospital which should have blasted gall stones but instead blasted air directly into my pancreas, whilst it functions, it now functions sporadically. Add to this I was put onto sitagliptin for 2 years after the resulting procedure gave me acute pancreatitus and left me in hospital for over a month, if you read the instruction pamphlet, you will know, this is bad for people who have had this illness. This once again gave me pancreatitus.

I am sorry I don't fit the a-typical type 2 format, but my aunt has type 2 and shes managed differently to me (diet and metformin) also so its not a "1 label fits all illness". My doctors surgery told me to quit as many carbs as possible, 1 meal of carbs per day, no more so I went the route everyone here is throwing out there. My morning sugars were around 18-22 because I am advised that my body didnt have enough carbs to function over night (my last meal was around 6-7pm, breakfast 7:30-8am) so my liver kicked in and took them from my body which long term we all know is bad.

When I was referred to my diabetic specialist, she said 3 meals per day with carbs was essential because of the damage to my pancreas and not knowing how well it was working, plus snacks - not 6 meals - that would be both stupid and fattening. My day snacks are usually 2 oat cakes (approx 100 calories total each time) - similar to eating a piece of fruit (which as I said, I cant tolerate anymore as sugars cause my pancreatitus to flare and leaves me stuck at home the whole day). As I said in my post, I make healthy choices in my carbs but do not eliminate them and that works best for me, it may not work for others. I do not eat a high fat diet, and follow low GI with my carbs but don't forget I am also on insulin and as such I can suffer hypos on the days my pancreas decides to kick some insulin out so carbs assist me in maintaining my sugars whilst I am at work throughout the day. As an example, I ate a roast turkey dinner with 2 potatoes (boiled new potatoes no fat), cabbage, carrots and swede. That left me with a hypo because there were not sufficient carbs for my body in it for the afternoon... I was full as a frog but too ill to function which left me craving sugar and shaking at my desk unable to drive home until I fixed it.

Each of us if different, I am working at the gym to remove my excess weight, currently 5 stone down, but this has not had any affect on my blood sugars at all. If I was simply diabetic because of my weight, it should have had an affect by now. Lucky you that you have found something that works for you, I have my specialist working hard with me to figure myself and my body out.

Thank you, the simple answer is that you haven't got type 2 but secondary diabetes. I've seen it referred to as type 3c.

 

[Emma1980]

Thank you, the simple answer is that you haven't got type 2 but secondary diabetes. I've seen it referred to as type 3c.

Ahh apologies, my doctors labelled me and my specialist must have amended it - I still refer to myself as type 2 because I hadn't heard of any other types and I am not type 1... usually I say I am type 1.5 (in jest) as my pancreas is a moody little thing but not dead yet.

 

[Celeriac]

I'm T2 and when diagnosed my HbA1c was 13% i.e. off the HbA1c indicator on this website. My GP told me that I had the worst T2 diabetes he had ever seen. Now, my BG hovers around non-diabetic but only because I take meds and don't eat processed carbs at all. I would like to be able to eat rice with my home-made curry but I can't.

I suggest that you go to your GP and ask to be referred to a counsellor. You know that you are continuing to stack on the weight and you are slowly killing yourself. You need some support and encouragement to make changes.

Being referred to a hospital-based diabetes team could put you on the road to bariatric surgery. It's unlikely to end up with fewer medications.

The first question to ask yourself, is why are snacks so important to me, what do I get from them ? Why do I get upset at the thought of not having them?

If for example, you feel feeding your body is showing yourself love, then maybe you could think of other non-food ways to spoil yourself.

I would snack on nuts if they were around, to occupy my fingers, so I doodle or play Cookie Jam with the sound off, while watching a movie.

Sometimes, subbing lower carb stuff isn't enough, it's the actual behaviour that needs to change.