A few questions

Hi, the answer is yes, vegetables do contain carbs. Some more than others. My own feeling is that they are good for you so it is worth adding them into your diet.
Yes, you should weigh them, until you get a good feel for how much carb there is in a normal portion.
I aim at around 50grams of carb a day, and my diabetes is very well controlled at that level. As you have already lost aboutu 15% of your body weight you will find that you will lose weight quite slowly now, but you should be able to lose another two stones before you plateau.
Atkins suggests very low carb levels. My own experience was that this is VERY hard, and only necessary when nothing else budges the scales.
No, you do not need to count calories at this stage, counting carbs will work on its own. Low carb foods are more satisfying, so you eat less and are less hungry, so the calories take care of themselves.
Avoid fructose, fruit is quite difficult to deal with for diabetics. So only eat very small quantities, in season.

Blood checks - test two hours after a meal. If the carbs were low enough you should aim at below 7.7. If you are testing a particular food check your BS at one hour and again at two hours after eating it. If you are above 8 or 9 you should probably avoid that food.
Rather than test before eating, you may like to test at bedtime and in the morning fasting occasionally. Just to see what you average levels are.
Hope this is helpful. It's just practical stuff that no one actually seems to tell us at first.

Lisab84 said:

Hi I wonder if you can help, I am about to embark on a low carb diet and was after some advice
Do you count vegetables? I have found an app (my fitness pal) which will keep a count of all carbs as long as I input weights of foods
Which leads me to ask, do you weigh all foods?
Should I be writing everything down? Do I still test my blood before each meal or are there other times I should check?
Do you still stick within a certain number of calories or just count the carbs?
I have gone from 21stone to 17.10 with very little change in my levels so have recently been put on solo star insulin and feel I am going to have to up my game if I want to loose more weight
Any advice would be much appreciated

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I use myfitnesspal as well, so know what you're on about. Yes, veg have carbs, usually not many and they should make up the majority of your daily carb intake.

I weigh and log absolutely every thing I eat. You can add me as a friend if you like and see my diary, my username is Defren. I don't usually bother too much with calories, I just count the carbs. A higher fat diet will leave you more satiated so you tend to eat less anyway. The reason you need to up your fat is for fuel, no carbs need to be made up in other ways, fat is the best alternative. I would keep checking your BG until you find a level that you are happy with and also until you have learned which foods are safe. I have a long list of safe foods, when I eat those, I don't test, any deviation from the safe list I do test, then that food goes to Joanna room 101 or onto the safe list. Its all about "eat to your meter".

Good luck - Joanna.

Lisab84 said:

Thanks Joanna I think I have added you! It would be great to see what someone else is doing if my request has not come through my email is [email address removed]
I have had scrambled egg for breakfast and chicken breast and salad at lunch 2hours after lunch I was 7.6 is that acceptable? I hate pricking my finger but expect maybe I will get used to this.
I had been told by the nurse to test first thing then before each meal and was not given any advice about testing after food
I have a head ache and a sicky feeling but am guessing this may be due to lack of carbs?

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I just love your MFP user name, I have accepted your friend request.

Breakfast was perfect, it would have been perfect +1 made with butter and a little glug of single cream. :lol: Lunch is also absolutely spot on. 7.6 is a little high, but it will depend on what your BG was before each meal. Look to be up no more than 2 points after a meal. For example if before your meal you were 5.7 then 7.6 2 hours after that would be absolutely fine, you just need to try to get your before meal as low as you can so if your meal does spike you a bit, less harm done.

Yes, test as soon as you wake (FBG) then test before meals and +2 hours after, I also used to test at bed time, so I could see what happened over night. A few weeks of that and I gave up the bed time reading, realising there is little I can do about over night activity.

It sounds very much like you have Atkins flu. This is a good thing even if it doesn't feel like it. Your body is turning from a carb fueled machine into a fat burning ketogenic body. It will pass after around five days and you should be left with a huge burst of energy that stays as long as you stay in ketosis - low carb.

You're doing great, keep doing what you are doing, it is working and you will feel great once past Atkins flu.

7.6 after two hours sounds pretty reasonable to me. I think you are eating the right way.
I always use the same two fingers, left hand ring and pinkie fingers. The blood seems to flow freely there, and the skin is thin so I have the sticker set at minimum depth! At first they got a bit sore, until I got the hang of it. The trick is to find the minimum depth that draws a bead of blood and be careful to prick quite close to the side of your nail, where there aren't many nerve ends. These days I dont even feel it and have to check to see if it is working.
Some people reckon to prick the back of their fingers above last joint, but I could not draw blood there.
The headache will go away I am sure, drink lots of water because you may get a bit dehydrated with a low carb diet. You are bound to feel a bit ropey because of the change in diet - your poor body has suddenly had all its nice sugar taken away. Think of the fat you are burning!

I see Joanna has a brag about doing the Newcastle Diet on her signature. Now that takes gumption. 600 calories a day for six weeks! Did it work?

Have a look at Viv's Modified Atkins Diet in the Sticky Threads section. It gives a basic list of what foods to eat on a very low carb diet (less than 30g per day, even with a couple of oatcakes :shock: ).

I use this diet as a base, and normally I stick to it, though at this time of year I eat too much fruit. But with the vegetables, if you stick to that list you can be happy that they're low carb and you don't really have to worry too much about quantities.

I've lost over 60lb so far, though I'm on a long plateau at the moment, which is a b****! But I'm focused on my blood glucose levels now, which are almost always within the non-diabetic range. I look on weight loss as a welcome side-effect - only another 60lb to go :lol: :wink: .

Low carb should work for your weight loss, and it will certainly work on your BGs. Good luck!

Viv 8)