A standstill and downhill week

I had a similar week last week too. My morning BG were 7/7.2 when they had been 5.5/6 for the previous few weeks. My 2 hour readings have been satisfactory, never more than 6.5. Weight wise I seem to lose a lb, stay static for 2 weeks then lose another lb.

No idea why the BG readings have changed, but I don't think they have changed too much to worry about at the moment. This is all a learning process, and it won't all be plain sailing, but we should stay positive.

Stress, change of routine, illness, even the weather can make a difference. If you can't think of a reason, try not to worry, and move on.
I can't help with weight loss since I'm trying hard to put weight back on.

I have found the same so am now experimenting with reducing portion size and increasing fat intake, eg using oily fish instead of meat more often. I also need to restrict my baking having recently discovered some excellent recipes using nut flour. Have to remind myself that they do still contain carbs!

Have seen this in a few posters, where for the first few weeks the weight falls off. Then you stop or don't lose weight at the same rate. It is usual to plateau. As someone as already posted, add a little more full fat and decrease your plate size. You will never get the same weight loss after the initial stages. Just be patient as long as you are actually losing it, th e low carb Is working.
You could also up your exercise as well if possible.

Stress and also illness/infections can definitely affect your levels for the worse as I've discovered, so the best thing to do is to try not to worry about this as you may just make things worse.

You may also need to reduce food/calorie intake now you've lost weight as you've possibly reached maintenance level food wise - you've now got a stone less body to feed. Low carbing still requires that you (may) need to adjust things if you want to continue losing weight - try this low carb nutritional calculator to help you do this.

Robbity

Mrsmac247 said:

Hi all, I Ann a little bit confused and perhaps a little impatient but this week seems to have not been sui good and I don't understand why.

The last few weeks my bg has generally been between 5.5 before meals and a high of 6.6 after meals but this last week, nothing has changed with my diet, and my figures are on the up 5.9-6.2 before meals and as high as 7.9 after meals.

In addition my fasting bg was on the way down from in the 6's with a lowest of 5.6 but this last week seems to be on the way up with a high of 6.5 this morning

Lastly after losing that initial stone in weight, my weight has stayed the same for the last 2 weeks.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong oh and according to mfp I only seem to be reaching on average 20ish carbs a day with yesterday a low of 15 of my calculated 39g allowance

Does this name any sense please?

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I think your readings are fine and nothing to worry about,mine are about the same,but I have problems maintaining weight.

Weight loss, as others have mentioned, is not a mechanical process, and the body needs to stabilise at a certain weight before shedding more fat. Two weeks is just such a pause, nothing to worry about.

Regarding your BS readings despite low carbs, how high are your proteins? Excess protein can be converted into glucose easily enough through the process of gluconeogenesis. Sometime it's easy to indulge in juicy steaks/chops/burgers (OK, easy for me! ) and forget how much protein one actually needs.

Mrsmac247 said:

Veet good point about the protein @Larissima. I tend to eat a bit of meat and cheese each day as well as a yoghurt and mfp always seem to show that I an eating too much which to me seems like minimal.

Just doing sine thinking these last couple of days, I just don't think I am getting to grips withh this way of eating hence my ongoing questions.

I struggle with the fat intake even though I eat full fat meat cuts, cook in butter or coconut oil and at least one drizzling of mayonnaise a day.

I think overall I'm just struggling really.

One positive, I had a reading in the 4's yesterday! 4.8. Well chuffed.

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Mrsmac - I smiled somewhat painfully when I read your post.

May I ask what your primary objective is when tackling your T2 diabetes?

I like to divide things down into simple objectives for myself, which I can then define very clearly, and give myself targets and where appropriate timeframes in which to achieve them. When I was diagnosed, my primary, an initially absolutely only objective was to reduce my blood scores into firstly "healthy diabetic" ranges, then secondly into non-diabetic levels. Anything else, like weight loss or improved blood pressure was a bonus, but not recorded or acknowledged.

Initially, I acquired a blood glucose meter and started using it, but had no body weight scales. Indeed I didn't step on a set of scales for over 3 months. I was abroad, with no ready access anyway, so it did make that bit easier, to be fair, but I knew pretty quickly I was losing weight, because of the fit of my clothing.

My sole focus was on my bloods, with my forst HbA1c after diagnosis coming back at 37 (diabetes threshold is 48).

It helped me to have one focus. I could invest whatever time I had researching towards that, with virtually no, "but my weight loss has stalled" or "but my blood pressure hasn't come down yet" going through my head.

As it transpired, my secondary objectives came very much into line along the way, but surely for a diabetes sufferer, blood sugars are the main objective, acknowledging that for most people, carrying less weight will be helpful.

Please don't take this post as a telling off. It's meant to ask you to think about what your really need to do, and what you want to do along the way.

Mrsmac247 said:

@AndBreathe yourself and posters on my previous posts are quite right in me needing to get my priorities straight.

I am thinking about calling one of the helpline only because when I was diagnosed and also when I saw the nurse there was quite a focus on my weight and that is what has stayed with me...loose the weight, make the diabetes quiet. I hardly way during the day like when I first started as if I'm honest with myself, there are times I don't fancy the good so am kind of self destructing at the minute.

I also have a leaflet about the Desmond course but fear that it will add more unclear thinking by the promotion of healthy carbs.

I do hear you guys honestly and an grateful for when anyone answers my posts but I have a mountain to climb and separating the 'diet' element needs to be the first step in the ladder.

I just need to change this mindset and get over myself already lol

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Unless you are extremely fortunate, you will find DESMOND suggesting carbs at every meal.

I think I understand your comment about diet, but sadly this whole process, for T2s at least, does pivot around food. I know everyone says "don't think about it as a diet", and to an extent I would agree with them. Everyone says, "think about it as a way of living", and yet almost every HCP or other interested party I have know asks "what's your diet like", if they want to talk about what we eat, so it is only a word. In my world the word diet has never solely meant weight loss.

But why not try cutting yourself some sort of deal, whereby you have a really short term, but sensible, foodie goal, that doesn't involve counting carbs, cals or whatever? How about something like eat three meals a day. No "big carbs". Those, I'm thinking would be bread, grains, pasta, potatoes, root veggies or sugar. So, that leaves you a million choices for your three meals a day. If you have been used to low carbing, you sort of know what to do. But, and the big but is, no weighing yourself until 1st July?

Spend time focusing on eating to your meter. Your numbers had gone up a bit, but not catastrophically. Many, many people hit this sort of bump in the road, so it's not the end of the world, but try to make the way forward simple and positive.

You can do it. You know you can..

Mrsmac247 said:

I so agree with you @AndBreathe and I can see the logic. I think I will stop numbers watching for a week. It didn't sound like much but I get in the scales each morning and am constantly carb counting even though I am eating the same foods!

Maybe that still inject a little fun back into eating instead of being so hard on myself. I definitely have cut out all those foods you mentioned and have a basic knowledge of the amount of carbs in the foods I eat and I think I may keep just a word log of what I'm eating.

I have a habit often of trying to conquer the mountain but in this case I am learning that it is not the does of the race but the stamina for the duration.

In addition, I see that stress does require bs, last week we were told that our baby needed another operation...Her 4th one. So I think I'm going to take some time out and focus on her, eat sensibly within my current understanding and Maybe only test my morning bs once a week

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If that's the basis of a plan you can agree with yourself, and commit to, then it's an excellent one. If you can just test once a week, your more brave than me. My morning test is my security blanket!

You have a lot going on, and until you mentioned your baby there, I have to say I had forgotten just how many plates you spin every day. So, making it simple surely has to be the way forward.

I don't know when your baby will have her op (so sorry to hear about that), but if you can devise a simple way of doing things now, it might make it easier to adapt that when your doing those nightmare hospital days.

Perhaps when you know dates and so on, if you need a bit of support, it could be useful to start a thread for suggestions for on the go/handbag food?You know, the sort of thing that lowers the potential for a pasty or the chippy on the way home. Take the support there is on here. There's rarely a challenge somebody hasn't had to face before.