Advice on diet that doesn't drop weight

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/

Hi, I have read your other posts. I think Jo's post would be helpful in explaining what carbohydrates are (e.g. Porridge oats) and how to have nutritious and satisfying meals that don't include much carbohydrate. By including more healthy fats into meals you should be able to keep up your energy intake and stop losing weight.

If you're bgs are spiking at 17 - 20 I would say you need to get some medical advise , thats too high !

I've spent the afternoon prepping food for the week. In two hours I had lamb stew, chilli, chicken and bacon, meatballs in sauce all prepared and portioned. I tend to take a smaller portion of something for lunch and a larger one for dinner. All will be served with veg or salad. I also have ingredients for stir fries and salads ready to go to.
I made a double batch of keto pancakes too.
The options are endless really. It's the snacks that get me.

I can't tolerate oats or any grains they all spike me. Unfortunately they are also what I love to eat. I'm trying hard to avoid them properly.

I hope the yogurt is full fat, you can cut carbs and up the fat and make sure you have plenty of protein.

I haven't read your last thread but if you have low weight or lost weight, are they checking what kind of diabetes it is?

You seem to be in a catch 22. I looked at your condition, which appears to be autoimmune. The short review I did seems to indicate that dietary lifestyle has no impact on the condition.....but anecdotally on websites such as Revero, people are getting astonishing improvements in all manner of conditions, with a diet geared towards carnivory, so this might be worth a try, if you can mitigate the steroids - they are just a blood glucose control killer.

Steroids are a double edged sword, as I found out just before Christmas, loosing blood glucose control for the first time in over 5 years; and inducing Type 2 on a now deceased friend of mine a while back. Maybe you can ask your specialist if there is an alternative to steroids for your condition; I fear without the medically advised removal of these for something else, you may be stuck with poor control.

Oats are carbs. Carbs raise blood sugar. It doesn't matter how simple or complex the carbs they will spike someone with insulin resistance or not enough insulin.
Spaghetti is carbs, bananas are carbs, banana sandwich double carbs, soda bread is made from carbs, baked beans are carbs, toast is carbs. These will all spike bg.
The best option is the chicken with salad.
If you want to go low carb then have a look at keto bread. No, it doesn't taste the same but it will 'carry' the stuff in a sandwich or as toast. It is not an easy switch and bread is one of my 'carb binge' triggers but it is possible.

@Blackwater5 try to come away from thinking of direct swaps all the time, especially you aren't a cook.
Simple things to keep handy
Ready cooked chicken, ham and other cold meats. Sausages-heck do a 97% meat one
Eggs are good, hard boil say 6 at time, or scrambles and omelette are easy
Cheese, eaten neat no need for bread or crackers
Sliced cheese cut into triangle and baked in oven 10-15 minutes come out as crisps and are very filling
Think about buying a simple air fryer (one function about £20 on offer) will do lamb chops, pork chops, steaks.
Cut swede or celeriac into chip shapes and pop into air fryer 20 minutes

And, most of all be kind to yourself. There's huge amount to learn and plenty of time to learn it. This is going to be fro the rest of your life so it will become easier. No rush

You don't have to go completely keto. Just keep avoiding the main culprits. I am guessing 71g is miles lower than you've been eating so that's an excellent start. Going low carb higher fat will have an excellent effect on your bg.

If you keep getting really high readings then please get back in touch with your Dr as they do need to find a way to help you.

Blackwater5 said:

I was given the steroid tablets 10 days ago to deal with an autoimmune skin condition caused by lipigliptin. So I'm trying to control diabetes while taking something that causes it. As far as I know I'm supposed to just stop the steroids in3 days time after taking 30 mg for 2 weeks. If I can do that I hope that my diabetes becomes controllable.
I've decided on a high protein and fat plus low carb diet although I can't start it until tomorrow lunch. So plan on high fat and protein yoghourt, berries, eggs, cheese and salmon (so far). but I've not yet thought of fresh meat because I'm a terrible cook and I haqve to keep my cholesterol down. I had high cholesterol in the past which dropped due to the weight I've lost.,

My fasting level today was 8.9, up by 1.5 on yesterday, but I don't know if the cause is diet or steroids. After a breakfast of oats I spikrd to 15.3, but once again don't know the reason unless it was having spaghetti Bolognese for dinner. I'm trying to decide what to have for lunch. More oats, banana sandwhich, baked beans on toast, or I have some Birds Eye chargrilled chicken (frozen, processed) that I could have with salad leaves. I always have bread and don't know what I can replace it with. I can't make my own soda bread as my loaves are inedible, but I don't know how I can replace it.

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Good that you will be able to move the con-founder of the statins in a few days. Learning how to make choices that are friendly to blood glucose is difficult at first. The oats, banana, beans, soda bread will change your blood glucose in the wrong direction. This is my advice, I would replace the oats with coconut flakes (the ones with 6 grams of carbs per 100), beans no replacement, soda bread change to home made protein bread (Maria Emmerich's easy recipe). The chargrilled Birds eye chicken has a horrible ingredients list, I would replace this with home seasoned grilled chicken or supermarket counter chicken.

From left to right here's my breakfast Salmon, Eggs, Mussels, followed by Berries with Quark Cheese and home made 100% dark chocolate, peanut butter (whole earth, half mixed with PB&Me) and roasted nuts. Dinner loads of Turkey, pigs in blankets, saugage meat, carrots, broccoli and swede (maybe drop the last 2), followed by home made seed crackers with marmite and the same dark chocolate home made bar:

Mbaker said:

Good that you will be able to move the con-founder of the statins in a few days. Learning how to make choices that are friendly to blood glucose is difficult at first. The oats, banana, beans, soda bread will change your blood glucose in the wrong direction. This is my advice, I would replace the oats with coconut flakes (the ones with 6 grams of carbs per 100), beans no replacement, soda bread change to home made protein bread (Maria Emmerich's easy recipe). The chargrilled Birds eye chicken has a horrible ingredients list, I would replace this with home seasoned grilled chicken or supermarket counter chicken.

From left to right here's my breakfast Salmon, Eggs, Mussels, followed by Berries with Quark Cheese and home made 100% dark chocolate, peanut butter (whole earth, half mixed with PB&Me) and roasted nuts. Dinner loads of Turkey, pigs in blankets, saugage meat, carrots, broccoli and swede (maybe drop the last 2), followed by home made seed crackers with marmite and the same dark chocolate home made bar:


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Gorgeous looking food! Could you point to recipe of chocolate and seed crackers?

Joona said:

Gorgeous looking food! Could you point to recipe of chocolate and seed crackers?

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Thanks, I am very lucky that my immediate family have adopted a keto-ish diet. The basic seed cracker recipe is here:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/low-carb-sesame-crispbread
I tend to miss out the cheese as I will top with cheese after dinner if I fancy that. I add 2 scoops of bulk egg protein powder as well, and an already good "snap" goes into orbit. I also add some pumpkin seeds. This is one recipe that is better in my opinion than any commercial products.

Blackwater5 said:

I've left all your quote as the meals look lovely. But I can't cook anything other than basic baked or stewed food, even turned the cheese in an omelette to charcoal yesterday. The soze of those breakfasts look huge, maybe bigger than main meals and I hate a lot of the ingredients, especially peanut butter and marmite. I don't recognise brands you give
To clarify, I'm on steroids which cause diabetes thanks to a gliptin that messed up my immune system. I can't take statins and normal cholesterol was probably caused by weight loss. so most of my meals have to be quick and easy, especially breakfast. So I'm planning for high protein yoghurt and berries for breakfast, cheese and salad for lunch.. I've only been able to do my glucose checks for a few days and I'm still feeling my way and learning.

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Most of the above is relatively easy; the first meal air fried salmon and boiled eggs and boiled mussels (that's not cooking I put this together). Similarly washed and cut berries where required and scooped out Quark cheese, I opened some nuts and put them to gently roast, melted the dark chocolate in the bowl in the oven, mixed the peanut butter in and smoothed mixed with the nuts, shaped and put in the fridge (really easy). The other meal is esssentially just roasting turkey, sausage meat, pigs in blankets.

Anyway with my walking after each meal (you only need 10 minutes per meal) and resistance training I got this in the morning:


Decide how far you want to go and following the 80 / 20 rule you have a good chance of getting there.

The NHS doesn't appear to have caught up with its own latest advice or the research? (Not just for T2 and low carb but for example a week ago one part of the government stated the new guidance on covid-19 isolation, but the NHS site had 7 days on one page and 10 days on another!)
We don't need carbs, not even for fibre as it can be found in green veg and seeds/nuts, etc. It is possible to do low carb and maintain weight if you eat enough protein and add in extra fats such as butter, olive oil, etc.

I’m sorry but whilst the steroids will be making things worse your old preferred diet is the real problem. It’s great that your meter is helping you identify this. It’s incredibly hard to unlearn all we’ve been taught about carbs, fats and slow carbs especially. For instance carbs cause cholesterol issues far more than fats do in reality and to be honest the blood glucose is the far more immediate problem. Many of us find that cutting the carbs and getting blood glucose under control also solves the cholesterol issues. Are you on statins? These also increase blood glucose and can cause diabetes. Many of us refuse to take them for this and other reasons. (Alzheimer’s like or muscle pain symptoms anyone?). More fats/proteins will help stall weight loss and protect muscle.

no one is saying you have to go keto, not everyone needs to, but for you it’s obviously going to be a step at a time process. All I’d say is don’t prejudge now where you might end up. Once you can break the carb addiction cycle many people are amazed at new preferences in foods. You taste the sweetness in a pepper for example, you crave proteins, you find sugar repellant, you aren’t hungry all the time. All things that once seemed impossible.

Other ideas for breakfast are eggs cooked anyway (if you burn them today cook them less/turn the heat down tomorrow), cold meats and cheeses continental style, last nights left overs (who says what food should be for breakfast ? Mostly mr Kellogg and his profits!), fish (even stuff out of a tin like sardines or mackerel. There are very simple recipes for a granola based on seeds and nuts (just mix up whatever you can get with cinnamon and coconut flakes and add to Greek yoghurt for some crunch).

Can you chuck a chicken/gammon/joint in a tray in the oven? Literally unwrap it, turn the heating appliance on for the stated time and wait. Meals for days if you have a small appetite. Add vegetables the first day, salad the second and mix it with a packet of stir fry veg the third. Have dinner left overs for lunch the next day. Freeze portions for another time. A lot of people fear cooking because of overly detailed picky recipes. Treat them as a rough guide. Swap things over for something similar, leave things put you don’t like. Chuck it all in. Add spices or herbs to taste. So long as meat is cooked and the food is all hot it’s a culinary experiment.