Advice please - having a nightmare :(

[tigerrunfree]

Hi all, Hope you are well.

I am after a bit of advice if possible please.
I was diagnosed in February 2018 and had readings of 51mmol and 7.1 glucose.
I was put straight onto medication. Since being diagnosed, I have completely changed my diet and have lost 2 stone. I am currently suffering quite a bit - lightheadedness, blurry vision, fatigue, nausea.
Could this be anything to do with diabetes? Maybe the meds (hopefully not needed) or even not enough food??? I have seriously cut down on carbs and sugar and having low fat food.
Felt way better before I started treatment

Any advice would be appreciated - can't get in to see Diabetic nurse till 11th May - although she has been absolutely no use so far at all. Told me to eat 50% carbs, 25% veg and 25% meat/fish.

Thank you

 

[catapillar]

Have you tested your blood sugar?

 

[ringi]

What medications are you on?

 

[tigerrunfree]

Hi. I am on Sukkarto. Wasn't supplied with test strips etc - blood test due end of May??
Thanks

 

[There is no Spoon]

low fat food.

Hi tigerrunfree,
Just to check with you are you aware that low fat foods, are high in sugar?

You mention your on medication, someone will be along shortly to help with advice with that if you let us know which medication you are on.

Diabetic nurse - although she has been absolutely no use so far at all.

You are not alone in that experience.

 

[Antje77]

I have seriously cut down on carbs and sugar and having low fat food.

So what are you eating? Are you getting enough calories or are you basically starving yourself?

 

[tigerrunfree]

Hi. I am eating plenty of fruit and veg. Have oats for breakfast, light lunch (normally salad or ryvita) and then evening meal which I tend to have small jacket potato, salad and maybe fish. Think I have maybe cut down too much?? Very hard when I was given no real advice

 

[tigerrunfree]

Hi tigerrunfree,
Just to check with you are you aware that low fat foods, are high in sugar?

You mention your on medication, someone will be along shortly to help with advice with that if you let us know which medication you are on.


You are not alone in that experience.

I am on Sukkarto - was told to go for low fat yoghurts, cheese etc?????

 

[Guzzler]

Is Sukkarto your only medication?

If you have lowered the amount of carbohydrate in your diet and lowered the fat content of your diet you may be energy deficient. We get energy from the food we eat and this comes from carbs and fats so lowering both equates almost to a starvation diet. Try raising the amount of good fats in your diet by having creamed coffee, a little more dairy and fattier cuts of meat and a few nuts.

Get yourself a glucometer asap. It is an invaluable tool that teaches us our personal carb tolerance levels.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Hi. I am on Sukkarto. Wasn't supplied with test strips etc - blood test due end of May??
Thanks

Looking this up it seems to be slow release Metformin. This shouldn't be giving you Hypo symptoms which seems to be what you are getting.

When you feel "lightheadedness, blurry vision, fatigue, nausea" what do you do? If you have low blood sugars then a jelly baby or two should have quite a quick effect, clearing the symptoms. However we can't really guess what is going on until we know what your blood glucose readings are. It is quite unusual for a T2 just on Metformin to have hypo symptoms.

It is possible that your BG has returned to normal and given your body a bit of a shock and you are having a "false hypo". It is also possible that you are just not eating enough.

If you cut out carbohydrates you need to eat more protein and fat to give you energy.

So probably best to get yourself a blood testing kit so you know what is going on.

 

[ringi]

From a quick google Sukkarto is a branded slow release Metformin. Given what I know about Metformin the only symptom you have that could be due to Sukkarto is nausea, but that would normally be when you were first taking it.

Otherwise, you may need to eat a little more protein and fat, if you advoid low-fat products there should be no need to add much fat to your food. Or just be happy with the fast weight loss, however, I think about 1 pound a week is a good rate to aim for.

 

[catapillar]

I'm sure some members will provide guidance on the most economical blood sugar monitors for type 2s, codefree or tee2 I believe.

With metformin only and your diet (oats for breakfast, ryvita for lunch and jacket potatoe for dinner) I would be amazed if you were having hypos.

Your symptoms, lightheadedness, blurry vision, fatigue and nausea along with weight loss sound like symptoms of hyperglycaemia. You really need to test your blood sugar to be sure. Lots of chemists will do this for you if you can pop into a Lloyds or Boots and request a diabetes check.

Are you using anything to track what you're eating - myfitnesspal is a free app that does this - that will tell you the macro content of your food, so you can keep an eye on how many carbs eaten and let you know how many calories your taking in. If you've suddenly drastically reduced your calories you won't feel great and you're supposed to eat 1200 a day even when loosing weight, it doesn't sound like you are meeting this from your diet.

 

[Deleted Account]

When I feel "lightheadedness, blurry vision, fatigue, nausea" it could either be because my BG is low or because it is too high.
Suggesting jelly babies may not be the best option.

If this keeps happening, I think a visit to the doctor (or pharmacy) may be called for: there are too many options which are difficult to narrow down with something like a glucometer.

 

[archersuz]

Hi @tigerrunfree Are you on any medication for high blood pressure? When I lost weight I had to stop my BP medication as my BP went too low and I was feeling light headed, nauseous and lacking in energy.

 

[tigerrunfree]

Hi @tigerrunfree Are you on any medication for high blood pressure? When I lost weight I had to stop my BP medication as my BP went too low and I was feeling light headed, nauseous and lacking in energy.

Hiya,

I was previously, but stopped it. I am hypothyroid too so not sure if this could be affected??

 

[ringi]

I think I may know what is going on, I expect you have a very high level of insulin resistance. This means your body has to make much more insulin then is normal to control your BG. This high level of insulin can stop your body burning fat for energy.

The Oats, ryvita and jacket potato etc will be increasing your BG, and hence the amount of insulin your body is making, this may be stopping your body accessing the energy that you have stored in fat. This is the main reasons that most of us get on better with low carb diets. The basics of this is explained in the welcome message that @daisy1 will soon give you.

As an experiment try eating unlimited egg and steak for two days to see how you feel, eat enough that you feel like you have had a good meal but not stuffed. For breakfast try an omelette.

But without a blood glucose meter, it is not possible to test the effect different foods are having on you, so get yourself a meter and a few test strips.

------------

Another option is that you may have Type1 not Type2! Once again, it needs blood glucose readings to know if it is a possibility.

------------

I am hypothyroid too so not sure if this could be affected??

The hypothyroid will improve a bit with weight loss, so should be retested to see if the drug dose needs reducing. But I don't think this is the problem.
.

 

[There is no Spoon]

I am on Sukkarto - was told to go for low fat yoghurts, cheese etc?????

Sorry can't help with the Sukkarto,
The food is bad advice thought. To make up for the lack of taste in low fat food manufactures add sugar.

Hi. I am eating plenty of fruit and veg. Have oats for breakfast, light lunch (normally salad or ryvita) and then evening meal which I tend to have small jacket potato, salad and maybe fish. Think I have maybe cut down too much?? Very hard when I was given no real advice

Think I have maybe cut down too much?
From what you have listed I would say you haven't cut down as much as you think.

• Fruit is high in carbs and sugar. Most of us avoid it. = sugar
• Veg usual a great choice, you want to avoid starchy things like potatoes = sugar
• Oats with I assume low fat milk = carbs + carbs = sugar + sugar.
• Even the ryvita is about 7gms of carbs each. = sugar.

=Sugar. I think you see what I'm getting at your putting more sugar into your body than you think. And on top of that the low fat food high in sugar.

Possible changes:

• Fruit: berries are best strawberries, raspberry's etc.. no need to give up all fruit.
• Veg: leafy greens and veg that grow above ground are usually low carb.
• Breakfast: any cereal is not a good choice, full of carbs, bacon & eggs are full of protein a much better choice.
• Can't help with the ryvita sorry,

You mentioned "seriously cut down on carbs and sugar" not to take anything away from you, we all know how hard that can be in the beginning. Carbs are sneaky little buggers there in everything.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

When I feel "lightheadedness, blurry vision, fatigue, nausea" it could either be because my BG is low or because it is too high.
Suggesting jelly babies may not be the best option.

If this keeps happening, I think a visit to the doctor (or pharmacy) may be called for: there are too many options which are difficult to narrow down with something like a glucometer.

The jelly babies were intended as a quick check.
If you are hypo then they will probably clear the symptoms.
If the symptoms don't clear then you are probably not hypo.

 

[There is no Spoon]

The Oats, ryvita and jacket potato etc will be increasing your BG, and hence the amount of insulin your body is making, this may be stopping your body accessing the energy that you have stored in fat. This is the main reasons that most of us get on better with low carb diets.

Hi @tigerrunfree
Although what ringi is saying here is an absolutely correct description of how this process works I would guess, biased on you losing 2 stone already, this is not happening in your case. You couldn't lose all that weight if your body was not breaking down your own body fat.

There is no such thing as high insulin resistance, just insulin resistance (IR) high IR sounds way scarier than it is even thought its a bit scary.
And again although ringi is describing what happens correctly, looking at your "readings 51mmol and 7.1 glucose" these numbers are not particularity high it does not suggest huge amounts of bg running around your system.

When we talk about IR it means the body sends energy in the form of sugar, from food we eat or fat stores in the body, its all broken down into sugar. Which the body uses as fuel for the muscle. Insulin carries the fuel round the body IF your not exercising then that fuel is not needed by the muscles and it sloshes around for a bit, this is not good, and eventual sent back to your liver to be turned into fat.

That's why you want to put as little into your body as possible, that it can turn into sugar
i.e carbohydrates, fruits, cereal...

 

[tigerrunfree]

Hi @tigerrunfree
Although what ringi is saying here is an absolutely correct description of how this process works I would guess, biased on you losing 2 stone already, this is not happening in your case. You couldn't lose all that weight if your body was not breaking down your own body fat.

There is no such thing as high insulin resistance, just insulin resistance (IR) high IR sounds way scarier than it is even thought its a bit scary.
And again although ringi is describing what happens correctly, looking at your "readings 51mmol and 7.1 glucose" these numbers are not particularity high it does not suggest huge amounts of bg running around your system.

When we talk about IR it means the body sends energy in the form of sugar, from food we eat or fat stores in the body, its all broken down into sugar. Which the body uses as fuel for the muscle. Insulin carries the fuel round the body IF your not exercising then that fuel is not needed by the muscles and it sloshes around for a bit, this is not good, and eventual sent back to your liver to be turned into fat.

That's why you want to put as little into your body as possible, that it can turn into sugar
i.e carbohydrates, fruits, cereal...

Tbh this is getting more confusing by the minute I was told to have either porridge or bran for breakfast, no more than 2 pieces of bread a day (if that), I don't eat pasta, rice, or anything similar any more, just the occasional jacket potato. I was told fruit is good, although berries are better. I am not eating anything really that I used to ie cakes, choccie, crisps etc. What else do I need to cut out?????? Pretty much living on fresh air as it is Feeling really despondant.