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Am I doing okay?

Swiggy

Swiggy

Well-Known Member
Messages
331
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I have completed my first month of low carb and I have been testing before and after meals to see how things are affecting me.
I downloaded the software from home health and the cable to connect my meter to my PC but I can't get it to transfer.
Looking at my diary I can see that nothing I have eaten recently has resulted in a level more than 2.0 higher than my pre-meal level. Even the day I went to 11.7 after eating broccoli the level before I ate was 9.8. I had got up that morning with fbg 9.2 and had coffee with cream but I continued to rise reaching 9.8 before the broccoli.
Looking at the evidence I have collected it is clear that coffee and cream doesn't work for me but eggs and mayonnaise at breakfast does.
I am a bit disappointed that my weight has not reduced. I am still seventeen and a half stone (up from 16.3 in February 2016 but I was 18.3 when I did Newcastle in September 2015).
Since January I have had one reading above 12 (black pudding) and the 11.7 (broccoli) one 10.7 but ALL of the others have been below 9.9 and most have been below 8.5.
I have never been prescribed medication for diabetes and I am planning to see the GP as soon as I can work up the courage.
Do you think that my numbers are going in the right direction?
 
Your numbers do seem a bit high for someone on a LCHF diet. You should be losing a bit of weight every week and your numbers should be slowly coming down to 7 or below.

Maybe review what you are eating. Sounds like there are some carbs in there to make you gain weight. For example alcohol, orange juice, breakfast cereal have a lot of carbs. Try cutting out bread, rice, potatoes, pasta etc.

I found that porridge raises my blood sugar, so I have cut that out and now have egg for breakfast. Typically I have salad for lunch, or vegetable soup at the weekend. I usually drop about 1/3 Kg every week. My fasting blood sugars were about 10.0 at the beginning of last December, but they have dropped week on week until they are now about 6.3, and about 5.6 before my evening meal.
 
I didn't start losing weight until I was about 4 weeks into LCHF (and a quite spartan eating regime), but then I started losing 1 - 1.5 lbs a week.
You say your fbgs are reducing, so I would say yes you are doing ok. I didn't get a meter and measure my bs until after the 3 month retest after diagnosis, so I don't know how I was doing, but did reduce from 49 to 44 in that time. Others have reduced their bs faster or more slowly. Our bodies are all different.
 
I also think your numbers are rather high considering the very fine effort you are doing... the problem with too high blood glucose is that the insuline is even higher then , and with too high insuline we seem not to be able to use our bodyfats, another way to lower ones insuline is to fast like not eat from 19 o´clock till next midday at 12 o´clock.. that´ll bring ones insuline down a lot, 3 fasting days in a row brings down insuline the most, where one only eat 1-2 meals of for women like 500 calories on a day...

metformin do lower blood glucose some , and maybe in your case enough to get your numbers down to a level where your body can also switch over to burning bodyfat... and not store the blood glucose as new bodyfat...

some people have so strong insuline resistance that they have to go under 20 grams of carbs a day to get normal blood glucose levels.. maybe you are among those..

I have had a lot of help from metformin in helping me to loose weight.. and in that way I do not regret taking metformin.. of cause I would like the best to not have to take any medication at all... but I think if I were you I would not hesistate unless I had unbearable sideeffects.. so keep on your fine work going even lower in carbs and get the help from a stick to lean at which I consider metformin to be...

if that all in all does not help you I think you should be excamined even more to rule out if you do not yourself produce enough insuline, but I don´t think you are there yet, then I would think you numbers would much higher already..
 
Your fasting is going in the right direction so you must be getting some things right. Well done on that. :)

Your other numbers are still a bit high, so do have a good look at your food diary and see if you can spot where the problems are, and maybe reduce some portion sizes. If you still have carbs in your diet and have also increased your fat, you may be eating too many calories. You have to balance the higher fats with lower carbs, like a see-saw. The lower the carbs the higher the fats, and the other way round. Too much protein will also cause problems if your body isn't using it all. The excess may well convert to glucose at some point.
 
Thanks everyone. I make everything from scratch and I have completely cut out bread, rice, pasta, anything made with flour including cheese sauce (but I did have two small pancakes with 15ml Grand Marnier on Tuesday).
I swapped my milk for double cream but suspect I overdid that (200 -300ml per day) so now I am having water.
I haven't had any fruit or fruit juice or root vegetables. I've been having Brussels sprouts, cabbage, green beans, avocados, aubergines, tinned tomatoes, the occasional onion and garlic.
Salmon, tinned tuna, smoked haddock and smoked cod, almonds, Brazil nuts, the odd handful of cashews (two per week).
Leeks and full fat soft cheese were lovely and I have had 2 eggs a day. I have had lots of butter and cheddar cheese too.
I am waiting to start a new job, I had expected to start in January but waiting on references and other checks so I am not out and about as much as usual.
I am hoping that when I start work my weight will start to shift. I plan to stick to lchf and I have promised myself to go to have blood tested by GP.
In the meantime thanks for the help and advice. I'm going to get the kitchen scales out. X
 
Swiggy said:
I have completed my first month of low carb and I have been testing before and after meals to see how things are affecting me.
I downloaded the software from home health and the cable to connect my meter to my PC but I can't get it to transfer ......
Click to expand...
Hi @Swiggy ..
Contact details for Home Health UK are ...
Customer Services Team – [email protected]
Tel - 01923 711 511
I'm sure that if you get in touch with them they will be able to talk you through your data transfer issue ..

I'm not the right person to comment on your BG numbers .. I'm new here (Feb 16th) and I'm still in a pretty steep learning curve but I'm sure that others here will give you the answers that you need .. and good luck with your GP appointment
 
Swiggy said:
Thanks everyone. I make everything from scratch and I have completely cut out bread, rice, pasta, anything made with flour including cheese sauce (but I did have two small pancakes with 15ml Grand Marnier on Tuesday).
I swapped my milk for double cream but suspect I overdid that (200 -300ml per day) so now I am having water.
I haven't had any fruit or fruit juice or root vegetables. I've been having Brussels sprouts, cabbage, green beans, avocados, aubergines, tinned tomatoes, the occasional onion and garlic.
Salmon, tinned tuna, smoked haddock and smoked cod, almonds, Brazil nuts, the odd handful of cashews (two per week).
Leeks and full fat soft cheese were lovely and I have had 2 eggs a day. I have had lots of butter and cheddar cheese too.
I am waiting to start a new job, I had expected to start in January but waiting on references and other checks so I am not out and about as much as usual.
I am hoping that when I start work my weight will start to shift. I plan to stick to lchf and I have promised myself to go to have blood tested by GP.
In the meantime thanks for the help and advice. I'm going to get the kitchen scales out. X
Click to expand...

Your diet sounds perfect to me. If you continue to see higher numbers during the day despite your diet, maybe you should consider some medication, at least on a temporary basis.
 
I think you are doing fine and I expect your fasting will come down further. If your numbers stop falling at a level you are not happy with then absolutely make changes.

Congrats on the new job, I hope you will not have to wait much longer to start.
 
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