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Any suggestions for starting a low carb diet?

Zastro

Well-Known Member
Messages
53
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
After looking into as much information as I can, one of the things I have discovered is that a low carb diet can help with controlling blood sugar levels so I fully intend to start my low carb lifestyle as soon as possible. Now I have a general idea of foods that are low in carbs such as white/red meat, eggs etc but I need a little help getting a meal plan done. While I have yet to see a dietitian, I believe in being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to getting things sorted. My only concern is that I am not always able to cook food pretty fast due to some of the medication's I am on making me incredibly clumsy. So I come here asking some advice on what I should start off with, any experiences with starting the low carb diet and any suggestions and tips that may help to make the transition easier to the new norm
 
My biggest tips for successful low carbing

Keep it varied, I eat eggs virtually every day but you have to mix things up else it'll get very boring very quickly.

Plan each meal, try to be realistic, it took me a long time initially to prepare and cook things as i didn't really know what to cook i'm not hugely experienced in the kitchen but it's a lot better and quicker than it was.

Only buy enough foods to make your chosen meals for the week, it will help with dodging foods you know you shouldn't eat and cuts down on snacking.

Prepare lunches the night before, for me luches are by far the hardest thing to cater for and I really dont have the time before work to cook up my lunch in addition to breakfast

But above all get a good book, it's amazing how much easier getting started is, I brought quite a few and most of them were not that great for me, however the 8 week blood sugar diet recipie book is an absolute godsend, there's lots of tasty, practical and above all easy recipies in there to get you started, some of them are still too high in carbs for my liking but I look forward to trying some once I have got to my chosen weight.
 
Salads are easy no-cook meals and practically unlimited in variety. Add healthy avocado to them and various cheeses. Fish is another easy option such as pre-cooked salmon, smoked salmon or mackerel Avocado stuffed with prawns. Cook- in -the- bag fish of various types can often be simply heated or cooked in a microwave. Chicken may be found pre-cooked in various forms in supermarkets, but check the carb levels as they vary. A good pot of veg soup shouldn't to too hard to make and would last two or three days. For snacks try cellery sticks with peanut butter or the nutty version of ryvita with peanut butter or pate with a few pickles (I've just had the latter!) Try making no-sugar jellies in individual sized pots with a few bits of fruit in them - these are a nice sweet treat.
It's hard to suggest what else, as I don't know just how much "cooking" you can comfortably manage, but things like a rack of ribs pre-packed don't take much faffing about to cook and are low carb as are other pre-packed meats, though you need to look at the total carbs on the labels before deciding what to buy.
 
In regards to how much I can cook, the last time I tried, I burned a hole in my carpet lol
 
I'm on week two of low carb and getting into the swing of it. Breakfast is eggs of some description. Lunch I've found large chicken or ham salads to be the most filling and a yogurt and for dinner I have meat with lots of veggies. Diet doctor is a good website and this forum as well. I've cut out snacks this week as well as I struggled with low carb snacks I enjoyed. My sugars have been stead with no spikes and I've cut out all my daytime insulin (I'm T2) and only taking basal and metformin. It's definitely worth doing.
 
Well the only way I can actually do lancets or injections is with Lidocaine, the phobia of needles I have is incredibly bad and has caused full blown panic attacks even when its just a little prick. Thankfully my GP has agreed to use lidocaine whenever he needs to take bloods etc and will give me a prescription for it to help me cope. My ideal situation is getting my blood sugar under control enough that I can either control it via diet alone or at the very least Metformin. That's why I am so interested in getting the right diet
 
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That must be horrible for you, but if you have the right diet you can manage without testing as long as you are committed to low carb. Have a look at those links I gave you and see what you think.
 
Yeah I am going to be fully committed to making my diet low carb, gonna wait and see first however what the diabetes specialist says when I see them next week. Hopefully at best he will simply put me on metformin and refer me to a dietitian to get the right diet (ill push for low carb of course) to keep my bloods in-check
 
You might find that the advice you get from a dietician is next to useless - if they produce a photocopy of the eatwell plate you know that you are not going to get any help.
So far my diabetes information would have had my blood glucose levels up in the teens, and my doctor prescribed a statin and Metformin - total disaster.
By going back to low carb I seem to be getting normal blood glucose levels. I am losing weight steadily - perhaps as you can't test your blood you could aim to lose weight as a guide to your eating?
I found that the exact same things which prevented me losing weight spiked my blood glucose levels - I didn't test all of them, as the pattern was pretty obvious after the first 4 or 5 trials.
 

There are very few NHS dietitians that will go against the NHS recommendations, which is carbs with every meal, plenty of starchy ones, low fat, and lots of fruit. This may be fine for non-diabetics, but disastrous for us. So good luck with that one!
 
Yeah I am getting the impression, the more I read here, the less I feel a dietitian won't be any use and that I should be putting in the research myself. By the way, thank you for all the great advice!
 
Zastro said:
Yeah I am getting the impression, the more I read here, the less I feel a dietitian won't be any use and that I should be putting in the research myself. By the way, thank you for all the great advice!
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You maybe lucky and find an advocate for not following standard nhs guidelines, in my experience its rare though. The one thing i have had reinforced time and again by my health care professionals is they are resistant to change, often do not listen and do not volunteer relevant information. I did have a wonderful diabetic nurse but sadly she left the practice and i have yet to meet her replacement. I really hope you have better luck than I.
 
One of my favourite meals is cooked in an Actifry hot air cooker. I open a 1 Kg pack of chicken thighs, tip them into the cooker, being careful not to drop the chunk of absorbent padding in as well, close the lid and set it to go for 45 minutes. I heat up some frozen veges with low carb content, and then heap them up on a plate add some chicken bits, then pour in some hot water and a very little gravy powder and set the cooker going for a little while, during which time I put more chicken and the carbs I prepared separately on my husband's plate and find the cutlery. I then add the admittedly rather thin but tasty gravy and serve. During the serving time the crunchy skins evaporate off the chicken bits.
It would be difficult to mess up such simple and delicious meals.
I also have a halogen oven which makes the most delicious roast meats in larger chunks than the chicken bits. You just put in the meat on the rack and it can do the veges in the bottom if you like. You just set the timer and temperature and go and do something until it pings at the end of cooking. The crackling on roast pork is wonderful - but that has a tendency to evaporate too.....
 
I love your stories of evaporating chicken and pork skin. Makes me laugh every time.
 
I totally understand where you coming from and it is a little difficult to get your head around but one of the many great pieces of advice I was given from these forums was the high protein roll from lidl. I have this instead of bread, fillings can be ham salad, hot tomato,cheese & bacon anything your imagination can run riot but make sure low carb fillings.
Download the my fitness pal app and enter everything you eat, not only will this give you an ongoing record of what you eating it keeps you occupied, also these forums have helped me in so many ways . Like you i am a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic and i have found so much advice and support on these forums I have managed to have some great meals and as a former carb glutton i thought cutting them down would be impossible but I am eating better than ever also when you feel the carb calling eat me eat me log on go through the threads you will find the temptation and inclination to chuff goes. Still havent found the courage to tell people I diabetic when offered the bad stuff but not been tempted to cheat.
Good luck to you hun.
 
I was very lucky and got a dietitian who specialises in diabetes and gave me advice on low carb. My DSN and consultant also encouraged me to follow it cause they could see the effect eating carbs was having on my sugars. The gp and dietitian I had seen up to that point though were no, eat carbs we'll just give your more meds!
 
I have been following the 8wbsd for the past 4 weeks - lost 9 kgs. Feel great and massive improvement and control of my sugar levels. Practice fasting 16:8 too - eat 2 meals. Read the book by Michael Moseley and googleJason Jung they convinced me.
 
Start simple, then as you educate yourself in how your body reacts to different foods, you can become more adventurous.

A simple day would see me;

Breakfast: raspberries, blueberries, nuts/seeds, double cream/full-fat yoghurt. Mug of tea.

Lunch: chopped lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, cheese, ham/mackerel, topped off with mayonnaise

Dinner: two portions of meat/fish, lots of above-ground green veg. OR you could simply have a good old fry-up of bacon, eggs, and QUALITY sausages (cheap sausages have carbs - check the packaging!)

Supper: small glass of full-fat milk

This would give you around 50g carbs, and I found it great for starting off my low-carb lifestyle.
 
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