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Type 2 Best tips to reduce BS

T

Thursdays child

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Having been on/off traditional diets (NHS recommended low fat) all my life I struggled with losing weight and any that I lost eventually came back on. At 48 I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes and again struggled with this diet regime and was put on Metformin and more recently the addition of Gliclazide, I am now 63.

About 18mths ago I saw a BBC documentary 'The Truth About Sugar' and although I've never taken sugar or drank sugary drinks and had a reasonablty good diet, I was horrified to learn that the banana I ate mid morning each day to stave off a 'low' and the bread I ate in a sandwich at lunch would put me over the recommended daily sugar intake. However I was greatly encourange as the programme went on to say that it is possible to improve and possibly reverse the DB. I immediately changed my diet, reducing carbs and returning to full fat products and would go walking 3-4miles at lunchtime. I lost over 2stone in 6mths and am 'normal' weight (Muscle, fat, water and BMI 22) for the first time in my adult life and have maintained this easily ever since. However it didn't make much difference to my BS level (avg. HBa1c 7.4) Spurred on and eager to reduce my medication and reverse my diabetes I continued researching and then found Dr Michael Moseley's Book The 8 week Blood Sugar Diet which is amazing but by this time I had already lost my weight and if following this diet VLCD for 8weeks you would be expected to lose a lot of weight quickly, which I now don't need to do.

My question is: Is it a good idea to do this diet anyway, in case I have any visceral fat around my liver and/or pancreas which is hampering my BS levels and would this safe/wise? Or is there anything else I can be doing to significantly reduce my HBa1c level?

I look forward in anticipation to some good advice

Thank you

Sue
 
welcome @Thursdays child. I am considering a VLCD in the next few weeks, and have a BMI of 22.3
I am a new boy in terms of Diabetes, i'm only a year in. I moved to low Carb quite quickly and lost 2 stone and 6" from my waist in less than 6 months. I now find my BS have plateaued, hence my looking at other measures. I will probably eat just once a day for the diet as this is thought to improve insulin sensitivity.
All you can really do is eat to your meter, and revise plates of food that spike your BS

Good luck!


Edit: I had an ultrasound scan to determine how much fat was around my organs - sadly very little
 
@walnut_face Why sadly? Surely that is good?

I would be very reluctant to follow a very low calorie diet. My BMI dropped from 31 to 21 on low carb/high fat. up to 1200 calories. I really struggled to maintain as I just kept on losing so I had to increase my calories by increasing fats. It was a fine balancing act and took a couple of months to get it right. I did get it right and have maintained for over 2 years now. I know that if I reduce my calories I will lose weight.
 
@Bluetit1802 I was hoping to see my pancreas and liver smothered in fat, then I would know what I had to do, and that my problem was fat impeding insulin et al. What the scan revealed was that the problem was a little more hidden and complex, beta cells? IR, a combination of the two?
I personally am now thinking of trying to find the elusive Personal fat Threshold that Prof: Taylor talks of, and this time I want to drop weight quickly, and by about 10lb. If I can achieve that I probably wont continue for a full 8 weeks
 

I understand now. Good luck.
 
Hi @Thursdays child and welcome
Are you testing your blood sugars at home. I've only been diagnosed 2 years so still learning but have got my HbA1c down. I found testing before a meal and 2 hours after showed me what affect that meal had on my blood sugar. I tried to go for a spike of less than 2 to begin with. For me it was breakfast cereals that had the worst effect so I had to cut those out. We are all different so a meter would show you what different foods do to your body. I got my BMI down to 19.6 and then got control and was told to put weight on and hopefully I will still be able to keep control with a BMI of about 21 which it is now.
If you are interested in using a meter I use the sdcodefree from Homehealth as the test strips are the cheapest that I've found. I can post details if you would like.
 
Finding out how much insulin you are producing is a very important first step. If you have lost the weight and are low carb but your sugars are still high even with medication that increases insulin production, the gliclazide, I would suspect that you are not producing very much insulin any more. You would need to go to your doctor and ask for a fasting c-peptide or a fasting insulin test. No amount of low carb or low calorie dieting will fix everything if you do not have enough insulin although it is certainly much better than high carb.
 
Im currently on LCHF regime whilst fasting 16/8 BMI is 26 roughly calculated and do 2 x 20 min cardio per day in addition to everyday stuff Im also experimenting taking cinnamon I have noticed a difference when ketogenic and I dont get hungry.
maximum carbs per day is 45 usual is 30 with only 10/12 per meal or snack average calories per meal is 580
over the past 11 days my BG fasting has gone from 7.4 to 4.2
 
Thank you for your reply Hiitsme... yes I do test at home but generally just in morning on waking as docs don't like to prescribe test strips as they're expensive. I have tested more and kept a strict/honest diary of everything that went in my mouth but it was contradictory/inconclusive i.e. I could eat the same thing on 2 different days and yet my BS levels would be quite different... I've found since Christmas I am losing weight but my BS is higher, very confused....
 
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