Can’t eat anything with carbs

Sadly that can be the case for type 2's. Many people on this forum have given up almost all carbs and gone on the keto diet to reduce blood sugars.

I found when I lost all the weight and got down to a healthy BMI from quite obese my body could process more carbs.

Others have lost the weight and still can't process anything.

Main thing is to eat and test to see what you can manage. The only time you will know about possible type 1 or 1.5 is after the blood tests. But at this stage it don't make much difference to your options

It can take a while to adjust. Can you try bacon and eggs for breakfast tomorrow? A food diary is an excellent idea, along side your readings before and after yoou eat. Most important thing is to get a proper diagnosis first of all. Let us know how you get on after you have spoken with your nurse.

Starstruck111 said:

Ok so I am very very new to all this. Recently diagnosed. Awaiting anti-body results. Prescribed gilclazine 120mg. I have recently taken to writing down every single thing I eat. I am unable to get my bloods below 13mmol and that is only ever fasting sugars. I have swerved my diet completely and the second I eat anything with carbs they rocket. I’m talking a slice of brown toast, a handful of pasta, handful of rice, bit of milk, cereal!?? Unless I literally eat salad, veg and meat my sugars rocket. Bananas being the worse? I am sooooo hungry. I am losing more weight and more importantly I’m so unhappy.
Questions
1. Is this normal?
2. Will I ever be able to have carbs again?
3. Could I be gearing towards type 1 or type 1.5?

I miss chocolate sooooo much. Miss all the things I usually enjoy and meal times are now a chore and completely in enjoyable.
Any advice would be really appreciated x

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Hello Starstruck. My fasting sugar was 14.7 when I was diagnosed as type 2. My weakness was sugar and ate loads of it in the form of cakes dried friuts mostly. Was never too big on rice, pasta/bread. I immediately declared war on sugar (its your greatest enemy and i got mentally prepared to treat it as such, does not make sense to love something that is destroying you! However you can still enjoy sweet things with stevia (kind of more natural) I was testing myself 6 times a day. I was weighing 112 kilos (2461bs) (I am 6ft tall). I excluded anything made with refined white wheat (bread pastries) anything not even brown stuff. I learned that fibre is an antidode for the sugar. I never went hungry and was always satisfied (very) so many other foods to enjoy.

My meals consisted mostly of delicious stews (chicken / beef / pork) thickend by beans (that have that carby texture but high in fibre). I would have the occasional sweet potatoes with skin and butter. Delicious salads with olive oil and apple cider dressing and crushed garlic (you dont even notice it) creamy avocado cut boiled eggs. Sometimes put Tuna or chicken. There are alternatives to pasta made by black beans or other lower carb stuff but not refined white flour if you crave that. I also cooked alot of spinach omlettes (eggs and spinach are extremely friendly) I eat lots of nuts and peanuts (not peanut butter as it has some 3% refined sugar added) only nuts i avoid are cashoos. Almonds are best. Like you I love choclate and bought sugar free dark chocolate (very delicious and chocolate naturally high in fibre) you also find sugar free milk chocolate (Almond my favorite). You can buy pure coco add hot water sweeten it with stevia and top with with full cream or full fat milk. Ok that is me, you have to test yourself as we are all made different. My result is now I weigh after 4 months of diagnoses 102kg (224lbs) blood pressure normalised blood sugar hover 7 to 4.8 hardly reach 7 after (these meals. Mostly in the 6 range after meal) everything is tasting so much better and I feel healthier then I ever did before. So just some food for thought and do not give up. I also do 20min brisk walk every day. My readings went down from 14.7 to the 8 in 4 weeks and now regular at 5. (not in the morning as i read at 7 still with dawn effect) Hope this helps. sorry forgot to mention that oat meal (no sweetner added) spiked my blood sugar to 13.7 and everybody was saying how good it is.So that too went in the bin. (Cake gave me a reading of 12 and a small banana of 10. kiwis strawberries and all berries are just great. But always test your own of course

Starstruck111 said:

Ok so I am very very new to all this. Recently diagnosed. Awaiting anti-body results. Prescribed gilclazine 120mg. I have recently taken to writing down every single thing I eat. I am unable to get my bloods below 13mmol and that is only ever fasting sugars. I have swerved my diet completely and the second I eat anything with carbs they rocket. I’m talking a slice of brown toast, a handful of pasta, handful of rice, bit of milk, cereal!?? Unless I literally eat salad, veg and meat my sugars rocket. Bananas being the worse? I am sooooo hungry. I am losing more weight and more importantly I’m so unhappy.
Questions
1. Is this normal?
2. Will I ever be able to have carbs again?
3. Could I be gearing towards type 1 or type 1.5?

I miss chocolate sooooo much. Miss all the things I usually enjoy and meal times are now a chore and completely in enjoyable.
Any advice would be really appreciated x

Click to expand...

Whether you are diagnosed with T1, T2 or T1.5, you will need to cut down on carbs. Unless you manage to get your diabetes into reversal you won't get back to those old carb days. That diet got you, and the rest of us, into diabetes. First thing, you need to sort out micro-nutrients, which ones make your BG skyrocket and which ones don't. Every time to have something test your BG, by time you will know what to eat safely. Veggies can raise blood sugar, in particular starchy ones. Rice, pasta, etc, are full of carbs, they impact your BG definitely. Generally, you need to educate yourself about low glycemic index foods as well as their glycemic load. Carrots, for example, have a relatively higher GI but a lower GL. Raw carrots wouldn't have that dramatic impact on your BG. Awaiting your final diagnosis, take charge of your health by a healthy diet, regular exercise, good quality sleep and less stress. These are a lot helpful than medicines. This is not a GP's advice, it's just a few tips from someone having his diabetes (T2D) in remission. All the best of luck.

Starstruck111 said:

Thank u to everyone for your advice, tips and kind words. I think deep down I knew all these answers and I just have to accept that I won’t be having enjoyable carbs anytime soon. X

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Maybe not carbs but think of bacon and all the different kinds of cheeses you can still have.

Hi Starstruck,

I'm new too, diagnosed only two months ago. What really helped me was reading and researching as much as I could. I read several books, found blog posts, found other organisations and people, started my own blog to write everything down.
I started to write down experiments too, i.e. - if I eat this food, whats my blood glucose level before and after?
- But what if I eat this food before this exercise? Or after?
- what if i eat this food before and after?

It took quite a while for my levels to come down before I got insulin, but I found exercise helps. So going for a walk after a meal and so on.
I found now I can eat some carbs before exercise but not all carbs. For example a banana or whole grain pasta is fine for me before training but a banana isn't enough to cycle in the afternoon. A sweet potato is completely out for me.
You just need to experiment with different foods, use an app to track your levels like MySugr or similar.

You got this, one step at a time.

EllieM said:

It depends whether you are T1 or T2. If T1/LADA your problem is lack of insulin not the carbs, and insulin injections will not only keep you alive but allow you to eat much more normally (albeit you'll be counting those carbs). Hopefully your blood test will have included a c-peptide test (measures the amount of insulin you produce) as well as the antibody one.

Sorry, but I don't entirely agree with this. No evidence that carb intolerance is a factor in developing T1, which may have the same symptoms as T2, but has an entirely different cause. Though as a T1 I find it easier to go relatively low carb, I can still inject for what I eat, and many T1s eat many more carbs than I do.

But it's really hard to give any advice till Starstruck gets an official diagnosis, as has already been said. There are a number of factors here that scream T1 to me, but I'm not a doctor and there are plenty of T2s who are very carb intolerant.

Starstruck, good luck, whichever type of diabetes you have there will be plenty of support for you on these forums.

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My comments about carbs ingestion were not meant to refer to intolerance, but to their deleterious effect on the GI and the consequent auto-immune disease. Auto-immune disease can account for a good number of T 1.5 patients because the pancreas has got under attack from the body's immune system. Still, for most T1 patients, it's basically genetic. And I totally agree with you, Starstruck has to get medical confirmation, tips and advice will sure be offered by this community.

Carbs are the problem whatever type you are. Type 2 can have some very high numbers too but it’s good that they have done more thorough testing and not made assumptions as you do have some signs of type 1 too. Fingers crossed for clarity soon.

If you are a type 1 or a 1.5 it will be because you lack the insulin to process them. Insulin will be required and allow you to eat carbs at a level of your choosing. Some choosing to limit them for various reasons including lower doses, smaller errors etc they can explain if and when you reach this point, others choose to eat more typically as they did prior to diagnosis.

If type 2 it will be because you are insulin resistant and the already likely high levels of insulin you have just doesn’t work as a result. Improving insulin sensitivity and removing the thing that causes you problems - the carbs - is the obvious solution most of us follow with good results, making even total remission for a decent number of people.

Until you get the results, and possible beyond, cutting out those carbs is the best thing you can do to manage them in the immediate time frame. Once you know more then you can decide how to manage longer term. If you are hungry/losing weight the answer is in eating filling foods that are low in carbs. Fats mostly and proteins. Most type 2 in here do that long term LCHF low carb high(er) fat without problems, just benefits (though maybe some teething/adjustment issues we can help overcome).

Using a carb counter would help a lot, as for example a lot of salad ingredients include noticeable amounts of carbs. As does skimmed milk, even full fat milk needs to be carb counted. You are probably eating more carbs than you realise, which means you may be able to manage some carb swaps without giving up food!

Some swaps that work for me include cauliflower rice for ordinary rice, a very low carb bread such as livlife (just one slice), and full fat milk mixed with cream or coconut milk plus extra water in coffee.
The only fruit I eat now are berries, usually a few raspberries stirred into full fat greek yogurt (real greek yogurt has the least carbs)
And a square or two of 85% chocolate instead of a bar of milk choc!

When

Starstruck111 said:

Ok so I am very very new to all this. Recently diagnosed. Awaiting anti-body results. Prescribed gilclazine 120mg. I have recently taken to writing down every single thing I eat. I am unable to get my bloods below 13mmol and that is only ever fasting sugars. I have swerved my diet completely and the second I eat anything with carbs they rocket. I’m talking a slice of brown toast, a handful of pasta, handful of rice, bit of milk, cereal!?? Unless I literally eat salad, veg and meat my sugars rocket. Bananas being the worse? I am sooooo hungry. I am losing more weight and more importantly I’m so unhappy.
Questions
1. Is this normal?
2. Will I ever be able to have carbs again?
3. Could I be gearing towards type 1 or type 1.5?

I miss chocolate sooooo much. Miss all the things I usually enjoy and meal times are now a chore and completely in enjoyable.
Any advice would be really appreciated x

Click to expand...

When it comes to what you have on your plate 5 food items are sugar free: meat, chicken, fish, eggs and water. Anything else is somewhere between low carb and high carb. Once you have your diabetes type decided, you'll need to experiment (with some trial and error) as to what foods spike your BG and what don't. Bear in mind that our bodies react differently to what we eat and how and when we do. One essential principle: keeping BG as low as healthily possible, so insulin levels remain with normal ranges to avoid complications resulting from high BG + insulin.

So glad you have a proper diagnosis. I will leave any advice to other T1s.