Doing Low-Carb but not losing weight

It’s going to be hard to lose more weight than what you are losing unless you start doing marathons every week or starve yourself. A pound of fat is enough calories to feed you for 2 days with no other sustenance, you’re carrying literal months of energy on your body and it doesn’t magically disappear no matter what YouTubers claim.

IanBish said:

I was diagnosed with Type II about two months ago, and decided to try and tackle it by changing my eating habits, specifically by avoiding carbs.

However, I've only lost about 10 lbs in that time. I'm worried that if I don't lose my belly then I won't be able to bring down my HbA1c to a more normal level.

I haven't eaten bread, white pasta, cereal, cakes etc. since getting diagnosed. However, I do drink about half a bottle of red wine most evenings.

I just wondered what I should be doing, or not doing, to lose more weight. I'm 56, 5'8" and about 17st.

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10lb in a couple of months sounds like a perfect rate of weight loss to me.

Often the very rapid weight losses you will hear about will be people that had a huge amount of weight to lose.

Diabetes is very hard on the liver, as is drinking alcohol. Would you consider cutting the red wine to a once a week treat rather than every night for a month or two to see what difference that makes?

IanBish said:

I was diagnosed with Type II about two months ago, and decided to try and tackle it by changing my eating habits, specifically by avoiding carbs.

However, I've only lost about 10 lbs in that time. I'm worried that if I don't lose my belly then I won't be able to bring down my HbA1c to a more normal level.

I haven't eaten bread, white pasta, cereal, cakes etc. since getting diagnosed. However, I do drink about half a bottle of red wine most evenings.

I just wondered what I should be doing, or not doing, to lose more weight. I'm 56, 5'8" and about 17st.

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Noting that you were specific about "white" pasta.
All pasta is carbohydrates, so I think you should be eating no pasta at all.

Could you please give us a rough guide to what you eat each day?
You may be eating more carbohydrates than you think.

Having said that, a pound a week is a very good rate of weight loss and is also likely to be sustainable in the long run, so well done!

Oh, and the red wine may be bad for your liver but is not likely to be the main culprit in maintaining weight.
Beer, on the other hand, is also known as liquid toast.

IanBish said:

I was diagnosed with Type II about two months ago, and decided to try and tackle it by changing my eating habits, specifically by avoiding carbs.

However, I've only lost about 10 lbs in that time. I'm worried that if I don't lose my belly then I won't be able to bring down my HbA1c to a more normal level.

I haven't eaten bread, white pasta, cereal, cakes etc. since getting diagnosed. However, I do drink about half a bottle of red wine most evenings.

I just wondered what I should be doing, or not doing, to lose more weight. I'm 56, 5'8" and about 17st.

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Cut wine to one medium glass.

IanBish said:

I was diagnosed with Type II about two months ago, and decided to try and tackle it by changing my eating habits, specifically by avoiding carbs.

However, I've only lost about 10 lbs in that time. I'm worried that if I don't lose my belly then I won't be able to bring down my HbA1c to a more normal level.

I haven't eaten bread, white pasta, cereal, cakes etc. since getting diagnosed. However, I do drink about half a bottle of red wine most evenings.

I just wondered what I should be doing, or not doing, to lose more weight. I'm 56, 5'8" and about 17st.

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My T2 diagnosis was 2 years ago. I had NO symptoms or indications till went ‘vacant’, light ms in no one’s there Not a stroke or seizure ‍ I went low carb high protein. I still eat a little bread, I bake my own. Odd treat of tiny cake etc but…
Lost about 3 stone which I’d put on due to menopause and heart drugs ‍
I have a monitor as I was given one in hospital and I take readings at least twice a day. My ‘numbers’ make no sense, quite good but should be lower considering but not‍ I developed heart conditions SVT, PAF then the T2D now looks like I may have None alcoholic fatty liver disease
Had diagnosis of Haemochromatosis, iron overload and these can be the result

IanBish said:

I don't have a blood glucose meter - would that help identify which foods to avoid to lose more weight?

I've been watching Kevin Fung and Ken D Berry videos on YouTube, and they seem to imply that wight loss could be quite a bit faster.

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It's a marathon - a life-long marathon - not a sprint. My weight reduced at about the same rate as yours, and my HbA1c gradually came down. Stick at it, however:

"I haven't eaten bread, white pasta, cereal, cakes etc. since getting diagnosed. However, I do drink about half a bottle of red wine most evenings."

Brown bread & pasta still gets metabolised to glucose so need avoiding most of the time.

And about that wine... whilst that 1/2 bottle of wine won't affect your BG much, it's too much to be drinking. Government advice now is 14 units per week, and most bottles of red wine contain about 10 units, so you are drinking 3 times the recommended amount!

Sounds like you could still do better on the food/drink side of things. Other than that I can only say I feel your pain
Type 2 for about 18 years, trying to loose weight for the same amount of time. Trying to live up to the doctor's mantra of eat less exercise more.
For the last 2 years I have been on a basically low carb high fat diet of most times 15/20 gr of carbs a day (yes sometimes I'm naughty) and cycling ~4000km a year on one meal a day. Most of that time also walking every lunch break. And for the life of me I can't shift the weight.
So you are actually doing pretty good! Keep it up, but I would say look seriously at your diet, most of us are told to switch to wholegrain products because they are "better". While really they should say there are, at best, somewhat, and not much at that, "less bad".
In my opinion, testing yourself helps a lot. I also thought I did the best I could until , in my case, I bought a cgm and actually saw what happened.
Despite me having big troubles with the cgm's the last year the results sometimes still amaze me. For example I also drink (trying bring it down), because of the cgm I know drinking port does nothing negative to my sugar until I bought an other brand of port two weeks ago, surprise, big spike. Testing is the only thing that will tell you what happens to 'you' with a certain food/drink. And yes it's expensive, but a cgm tells you the whole story in my experience.

IanBish said:

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I've taken on board your points regarding the wine. I intend to work towards keeping it for the weekend only.

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I accidentally gave up drinking almost completely! I got a bad cold, don't drink when I have a cold, 3 weeks later realised I didn't miss it so unless I'm out for a meal or have some over to eat I don't drink.

What I did find is that it was a habit marking the end of my employer's time and the beginning of my time - I worked mostly at for 25 years until I retired. I have no problems having alcohol in the house. It sits undrunk in the cupboard & fridge and I gave a load away earlier this year.

Chocolate is another matter completely. Cheese is tricky as well!

IanBish said:

Thanks for all the replies. I agree with some, and thanks for the encouragement too.

What I eat (which I think is fine):
* Steak (mainly sirloin) / salmon or pork chops with fried mushrooms and broccoli / cauliflower
* Red or green Thai curry with chicken, beef or salmon, plus sugar snap peas and baby sweetcorn
* Mushroom, cheese and ham omelettes
* Tina and mayonnaise with boiled eggs
* Full-fat Greek yoghurt with blueberries
* Crab sticks
* Nuts

What I eat (which could be problematic):
* Occasional Chinese takeaway - either a Foo Yeung or beef and green pepper in black bean sauce
* A small portion of egg fried rice (I know, but it is a small portion)
* Scotch eggs (quite low in carbs)
* Crustless quiches (quite low in carbs, I think)
* Small portions of coconut rice to go with Thai curry above
* 85% cocoa dark chocolate

I haven't eat any bread (apart from SRSLY bread), white pasta, potatoes, cake, pizza, chips, etc. And I've had wholewheat pasta once, which I didn't like.

I've taken on board your points regarding the wine. I intend to work towards keeping it for the weekend only.

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Do you make the Thai green curry yourself? If not there could be hidden carbs like thickeners, palm oil, maltodextrin (sweeteners) all of which will raise you blood glucose and a raised BG will stop you loosing weigh. Sugar snap peas (the clue is in the title) and baby sweetcorn are one the worst veggies you could choose, stick to broccoli, even green beans and try cauliflower rice with your curries instead of the regular rice. My favourite veg now is roast cauliflower florets which I have with my homemade chicken curry. Also your body will be getting rid of the Toxin in your liver (ie the red wine) before it deals with anything else. Could you have just one glass a night. Give yourself a 30 day challenge and see what your results are. Good luck and keep trucking

Definitely fry the cauliflower rice, it’s lovely fried with butter until it goes slightly browned

10lbs on two months is great work. Keep it up!

IanBish said:

Thanks to @CatsFive and @MissMuffett for the replies.

I can see half a bottle of red wine from where I'm sitting. I won't even think about it until later on this evening. I think it's turned into a bit of a habit with me. I hardly drink beer any more, maybe two or three pints a week.
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Unfortunately from a carbohydrate PoV nearly all beer is worse than dry wine.

@IanBish The crab sticks are probably high carb - they are normally not all crab by any stretch.
Sweetcorn is a grain, though not as high carb as some, it can still add up if eaten regularly.
If you cook cauliflower in two lots of water - drain after 5 minutes and start again, that will remove the flavour if it is that you don't like. I used to cook swede like that, to make it a potato substitute, but now I use a pressure cooker and double the water from the start.