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Exhausted

M

MJC61

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi everybody. I was diagnosed with prediabetes about two months ago. Hb A1c 47 and a month later it was 45. I have cut a lot of sugar out of my diet and am trying to keep a lid on other carbs. The thing is, I am absolutely exhausted a lot of the time. There could be other reasons for this but I am just wondering if anyone else has felt like this after dietary changes.
Thanks.
 
Hi @MJC61 and welcome to the forum.
Diabetes and diet changes aren't the only reasons for feeling exhausted. But let's go through some of the more likely things related to diet and diabetes even if to eliminate them.

Since I was aware of both of the potential problems below, I took steps to avoid them and so have no personal experience of them/

Did you compensate for loss if calories in Carbs by adding more protein and Fat to your diet?
- If so then you should be either almost adapted to a low carb way of eating, or nearly so. Meaning you should have already started to feel much better or be about to do so.
Do you think you may be experiencing 'Keto flu' and if so, have you considered adding some electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium , or just old fashioned bone broth) to your diet to compensate for less fluid being held by the body on Low Carb?

Lack of energy, due to cutting down on both carbs and calories is quite common until 'fat adapted' after which your body switches seamlessly between using carbs or body fat for fuel with no loss of energy.

So far as electrolytes are concerned, the body appears to adapt after a few weeks, though several people keep taking electrolyte supplements (or bone broth, or in my case Lo Salt which is 2/3rd Potassium Chloride) well after that period.
 
Thank you so much for your reply (I had to work after posting yesterday). There is a lot to think about there, in terms of my protein/fat intake and also the electrolytes. Is there somewhere I can look for guidance on the former? I have an appointment with a dietician but not until mid-September and feel I'm perhaps not being "scientific" enough about this as yet. Thanks again, I now have some things to look at.
 
Hi @MJC61 I'm not aware of any particular place I could recommend for information about Protein/Fat, other than the Threads in here. Use the Search function for success and tick 'search titles only' that should give you a starting point.

You can also look in the threads about what people ate today etc.

I'm not sure I would trust a random dietician to give me good advice unless I already knew they were open to Low Carb - mainly because most of them have been pushing the Low Fat, 'healthy whole grains' and high fruit (part of 5 a Day) nonsense which has fuelled both the Obesity and the T2 Diabetes crises.
Similarly there are many dieticians and doctors who still claim that eating fat is bad for your heart, despite the evidence that for the majority of people on LCHF their blood lipids improve and thus their heart risk actually decreases according to NHS online calculators!
 
Thank you once again. I will bear all that in mind. I am very new to this and clearly still very ignorant. I will have time when I am holiday from work next week to study the forum thoroughly!
 
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