Feeling frustrated!

dan1jess2 said:

So my story I was diagnosed in April with a hb1ac of 96 after 3 months on metformin twice a day, reduced to 48 then another 3 months to 44, lost 2 and a half stone.. then had a few hypos and doctors advised to stop metformin... been about 3-4 weeks with no tablets hunger came back but so far not put weight on, feel much better in myself but my 1 and 2 hour readings have increased to over 8.5 sometimes... even with a small amount of carbs (well little bit of mash to tonight!!) what am I supposed to eat??? Feeling a little fed up, should I go back to the doctor, I've also been getting cold feet the last few nights does this mean my numbers are too high and I need to go back on the metformin? Or cut back more carbs???

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what are your morning numbers ... your fasting blood glucose ?

I have normal numbers now. but don´t get too low...and still take metformin, but it is not healthy either to get lows , it is bad for ones brain... it is much more dangerous for people on insuline, because it can be very difficult or impossible to reverse and get the blood glucose up again when having insuline form the outside that keeps on working even when there is no glucose left..

but how low were your lows ?
and how many grams of carbs do you eat in a meal and all in all the whole day ?

Hi @dan1jess2

Well done for reducing your glucose levels and such a good amount of weight but sorry to hear of your current dilemma.

Firstly, I would ask what have you been eating to get your levels, and weight, down so well?

Yes, it would seem likely that, without the Metformin, you might need to reduce your carbs a bit further. One of the benefits of Low Carb High(er) Fat is that the fat content can help keep you feeling satiated for longer and also cause the carbs to be absorbed/converted into glucose much slower, lessening the spike/rise but also prolonging the time to convert etc so better for glucose levels. That's my understanding of it, anyway, and certainly does this for me.

An alternative would be to see how your levels go and, if necessary, go back to see the nurse/doctor and perhaps get prescribed a smaller dose of Metformin, ie once a day, and see how you go.

Can I assume you have a meter? If not, I would seriously recommend you getting one. SD CodeFree is the most reasonable to buy and the test strips are the cheapest available.

Good luck

dan1jess2 said:

Hi my fasting numbers are usually in the 5's.... my lows were under 4 lowest was 3.2 and I felt awful scary.. on the metformin I struggled all morning to go over 4 and I was having to eat all the time. I'm really not sure how many carbs I have tbh I'm finding it all a bit confusing because do I look at the carb content or sugar content? I can have a sweet potatoe and my numbers are a little high but only just at 8, I can then have a yoghurt which is 14t carbs 13g sugars and it is fine up to 6??? Really confusing. Also I'm aware it's the spikes I need to eliminate but doesn't everyone spike after an hour??? Xxx

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how high was your dose of metformin ? and when did you take it...?

well everybody spikes how much do depend on what excactly one is eating..
you can control it.. but do you actually know what to aim for of levels and after how long time after eating ?

it is best not to spike much over the recomended levels, it is not good for the body but also because as type 2 diabetic most of the time we are a bit higher in the avarage blood glucose and when also spiking very high this gives a much higher HbA1c than is optimal..
if you scroll down this link, you can see the recomended levels to aim for.. but if you once in a while not on an everyday basis is higher I dont think it matter much... http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html

dan1jess2 said:

Thank you @Energize for your help, I have basically cut out anything bad junk food chocolate crisps etc no longer binge which I did used to! Try and eat fish/chicken occasional red meat, veg etc the only thing I struggle with is the lack of potatoe/pasta/rice/cereal and bread!!! I eat the brown variety of all of them and measure portions but it still spikes? I do test actuallygetting a little obsessed which is not good.. do I need to worry about the 1 hour read or just the 2 hour? Perhaps a visit would be useful see what the doctor has to say? Won't hurt will it x

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think of the 2 hour read , and forget the one hour reading for a while... so you can relax a bit...I was also very obsessed right from the start an almost untill now...

Now I know more of the different kinds of foods and know what wont spik and do only test like about 4 times a day, sometimes only 2 times .

in the morning always hope is in the 5´in the moment it is creaping up ... so must go even lower in carbs ... and in the evening before evening meal and 2 hours after... at breakfast lunch I only eat stuff I do know will not spike me and which is low enough in carbs...

1000 mg metformin on the whole day ?

Maybe try cauliflower machine or riced, as a low carb option. There is so much to eat on a low carb diet. Best diet ever in my experience.

for rice I chop up and steam, for mash I boil and squash.

dan1jess2 said:

Thank you as an example what sort of foods are u eating??

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well I am on a 1000 caalorie diet daily , so many days I don´t eat much..

but I would sometimes for breakfast and lunch eat something called skyr, a kind of yoghurt of islandic origin, or 250 grams of cottage cheese only...sometimes half a peice of black bread and tuna with mayo, or a handfull of brazil nuts and 2 tomatoes... or some cold fried chicken and cucumber .

in the evening I get a better prepared more complex meal and there I have to look at each ingredients to see how much of it I can actually eat... and also think of how much of carbs , fats and proteins I have had for the rest of the day before eating too much of different food groups or the combined dish

my personal goals on this low calorie diet is right now like :

80 grams of carbs a day
80grams of proteins a day
and about 40 grams of fats a day

that is plus minus 5-10 grams of each nutrition type.... but of cause it is important to divide the carbs so they are all over the day and not in only 1 meal

by the way I have an APP called "lifesum" (only works in iPhones) and in that I can scan or look every food type up and put them in a daily total diet plan... also keeps track of weightloss... I think this is all the money worth to use ... in the beginning it was for free.. but I pay less than a pound a week for that ... so thinking of how much it has helped me it is worth it all..

https://authoritynutrition.com/low-carb-diet-for-diabetes/

dan1jess2 said:

Thank you @Energize for your help, I have basically cut out anything bad junk food chocolate crisps etc no longer binge which I did used to! Try and eat fish/chicken occasional red meat, veg etc the only thing I struggle with is the lack of potatoe/pasta/rice/cereal and bread!!! I eat the brown variety of all of them and measure portions but it still spikes? I do test actuallygetting a little obsessed which is not good.. do I need to worry about the 1 hour read or just the 2 hour? Perhaps a visit would be useful see what the doctor has to say? Won't hurt will it x

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If you feel you need to, you could cut back on your 'brown' carbs, ie potatoes, pasta, rice, bread and definitely consider the cereal as that's often a big culprit of spikes. You'll only know by testing, of course

I would suggest you don't test every meal but just focus on one a day and, yes, I would also be inclined to test at 1 hour just to check that the 90 min/2hr check misses a spike. Again, maybe check at 1 hr when you've eated something like cereal which, most likely, you've eaten for breakfast. You're likely to be the most insulin resistant over breakfast time so you might find your body doesn't deal with cereal/bread very well in the mornings but spikes/rises less at tea/supper time which you could use to your advantage

Here is a link to a sticky thread in the Low Carb forum with a long list of LCHF foods.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-few-asking-for-low-carb-food-lists.96321/

There's no reason to go hungry if you cut your carbs. Just shift the proportions of the foods you are eating around.

If you are reducing carbs (white or brown), you need to increase vegetables to compensate.
so if you are cooking for your family, just put more veg on your plate to replace the carbs you put on their plates

Veg can be a bit boring if it is just steamed or boiled, so you can jazz it up with butter, grated cheese, garlic, herbs, spices, fried onion, even mayo. That way you are adding calories as well as fibre, nutrition and making your stomach satisfied.

I bet if you start doing that, the rest of the family will start going 'oooh! what are you having? can I try that?'

(last night we had a stir fry of mince, cabbage, peppers and courgettes, with blue cheese and cream stirred in. No carbs at all. - any cheese would do if you don't like blue - and I caught Mr B helping himself to leftovers at 11pm. he wasn't hungry. he just liked it so much, he wanted to 'tidy the leftovers away'... hahaha)