Feeling overwhelmed

[Tumbleweed2018]

I am pre-diabetic, very overweight, and a sugar and carb addict. I really want to avoid overt Type 2 Diabetes, and I'd also love to lose a substantial amount of weight with a low carb or keto diet. I thought a blood glucose monitor might help me. If it measured ketones too I thought that might be an advantage.

When I investigated on this website I found that there were 71 blood glucose monitors to choose from on the page with reviews, and this thread has 97 pages of posts on the subject.

With such an enormous amount of information to wade through how do I go about choosing one? Apart from the costs of test strips and the meters themselves I don't know what other factors I should be looking for. I also don't know what would be considered cheap, average or expensive in terms of costs. And where do people usually buy meters, test strips, and lancets/finger prickers from? And where/how do I get rid of test strips and lancets once they are used?

 

[urbanracer]

Ok, take a deep breath and relax.

This question gets asked quite often and we usually recommend the SD Codefree. This is because the test strips are generally the cheapest to buy and if you're self financing the cost of testing several times a day soon mounts up.

You can buy these online from several vendors but Homehealth.com is probably the most popular as they offer discounts for bulk buying strips.

@bluetit has discount codes (and maybe @Rachox ) I can never remember !

Good luck.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

Thank you very much for the information, urbanracer.

I will do some investigation tomorrow.

 

[HSSS]

I don’t use a ketone meter so can’t comment on those. As you rightly say ongoing costs of strips are the main consideration (and availability I cheapest are around £7 for 50 going up to close to £30 for 50. Some manufacturers will give you a free meter if you phone and order strips directly.

Theoretically they all are made to the same standard of 15% accuracy in a particular range. That sounds quite broad but it’s what we currently have to work with. Tbh apart from a little frustrating it’s enouhg to see the trends and get a reasonably good idea of where we’re at and what a good does to us. After all type 1 and other insulin dependant diabetics dose a potentially lethal drug using these so it obviously works.

Some will be more consistent within themselves than others. Some will regularly thrown out a random reading.some will read a little higher some a little lower. But as I say it’s trends not decimal points you need to be concerned with.

Personally I use an accuchek mobile - because I got it free! However I like the fact there is a cassette not strips and that makes it more compact with just one cassette to thrown in the bin rather than strips littering the place up. Also attached to it is an accuchek multiclix finger pricker. This is like a pen loaded with another cartridge filled with 6 lancets that fire at the press of a button with adjustable depth. It all retracts back into the cartridge and again just goes in the bin, no sharps to be concerned with. And now they’ve brought out a blue tooth adaptor that also attaches to the same unit that sends data to mysugr app at the touch of a button. All very simple and neat.

I also have a “Mycontour next” which is similar in that it is very small and has Bluetooth and they give them away in “prize draws” on Facebook all the time so probably a phone call would work here too. That does use strips and a separate fiddly looking lancet with individual points but I guess you could buy a multiclix separately easy enough. Reportedly it’s very accurate/consistent but so far I’ve not used it.

The tee2+ is also popular on here as the strips are cheap and it does what it needs to do.

 

[bulkbiker]

Hi @Tumbleweed2018
A lot of us used the SD Codefree in the past but started to have some quite erratic readings with it so switched to the Tee2 meter from spirit healthcare
https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/tee2
The strips whilst not so cheap as the Codefree are still one of the least pricey and the meter seems to reflect more accurate levels for me in any case.
As for ketone measuring at the beginning its probably not necessary just reduce your carbohydrate content drastically. if you rally want to measure then I'd suggest a different meter such as the On Call GK Dual but just use that one for ketone measuring as the blood sugar strips are more expensive than the Tee2. This is the best deal so maybe wait untulback in stock if you really want one.
https://www.valuemed.co.uk/collecti...ood-ketone-strips-here?variant=20494218559546

Hope that helps.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

Thanks for all that information, HSSS. I hadn't twigged that it was possible to avoid the hassle of lancets and sharps, so that is useful to know.

Talk of apps and Bluetooth is alarming to someone whose knowledge of technology hasn't moved much in the last 20 years. I don't have a smart phone, and I've resisted having a Facebook account too.

I'll look into the things you and urbanracer have mentioned and will see how I get on.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

Thanks, @bulkbiker . That's very useful to know. I see your name on Twitter sometimes. I read people like Tim Noakes, Jason Fung, Ivor Cummins, Zoe Harcombe, and you pop up occasionally. I don't have an account though - I just read other people's words of wisdom.

 

[bulkbiker]

Thanks, @bulkbiker . That's very useful to know. I see your name on Twitter sometimes. I read people like Tim Noakes, Jason Fung, Ivor Cummins, Zoe Harcombe, and you pop up occasionally. I don't have an account though - I just read other people's words of wisdom.

Oops caught out.. I hope I make sense some of the time at least ... although I feel quite embarrassed to be included in that pantheon of greats!

 

[jpscloud]

Thanks for all that information, HSSS. I hadn't twigged that it was possible to avoid the hassle of lancets and sharps, so that is useful to know.

Talk of apps and Bluetooth is alarming to someone whose knowledge of technology hasn't moved much in the last 20 years. I don't have a smart phone, and I've resisted having a Facebook account too.

I'll look into the things you and urbanracer have mentioned and will see how I get on.

It might seem overwhelming now but if you decide to start monitoring you'll probably soon find yourself being a bit of an expert yourself, and the apps are a great way of having data at your fingertips - my dr. was very impressed with my monitoring and really liked the MySugr app.

I found MySugr very easy to use, and I have little patience with apps if they're not intuitive.

 

[Rachox]

I use the Caresens Dual. It measures glucose and ketones. Here’s a link:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/caresens-dual

 

[wiflib]

Thanks for all that information, HSSS. I hadn't twigged that it was possible to avoid the hassle of lancets and sharps, so that is useful to know.

Talk of apps and Bluetooth is alarming to someone whose knowledge of technology hasn't moved much in the last 20 years. I don't have a smart phone, and I've resisted having a Facebook account too.

I'll look into the things you and urbanracer have mentioned and will see how I get on.

Morning!

I don’t bother with all the Bluetooth/downloading/chart stuff although sometimes I wish I had. Start simple, test your levels before and after meals and take it from there, you’ll be astonished and possibly hooked.

 

[bulkbiker]

Meant to add if you are a bit data nerdy record all your data in a spreadsheet.. won't be long before you are graphing away happily!

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

@jpscloud I keep telling myself that I must get a smart phone of some kind but I put it off and put it off because I hardly ever use the dumb phone I've got. But I'll get there one day - I hope.

@Rachox Thank you for the link. I'm pleasantly surprised at the cost of the meter, but shocked at the cost of the ketone test strips. But if I can stick to this long term, eventually I hope I can learn how to get into ketosis and stay in ketosis without testing very often. Fingers crossed.

@wiflib Yes, I think I'm really getting overwhelmed with this whole issue. And when I get overwhelmed paralysis sets in. I think you're right and I should aim for simplicity, to begin with at least.

@bulkbiker I haven't been nerdy since the 1980s. My nerdiness got lost somewhere as I aged, and now I'm a Luddite. It's embarrassing! I've had LibreOffice or similar packages for years and I still haven't worked out how to use the graphing functions. *Sigh*

 

[bulkbiker]

I still haven't worked out how to use the graphing functions. *Sigh*

sounds like a project then?

 

[Resurgam]

I do think that you might be overthinking this - as you are not diabetic, tot up all your carbs for a week or so and then go for half that number - if it makes your meals rather skimpy substitute low carb veges for the dense carb ones, and be sure to avoid anything labelled as low fat. Lots of nice crisp salads, tasty stir fries and proper foods such as meat, fish or other sea food, eggs and cheese as the basis for your meals - nothing breaded, battered or messed about with should feature.
Asda do a low carb protein bread - it looks like a brown brick and is a bit expensive, but it means you can have something like a sandwich a couple of times a week - I eat it with kippers. Nothing else without bread bothers me at all - just kippers, so I was glad to find the 4 gm of carb per slice option.
You might find that it is easy enough to lose weight on low carb just by carb counting - a late edition of Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution might help if you can find one - lots of lists of foods to eat, what to reduce, graded levels of carbs etc.
If you get a cheap glucose meter you can see if some foods raise your blood glucose more than they should - but testing for ketones is a bit hit and miss anyway.

 

[Guzzler]

Thanks for all that information, HSSS. I hadn't twigged that it was possible to avoid the hassle of lancets and sharps, so that is useful to know.

Talk of apps and Bluetooth is alarming to someone whose knowledge of technology hasn't moved much in the last 20 years. I don't have a smart phone, and I've resisted having a Facebook account too.

I'll look into the things you and urbanracer have mentioned and will see how I get on.

Hi there. It can be quite daunting - all this talk of tech, I keep it simple. I have a glucometer, a food diary and occasional use of a set of scales and a tape measure. I did buy the 'Carbs and Cals' book which is available as an app and was very useful in the beginning.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

I do think that you might be overthinking this

I agree I may be going over the top with this, but that is standard behaviour for me.

However, I have known I was pre-diabetic for some time - perhaps 18 months - 2 years. I haven't really made much progress towards eating a diabetes-friendly diet, and I've just got fatter. It doesn't help that I've been fat phobic (in terms of eating the stuff) most of my life. I've improved in terms of eating a little more fat, but have made only limited progress in reducing my carb and sugar intake. And I'm under the impression that eating fat and carbs together is more dangerous to health than eating one or the other. So I really want something that will highlight what I'm doing to myself i.e. I want to give myself a daily kick up the backside with my glucose numbers.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

Hi there. It can be quite daunting - all this talk of tech, I keep it simple. I have a glucometer, a food diary and occasional use of a set of scales and a tape measure. I did buy the 'Carbs and Cals' book which is available as an app and was very useful in the beginning.

Keeping it simple sounds good to me. I have a copy of Carbs and Cals and I do use it quite a lot. It's a brilliant book and very, very useful. I also make use of the Diet Doctor website which does lots of counting for me. I have scales and a tape measure. I'm actually more disturbed by the result of using the tape measure than the scales!

 

[Resurgam]

Then go for a meter with cheap strips so you can test frequently - the ketones aren't all that important but if you see how carbs affect you that could very well be a good motivator.
Just over a year from diagnosis I had two Christmas dinners (two offspring to visit) and each time I saw a low reading on the meter - I knew I'd got it beaten then.

 

[Tumbleweed2018]

Thanks @Resurgam. I think you're right and I should leave worrying about the ketones for later. Until such time as I am able to withstand temptation on the ice cream and chocolate a ketone meter will just be wasted on me.