Getting a little dis-heartened here, tbh !

Hello and welcome to the forum. Tagging @daisy1 for the very informative welcome pack.

Could you give us an example of a typical day's menu, please? We may be able to offer advice on how to tweak your diet to get better results.

Hi and welcome,

There is no harm in only eating 2 meals a day, in fact it is a good idea. Eating around 1pm and again around 6pm is good. The fasting period overnight is extended and gives the old pancreas a good rest.

I suspect it may be your food choices that are contributing to your problem, both blood glucose-wise and weight-wise, so some information on this would be helpful. Your recent onset symptoms could well be high blood sugars.

inthemix said:

I wake up and tend not to eat until around 1pm. I then have a dinner around 6pm and train around 8:30pm ... I just drink water after training and then sleep.

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Hi Inthemix,
As others have said if your happy sharing what you eat at meal times, perhaps some changes can be suggested that might help improve things.

Many of us skip breakfast either through time constraints, or just not hungry first thing there is no scientific evidence that says you have to eat in the morning to kick start your metabolism so don't worry about that.
But you always need fluids what do you drink in the mornings.

Up through the night.
We tend to pee a lot as our bodies are trying to get rid of excess sugar in our blood streams. You don't want high blood sugar when you sleep so even though it's a giant pan in the bum to have to get up trough the night it's doing you good.
Getting rid excess sugar.

OK that said and please understand this is purely a guess: biased on your one post. IF your able to change your exercise time it might help with a full nights sleep.

• Eating at 6pm depending on what your eating should raise your bg levels by about 8pm.
• Exercising at 8:30 will probably be raising them even higher
• This raised bg will make you want to pee.

Then your drinking more water and going to bed. Maybe exercising earlier would help.

The understanding is when your asleep your not syphoning of the extra blood sugar to your muscles, as you would do by just around walking etc... in the same 8 hour period that your awake.

IF you have the time in the mornings instead of last thing at night, you might find this helps with both a good nights sleep and weight loss. You put in the work first thing and then muscles continue to eat up the energy all through out the day.

Sorry its one of those things that your not going to know unless you give it a try.
But it is worth giving it a try for a couple of weeks to see if it does help.

inthemix said:

Typical day as follows :

Lunch - corned beef with rice ( white ) about half a plate full and one of ether greens, brocolli or kale.
Drink : Generally water, but occassionally a diet soda or red grape or pomegranite juice. One large orange or kiwi

Dinner : Oxtail, butter beans and veg ( carrots, cabbage and corn ).
Drinks : water or oat milk.

Snakcs : pack of dry roasted peanuts usually

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I am afraid to say that these food choices are causing your problems. Much of it is very high carb, and a lot of starchy ones as well. All carbs turn to glucose once eaten, so the more you eat, the higher your levels will be. The ones that jump out at me are:

rice (either white or brown makes no difference)
fruit juice of any type
Orange/Kiwi (most fruits)
butter beans (all pulses)
carrots (all below ground veg)
corn
oats/milk

If you test before you eat and again 2 hours after first bite and look at the actual rise from before to after, if it is more than 2mmol/ (preferably less) there are too many carbs in that meal. This means reducing the portion sizes or eliminating some. Keeping a food diary is a good idea (including portion sizes) so you can record your levels alongside and look for patterns. Your personal danger foods will soon become obvious, as will your safe foods.

A lot of us Type 2s here control our blood sugars by eating low carbohydrate food (Carbohydrates turn to sugar once eaten, so high carb = high sugar). There’s a few things in your meal plan which are in the high carb category, they are rice, fruit juices, oranges and butter beans. Kiwi and corn are a little bit high for some Type 2s aswell.

inthemix said:

Thanks for your advice ... much appreciated.
I can't train morning or afternoon due to serious time constraints - evening training is the only realistic time slot I have, bar the weekends.

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Then my first suggestion would be to give it a go at the weekends train in the morning instead of at night to see if that helps.

Looking at the meals they would be considered a good balance protein and healthy fruit & veg for anyone else.
Except for us as diabetics. There is more sugar in the food you are eating than you think.

Here is a good website to get you started on swamping out the high carb choices for Low Carb ones, you should see that with a few simple changes things will improve. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

Time is often a problem when it comes to exercise.
There is this idea that you don't get any benefit until you have been exercising for 1/2 an hour. That's like saying your car does not burn petrol for the fist 5 miles you drive, its nonsense.

"KIZEN" the 1 minute rule.
Have a look into High Intensity Training HIT and you will see just how much you can achieve with a couple of minutes twice a week vs the 1/2 hour cardio work out every day. Just 1 minute of exercise will activate the muscles and they will continue to burn bg for up to 24 hours. It's not about a strenuous work-out its about activation.

KIZEN I know it sounds like nonsense but how can 127 million Japanese people be wrong.
SO with that in mind I can always spare 1 minute in the morning to do sit-ups or push-ups. Lunch break is usual only 1/2 an hour I can always spare 1 minute to walk up and down a flight of stairs.

By adopting the Kizen approach I found that I could keep my blood sugars down with great success.

Here is the Truth and there is no getting round it "what your doing isn't working for you.".
These 2 simple changes should help Low Carb meals and HIT as well as your regular exercise.

You will meet people on here that are able to control or reverse there diabetes with great success there are plenty of different ways we have achieved this there is more than one correct answer. Stick around reads some posts ask some questions.

Cherry pick the ideas that suite you best and give them a try.

@inthemix

Hello Inthemix and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will answer.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

inthemix said:

Ok, diagnosed with Type 2 nearly two years ago ...

Only sstarted monitoring my blood sugar via an Acumen mobile meter about 6 months back. My readings are never anywhere near the 4 -6 range. In the morning, I tend to be around 10.1 - 14.1 on waking. About an hour after eating ( regardless of food types ), I'm creeping up to as high as 18. I saw the Gp last week and he now wants to up my Metformin from 2x500mg a day to the maximum 4x500mg a day. I'm really not happy with this at all ! I do train and exercise around 4 times a week ( normally an hour of cardio walking/light jog if I can ... use some hand weights, etc for a further 30 mins ). Yet, my sugars are still high ...
I do have eating issues in that I struggle to eat regular ... I wake up and tend not to eat until around 1pm. I then have a dinner around 6pm and train around 8:30pm ... I just drink water after training and then sleep. Uriniation during the night has been back for the last 4 months now ( often 2-3 times a night ). I am a hefty 18 stones, despite my training and Ican't shift weight at all currently.
I'm a bit confused by it all, tbh ... Feel often quite weak and my eyesight has gone to pot over this last 14 months, despite my yearly scan looking great apparently. Oh, and I have the worst 'dry mouth' imaginable now during the night ...

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Here's my take: Cut way down on the carbohydrates and watch the weight roll off. In other words be very careful with the portions of rice, potatoes, pasta, cereal and bread you are eating. Clearly, you need to take losing weight very seriously and give yourself goals to reach by certain dates, e.g., 1 stone a month. Don't lose heart if you don't reach the goals just work out why and make adjustments. Try not to eat carbohydrates at all after 5 pm and watch the carbs that send you spiking so high - my spikes come mainly from rice, potatoes and pasta. Thankfully I hate pasta so never eat if I can get away with it. Rice I have 1 table spoon and add extra protein. It is important to eat regular meals - breakfast (you can eat eggs and bacon which won't spike you so high). For cereal I have 19 bite size shredded wheat (about 2.5 ounces) with fruit and plain yogurt or porridge sweetened with fruit. Lunch, a sandwich made with home made bread - cut out white bread and if affordable buy artisan bread which has fewer additives - or make your own - it's not that difficult these days. Eat good quality food but less of it. Good quality food may seem pricey but it is more satisfying - try fine dining and you will understand what I mean. Your high BG numbers are affecting your eyesight, it's what high glucose levels in the blood does. Providing you haven't already done irreparable damage to your eyes they should return to normal once you get on top of your BG numbers. If your levels are in the 18 mmo/l range then you need to see your diabetic nurse straight away. If you take 2000 mg of Metformin my advice is to also take a vitamin B12 supplement as long term Metformin can strip you of this important vitamin - but not always (it did me). Be enthusiastic about losing weight, get excited about getting your numbers down to normal levels. In short, take control of your health and stay calm - we have all been there. See these links:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html

https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/diabetes-blurred-vision

inthemix said:

Thanks for your advice ... much appreciated.
I can't train morning or afternoon due to serious time constraints - evening training is the only realistic time slot I have, bar the weekends.

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Welcome to the board! I think you are right area to start revising your game plan in the way you approach your T2. I will go along with what another member said in that the majority of us on the site manage our glucose by diet. By reading your initial posting this is what I would do if I was in your position. You are facing a major medical issues due to the lack of controlling what you are putting in your mouth. You are spreading your resources too thin with the workout portion of your measures. I would stop the work out and focus on eating on time, eating right (testing with strips after a meal) and building you a well tested meal plan. Who cares if it is boring, if it works and you can deal with it do it. Once you have a meals down pat, gradually add in the workouts. I would stick with walking at first. You will find if you control the food to mouth, your numbers will come in line and the weight will come down, energy will increase, and your outlook will improve. You have to think about this as if you are learning to walk, one foot in front of the other, proper foods, scheduled eating, testing, re-testing and exercise. Just my thoughts, it worked for me. Did not add the exercise portion back in yet, however, I am in the 4s and 5s on a consistent basis.