Gliclazide

Hi. Yes, the dietician gave you bad advice and you can get all the energy you need from small amounts of carb each day plus proteins and fat. I sometimes wonder why the NHS employs these idiots at our cost. Gliclazide stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin and is of most use when the islet cells are failing usually due to antibodies (typically in T1) or very long-term T2. Metformin has no effect on the pancreas but reduces insulin resistance and reduces glucose around the body a bit. If you are not overweight and gliclazide doesn't work even at full dose (320mg) then the next step might be adding Sitagliptin for a while and then moving to insulin. If you have excess weight then Metformin might help plus the low-carb diet. In summary your BMI will be a very rough guide as to your diabetes type (and I mean rough!). Being thin implies T1 and being overweight implies T2. There are tests that can help.

Amy6825 said:

So would you say have eggs and bacon for breakfast salad with meat for lunch and then include some carbs with evening meal or have a small amount with every meal?

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Well first that sounds yummy and I'd eat them...it's your choice to eat what you want if your meter says good numbers then go with it but if you're still getting high BGs then limit the amount and portion size of carbs. I still like fish n chips and doesn't push my BGs up...pizza however is lethal lol. Experiment and see.

Amy I am going to leave you with one piece of advice, a lot of people will push certain diets that suits them but diet is an individual thing so try various foods out yourself and eventually going by meter and HbA1c tests you will find out what suits you best. Good luck.

Amy6825 said:

Thank you so much, will having all the fatty stuff not mean that I will gain weight though? I have managed to get my weight lower than what it was before I was pregnant, being 10st10 and 5ft9 I'm not overweight and don't want to become so.

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Fats won't make you fat. That is a myth. What does make us fat are too many carbs and sugar combined with fat. Reduce the carbs and increase the fats and you should stay stable. There is no need to go mad on fats, just find a balance between the amount of carbs you intend to eat and the amount of fats needed to replace the lost energy. Finding that balance isn't necessarily easy.

A proper cooked breakfast is a good choice. Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and a high meat content sausage (97% meat sausages are sold in supermarkets. Black Farmers are lovely. Other brands are available). I can also manage half a slice of fried bread without increasing my levels too much. You would only know if you can by testing. I couldn't face a big cooked breakfast, let alone cook one, so I tend to have these fry ups at lunch time.

You could have a small number of berries with double cream as a pudding, or with a plain Greek yogurt. Some people have an odd square of high cocoa dark chocolate as a treat. I don't happen to like it so don't bother. Some people bake their own low carb desserts. There are plenty of recipes on the forum.

The very best advise I can give you is Eat To Your Meter. If your meter tells you it's OK after a few tests on different days then eat it. If it tells you your pancreas doesn't like it, then abandon it or halve the portions until it does like it! This is why a meter and plenty of strips are so important initially. As time passes you may find it isn't necessary to test quite as much.

Amy6825 said:

So would you say have eggs and bacon for breakfast salad with meat for lunch and then include some carbs with evening meal or have a small amount with every meal?

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I have a small amount with every meal (about 12 - 15grams)

Daibell said:

Hi. Yes, the dietician gave you bad advice and you can get all the energy you need from small amounts of carb each day plus proteins and fat. I sometimes wonder why the NHS employs these idiots at our cost. Gliclazide stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin and is of most use when the islet cells are failing usually due to antibodies (typically in T1) or very long-term T2. Metformin has no effect on the pancreas but reduces insulin resistance and reduces glucose around the body a bit. If you are not overweight and gliclazide doesn't work even at full dose (320mg) then the next step might be adding Sitagliptin for a while and then moving to insulin. If you have excess weight then Metformin might help plus the low-carb diet. In summary your BMI will be a very rough guide as to your diabetes type (and I mean rough!). Being thin implies T1 and being overweight implies T2. There are tests that can help.

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On diagnosis my bmi was 22 (I'm type 2) and have never been overweight.

Amy6825 said:

Ok so typically breakfast is weetabix and a coffee no sugar, lunch either a sandwich on brown bread or soup with a piece of bread and tea will be oven chips with chicken or boiled potatoes with veg and meat or something similar, I only drink water or sugar free juice all day and rarely snack, I will occasionally have a small piece of cake or ice cream for a pudding but that doesn't seem to effect my readings too much.

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You should make a conscious effort to avoid carbs as much as possible - except maybe porridge at breakfast.

Eurobuff said:

I have a small amount with every meal (about 12 - 15grams)

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I tend to build up. As few as possible for breakfast, a few more for lunch and a few more for tea. I have under 50g a day.

Bluetit1802 said:

I tend to build up. As few as possible for breakfast, a few more for lunch and a few more for tea. I have under 50g a day.

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Yes mine is similar, but my maximum per meal is 15 grams, which is my tea. I eat about 50 grams per day too. Seems to work for me.

Carb counting is something people have to do on certain insulin regimes in order to inject the correct amount of insulin for that meal.
Low carb people also count carbs until they learn to recognise what portions they can cope with, but that is to ensure they are not eating more than they intend.

A useful book (also as an app) is Carbs & Cals, available on Amazon. The book is better than the app but less convenient fr carrying about.

Eurobuff said:

Yes mine is similar, but my maximum per meal is 15 grams, which is my tea. I eat about 50 grams per day too. Seems to work for me.

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For those with insulin resistance (me) it is best to avoid too many early in the day. This is because for some reason that I don't know, our insulin resistance actually improves as the day progresses. I really cannot eat carbs at breakfast. For my tea I can, at a push, manage about 25g. Weird how we are all different.

Bluetit1802 said:

Carb counting is something people have to do on certain insulin regimes in order to inject the correct amount of insulin for that meal.
Low carb people also count carbs until they learn to recognise what portions they can cope with, but that is to ensure they are not eating more than they intend.

A useful book (also as an app) is Carbs & Cals, available on Amazon. The book is better than the app but less convenient fr carrying about.

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There are lots of apps around (I use diabetes app on the iPhone). I've just got a Fitbit and the Fitbit (free) app is good it's even got things like "Tesco Celery", Sainsburys celery, so you're picking the right foods. Apps are good, once you've got the foods in it that you eat it's really easy to keep a track, and you've got a history of your diet, so you can see if one meal was better than another.

Amy6825 said:

Thank you so much, will having all the fatty stuff not mean that I will gain weight though? I have managed to get my weight lower than what it was before I was pregnant, being 10st10 and 5ft9 I'm not overweight and don't want to become so.

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Hi @Amy6825 I used to eat what I was led to believe was healthly ie low fat, low sugar, carbs such as rice, pasta, brown bread, jacket potatoes etc. I also have metabolic problems which meant that I found it difficult, almost impossible, to lose weight despite this healthy diet. Since cutting down on my carbs and eating full, as opposed to low, fat foods I have lost about 3 stone and my BS levels have reduced. As already advised if you test you can tell what affect eat food has on your BS and you can adjust your diet accordingly.

Eurobuff said:

On diagnosis my bmi was 22 (I'm type 2) and have never been overweight.

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Hi. With that BMI and from what your earlier posts have said it sounds like you may well be a Late onset T1 candidate and not T2 (I've been there). I'm afraid if Gliclazide doesn't work then it will be insulin as it will indicate that your pancreas just isn't producing enough insulin. I'm very happy now being on insulin and there are various ways you can optimise the regime and timings to suit your lifestyle. Many GPs just assume T2 without doing the two tests for T1 (GAD and c-peptide). I'm still listed as a T2 but meet all the T1 criteria so do have an open mind. The latest NICE 2014 Guidelines are now much clearer on not assuming T2 if slim at diagnosis. I may be wrong, but be aware.

Daibell said:

Hi. With that BMI and from what your earlier posts have said it sounds like you may well be a Late onset T1 candidate and not T2 (I've been there). I'm afraid if Gliclazide doesn't work then it will be insulin as it will indicate that your pancreas just isn't producing enough insulin. I'm very happy now being on insulin and there are various ways you can optimise the regime and timings to suit your lifestyle. Many GPs just assume T2 without doing the two tests for T1 (GAD and c-peptide). I'm still listed as a T2 but meet all the T1 criteria so do have an open mind. The latest NICE 2014 Guidelines are now much clearer on not assuming T2 if slim at diagnosis. I may be wrong, but be aware.

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Hi, I'm not on any meds, just following low carb, which seems to be giving the results I want. I'm due my review in 3 weeks though, so I'll see how it's going then.

Hi looking for some help I'm currently on Metformin SR twice a day taking maximum dose. Last BG reading was 7.3 my doctor wants to put me on Gliclozide to bring levels down is there and advice you can offer.

I am today starting back on Gliclazide after a trial with insulin. I'd originally stopped taking Gliclazide after a couple of hypos but had a pretty bad one on insulin (not bad enough to put me in hospital but bad enough to both me and my husband), I'm told to keep the carbs up to prevent further hypos so now I've read this thread I'm totally confused! And it's not easy to stick to no carbs when I have no symptoms anyway. I do think there's a balance somewhere, I just need to find it.