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HbA1c results -any advice?

A

Andrew francis2308

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My hba1c reading came back as 121 . I have been put on a low carb diet of only 130grams of carbs a day. Im struggling with this and am finding myself constantly hungry which is not helping . I have a meeting with the diabetic team next week . Any advice would be appreciated
Thank you
 
If you are constantly hungry, eat more protein and fats, hard boil some eggs, and if hunger comes on eat one with some full fat mayo. very filling very nutritious, and no carbs. or a small snack of nuts. Another good snack is cheese cut into sticks wrapped in cooked meats, again dipped in mayo. You can liven up the mayo by mixing in small amounts of tomato sauce, mustard, curry paste anything you fancy.
 
Hi Andrew and welcome to the forums. Lowering carb intake can have a very quick impact on blood glucose. Many of us work on a lower carb intake than 130 grams - it's possible to do that and not to be hungry.

The solution for me is to eat more protein and fats - especially fats. This includes things like meat, butter and cream. I eat around 20g carb/day, one meal a day, and have done so for nearly three and a half years. This is mainly meat/fish/chicken with above ground veg. No pasta, bread, fruit, sugar, rice etc. The results are in my sig block below.

I would guess that what you're feeling is not really hunger, but a combination of appetite and your blood glucose levels starting to fall. Your system will have been running on elevated glucose for long enough to make it think that the high levels are "normal" and to then trigger "hunger" signs when they start to fall. Unfortunately, as the blood glucose reduction is what you want to achieve, it will take a while for your body to retrain itself to accept lower levels as "normal".

You might also be reassured to know that on this way of eating my cholesterol is the lowest it's ever been (it's not an issue for me but some people do think it's important).
 
130g is still too high for most of us. Do you have a meter so you can test before then 2 hrs after meals to check your reaction? This was essential for me to work out the max carbs I could eat a day and the max per meal.

And as others have said, no need to feel hungry, just eat more protein and add fats such as oily dressings on green salads or butter on green veg.
 
I'm also fairly new to this, having had an initial diagnosis with an hb1ac of 108 just over 3 weeks ago. After a week of following the NHS advice on healthy eating (which includes a lot of carb heavy foods) I've now gone low-carb - targeting 50 to 100g of carbs per day. I'm usually around 1400 to 1500 calories per day and so far haven't found that's caused me an issue with feeling hungry.
 
I had a slightly higher HBA1c at diagnosis. I attempted to cut out all sugar and and as much carbs as possible, replacing them with fat and protein. I too felt strong cravings for carbs initially but it was a matter of only days before these cravings subsided and I was able to stick to the low carb diet and also not to snack in between meals.

My layman's interpretation of what was happening was that my brain was used to demanding more carbs and so the hormones initially continued to kick in to trigger the hunger and cravings. However, the brain not getting what it wanted, after a few days ceased to demand carbs as it began to use stored fat. Fat (particularly) and protein are more satiating than carbs as it takes longer for them to be broken down.

2 years later I am still on the low carb diet and found it was sustainable.
 
Hello and welcome @Andrew francis2308

As previous people have said that level of carbs is a lot higher then many people here. I also thing it may be enough to actually make you hungry. I personally do better on less than 20 grams a day.

Having said that- the two important things are not feeling hungry and controlling you good sugar levels. I really recommend that you get a meter of you don't already have one.

Good luck and welcome :)
 
I have been low (ish) carbing for over 8 years now, and for at least 7 of those years I have returned HbA1c results at under 48, aka not diabetic levels. I started at 106. I regard myself as being a diabetic in control.
 
I bet the Low Carb advice you were given was also low fat, so no wonder you are hungry. Those of us using the LCHF diet use fat to give us saiety and curb the hunger pangs. When I was on standard "healthy Diet" aka eatwell, I was eating three large meals a day with snacks in between. since going LCHF I have dropped to only 2 meals a day, and pretty welll zero snacks. I do not get hunger pangs at all.

Recent studies have shown that a fatty diet is not associated with heart disease or strokes and is not the bad boy that it has been made out to be. Use healthy fats and avoid seed based oils because they have been found to be responsible for inflammation. Fish and meat fat contains Omega 3 oils, which is healthier than the omega 6 oils in seed oils. So I use butter, lard and cheese / cream.
 
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