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Help I can’t lose weight

S

sarahm723

Well-Known Member
Hi I’m 27, 12 stone 13lbs
This is my daily diet for the last while and next 6months at least as I’m needing a stable line to aid a recovery
30g porridge morning
2 slices homemade brown bread at lunch with turkey rashers and homemade soup
And dinner is 62.5g uncooked bag of rice with different meat and veg each day
Snack on blueberries or handful of nuts, every second day I have some chocolate woth my evening meal usually a purple snack .
I can not excercise as I’m after an eye surgery .

I’m I not eating right ? Where am I going wrong .. I actually am not budging. Only in the opposite direction some days .
 
I think you are eating to many carbs. If you cut out porridge, rice, bread and potatoes that might help. Have a look at the low carb diet programme for ideas. Although I am type 2 on insulin it can be very difficult. Also get your doc to check for other causes. I have a slightly under active thyroid which doesn’t help me.
 
I take insulin for carbs ? I mean I can’t take insulin without carbs I could not cut out carbs altogether ??? Am I wrong about this people ..
Thanks for trying to help
 
I am a type one and follow a very low carb lifestyle. I consume around 26g a day. I now use humulin s to cover my meals. I still have my novorapid for corrections.

You only need to eat carbs to get the nutrients your body needs. This include all the low carb green veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach. Courgettes etc.. the same with salad stuff, just the geeens, avoid tomatoes in abundance altogether would be better. I used to love the little sweet ones but the clues in the name. Onions I now use spring instead of red or yellow.

As mentioned above rice, bread and spuds will make it very difficult to loose weight as your adding a lot more insulin to cover these types of foods. Protein plays the biggest part in my meals now. My insulin has reduced massively now. You will definitely need to reduce your insulin if you do not control your dosing then you need to discuss it first with your dsn. I control mine so it wasn’t a problem switching.

I strongly suggest reading doctor Bernstein’s book a diabetes solution. His videos on his YouTube are very good and provide bags of really useful information. That’s his diabetic university below.
 

I always though you only object for carbs like pasta bread and rice potatoes so thought I needed them ... can I ask what a rough day looks like for you food wise? Thanks so much
 
I am also a type 1 on low carb but I use a pump so have a steady drip of humalog to cover what was formerly my basal dose.
Dr Bernstein believes that by the law of small numbers it is very hard to match insulin to starchy carbs such as bread, pasta, potatoes and since they have no particular nutrient value they are not essential in our diets! Type 1 diabetes as so many variables (stress, hormones, illness, exercise) that make it hard to get doses right without having to count starchy carbs.
The above link is for Dr Ian Lake who mentions that type 1s can also get insulin resistant just from having to inject so much to cover their starchy foods. He is a GP and a type 1 but fairly critical of the current NHS advice to 'eat normally' but dose correctly.
The good news is that you can eat lots of lovely foods! Here is a typical day for me:
Coffee (sometimes with almond milk or blended with coconut oil and butter) + chia seed pudding (chocolate) OR scrambled eggs and salmon OR chocolate muffins made with ground almonds (as the lady above mentions there are lots of good low carb recipes out there)
Lunch - whatever is on in the work canteen but salad instead of chips/rice or potatoes
Evening meal - veg and cheese omlette OR chicken/fish + lots of veg....Curry but no rice/naan/popadoms.
If peckish I snack on cheese or nuts especially almond butter. I work full time and train a lot but this works for me now. I started by just converting 1 meal to no carb and would recommend a gradual approach to build confidence and consistency!

Once a week I will have some carb nibbles and chocolate so I am not completely low carb but don't feel like my diet is hard work.
 
I would be so afraid to inject without rice potatoe or pasta... I would not know what to take for a salad... feel so clueless and lost I’m in so much pain after my surgery I’d feel better if I could keep bloods stable I can’t even do that but I would if I just knew the right thing to eat I thought I was doing well... I thought insulin was for carbs.... thanks so much for trying to help me
 
sarahm723 said:
I always though you only object for carbs like pasta bread and rice potatoes so thought I needed them ... can I ask what a rough day looks like for you food wise? Thanks so much
Click to expand...
My normal day is

2 egg omelette with cheese or for a treat a slice of smoked ham or a pre cooked sausage out of the fridge. Slice of pastrami, maybe some bell peppers or mushrooms chucked in. 2 boiled eggs and cold sausages out of the fridge.

Lunch is either a nice salad consisting of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, bell peppers, spring onions, then I’ll add a protein source. Usually 100g that could be cooked chicken, slices of meat (whichever you like) make sure there’s no added carbs snook in. 50g cheese and a boiled egg. A tin of tuna will hit the 100g mark. Another fav of mine are Lidl high protein rolls with either cheese or a mixed selection of meats. Usually what’s found in my omelette above. These don’t spike my blood sugar.

Evening meals for me are things like steak and salad, sometimes a load of broccoli and cauliflower with loads of cheese and some chilli flakes.

Bacon, sausages and eggs. Plenty of fried mushrooms as well.

Low carb Chicken masala. Very simple 300ml double cream. 50g butter to melt and put spices in before adding the cream. 25g gram masala. Tsp chilli powder If you want a bit of kick. 2 garlic cloves, salt and pepper. 125g uncooked chicken per person. Should cook down to around 100g. Serve that with either Iceland super greens rice. Or 350g of broccoli instead of rice. I mix mine all up.

Gammon steak and vegetables has become a fav of mine.

Chicken breast, pig in blanket and veg with a smidge of gravy and loads of mint sauce.

Enjoy a lot of sugar free jelly for after as well. With some double cream poured over. Lovely

Really I’d endless what to choose from.
 

It’s difficult to get your head round at first. 12g carb salad would need either 1 unit of insulin or 1.5 depending on your carb/insulin ratio. Then for the protein is estimated at 0.5 units per 25g. So 100g protein with your meal would be 2 units plus say 1.5 for the 12g salad. Very low dose. But you alway aim less to start with as a caution.

If you give dr Bernstein’s book a read or watch his vids it’s explained it great detail.
 
What is this type of diet called? Can I ask even though I know we all diffe but what sort of units you need with an omelette ?? I was told i could eat no carb meals with no insulin ... and again steak and Brocilee I thought that meant no insulin ... am I wrong . Thanks for your time and patience answering me
 
It’s called low carb high protein by doctor Bernstein but its not essentially a diet as it’s a sustainable lifestyle with added benefit of loosing weight if you have any to loose. It makes life a whole lot easier being diabetic too once you get your head round it.

For my omelette in the morning I take 4.5 units of humulin s. This covers the 3 eggs and the cheese. I have no carbs at breakfast as my dawn phenomenon is fairly potent at the moment. I’ve had a fairly big change to my routine and job so body demands are a whole lot different. I’m experimenting with just 2 eggs at the moment and reducing my dose slightly as I’m not needing all that protein at breakfast.

We are all different so my doses maybe a little smaller than yours or vice versa. I’m very insulin sensitive as well.
 
Hi @sarah723
I agree that you are possibly eating too many carbs.

Obviously don't feel like you have to go 'cold turkey' with carbs, I love them and couldn't go without pasta, rice, potatoes etc but I do try and keep them down to one meal a day.

Why not try perhaps eggs or natural yoghurt with some berries for breakfast?
I see you make soup for lunch, if this includes root veg like parsnips or squash they have quite high carb values. I have trained myself to not associate soup with bread and try and fill myself up with a little extra soup.
Or salad with plenty lettuce and meat.
Personally I don't see anything wrong whatsoever with a little chocolate every now and again... It's good for the soul


Protein affecting your bloods was something I had never heard of a few months ago but it explains a rise in my sugars I used to see. I may be wrong but I think you only need to consider insulin for protein in the absence of carbs.

Also don't forget anything with sugar also has carbs, ie your blueberries.

X
 

I’m very keen to do be Bernstein’s keto way .. does anyone know will my Lantau and novarapid work for this , is novarapid considered as an R (regular insulin) as Iv just read about and listened to his videos
 

Are you doing keto dr Bernstein’s way ? I’m keen to try this but not sure if my Lantau and novarapid suit this ... I wouldn’t know what to take with eggs for breakfast ... I wish it was wrote on food take this amount
x
 
sarahm723 said:
I’m very keen to do be Bernstein’s keto way .. does anyone know will my Lantau and novarapid work for this , is novarapid considered as an R (regular insulin) as Iv just read about and listened to his videos
Click to expand...
It’s not Keto, don’t get the two confused. A lot of type 2 benefit from going Keto. We rely on protein for fuel on our low carb lifestyle

As shell mentioned above chocolate is good for the soul. I’ve found a great low carb one. It’s calked Montezuma 100% cocoa. 8g per 100g no sugar added whatsoever. I make my own truffles out of it.

I put together a little Wordpress website with loads of tips for switching to a low carb lifestyle.

Here’s the link, loads of recipes on there savoury and sweet..

https://itwontdiabeatus.wordpress.com/
 
sarahm723 said:
I’m very keen to do be Bernstein’s keto way .. does anyone know will my Lantau and novarapid work for this , is novarapid considered as an R (regular insulin) as Iv just read about and listened to his videos
Click to expand...


I was using lantus and novorapid, it was difficult as I needed to split the novorapid to cover the protein. In the absence of carbs protein does raise your blood sugar. So does fat in the form of what comes from the truffles I mentioned earlier. Too many before bed without insulin to cover and they will sneak your sugars up over night. Not massively, but if your aiming for normal blood sugars around the clock it’s one to be careful of.

I now use levemir split into two doses morning and night instead of my lantus and humulin s to cover my meals. The regular he’s referring too is our humulin s over here.
 
sarahm723 said:
Are you doing keto dr Bernstein’s way ? I’m keen to try this but not sure if my Lantau and novarapid suit this ... I wouldn’t know what to take with eggs for breakfast ... I wish it was wrote on food take this amount
x
Click to expand...
No I'm just doing my own way mixed in with a little Weight Watchers and a little Slimming World.
I'm not very good at going really full on with things because I just burn myself out.
If you're worried about your insulin not working though have a word with your diabetes team to see how they can help. Your insulin should really work for you not the other way around. X
 
Hi, I’m type one as well and have recently adopted a low carb/keto diet to normalise my blood sugar, I’ve reduced my HbA1c from 89 to 50 in three months doing this. I’ve also reduced my insulin, from 36 units of background a day to 18. I take a unit of Novorapid in the morning to counter dawn phenomenon, but rarely need to take any with meals. Keto,is a little trickier for me as I don’t eat meat, poultry or cow dairy, but I’m doing well on it - I saw my dietician yesterday and she says I’ve got a really healthy diet.

Here’s some examples of meals I eat:

Breakfasts: avocado with a tbsp each of mayonnaise and peanut butter; two boiled eggs with a Lidl high protein roll; mushroom omelette; smoked salmon & scrambled egg; mushrooms and asparagus fried in goat’s butter; eggy “bread” made using a slab of aubergine dipped in egg and fried; sometimes I’m not hungry and just have a bulletproof coffee (black coffee with a tablespoon of butter or coconut oil blitzed into it with a blender).

Lunches: often I’m not hungry after a breakfast like the above, so don’t bother! But when I do, it could be any of the breakfast things; a sardine toastie using LivLife low carb sliced bread; a plate of olives, cheese, artichokes, salad; roasted cauliflower hummus with keto crackers (lots of recipes for bread replacements on www.dietdoctor.com); above ground veg stir fried in coconut oil with soy sauce; avocado and king prawns with mayonnaise... sometimes I’ll have a portion of whatever I cooked the night before if there’s any left.

Dinners: hard to know where to start. Lunch things plus “proper” cooked meals. You can get low carb versions of pasta, noodles etc, and I regularly use cauliflower and celeriac rice in place of the usual stuff. But as rice and pasta are really just cheap fillers for a good sauce, I like to not bother and just have more of the interesting part I make a lot of curry, as my whole family loves it. I can start dishes off together, then split it and add extra fat for me, and meat and pulses etc for my menfolk. I often make roasted tandoori baby cauliflower, it’s my new favourite thing!

I usually make extra portions for the freezer so that on days where I can’t be bothered or am too busy to cook, I’ve got a portion of something quick that I can microwave - I usually write the number of carbs on the tub to make it easy to work out if and how much insulin I might need with it.

Tonight I’m having tofu fried in coconut oil until crispy, with some stir fried bean sprouts and a liberal dollop of kebab chilli&garlic sauce, which gives it a good kick without any carbs. I’ll have that with egg fried cauliflower rice.

Obviously you can add meat to all the above if you eat it! I’ve found that more satisfying meals tend to have reduced in size over the last few weeks because I don’t want to eat so much, which means my stomach has shrunk too. I’ve lost about half a stone since starting two months ago.

Hope this helps.
 

Ok so novarapid won’t work like humulin... wonder if diabetic nurse will try stop me doing keto... I really want to...
 
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