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Type 2 Help! Levels creeping up

MKD75

Well-Known Member
Messages
156
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I am struggling lately. I take 1/2 Gliz tablets and cut out certain foods. I struggle to cut out potatoes and occasionally pasta but most carbs I don’t eat. I used to be able to eat what i wanted, in moderation of course. My job is sedentary and my exercise levels are zero due to my long working hours a day and the fact I am exhausted when I finish work. My bloods lately are so high. I used to be around the 6-10 but now I test at 17 and after my evening meal I hover around 12 for hours - this never used to be the case. I have my blood test next week and I know I would have risen. I went from 51-54 in the last 8 months. I can only imagine what I am now! In the 80’s possibly! I struggle with breakfast ideas, not having toast or cereal, and if I don’t have some carbs on my evening meal like a small amount of potatoes, I am starving all night. I have no motivation, I know I need to loose at least a stone or 2 to feel better about myself but don’t know where to start. I stick on carb free or fasting for a few days/weeks but find it hard to maintain long term.
 
Do you know how many gm of carbs you might eat in a day?
I would not do well going between fasting or carb free and meals with potatoes - you might feel better with some consistency, but I'd advise that you tell the HCP who does your next review of your difficulties and the levels of blood glucose you are seeing. As you are taking Gliclazide you should be getting rid of glucose, though I assume you are not taking it when fasting or eating no carbs, that could put you in danger of hypos.
 
I’m not fasting or carb free. When I was diagnosed in 2016, I was handling it great, exercise and carb free and fasting 1-2 days a week. My a1c was never over 50 for 3 years, but it is staring to slide.. I have no idea how many grams of carbs a day I have as I have no idea how to count carbs? Today I’ve had a few sausages for breakfast, 3 sugar free Maryland cookies for dinner (not a usual dinner!! Just a one off) and tea was belly pork, mushy peas and a few sliced potatoes in the actifry, plus a bite of hubbys double decker after. I haven’t eaten since 5:30 and when I tested my blood half hour ago it was still 11.3! Yes I will mention it to her DN at my appointment in a week or 2.
 
Actually it’s 11:12pm and it’s now down to 9.2. I have had a very inactive night tonight. If anyone has some breakfast ideas other than sausage or egg I’d be glad of the ideas
 
The carb content of the sausages and the biscuits will be on the packet, if you have electronic kitchen scales then you can see how much you have added to the plate by returning them to zero - then you need a calculator to multiply the grams by the carbs - if you have 50 gm of something which is 16 percent carbs, you multiply 50 by 0.16 - which is 8 gm of carbs. I used to have a notebook with the carb content of the foods I could eat for quick reference.
 
My breakfast tomorrow will be beefsteak and mushrooms with sweet pepper.
The steak is already cooked, so I will slice everything and fry it gently in a little olive oil, in my wok.
Later in the week I will have kippers with a slice of protein bread - 4 gm of carbs per slice, and as it is getting colder cauliflower cheese will be on the menu again.
 

Will you make the cauliflower cheese with flour? How many carbs a day max should I have?
 
If I ate that amount of carbs my numbers would be just as high of not worse
Sausages , check the packet but they could be really quite high in carbs
Cookies, sugar free or not there will have flour and maybe something like oats and be very carb heavy. Again look at packet.
Peas, not the best veg. Look at the label to check
Potatoes, kryptonite for many
Double decker, full of carbs.

Below are some links that might give you some idea how to get started and more importantly stick to it. As to what level of carbs it’s individual. Testing before and after meals is the way you learn how much you can tolerate, no more than 2mmol rise after 2 hrs is what you should aim for ideally.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/ for info including low carb made simple

And https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/success-stories-and-testimonials.43/ to show it really works and for motivation

and https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/ for food ideas

also https://www.dietdoctor.com/ for more food ideas and general info of carb content of foods. Excellent site and first port of call for many getting their head round low carb.

Lots of other websites for recipes out there too. Just use the term low carb or keto with whatever you fancy.

IMPORTANT FOR ANYONE ON MEDS (other than metformin) CONSIDERING LOWERING CARBS: if you lower your carbs then any glucose lowering meds or insulin increasing meds may need to be adjusted accordingly to make sure you aren’t taking more than your new diet requires. It can cause a hypo if you have more gliclazide or insulin etc than your new carb intake requires. (This is not relevant for metformin on its own) Keep a close eye on your numbers and do this with your dr’s knowledge. Please don’t be put off by an ill informed out dated rubbishing of low carb diets or being told you should eat carbs to match meds, it should be the other way around.
 

Thank you for that. I find this all so difficult
at the beginning I could eat a few potatoes for tea and it didn’t affect me. I know, long term I will really struggle to cut out all carbs, I am always so hungry carb free and I find when I did the Atkins based diet (high fat/cream/pork scratching etc) I gained weight and my cholesterol went high. I will probably have to resign myself with the fact I will never have a grip on this.
 
Have you thought of trying a month of pure carnivore to kind of "flush out" the system.. It may also help with carb reduction. What are your favourite meats? If they are fatty enough your hunger pangs should diminish. Bloods should quickly improve.. your cholesterol levels are fine by the looks of things anyway .. what do you have to lose?
 

The “what have you eaten” thread is very helpful! Then you again. I think I am just feeling sorry for myself
 

So by carnivore you mean meat for breakfast/dinner/tea?
Not a great meat lover, not fussed on steak/beef. I guess anything is worth a go at this stage! Thank you for the ideas.
 
Time changes tolerance. If you have continued to eat carbs then it’s quite possible your insulin resistance has got worse over time and that’s why you can’t respond as well as you did. Long term you get used to it, quicker than you think you will. Focus on what you can eat and the positives not dwell on what you can’t. Mind set makes a huge difference. You’ll adapt more so than you can believe at this point. Sugar and carbs are an addiction. Once you break that you won’t crave them the way you do now.

You shouldn’t be hungry and fat is not the devil. You need energy from somewhere and carbs are doing you no favours. Cholesterol goes up in response to inflammation and carbs. Losing weight in and of itself can temporarily make cholesterol go up. (Huge debate how relevant cholesterol even is and definitely total numbers are completely pointless and still some drs only look at that. Long term low carb makes weight, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure go down

try and be more positive and change a few things at a time. If you really can’t face it extreme low calorie to drop weight (Newcastle diet), medication and exercise are the only other options to control it. These all seem harder to me for varying reasons than low carb does.
 
MKD75 said:
So by carnivore you mean meat for breakfast/dinner/tea?
Not a great meat lover, not fussed on steak/beef. I guess anything is worth a go at this stage! Thank you for the ideas.
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Well personally I'd do meat for late lunch and dinner with nothing solid before 2 pm. Coffee/tea with cream or lactofree milk in the mornings. Then start off with some eggs and bacon followed by a meaty dinner.
 
bulkbiker said:
Well personally I'd do meat for late lunch and dinner with nothing solid before 2 pm. Coffee/tea with cream or lactofree milk in the mornings. Then start off with some eggs and bacon followed by a meaty dinner.
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Whilst this might work well for an all or nothing and already low carb or keto adapted person such as yourself it might be a pretty big leap from the point the op is at. That said maybe a drastic change will break some habits best left behind.
 
Hi MKD75,
AT least you have a Blood Glucose Meter and can test before and then 2hrs after each meal until you know which foods (and how much of them) suit your body.

I have a poor tolerance to Carbs, I have printed off pages from DietDoctor telling me how many carbs are in various Fruit, Veg and Nuts since I don't have packaging on them to tell me. I used to eat lots of carrots, but since testing I found that I get a severe BG reaction to only a small piece of raw carrot - so I cut out them (and other root vegetables) completely.

It is hugely important to find a dietary lifestyle that works for you, since it is unlikely that a crash diet would work in the longer term. Think about meals that you can eat without feeling deprived for the rest of your life. I find that I like Boiled Eggs for breakfast, but cheese (especially hard cheeses), Avocado or Nuts are also good. I can even manage a few berries (but not other Fruit) in either Double Cream or full-fat Greek Yoghurt. For a quick no-cook meal I boil 3 or 4 breakfasts worth of eggs at a time and then keep them ready for the next few days. Of course if you have the time then a hot breakfast could also be based on Eggs - fresh boiled, poached, fried, scrambled with or without meat.

Unless you get your body used to 'burning fat' by making dietary fat a larger part of your calories, you will tend to feel low in energy unless you eat some Carbs. - Then when you eat the carbs, if your Blood Glucose Spikes you will again feel sluggish and hungry again, its a vicious circle.

I was in a different position to you being Thin Outside but Fat Inside (TOFI), so initially I didn't plan to lose weight at all. But I saw the advantages of a Low Carb High (mainly animal) Fat dietary lifestyle. At first I probably eat even more calories than normal, since I eat so much Cheese , Cream and Avocados. Yet still I lost between 1 and 2lbs per week. After a while my body adjusted to 'fat burning' and my stomach shrunk (because Fats are much more calorie dense than Carbs - so you actually eat a smaller quantity of food). Now that I'm fat-adapted I don't always eat breakfast because I have a store of internal fat that my body can use for fuel, so now I only eat carbs for vitamins/minerals, not for calories!

I have lost over 10% of my original body weight and my HbA1cC is down into the pre-diabetic range.
 
HSSS said:
That said maybe a drastic change will break some habits best left behind.
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Which is kind of where I was coming from..
LC worked in the past for the OP there's no reason why it shouldn't in the future but getting out of bad habits is key.
Hence the ultimate elimination diet may well help significantly.
 
Your nurse should be able to help you work out the minimum amount of carbs to eat with the meds you are on.

Then there are loads of ideas for low carb breakfasts, etc. My favourite is a mix of milled flaxseed and chia seeds with a little oatbran, cooked with coconut milk & water, then served with cinnamon and double cream. It took a bit of getting used to, so originally I had more oatbran and less flaxseed and chia then gradually reduced the oatbran to a level dessertspoon.

If you are feeling hungry after dinner - my go to options are a piece of cheese (the pre-packed 20g portions are a good size) or greek yogurt/cream with a few raspberries or a max of 2 squares of 85% chocolate at bedtime with a cup (not a full mug) of cocoa made with a nut milk* and water.
Or you could fill up on extra chicken/fish/meat and green veg with butter of meat juices poured over, maybe keep extra roast chicken in the fridge and don't forget you can eat the skin if you like it?
* I like cashew nut milk but usually have coconut milk unless its on offer - note that some coconut milks are much higher in carbs than others but this can be because they are richer so so need kess, I like biona organic.

I started carb counting by joining the low carb program - you can usually get a voucher on prescription to cover the cost. One advantage is the food diary so you can easily count carbs. I'd fill it in before dinner so I knew how much I had left.
And I thought about the foods I would miss most (rice, pasta, milk chocolate, cake) and found better substitutes for those, I eat loads of homemade cauliflower rice these days!
 
TriciaWs said:
Your nurse should be able to help you work out the minimum amount of carbs to eat with the meds you are on.
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Nonononono. She should adjust the meds to match the carbs you eat. Not the other way around. They do need to match to avoid hypos though.
TriciaWs said:
If you are feeling hungry after dinner
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- have a bigger/more filling dinner
 
Last edited:
You are all great!! I just needed motivation! I work such long hours and do well for a period of time but find I fall off the wagon! Thank you for your replies.. I will get back on it, not that I have massively fallen off it, I think I have continued to eat carbs (potatoes/pasta) in moderation and I just need to rethink what I am eating! Much appreciated xx
 
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