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How did you start low carbing?

E

edan

Well-Known Member
Messages
147
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
As per title, how did you get started with low carbing? I see the benefits of it, less injections, apparently good for weight loss which i really need, more stable blood sugars etc. But whenever i try it i can't get going. I like carbs, i'm always craving them, and i'm pretty alright at bolusing for them - so long as i get the carb count right i rarely get that massive spikes. I can eat cake and not spike, so see no reason i shouldn't have cake every so often. Cutting the carbs gives me headaches and makes me grumpy, increasing fat gives me upset stomachs. Maybe that's why i can't get going with it.

Is it worth it? And how did you get started - i'm a bit of an all or nothing type person so just going for it is maybe my style, which is when i start feeling ill and give up...
 
I just did cold turkey and stopped eating them. Yes you will get some carb flu in the first week or so but once you have the cravings licked I found it quite easy. I did it to get off metformin, which upset my stomach dreadfully , and lost a fair bit of weight (about 7 stone). Obviously being on an insulin regime you will need to be more careful to avoid hypos but I think there are quite a few people who are Type 2 who have come off insulin by low carbing.
Have you heard of Dr Jason Fung?
His website is a great resource for low carb/fasting and has a pretty good success rate with controlling Type 2 with diet.
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com
Might be worth watching some of his videos etc.
However if you are happy with your control then.....
 

I really don't want to come off insulin, i like the flexibility and control it gives me. I lost 4 stone last year, then gained just over 1 stone back when stopped calorie counting - think i just got fed up of it. And if i don't start something, either calorie counting forever, or a different way of eating, i'm sure i'd just gain the rest back. I have another 5-6 stones to lose now, last lost weight in about October/November and have just gained since then. I'm thinking that just cutting the carbs could give me the quick weight loss starting boost that i need to get going. Did the ill feelings only last a week? Is that a week of ill feelings after every time you eat carbs or just at the start?
 
Well if you cut carbs than you don't eat many.. so once you have got over the carb flu it shouldn't really come back. I am usually less than 20g of carbs per day, just green veg and salad, if that. Have eaten like that since November 2015 also I gave up breakfast as that was a usually carby meal for me.
 
Well I by searching found DR Fung on youtube and thought he seemed really well argumented and at first I only went lower carb still am actually But very soon my Brain felt much better and I was able to loose weight by the 8/16 Intermittent fasting ....
 
The ill feeling only lasted for 4 days in my case
 
I haven't felt ill at all, but I reduced my carbs slowly over a period of time from around 120g to my current level of approximately 30g. I don't count any more..

Having had a T1 friend once upon a time and seeing what happened to him (infertility, driving license revoked due to eyesight problems, neuropathy, kidney failure, kidney transplant, death at 40) I had no intention of following suit. I also had, and still have, no intention of needing any meds. I learnt that diet is the key, and that is how I got control and maintain it, and also how I dropped my BMI from 31 to 21. I do appreciate the "no meds" may not last forever, but as long as possible is my aim.
 
I was in my mid 20s, and could not lose weight. I had just been told not to go back to the slimming club which met close by as I was gaining weight on their regime of high carb foods and exercise.
I sat down and looked through my Biology textbooks to try to find out where the diet was going wrong, and realised that without insulin there was no way for there to be an increase in stored fat. That would be about 1976 or 77. I was eating a couple of eggs, lots of leafy vegetables with a half pint of milk, plus a chop or steak and I slimmed down to under ten stone. (140lb) and had a 24 inch waist.
I'm afraid that you either do low carb or you don't - it is a bit like being pregnant, all or nothing.
Once you are at the weight you want to be you can eat more carbs, but it is going to be a strange place for a diabetic who wants to still eat 'normal' things such as cake. I found Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution backed up my strange way of eating and gave me more options, so if you can find that on line then you might see how it is done 'properly' - I like eating low carb - and my readings back me up now. I hope to reduce the Hba1c down to below diabetic levels, but it will mean a whole new set of clothes, again, I am sure.
 
I went cold turkey - just cut everything out at once. I did feel quite rough for a week or so, and it took about a month for me to stop feeling hungry and craving sweet things. I also went cold turkey on diet drinks at the same time as I was drinking far too many of them, so that probably contributed to the headaches as I was definitely addicted. That has all stopped and now I have more energy and have no need to snack between meals. Am losing weight slowly but surely and my sugar levels are falling weekly.
 
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Low carbing for me was trial and error about 30 years ago. I noticed specific foods seemed to have less of an impact on my BG levels than other kinds of foods and over time I just started eating more of those less impact food items. There were times when I deviated from that - I remember about 20 years ago when my kids were little and both my wife and I were working - life suddenly became more challenging and it was difficult to sit down together as a family and have a meal. So I would often take the kids after work for some fast food purely out of convenience and I started eating chips and other high carb items. It was the only time in my life that I was over weight and my insulin consumption increased significantly. It's tough eating right when your new parents and both care givers are working different hours but we eventually figured it out and started to fall back to our more normal diet (for us).
My wife comes from a high carb family - I often hear stories about her grandmother who lived part of the year in Canada and the other part in England (many Canadian families have relatives that live in both places) anyway she would have mashed potato sandwiches - I just can't imagine that. LOL
 
I was feeling dreadful (in my teens, in the 80s) and happened across a book called Hypoglycaemia. Nowadays, we would call it Reactive Hypoglycaemia.

It described me to a T.

The recommendation was to cut bread, rice, potato, sugar and sweet fruit. So I did, and felt better.

Took me 30 years to find out (by trial and error) that I needed to be REALLY low carb (seem to be best on less than 20g a day), but I shudder to think how I would have felt during the last few decades if I hadn't been low carbing, even if it was frequently more than 20g a day!
 
When my husband was diagnosed, almost four years ago, I went straight to the internet, but found lots of contradictory stuff. ( It's amazing how the low carb message is getting clearer and clearer and how it is now being supported in places where, a few years ago, it would get shouted down.) So, I shook the dust and cobwebs off my uni chemistry and biology textbooks and, by that evening, we were low carbing. Not quite as low as now (average 30g per day), but weight fell off, there were no undesirable side effects and James' blood sugar dropped from 24mmol/L to non-diabetic within nine days.
Sally
 
I just stopped eating Bread, Potatoes, Pasta, Rice, Cakes, Biscuits and any other obvious carbs. I've never bothered to count carbs as I can't be *****.
 
Hmm, thank you for all the replies, after reading them it sounds like low carb is not for me - whilst i like the idea of low carbing most of the time, and having the associated benefits, i would still want occasional meals off - the odd piece of normal cake with insulin etc. Not every day but once or twice a month or something. I consider myself to have an all or nothing mindset but if once you start then thats it, you have to keep away from the carbs full stop, then it sounds too far all or nothing for me
 

I am sure that most of us low carbers allow ourselves treats from time to time. I know I do, and because I can't/don't eat certain goodies very often I look forward to the treat even more, and enjoy it even more. I have been known to have a generous slice of Victoria Sponge with lashings of clotted cream on holiday. (But not once or twice a month!)

If cake is your downfall, @Brunneria would live entirely off one she bakes, which is very low carb, high fat. Her husband fights her for it and he isn't diabetic.
 

All a bit confusing as quite a few people seem to say that once you go low carb thats it. Cake isnt a massive downfall of mine, though i am a big fan of it. I never ever make it for myself as i live alone, so its just one of those things that i have rarely, about once a month maximum, when visiting others, and so when i am in that scenario i enjoy the option to have normal cake with insulin. Same in the occasional scenario where you have limited options- i'd like to still be able to just eat something with carbs in and take the insulin to cover it. Not talking every day here again, just that when something is completely off limits it is a step too far for me i think. Having a week of ill feeling from getting used to low carb again following those occasions would be i guess part of why people consider its not really an option.
 
Low carb is not no carbs, I'm sorry if I did not make that clear, but these days 'normal' usually means shedloads of starch and sugar so it would mean doing almost everything differently - lots of home cooking for example. If you were to set your mind to it I am sure there would be benefits to your health - at 65 years old I should feel older than I do now.
 
@edan I actually think/thought the same way as you. I have insulin in the fridge 'just in case'. I have never needed to use that insulin because I prefer the way I feel when I'm low carbing but I am very aware that there might be situations where I might have to use the insulin such as if I were admittedly in to hospital as their menus are not geared up for low carbers. I found injecting insulin a horrible experience so I am glad for the chance at a normal life that low carbing has given me - and in quite a short time low carbing does become normal. In fact it is so normal in this house that my non diabetic husband has chosen to eat a low carb diet and has lost the chronic tiredness he had put down to being in his mid 50s and having to keep up with much younger men at work.

Over the last few years I have fallen off the low carb wagon a couple of times (life got in the way) and I found I only went through carb flu the first time - after that I never noticed.
 
Started after HbA1c climbing over a couple of years and being threatened with yet another medication.

Only been going just on a week and was planning to lower the carbs very slowly, which I did for the first few days, but then - after a very low carb day- I decided I felt fine and decided I was going to go more or less the whole hog.

So far so good
 
At my first appointment with my endocrinologist, then with a dietician who told me to read the website called diabetes.co.uk!
It was there where somebody called brunneria, told me to get used to low carbing!
She was the only poster who had even heard of RH!
And from there, low carb is so good for my condition, that we have set up our own forum!

It is the only diet/ treatment that actually benefits the condition!
 
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