How long before you saw BGs drop on LCHF?

seanj67 said:

Hmmm, ok, well I can't paste and swping doesn't seem to play!

I will keep trying though

S

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Is because of my browser or operating system I wonder?
I wouldn't have thought so more the settings on this forum.
Never mind.

Seanj67, glad I'm not the only one struggling.

My journey began with hypoglycemia 30+ years ago. Crossed over into pre-diabetes in 2004, then diabetes at some point between 2007 and 2009. Two months ago, I had a blood glucose 282 mg/dL (15.7 mmol/L), which led to me being here. I'm just finishing my seventh week on the LCHF diet.

I have other conditions too, a vulnerability to colitis and a diagnosis of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I've been gluten-free for 3 or 4 years now.

My weight loss and blood glucose plateaued for two weeks which was so frustrating, then a week ago my blood glucose started moving down again. Two days ago I broke the "100" barrier with a blood glucose of 93 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L). Weight however has not budged which in my mind is ridiculous given what I'm eating, or not eating.

I'm having to snack twice a day now in addition to eating 3 meals a day. My determination to eat vegetables at every meal is helping. I even have brussel sprouts for breakfast once a week now. Trying to limit snacks to 1 ounce walnuts or pecans or 1/2 avocado. Have reduced protein intake, but still working on increasing fat intake. Overcoming my fear of fat is still a challenge. Walking a mile or two daily or every other day. I think I've stayed within 30 - 40 carb a day range, but I really need to begin documenting to make sure. Could be wrong. Will see over the next couple of weeks.

Keep doing what you're doing. I believe firmly that if you were able to get your blood glucose down on Weight Watchers, you can do it again on the LCHF diet. It's just going to take longer. Don't let the folks who get down to normal blood glucose levels in a week dissuade you.

One question Seanj67, do you have any "foods to limit or not eat" lists for the LCHF diet?

I also have a question for the forum. How did you increase your fat intake? In other words, what kinds of things are you eating to increase your fat intake? And how much fat are you eating each day?

I add olive oil to steamed vegetables and salads. Added to brussel sprouts is just great. Make sure that you use high quality EVOO because it makes the world of a difference.
I add about 55 grams of olive oil to my food each day and were it not because of a calorie restriction, I could easily add more.
Hope this answers your question.

seanj67 said:

Hey,

No, I only have milk in tea & coffee. I gave up cereals ages ago.

Today so far, Ive had 2 x 97% meat gluten free sausages, 2 x eggs, 2 x bacon, mushrooms and a few tinned tomatoes. Luch is a low carb protien shake - first one in years so will test a bit later for that.

I've also had one coffee with lacose free milk.

S

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In the food you've listed here, I'm seeing a lot of protein but not a lot of fat. On a LCHF diet, the majority of your calories should come from fat. In the US, we'd say your macros were off-- in other words, your diet is too high in protein and too low in fat. You might want to take a look at several days worth of food that you're eating and calculate the percentages you're getting of fat, protein and carb out of your total intake.

Winnie53 said:

I also have a question for the forum. How did you increase your fat intake? In other words, what kinds of things are you eating to increase your fat intake? And how much fat are you eating each day?

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Make sure you're cooking your eggs in butter, and add butter to your veg. Use full-fat salad dressing on your salads. Add avocados to your diet. Consider adding coconut oil to your shakes or butter to your coffee or tea ("bulletproof coffee" is a big thing in the US right now). Make sure any dairy you consume is as high in fat as possible. Here in the US, something called "fat bombs" are also popular; they are chiefly combinations of butter, coconut oil, cream cheese, some extracts and artificial sweeteners; you can plenty of recipes on the 'net if you do a search.

Winnie53 said:

I also have a question for the forum. How did you increase your fat intake? In other words, what kinds of things are you eating to increase your fat intake? And how much fat are you eating each day?

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Full fat products.Yoghurt butter cream no semi skimmed skimmed low fat no fat products.
Pork scratchings polish sausages nuts olive oil oily fish from a can.
I've discoeverd that pricier the pork scratchings the more jaw wrenching and tooth boosting they are while the cheaper ones are much easier to eat may contain msg but I don't care.
Scratchings are zero carbs 100% fat.
Olive oil.
If you use milk have full fat milk.
Today I'm starting having a teaspoon full every lunch time.
Coconut oil.
I have a tablespoon every morning in my porridge.
I love porridge but it spikes me without the coconut oil and the oil tastes great in porridge which I'm told helps lower blood pressure balances cholesterol and blood sugars as well providing all manner of other healthy stuff.
I love porridge.
I'll be having a bowl half an hour after finishing this cup of green tea with the juice of half a lemon squeezed in.

Seanj67, 9.3 mmol/L (167 mg/dL) is encouraging. That's a BIG drop from 13 mmol/L (234 mg/dL).

seanj67 said:

Well, it's 15:50 and I've just tested, and it's down to 7.5. I had a full english ( minus the hash browns) after the gym, and a couple of Pepperami sticks for lunch. Dinner will be omlette I think. Progress indeed.

My reading are always up after the gym, or cycling but they come down quite quickly. This moring they were at 12.8 when i got in.

S

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7.5 mmol/L (135 mg/dL), more progress. That's great!

This morning I remembered to hop on the scale. Happily, my weight, which has not budged for weeks, dropped by a half pound in two days. Goal for today is to read more chapters in Jenny Ruhl's Blood Sugar 101 book. I'm searching for ways to further tweak my strategy.

If I can find the exact reference, I'll post it here, but I recall reading if exercising to lower glucose, the optimal time is 1 1/2 hours after eating. Not easily done. Don't know if it works. Wish I could recall whether this was in reference to walking, working out, or either one.

Winnie53 said:

7.5 mmol/L (135 mg/dL), more progress. That's great!

This morning I remembered to hop on the scale. Happily, my weight, which has not budged for weeks, dropped by a half pound in two days. Goal for today is to read more chapters in Jenny Ruhl's Blood Sugar 101 book. I'm searching for ways to further tweak my strategy.

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Don't become disheartened when the needle on the scale goes back up ... maybe even higher than it was before.
This often happens at first as your body starts adjusting to the changes that are going on.
Take the yoyoing as a good sign the fat is coming apart and about to start dropping off ... I had a month of that.

I need to work more on meal ideas. Right now I have go to's for 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 snacks, and a variety of dinners which mostly are meat or poultry with 1 - 2 fresh vegetables or mixed, steamed or pan fried. I build in a little more variety with a homemade vegetable soup or taco salad that I'll eat over a period of 3 - 5 days. It helps when my husband cooks his favorites. He's on the diet with me, though just for weight loss.

Chapter 10: Diet Guidelines Essential to the Treatment of All Diabetics in Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution (2011) has the best discussion I've read so far on foods to eat, not eat, or limit. It's 30 pages. If you don't want to purchase the book - (though it's one of my favorite references when I'm researching a question) - it might be helpful to check it out from the library and copy the chapter or most helpful pages.

I think that chapter is what got me off to such a good start. The problems I had early on were mostly due to my ignorance about water and salt intake.

Insuring adequate potassium, magnesium, and calcium intake continues to be a bit of an issue. Am taking nutritional supplements, which have helped, but not sure I've got that completely handled.

The other remaining challenge is fat intake. I've got carbs and protein handled reasonably well - (like many here, I was eating too much protein initially) - but need to buckle down and take a good look at my fat intake.

I continue to find myself going down rabbit trails, two or three a day, as I continue to research and question whether I'm on the best diet and eating the best foods to restore my health. Still listening to lots of lectures and reading sections of lots of books. I should post a picture of my book stack...

What I've found is that each expert/writer has a lot to offer, but I've yet to find one book that answers all my questions, though a few come close, particularly Richard Bernstein and Jenny Ruhl, perhaps because they both diabetic - (Bernstein's a type 1, Ruhl's a type 2) - and have interacted daily with those on the LCHF diet for years and years. I might add Trudi Deakin to that list too, but the formatting and graphics of her book frustrate me. But, and this is important for many people, it provides the most concise overview of how to do the diet. I also like Volek and Phinney's book, particularly it's index. I use this book as a reference too.

I think once I've answered most of my concerns and questions, I'll get a lot better at doing this diet.