How to structure exercise and food?

Lucretia9 said:

Hi,

T2. I need this weight gone now. I've been fasting for a while, don't eat until 1200 and ake medication then, i'm down a bit but I need more off.

Decided to try going low carb, but found out lentils are carbs and I've been using black lentils for the vitamins along with spinach and broccoli.

I've seen sites saying exercise when fasting, have carbs before exercise or after, only have carbs when exercising and not when not.

I'm not working, so I cannot afford expensive stuff either.

Any ideas?

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Hello @Lucretia9 , and welcome,

Spinach and broccoli are fine, as are other above ground, non-starchy veg, like cauliflower. Lentils are indeed carby, which would drive up your blood glucose and potentially keep you from shedding weight. Do you have a meter?

Usually, changing your diet has a bigger impact than exercise does, so going low carb should have a decent effect sometime soon, hopefully. If you have a meter you can keep on top of your diabetes, as well as see whether the diet's having the desired effect on your blood glucose levels. Weight should follow suit.

Just avoid the carbs as much as you can manage, provided you're not on insulin or gliclazide and the like. (Metformin and low carbing is fine). Carb-loading before, during or after a work-out works if you don't have a metabolic condition like diabetes... So that's pretty much useless advice. That's part of why I ask whether you have a meter: there is so much advice online, and a lot of it is contradictory. If you see what certain things do to your blood glucose, you can see what advice is sound, and suits you and your metabolism. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html deals with the dietary part of it, I'm not very at-home with the whole working-up-a-sweat thing. I am a walker, trying to get to long distance walking, but that's just something I do, not something I know enough about to preach. Others here would be able to help though, I'm sure.

Good luck!
Jo

Lucretia9 said:

I have a meter but no strips, I've been skint for 2 years and still am a bit.

I'm not on metformin any more, just jardiance. I'm also on Thiamine because I consistently get deficiencies so I need B vitamins. I do take a multivitamin and cod liver oil.

As for the lentils, I've using a "cup" 120ml in my case (I think) to bulk out things like pasta sauce and chilli and curry. i.e. last week made a veg curry with lentils, cutting out the brown pasta/rice.

I would also add, that over the last week, I've not been that hungry and apart from a takeaway, I've probabl;y eaten way below whatever calories I should be.

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You might want to replace the lentils with cauliflower then... I use ready made cauliflower rice because I will wreck my kitchen if I rice it myself, but a head is cheap and if you can mince it yourself, should be able to fill the void lentils leave in your diet.

As for the Jardiance, it can make you go too low on a low carb diet from what I understand from the leaflet, so do be careful as long as you're not testing. Not sure though, but just making sure you're aware you might get a tad low. And keep in mind that you don't have to cut calories, just carbs.... Don't starve yourself. Unless you're perfectly fine fasting; some here just have one meal a day, but then it is a very nutrition-dense meal with lots of protein, fats, vitamins and minerals.

Lucretia9 said:

But what about doing exercise? When? What?

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Whenever it suits, and whatever works for you. Something slow over a longer period of time usually brings down blood glucose, like taking a long walk. Something strenuous might cause a liver dump, so working up a sweat could mean a spike. The main thing is what you eat. Anything you do physically, is an added bonus. So, say, you have a meal and go for a walk afterwards, you'd bring down whatever raise the food might've caused faster than without the walk. No idea whether that really answers the question though... But for me, the walks are all I can do, so I stick with those.

Lucretia9 said:

Liver dump??

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Oh, sorry! The liver releases glucose into your bloodstream, if it thinks you need it. Here it's often referred to as a liver dump. Trying to be helpful, and all. Could be triggered by waking (dawn phenomenon), strenuous activities, stress, or medications (usually steroids). It's a perfectly normal thing to have happen, but our bodies don't have much use for that kind of assistance, quite often.