Is this tiredness usual ?

[jack412]

Once you cut the carbs and get you BG in range, you'll feel like a kid again, normal protein and fat replaces the lost carbs
www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

 

[Brunneria]

Ha! By mid August we'll have you so up to speed that you will be able to spot any holes in the Desmond course!

Seriously, though, very few doctors support type 2s using blood glucose meters (for reasons that are more to do with cost than patient health). And while you may find Desmond very informative, you may also find them pushing a high carb diet, when your meter is telling you those carbs send your blood glucose sky high.

When in doubt, trust your meter.
People following the NHS high carb diet tend to have higher blood glucose levels than people eating a low carb diet - and the higher your BG gets, the higher your risk of diabetic complications.

I think the best advice for type 2s available on this forum is a single sentence:

Eat to your meter

 

[susieq67]

DESMOND stands for " Diabetes Education and Self Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed" and is offered to all people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes - it's run by the NHS. For more information see here:

http://www.desmond-project.org.uk/whatisthedesmondprogramme-271.html

 

[mpe]

DESMOND stands for " Diabetes Education and Self Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed" and is offered to all people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes - it's run by the NHS.

I was never offered it and it dosn't appear be available in my area anyway.
I was offered a course which turned out to be badly organised, poorly attended and regurgitated the regular NHS/DUK "advice".

 

[Totto]

thanks Pollylocks

Before I was diagnosed last week I was already on a calorie controlled diet to lose weight (for cosmetic reasons !), but it now looks like I have to re-think that to make it a low carb/high fat diet (still can't my head round the high fat element !!).

Typically (when dieting) I would eat as follows

breakfast = fat free fruit yoghurt, 1 Weetabix, strawberries & blueberries
mid morning snack - banana
lunch - sandwich made with 2 slices from small Hovis wholemeal loaf filled with either: reduced fat cheese, ham or chicken & salad and a piece of fruit
mid afternoon snack - plain rice cake with smear of sugar reduced jam
dinner - salmon fillet, chicken fillet or pork steak (trimmed of fat) with 2 small new potatoes, green vegetables or salad and another piece of fruit or a fat free yoghurt.

tea and coffee with skimmed milk through the day (I don't like sweet/soft drinks and I don't drink alcohol)

Since being here I've switched the fruit yoghurts to natural yoghurt and am trying to cut back on the amount of fruit that I eat (that's hard for me ) I used to be a big pasta/ rice eater (I'm half Italian) but I had cut that back to one small portion a week before diagnosis.

No wonder you are exhausted on a diet so high in carbs. Don't worry about the fat, it comes naturally. You may feel very ill at first after reducing carbs but if you can endure, do so with the help of some extra salt and plenty of water. It takes a while for your body to change from carbs to fat but once the carb flue is over you will feel so much better.

Eat fat. There is no reason at all to be afraid of fat. The road to success for many of us is through a high fat diet but of course it can depend of how many carbs you can tolerate and your goal for bg control. Natural fats like olive oil, organic butter, preferably grass fed, coconut oil, lard, duck and goose fat are good.

That said, if you still feel exhausted after normalising your bg and coming out on the other side of the carb flue I think thyroid problems are likely. "Normal" covers a lot of sins in thyroid matters and few Drs know how to interpret the tests.