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Just diagnosed with Type 2 but doing OK

B

Bluebell_GB

Well-Known Member
Messages
69
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi all, newbie just joined today.

I had a routine blood test in mid-Dec 15 as part of my blood pressure monitoring and a second one in Jan 16 which confirmed that I was Type 2 diabetic but not too severe (HbA1c of 7.1). I was put on 500mg metformin which I did not tolerate at all well so that was changed to the prolonged release type after a month which I can tolerate. I needed to lose some weight anyway (1.82m and 100.1 kg) so I did a bit of research and went on the 8 week blood sugar diet
Code: 
https://thebloodsugardiet.com/
from 25 Jan 16 as well as giving up alcohol from 1 Jan 16. I'm now at the end of the 8 weeks and am pretty happy with my results. I hope the charts show up properly and I didn't expect the improvement in BP which is a bonus.

I now need to think about my diet going forward. I know a lot of people rave about LCHF but I had my gall bladder removed 2 years ago so I don't tolerate fats particularly well. Any other suggestions?
 

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Hello @Bluebell_GB and welcome. I was diagnosed roughly the same time as you and I'm astounded at your progress, your organisation and your clarity of thought. I'm too new here to offer much assistance to you but you've made me think I could be doing more to improve my condition!!
All the very best.
 

TYVM for your kind words. I am retired now (just) but was an engineer so I like to understand how things work which requires data and research. I also like to be in control and intend to have a long and healthy retirement SKIing (Spending the Kid's Inheritance). I had a good root around the site before I joined and there is a lot of very useful information here so I'm sure you can get the results you want as well. Good luck.
 
Hi @Bluebell_GB ,

Welcome to the forums, i hope you'll find something useful here.

Is your screen name a reference to our local steam railway by any chance?
 
urbanracer said:
Hi @Bluebell_GB ,

Is your screen name a reference to our local steam railway by any chance?
Click to expand...

TYVM. No, my screen name references the old army 1970's and 80's standard battlegroup codewords. Bluebell was the REME representative so "help, fetch Bluebell" usually meant someone was in trouble and needed my specialist support.
 

I have no idea where you are on your trimming up journey, but for weight loss and blood control, I found reduced carb to be an excellent approach. Once I needed to stop losing, I just increased my fats a little.

In reality, throughout my time with diabetes, I reduced carbs and immediately gave up any low fat products; reverting to full natural fat options. On maintaining weight I increased my portion sizes a bit, added some cheese and nuts one after the other (I can't remember which I started with).

I never express my diet as LCHF anywhere but here as it's misleading to those who don't subscribe to it.

Why not try something similar and see how you go? If you still want to trim a bit, now is a good time to establish the patterns.

Good luck with it all.
 

TYVM, my target is to get below 85kg, preferably closer to 80kg so still quite a lot of trimming to go. Because of the missing gall bladder, significantly increasing fats is not possible without some very unpleasant side effects. I will probably just increase the proteins first (I love meat) and have the occasional glass of red wine and see how it goes.
 
Hi @Bluebell_GB

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the sensational results you have achieved. I am about a month past completing the ND and am trying to adjust to a new diet still needing to lose another 7kg. I don't have the issue with fats that you do so you may need to increase your carbs to get more energy but if you work around the 100-120g carb per day range you should still be able to continue to lose weight while getting that energy
 
Hi again @Bluebell_GB, I had a look online recently at some charts to plot BP, BG level etc.
Are yours your own creation? Or did you find them online? My issue was compressing the x axis so it was unreadable.
 
I there and welcome.

I had my gall bladder removed several years ago and cope very well with LCHF. I don't eat spoonfuls of double cream and butter, I don't have food 'smothered' in grease, but I do only eat natural fats (butter, olive oil, coconut oil, dripping, lard). Nobody would look at my plate of food and think it was dripping in excess fats, but I avoid 'low fat' foods like the plague. In actual fact I avoid processed food in its entirety like the plague so reading labels doesn't enter into my life. Mayo is home made as are all sauces etc.

The liver is still producing bile from the breakdown of red blood cells, it just isn't being concentrated and stored in the gall bladder for the next 'fatty meal' to be squirted into the duodenum, to help to emulsify fats. Instead it flows in a steady stream (I believe) straight from the liver into the gut, where it still helps to emulsify fats, so if your meals all consist of some fat, but are not overwhelmed by fat, you may be okay. I certainly am. I do sometimes wonder how well I absorb fat soluble vitamins and was planning to ask my doctor to check my micronutrient levels, next time I have a blood test.

I believe that it was the 'low fat' diet that I followed for decades that gave me gall stones / gall bladder disease, as then the gall bladder never effectively contracts and empties, and concentrating static bile leads to gall stones. If I knew then what I know now, I would never do low fat again.

Oh, and, as an engineer, I am sure you would be interested in the work of Dr Richard Bernstein. His book, 'The Diabetes Solution' is fabulous. He was an engineer and decided to tackle the problem of his Type 1 management from an engineering perspective, blood glucose monitors had just come out. It is his work, I believe, that has resulted in 'eating to the meter'. There is also an excellent set of You Tube videos called 'The Diabetes University'. He qualified as a doctor in his forties, and now in his 80s he still runs free 'webinars' to spread the word. Absolutely inspirational man, I am sure that you would like him.
 
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nomoredonuts said:
Hi again @Bluebell_GB, I had a look online recently at some charts to plot BP, BG level etc.
Are yours your own creation? Or did you find them online? My issue was compressing the x axis so it was unreadable.
Click to expand...
I use MS Excel to record the data and create a standard line chart. Excel has a number of options which enable you to tailor the x and y axis as you wish.
 
TYVM , that is both helpful and encouraging. Off to Google now!
 

To repeat; until I had no weight to lose, all I did was replace Flora with butter, and low fat yoghurt with full milk yoghurt. I didn't see that as a significant increase in fat consumption.

Only when I had no weight to lose, did I up my fats a bit. Had I not been able to tolerate fats, I would have upped protein a bit more (in a measured manner) and overall portion sizes beyond what I did.

My diet is only higher fat when I feel the need to pack in some calories, if I happen to be losing weight. I don't eat slices of cheese, spread with butter or anything outre like that. I live in a pretty sociable world and have no wish whatsoever to be continually explaining bizarre eating patterns. That would drive me bonkers!
 

I have already done something similar. I now have cream in my (one cup a day) coffee and proper Greek yogurt with blueberries as my one dessert each day. If I increase my fats beyond that, by eating a piece of cheese for example, then I start to get problems. That is a real shame as I love cheese. We are all different so, for me, increasing fats above what I already consume is not the answer. Instead, I will increase lean protein and perhaps "good" carbs provided they don't adversely affect my blood sugars.
 

My only comment will be that for every one of us, our bodies don't like change, and will resist it. When it comes to producing digestive enzymes and the like, our bodies tend to "line up" the enzymes we have utilised the day before, and can be somewhat caught out by changes in consumption.

Sometimes, it is worthwhile repeating, even an experiment one feels has failed, again, to give our bodies a chance to be "less surprised". If you want to read up on what I call "enzyme lag", then you could try consulting Dr Google by typing "last meal effect" into the search bar.

Obviously, it's up to you how you feel your way forward, but good luck with it all.
 
I agree to an extent. However, with no gall bladder there is no store of bile available to boost fat digestion; you have to rely on the constant low level dribble from your liver.
 
Bluebell_GB said:
I agree to an extent. However, with no gall bladder there is no store of bile available to boost fat digestion; you have to rely on the constant low level dribble from your liver.
Click to expand...
I have a gall bladder, so I can't offer any advice from personal experience, but what if you were to eat small amounts of fatty foods throughout the day?
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
I have a gall bladder, so I can't offer any advice from personal experience, but what if you were to eat small amounts of fatty foods throughout the day?
Click to expand...

That would probably be OK but at the moment, I want to lose a bit more weight so I don't need to up my calories by very much. I am also intermittent fasting (no breakfast) so I would rather have the extra calories as meat or wine with the 2 meals a day I am eating. It is however, an option when I reach my desired weight and need to increase my calories significantly without binging on carbs.
 
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