LCHF isn't working.

frankbegbie said:

I've had over a week on a 'normal' diet and it worked straight away as far as energy levels and my aching legs were concerned.
But my Blood Glucose level; has gone way up to 11.7 the last time I measured it 2 hours after a meal. It was averaging around 7.5 when on the diet.
So it looks like I have to give the LCHF diet another try.
Hoping the 'Flu' symtoms don't last as long this time.

Not looking forward to it but I have no real alternative.

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I managed to avoid the flu like stuff by reducing the carbs gradually. I started by reducing to under 100g/day for six weeks then reduced to 50-70g/day which is where I stay now.

I noted from your first post that you were fasting - I found it counter productive - in fact I need to space my meals out more to get the best results, eating earlier in the day with just a few carbs - none at all did not work either, so I have mushrooms or a tomato or some celery and cheese - I can eat bacon and eggs along with it, no problem, and my blood glucose level before dinner, last time I tested it, was 4.8mmol/l
As a last meal I can have a couple of different vegetables, or just one and then berries and cream.
It works well for me, and I find that my Atkins New Diet Revolution is a good guide as to what to eat and when - one of Dr A's guides was not to go more than 6 waking hours without eating.
I am really getting to the situation of thinking 'this is no big deal' and 'I can do this for ever' - plus I intend to knit myself a jersey with 'Dr Atkins was right' across the back - I might have to make it a bit loose to fit all the letters on.
There are various ways to low carb - rather than trying to stick to one which is not working for you do move things around to try to find what is going to be best for you.
Low energy might mean that you are eating too little, or at the wrong time for your lifestyle or metabolism.
I eat about 50, maybe 60 gm of carb in a day - most of them in the evening as that is when I am least insulin resistant. I concentrated only on my blood glucose levels to guide my eating - did not try to push them really low, just tried to keep under 8mmol/l after eating - that seemed to tip the balance - eating so as to spike and then waiting to get down to a low number again did not work for me.

frankbegbie said:

I've had over a week on a 'normal' diet and it worked straight away as far as energy levels and my aching legs were concerned.
But my Blood Glucose level; has gone way up to 11.7 the last time I measured it 2 hours after a meal. It was averaging around 7.5 when on the diet.
So it looks like I have to give the LCHF diet another try.
Hoping the 'Flu' symtoms don't last as long this time.

Not looking forward to it but I have no real alternative.

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Maybe try and introduce it gradually... when I get back from Singapore and before last tournament of the year, I went to commit to a low carb supper each evening... I see me as a moderate to low carb nosher certainly until next bloods in March. The. Again I am more focused on getting my blood sugar back towards normal levels, and if I lose weight then fantastic.

I haven't read the whole thread, but did you make sure to increase your salt intake when going low carb? Can make a big difference. Making a 'tea' from stock cubes is a good way to increase salt.

Hello Frank,Try skipping breakfast and supper,And make it 3 days fasting like i did.At the start of my fasting diet,My fasting blood sugar readings were between 10.8 mml and 16+mml.My weight was 14st 10 lbs.6months later i weighed 11st.7 lbs.My fasting blood sugar reading are between 3.3mml and 5.8.mml..I can eat now eat what i like,wthout any adverse effects.all my complications have cleared up.I feel like a new man I am now free of diabetes.I bought Dr. Fung's book A Complete Guide to Fasting.,money well spent i thought.Yes i like a drink in moderation it didn't make much difference to my b.g.

Hello .I have been diabetic free for 7 months.My blood glucose readings normal.My fasting b.g. reading this morning was 5.5mml.I have a sweet tooth I can now eat fruit yogurts ,snickers bars [get some nuts].etc without any problems.I feel very much better no more queasy feelings ,irregular heatbeats ,hot sweats frightening sudden dizzy spells when out and about .no more falling asleep all the time.or getting up 12 or 13 times in the middle of the night to pee.'All the ulcers on my lower legs i have healed up.I was concerned about having my legs chopped of at the knees.My feet and toes went totally numb .I have regained full feeling back in them.I am now cured of diabetes.Although the so called doctors will beg to differ.If i'd taken the treatment the so called doctor was insisting on .i would probable in a wheelchair weighing 20 st having to have insulin jabs 3 or 4 times a day no legs and blind as well.I stay clear of the medics as much as possible.the ones i've met could not care less.

frankbegbie said:

I promised I'd give it 2 months.
I have just over 16 days to go.
My BG is averaging around 7.5
I've also been fasting for 2 days per week, (24 hours if I can manage it or at least 18 hours.)
I don't weigh myself but I feel and appear not to have shed an ounce.
My energy is low no matter what I eat.
I have a drink on Saturday, ( low carb beer and spirits.)

I have 3 options left as far as I can see.
Carry on as I am.
Stopping the drink.
Try a longer fast,; maybe 3/4 days.

Getting sick to death of it to be honest.
Apart from the Blood Glucose coming down a bit, I see no point.

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Just wondered why you are fasting some people find they can't do that so maybe it doesn't suit you and just overnight is enough

I can fast for long periods - but it puts up my blood glucose levels and then when I do eat my numbers go high and then crash - I need to make sure I eat early in the day and then again in the evenings to get stable blood glucose.
You can't assume that what works for one person will have the same effect for another.
The only thing to do is test, carefully and watch for what is best for you.

Alexandra100 said:

I didn't say I was doing LCHF, nor did I say LCHF doesn't work, though I did respond to the thread with that title. I was at pains to say that under 100 carbs daily is low FOR ME. Personally, I don't think it's the best idea for ME to go straight from a "normal" diabetes oblivious diet consisting among other things of a lot of fruit and milk, to the other extreme of LCHF. Also LCHF is clearly more difficult for people like me who have vegetarian tendencies. But this was not what I was talking about.

I very much appreciate this forum, it's a real life saver. I also think it is a pity that it seems to be dominated by aggressive born again LCHFers. I much prefer the gentler, more co-operative approach to be found in the vegan/vegetarian section. Can the myth that meat eaters are more aggressive really be true???

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Yes I agree it is not good to go from a normal diet straight to very low carb the body objects and anyway very low carb does not suit everyone. When people talk about carb flu that is probably because they went to low to quickly. If 100g a day suits you then that is fine you know your body best

Alexandra100 said:

What is going on here? Do carbs in milk etc raise some people's bgs less than other foods? Maybe I should start a separate thread about this.

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It depends on the individual and how it affects them we are all very different I personally never worry about the carbs in milk or yogurts they are a very small part of my diet but the strict low carbers do count them in their daily allowance.

frankbegbie said:

I've had over a week on a 'normal' diet and it worked straight away as far as energy levels and my aching legs were concerned.
But my Blood Glucose level; has gone way up to 11.7 the last time I measured it 2 hours after a meal. It was averaging around 7.5 when on the diet.
So it looks like I have to give the LCHF diet another try.
Hoping the 'Flu' symtoms don't last as long this time.

Not looking forward to it but I have no real alternative.

Click to expand...

There are absolutely alternatives! Mediterranean, Paleo, Atkins, Vegetarian and Vegan (I would normally include zero carbing in this list but this is not for you I would think!). LCHF/Keto is just one/two ways of eating in the list of alternatives.

You can moderate-carb in all those above, which I - along with other posters above - think might be the way for you to go, at least for a good amount of time to let you adapt to lower carb gradually, if you ultimately choose to go low carb. You might even be a person who prefers to eat smaller amounts of 'normal' food - ie lower calorie dieting.

I think I mentioned it in a previous post in this thread, but I did not go straight into very low carbing. Mine was a gradual thing over some months - even nearly a year. (I did stop obvious high carb food such as added sugar immediately as a life saving thing though.) And I find very low carbing very sustainable now - which is a key when it comes to using diet as a way of treating T2D. I am concerned that LCHF is a depressing thing for you? How can such be good for you? Food can be and should be a joy (unless it isn't?).

serenity648 said:

read my post. You can see I am not against low carbing. I am against telling newbies that they need to severely reduce their carbs, right from the word go, and being pushy about the potential consequences if they dont severely reduce their carbs below 50g.

We often, on this forum, point out the scare mongering in the media. I am protesting against scaremongering and extreme advice to newbie, before they even have got to grips with the idea of self testing even. I think it is unecessary and counterproductive.

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I think some newbies must be very scared when they are told that straight away they have to reduce their carbs to practically nothing the moment they get here or they will face all kind of horrors like going blind and loosing limbs and many I think never come back.

Pinkorchid said:

I think some newbies must be very scared when they are told that straight away they have to reduce their carbs to practically nothing the moment they get here or they will face all kind of horrors like going blind and loosing limbs and many I think never come back.

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Really? Lowering carbs scares them? And not the "horrors like going blind and losing limbs"? The horrors do scare me. And that's OK - because it's very scary. I know I breathe in and feel all sorts of things when I walk past someone around my age in a wheelchair with half a leg missing - I never used to notice it, or think about it too much before I was diagnosed myself. But how can we not think about it now?

On the other hand - I know what you mean. I do not like scaremongering as a rule - especially if non-diabetics do it! Better to come from other diabetics, is my opinion on the matter of the scary info. And this is such a supportive place, as a rule.

AloeSvea said:

Really? Lowering carbs scares them? And not the "horrors like going blind and losing limbs"? The horrors do scare me. And that's OK - because it's very scary. I know I breathe in and feel all sorts of things when I walk past someone around my age in a wheelchair with half a leg missing - I never used to notice it, or think about it too much before I was diagnosed myself. But how can we not think about it now?

On the other hand - I know what you mean. I do not like scaremongering as a rule - especially if non-diabetics do it! Better to come from other diabetics, is my opinion on the matter of the scary info. And this is such a supportive place, as a rule.

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Sorry I do not think the way to encourage newbies to cut the carbs is to frighten them and make it sound like if they do not do what is said on here and cut foods out of their diet they will certainly have serious complications That is more of less saying do what we do or suffer the consequences and that is scaremongering. A good diet and good BG levels we think can help reduce the risk but it does not eliminate it and there is no clinic evidence that it does because there are always those who will be more predisposed to complications whatever they do and that could apply to any of us

frankbegbie said:

Ok, so I've been back on the HFLC diet for 10 days now.
Energy levels are getting a bit lower but my legs aren't aching again yet.
My weight looks as if it's gone up again when I look in the mirror, ( I never weigh myself).
No Idea how much but I can see a difference now.
So I must have been losing weight when I was on the HFLC diet.
It was hard to be sure as I had quite a bit to lose, ( about 40/50 lbs as an estimate).

Hindsight is a great thing but if only I'd have carried on I may have got through the bad spell.

Anyway I feel a lot more positive now knowing that what I was doing was actually working.

So just going to carry on as I was doing and hope for the best.

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Good luck! Nice dog!!!

frankbegbie said:

.....
My weight looks as if it's gone up again when I look in the mirror, ( I never weigh myself).
No Idea how much but I can see a difference now.
So I must have been losing weight when I was on the HFLC diet.
It was hard to be sure as I had quite a bit to lose, ( about 40/50 lbs as an estimate).

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Why don’t you just get some scales and remove the guess work?!

Pinkorchid said:

Sorry I do not think the way to encourage newbies to cut the carbs is to frighten them and make it sound like if they do not do what is said on here and cut foods out of their diet they will certainly have serious complications That is more of less saying do what we do or suffer the consequences and that is scaremongering. A good diet and good BG levels we think can help reduce the risk but it does not eliminate it and there is no clinic evidence that it does because there are always those who will be more predisposed to complications whatever they do and that could apply to any of us

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Quite so. I don't want you to think I was saying deliberately scaremongering newbies was the way to go. I was just surprised that newbies might leave this, as a rule, supportive environment on hearing what we are all scared of. (And why not be scared? Was my point. It's scary!). Also surprised at a 'do or die!' stance by some in here. I should have said, "Really?" to that too for sure!