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Losing weight

R

Rodcat

Member
Since being diagnosed and after a few mistakes at first with thinking that wholemeal carbs were ok, I have been losing weight. Just over a stone so far in just over a month. When I stop the scales though, my fat percentage doesn’t seem to have changed much and I seem to be losing muscle weight. I know the scales are probably not that accurate but my question is: if you are eating a lot of protein and veg-is the only other thing I can do to increase my exercise more? I am already walking a lot more than I did but I haven’t really done anything more than that. I don’t want to lose weight just because I am losing muscle.
 
You could always add some natural healthy fats to your diet, it would probably slow, stop or even reverse the weight loss depending how much you have. All without affecting your blood sugar levels.
 
@Rodcat As I understand it, fats don't really help in preventing muscle loss. You need to eat a few complex carbs (foods that are broken down to release glucose more slowly so don't cause blood sugar spikes) rather than simple carbs (things that break down quickly into sugars and do cause blood sugar spikes). Complex carbs are things like root vegetables, legumes, pulses - see the article here

Complex Carbohydrates - the truth about carbs & weight control

Discover all about complex carbohydrates, including the truth about carbs and weight control & 5 foods naturally rich in complex carbohydrates
www.avogel.co.uk
Obviously the best thing for each person to eat varies so maybe find a registered nutritionist or clinical nutritionist to advise you (or get a referral to one) because carbohydrates are complicated!
 
Rodcat said:
if you are eating a lot of protein and veg-
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Have you made sure you are eating enough?
Dropping the carbs means losing a lot of calories, and they need to be substituted. It's not only protein and veg, it's fats too!

Might be worth calculating how many calories you are eating to make sure you're not accidentally on a low calorie diet as well as a low carb one.
HHardy39 said:
As I understand it, fats don't really help in preventing muscle loss. You need to eat a few complex carbs
Click to expand...
No you don't.
There are plenty of body builders on keto, building muscle while eating hardly any carbs.
HHardy39 said:
because carbohydrates are complicated!
Click to expand...
Not that complicated. Carbs raise blood glucose. By how much depends on the person, time of day and time of month and some other stuff.
Still, counting the amount of carbs and calculating insulin doses based on that works quite well for many T1s, so carbs are relatively straight forward.
HHardy39 said:
see the article here
Click to expand...
The article isn't about carbs in diabetics. Diabetics react differently to carbs than non diabetics.
 
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Hi @Rodcat ,

How are & is your blood glucose doing in amongst this? Do you have access to a personal BG meter?
 
Well, the thing is, despite what you say, being a T2 diabetic I do get BG spikes from root vegetables and similar "complex carbs". Some have a bigger impact than others. I think a good many other people on here have the same experience. The link you've provided takes me to a commercial site wanting to sell a number of products. Is that the link you meant to post? It doesn't seem to have much awareness of diabetes. I noticed a "soup concentrate" that includes in its ingredients palm oil, raw cane sugar, maltodextrin, caramelised sugar.....but it is gluten and lactose free.

To my eyes it's certainly not "the truth" about carbs and weight control. Just about the first thing I read was that carbs are "a major food type that is essential for survival". I'm sure you know from reading on this forum that many people exist quite well on close to zero carbs. One thing I vividly recall from my NHS T2 course was the dietitian telling our group that carbohydrates are not essential and that a low-carb lifestyle can lead to low blood glucose and an avoidance of diabetic harms. He was certainly right as far as I was concerned.

As nutritionists are not regulated in the UK (unlike dietitians) it is unlikely to be easy for people to get a referral to one at NHS expense. At the moment anyone can claim to be "a nutritionist" - the existing register(s) (I think there may be more than one) is entirely voluntary.
 
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