LOW CARB DIET - A NEWBIES GUIDE

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Ok so now I'm getting a bit worried. Everyone seems to have amazing immediate results from Low carbing and mine, which I WAS pleased with seem a bit not so good now. I've lost about 8lbs over 3-4 wks.
I've only been testing for about 10 days and my bgs have gone UP! The first couple of days they were in the 5s but now only get down to under 6 occassionally.
Is it possible I'm not eating enough? I'm doing a mix of shake meal replacements and protein&low carb veg meals. HELP!!!

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

rtee said:

Ok so now I'm getting a bit worried. Everyone seems to have amazing immediate results from Low carbing and mine, which I WAS pleased with seem a bit not so good now. I've lost about 8lbs over 3-4 wks.
I've only been testing for about 10 days and my bgs have gone UP! The first couple of days they were in the 5s but now only get down to under 6 occassionally.
Is it possible I'm not eating enough? I'm doing a mix of shake meal replacements and protein&low carb veg meals. HELP!!!

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6s are fine. My HbA1c is 4.9% and my BG levels are usually in the range 5-7 mmol/l, most of the time my BG is 6 something.

It also takes a while for your system to adapt to its new regime. 3-4 weeks is nothing, if you stick with it, I'm sure they'll go down some more.

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

There seems to be a wide variation in how long it takes to stabilise BG's. For me on 60g / day it took weeks for them to gradually come down but I must say the overall trend was always downwards. Saying that 6's are fine.

Is there a pattern to your BG's? So are they always high in the morning then drop off as the day progresses?

I don't have any experience with the shake replacement stuff so wont comment on calories etc. It maybe worth re-asking your question on one of the Newcastle diet threads. Try this one http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-...893&p=298114&hilit=Starting+Newcastle#p298114

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Is there a pattern to your BG's? So are they always high in the morning then drop off as the day progresses?

I think so. I haven't been testing lots of times a day cos I have to buy my strips maybe I should stop being penny pinching and do it for a while!

Thanks for the link to the Newcastle thread I'll go and have a look . I did check out the carb content today & it's quite high. I think I'm going to have to do a bit more measuring and diary keeping till I get this sussed! Onward and downward!

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Many thanks for this topic but wonder if anyone can give me a little more advice.

Have been type II since 1999, and have recently (end of May) been switched to Novorapid and Levemir, having previously been on oral meds and Exanatide, so my first 'foray' into the insulin minefield!!!

Everything was going swimmingly for the first couple of months, until my level started to stabilise and get back into a 'normal' range, then within 3 weeks, even though I was consuming less than 1800 calories a day, I put on almost 4 kilos :shock:

Immediate appt with DSN didn't give any help other than pulling Consutant appt forward from Dec to last week - his only suggestion, eat less and exercise more, even though I'm not eating that much and I DO exercise 4 times a week - so am a little at a loss :|

His only other suggestion was to try low-carbing, but he wasn't able to tell me how to make this work :? and though he has signed a referral to the dietician, I have no idea how long this will take.

Have done some reading, here and on other sites/cookbooks but am still a little confused as to how to set about this, as I'm not prepared to continue putting on weight at this rate.

If I wanted to try low-carbing before seeing the dietician, would a level of 90g carbs a day be a reasonable place to try and start? How often/when would people suggest checking BG levels - seems to be a bit of confusion around this.

I am about to go out and take delivery of a new exercise bike to add to my exercise programme - I already swim twice a week and work out on a Wii fit at least twice.

Sorry for rambling on - really want to try and make this work and know other people who have tried low carbing in the past (though not diabetic, so not with any other complications) and have lost weight, so know it can work, but not quite sure how to make it work for ME!!

thanks
Trulee

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I started a deliberate low-carb diet last Friday morning. As far as I can work out, the only carbs I get are from coffee (1/2 inch of milk to top up), one or two small pieces of bread or Ryvita, maybe a tomato, and dry white wine. Even so i am losing no weight at all, and my BG has held up at about 6.6 before lunch.

[Here is the only food I have been having in the past few days: Green veg, eggs, cheese, 'proper' mayonnaise, milk in tea/coffee, peanut butter, tomato, ham, very little low carb bread, couple of crackers, white wine). I was a bit naughty with Special Brew Saturday night, but not otherwise. Maybe that is the reason?? I also have very good exercise almost every day.

I originally brought my BGs down effectively to the 6ish range, but now I just don't seem to be able to obtain any response to diet and exercise. No weight loss, no lowering of BGs. What am i doing wrong?

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

If you are not controlling your BG and your weight isn't dropping, you need to cut back even more on the carbs. To me personally, "one or two small pieces of bread or Ryevita" would prevent both those things. I have to be near zero carb to lose weight and not much above zero to keep BG DOWN.
Hana

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

hanadr said:

If you are not controlling your BG and your weight isn't dropping, you need to cut back even more on the carbs. To me personally, "one or two small pieces of bread or Ryevita" would prevent both those things. I have to be near zero carb to lose weight and not much above zero to keep BG DOWN.
Hana

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OK - thanks. I'll try harder!

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I'd try going without alcohol. According to Atkins, the body can "run" on alcohol, and even a small amount will take you out of ketosis (fat-burning). Not only does alcohol have lots of calories, it has carbs too! except spirits.

This is definitely a case of "do as I say, not as I do". My weight has not decreased for the last 10 months, which I know in my heart-of-hearts is because I keep drinking red wine . Even if I limit it to weekends only, it apparently takes about 3 days to burn up the alcohol fuel; by the time I've got back into ketosis, it's nearly the weekend again! My BGs start creeping up a bit too. All in all its not worth it, but it needs more willpower than I have at the moment. :roll:

Give it a try; 2 weeks without any alcohol and then get weighed. I'll try to do the same thing (after Wednesday). We can compare notes.

Viv 8)

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Hi Viv -

I think my will-power would let me down there, but I can at least cut out the Special Brew in favour of dry white wine. I really must learn my lesson about that stuff.

What's the usual time scale for Ketosis to kick in? Your body has to stop using glycogen, presumably, so how much of a store does the liver hold?

Another question - if a 'normal' healthy individual starts to drink way too much beer regularly, doesn't the liver reach its storage limit? And doesn't that result in a temporarily elevated BG level, which can be reversed simply by giving the liver a break? Just wondering.

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Have you had a look at Viv's Modified Atkins Diet in the 'Sticky Thread' section? That's basically Atkins Induction Phase (take out the Ryvita/oatcakes/Allbran).

When I did it first time round, eating only the allowed foods, I lost 15lbs in the first 2 weeks. Thereafter I lost steadily, 60lbs in the first 6 months. I wasn't diabetic then, but my BGs and BP were fine and | had the best lipid profile I've ever had, after that 6 months ( I need a "sigh" emoticon!).

Dry white wine is still alcohol! Try to limit yourself to no more than a couple of glasses, but even with that, you will probably not get into ketosis. I think it takes about 3 days to deplete your stores and start burning fat. I'm not quite sure as to the liver's storage level as related to beer, though I hadn't thought about it being "full" and leading to elevated BG levels. Seems to make sense, but I'm no scientist.

It's a miracle my liver is functioning at all, let alone as well as it is - my motto seems to be "an open bottle is an empty bottle" :shock: . I'm not proud of this!

Alcohol is a poison. It causes inflammation in the body, which affects many things including artherosclerosis, arthritis, joint and muscle pain among others. I know all this, yet I still keep drinking! I don't think I'm an alcoholic, as I have been known to leave the shop empty-handed if they don't have my favourite in stock. I can give up for weeks at a time without climbing the walls, but unfortunately I like it, and I keep going back to it!

The reason I said "after Wednesday" in my previous post was because I have yet another evening out (nothing for months - then 3 come along at once :lol: ). After that I am really going to try to go dry (again!).

Let us know how you go on.

I might start a new thread - Viv's Alcohol Log - and confess all!

Viv 8)

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I'll certainly compare notes there!

I distinguish between dry white wine and Special Brew for two reasons:

1. SB is packed with carbs - DWW isn't. It shows on BG tests after drinking. SB sends me up there, DWW doesn't.
2. I can limit my wine intake of an evening much better than my SB intake. It's 'morish'.

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

This makes very interesting reading but I have two questions:
1) presumably you woul have to alter your background insulin?
2) can anyone post up a typical daily menu of what you could eat on a low carb diet?
Thank you

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

This makes very interesting reading but I have two questions:
1) presumably you woul have to alter your background insulin?
2) can anyone post up a typical daily menu of what you could eat on a low carb diet?
Thank you

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Bobbietb said:

This makes very interesting reading but I have two questions:
1) presumably you woul have to alter your background insulin?
2) can anyone post up a typical daily menu of what you could eat on a low carb diet?
Thank you

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I just carry on as normal, but without much in the way of white bread, potatoes, pasta, etc., and almost no sugar. Everything else seems to be fine for me.

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I've worked out that on average I have 140g of carbs in a day, 40 of those are at breakfast! I clearly have no imagination because cereal is the best I can think of for breakfast lol!

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I cut out cereal completely - THE worst source of carbs. I usually have a cheese/ham omelette for brekkie.

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Hi Bobbie,

I see you are type 1, like me. I have 40g of All Bran with milk for breakfast if I eat cereal, and that is 26g carbs. That's the highest carbs I have for breakfast & I think I can cover that with insulin & only go as high as 8.8 2hrs later at the worst, which is much better than I used to when I ate around 40g carbs.
Other days I have scrambled eggs, or omelette with mushrooms/pepper/cheese/bacon/ham/spinach or all of these! I bake my own low carb bread for toast. I no longer have baked beans with a "full English" & buy sausages without many carbs in (check the labels).
I eat about 100g carbs a day at the moment, but intend to reduce this further in future. Before I started this I ate probably around 160-200g a day.

Vicki

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

Thanks Vicki. I didn't realise there was so few carbs in branflakes I definitely need to be far more sure about the carbs I eat as sometimes I seem to have a random high or low and it must because I'm misjudging what I'm eating! Thank you for your help.
Bobbie

Re: Comments on Low carb diet - a newbies guide

I'm sorry, and I hope people can see this but I dont know how to start a new debate/question. I am low-carbing, and using the myfitnesspal site, which I find brilliant! Im mainly shuffling along from bits and pieces of info from this forum. The problem I have, is that I find if I keep carbs down, I am still using loads of calories. Should I still lose weight? My consultant told me to eat couscous instead of potato/pasta, but it seems this is also high in carbs. I find it so confusing, trying to figure out whats best to eat. I was told to deduct the gms of fibre from the gms of carbs to get a true amount, but theres not a lot of fibre in couscous. Should I request one of these course that teach about nutrition or are they a waste of time?

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