Low carb high fat. Anyone been Type 2 for more than a few years?

[Roseanne01]

I'm amazed at the cultish fervour on here for LCHF. I’ve never seen anything about the risks or anyone saying it doesn’t work, might be dangerous for some people? So is this purely a beginners forum?

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

That’s because LCHF works. Do you have something that works better?

 

[Tophat1900]

Some people have been following LCHF for a year or two, some for 10 yrs or more. I know of one person who has been following it for decades.

I think the reason why there appears to be a cult like following is simply because it works and people get pretty excited about the turn around in their health by just changing their diet. As apposed to conventional dietary advice for T2's that has a long history of complete failure and progressively making people/s health worse by accumulating all manner of complications, LCHF works on so many levels, people notice all kinds of benefits, not just improvements in BG control and Hba1c and weight loss (If needed).

I've been using LCHF for around 8 yrs. Up until then I followed the standard advice and watched my health deteriorate over the years. Ended up overweight, had poor triglyceride numbers, high bg levels. Was on several blood pressure medications. And in general felt terrible. No energy, tired all the time, not exactly enjoyable way to live.

I no longer take blood pressure meds, haven't for about 4 yrs. Feel great, energetic, haven't caught a head cold in 8yrs. Have much better Hba1c, (non-diabetic range) and life is enjoyable again. People get pretty excited about that kind of turn around, that they just didn't get while following conventional dietary advice. People also get passionate about it when someone tries to get them to go back to the failed way of eating.

What works is what matters to people. Who knew it would be something so simple as just reducing carbs?

 

[DCUKMod]

I'm amazed at the cultish fervour on here for LCHF. I’ve never seen anything about the risks or anyone saying it doesn’t work, might be dangerous for some people? So is this purely a beginners forum?

I have been on reduced carb, with balancing fats, for 5 years now. I'm now additionally gluten-free, but this isn't diabetes related. My stats go something like this:

T2 since October 2013. No medication.

HbA1c:
October 13: 73 or 8.8% (How did that happen?)
February 14: 37 or 5.5%
May 14: 34 or 5.3%
August 14: 32 or 5.1%
November 14: 33 or 5.1%
May 15: 31 or 5.0%
October 15: 33 or 5.1%
September 16: 31 or 5.0%
November 17: 33 or 5.1%
March 18: A "bonus", unexpected test due to other bloods - 30 or 4.9%. I joined the 4s club! I hadn't expected a reduction, having got used to toggling 33<>31<>33<>31 for the last 3 years, literally.

Work in progress, but GP has taken me off the Diabetes Register.

It seems to work for me. All medical markers improved from the point of diagnosis. I'm just about due an annual A1c test, but I did a home A1cNow test about 4 weeks ago, prior to some extended travel, and it came in at 4.8%. I usually find those to be +/-0.1% pf my lab results.

Could we help you with anything in particular?

Edited to add that this forum supports whatever works for any given individual, it's just that quite a few folks, particularly T2s, have found reducing carbs to be helpful to them.

 

[Roseanne01]

That’s because LCHF works. Do you have something that works better?

It’s actually dangerous if you have kidney disease. Just saying this to see if others like me just drop out because everyone is focused on a single solution. I’ve been Type 2 for over thirty years and plant based worked for me for about fifteen years. But then the carbs caught up, I developed a range of chronic problems and high blood pressure caused kidney failure (not diabetes). Mostly through a very high stress work environment, I’d love a dietary solution but I can’t find one that’s low carb (which I am because I can’t tolerate it, even tomato raises my bsl), low fat because I have heart failure, and low protein because of kidney disease. And like most on here the only advice from dietitians is the standard same old same old. And from endo - here’s a wonderful new med to make you sicker and tireder. Or n the case of insulin -fatter.

 

[Roseanne01]

I have been on reduced carb, with balancing fats, for 5 years now. I'm now additionally gluten-free, but this isn't diabetes related. My stats go something like this:

T2 since October 2013. No medication.

HbA1c:
October 13: 73 or 8.8% (How did that happen?)
February 14: 37 or 5.5%
May 14: 34 or 5.3%
August 14: 32 or 5.1%
November 14: 33 or 5.1%
May 15: 31 or 5.0%
October 15: 33 or 5.1%
September 16: 31 or 5.0%
November 17: 33 or 5.1%
March 18: A "bonus", unexpected test due to other bloods - 30 or 4.9%. I joined the 4s club! I hadn't expected a reduction, having got used to toggling 33<>31<>33<>31 for the last 3 years, literally.

Work in progress, but GP has taken me off the Diabetes Register.

It seems to work for me. All medical markers improved from the point of diagnosis. I'm just about due an annual A1c test, but I did a home A1cNow test about 4 weeks ago, prior to some extended travel, and it came in at 4.8%. I usually find those to be +/-0.1% pf my lab results.

Could we help you with anything in particular?

Edited to add that this forum supports whatever works for any given individual, it's just that quite a few folks, particularly T2s, have found reducing carbs to be helpful to them.

No medication wasn’t even a choice given when I was diagnosed in 1993. But I fought against it and got off it after five years. And I can’t do carbs. My diabetes has always been well managed until the last two years so it’s not to blame for my health. Maybe. Just looking to see if I’m on my own in nothing much working. Exercise would help, so I'm hoping my next echocardiogram shows more improvement in my heart. Now it’s just rounds of new drugs, more drugs and misery.
And it would be interesting to see in twenty years how many on LCHF develop kidney or liver problems. But I won’t be around. There’s been so many magic cures in my lifetime.

 

[Indy51]

6.5 years for me, though I'm not super low carb - anywhere from 50-100g depending on the day. Normal A1c within 6 months of starting, no diabetes meds and no complications that I know of so far. It's a way of eating I find pretty easy to follow, don't feel deprived or feel like I'm missing out, so no reason not to continue. I guess time will tell.

 

[Listlad]

@Roseanne01

I empathise with your caution, and I am being cautious too. For a few years I have been watching my trends and everything seems to be narrowing up in such a way that I feel I am between a rock and a hard place with food. Something I wanted to try and discuss with my GP and did attempt to but as ever time was limited.

I have embarked upon a lower carb higher fat approach, not a full blown keto. It’s early yet but there are signs that it is helping.

I do think that for many that the LCHF approach has been a solution or a way out from the difficulties presented by T2’s and diabetes, that they otherwise would not have had.

 

[Roseanne01]

@Roseanne01

I empathise with your caution, and I am being cautious too. For a few years I have been watching my trends and everything seems to be narrowing up in such a way that I feel I am between a rock and a hard place with food. Something I wanted to try and discuss with my GP and did attempt to but as ever time was limited.

I have embarked upon a lower carb higher fat approach, not a full blown keto. It’s early yet but there are signs that it is helping.

I do think that for many that the LCHF approach has been a solution or a way out from the difficulties presented by T2 diabetes, that they otherwise would not have had.

I agree. It was really unusual in the nineties to be diagnosed so young and I do wonder if I have something else going on as everything I have has an autoimmune component. I’m used to controlling stuff but now nothing seems to work. About to ditch trulicity because after three months I still feels sick and really fatigued. Heart failure makes that an issue as well. Ta.

 

[Listlad]

I agree. It was really unusual in the nineties to be diagnosed so young and I do wonder if I have something else going on as everything I have has an autoimmune component. I’m used to controlling stuff but now nothing seems to work. About to ditch trulicity because after three months I still feels sick and really fatigued. Heart failure makes that an issue as well. Ta.

I forgot to add that I had been worried about increasing my blood pressure with a lower carb higher fat approach as my blood pressure is already high, but it actually appears to be dropping instead.

 

[KK123]

I'm amazed at the cultish fervour on here for LCHF. I’ve never seen anything about the risks or anyone saying it doesn’t work, might be dangerous for some people? So is this purely a beginners forum?

Hi Roseanne, I think the fervour is for VERY low carb high fat diets, not for low carb. I think the LCHF is clearly one that works for the majority of people (on this site) and maybe it is that one that most on here follow, ie carbs over 30 but under 130? That, to me is a more achievable one but of course that might not be enough for some people and so they go virtually no carb which I think is more keto?. I think the problem arises when people simply refer to 'LCHF' without explaining that there are variations within it, hence some individuals are left with the idea that to go low carb means to go under 30 carbs. As for dangerous, well anyone with competing conditions must do their own research as always but for the majority I can't see that it can be more dangerous than high glucose levels. As most always say, find a level for yourself as an individual. I too, don't really like the way some imply 'my way or lose your leg' but I do understand that in the main they are trying to help.

 

[Member496333]

Speaking only for myself, LCHF took me from a position of catastrophic metabolic meltdown - with life changing and unspeakably painful complications - to a position of glowing health, boundless energy, clear skin and nails, cast iron glucose control round the clock, improved mood and cognitive skills, no complications, no pain, and a HOMA-IR insulin resistance of 0.3

Anecdotes are only anecdotes when they happen to other people

 

[Listlad]

I echo what KK123 has just said. There is reduced carbs, low carbs and ultra low carbs along with varying levels of enhanced / higher fat alongside. It has taken a few weeks to arrive at what suits my condition at this moment in time.

 

[Tophat1900]

It’s actually dangerous if you have kidney disease. Just saying this to see if others like me just drop out because everyone is focused on a single solution. I’ve been Type 2 for over thirty years and plant based worked for me for about fifteen years. But then the carbs caught up, I developed a range of chronic problems and high blood pressure caused kidney failure (not diabetes). Mostly through a very high stress work environment, I’d love a dietary solution but I can’t find one that’s low carb (which I am because I can’t tolerate it, even tomato raises my bsl), low fat because I have heart failure, and low protein because of kidney disease. And like most on here the only advice from dietitians is the standard same old same old. And from endo - here’s a wonderful new med to make you sicker and tireder. Or n the case of insulin -fatter.

That's a real tough situation. You sound very frustrated, and have my sympathies.

 

[Member496333]

Just to add, with added fervour, that if low carbohydrate eating was dangerous per se, every human in the northern hemisphere would have died millennia ago during their first winter. That’s not to say that it’s suitable for everyone, of course, but things that make humans into a glowing picture of health in the intermediate term, are not bad for them in the long term. Life just doesn’t work that way

Only in my opinion, of course.

 

[bulkbiker]

It’s actually dangerous if you have kidney disease.

Have you read any of Dr Jason Fung's work? He's a nephrologist he might have some insights for you.

 

[mariavontrapp]

I agree. It was really unusual in the nineties to be diagnosed so young and I do wonder if I have something else going on as everything I have has an autoimmune component. I’m used to controlling stuff but now nothing seems to work. About to ditch trulicity because after three months I still feels sick and really fatigued. Heart failure makes that an issue as well. Ta.

Have you been checked for haemochromatosis?

 

[Guzzler]

Prof. Steve Phinney (Virta Health) has, I believe, been low carbing for more than 20 years and is an advocate for a 'well formulated Ketogenic diet'. To be honest, the only danger with following a LCHF or Ketogenic diet that I have ever come across in all my studying of said is when these diets are followed in conjunction with SGLT2 Inhibitors and this I feel is not the fault of the diet per se.

I personally do not like being accused of being a member of a cult or of slavishly following the herd blind to all alternatives. LCHF makes sense to me at a fundamental level and while it works for me I shall adhere to it at a level that continues to give normalised markers and improved quality of life.

 

[Veryanxious]

If don't go low carb and continue with current diet. I will go from insulin resistant to diabetic in may be few years. Then I will be again at risk of all the diseases diabetes put me at. It is better to take care of present health then think about what disease this diet will cause.
Moreover apart from this, keto helped with my period pains. It was so painful that used to roll over the floor and cry for 3-4 until it pass. Helped me with my anxiety. It Also goes with my stagnant lifestyle.
It cleared out my horrible acne as well, now I don't have any. I used to blaming fat for my acnes before going high fat. Irony isn't it?

 

[Daphne917]

I'm amazed at the cultish fervour on here for LCHF. I’ve never seen anything about the risks or anyone saying it doesn’t work, might be dangerous for some people? So is this purely a beginners forum?

I was diagnosed in 2012 and have been diet only apart from a couple of months when my hba1c rose quickly and I was prescribed sitogliptin (sp) for a while until we realised it was the statins that has caused the rise. I don’t think it is a cult at all but people learning what foods they maybe able to or should not eat. Within my own family there are various allergies including fish, dairy, nuts, eggs etc and, at one stage, there were 3 cealiacs including my aunt and brother - preparing foods for a family get together can be a nightmare!

I am lucky in that I seem to be more carb tolerant that many diabetics and average between 100 - 130g carbs per day (although I have been known to have more) and my hba1c has been within non-diabetic levels for approx 5 years. I also eat full, as opposed to low fat, yoghurts, milk etc. This is a useful forum with a lot of good information, links and experiences for those newly diagnosed however, and I am going to put my head above the parapet here and this is purely my interpretation, reading some of the posts there seems to be an underlying trend of people becoming afraid of food to the extent that they seem to need to ask the forum permission to eat it when all they need to do is test and make their own mind up. We are all individuals and, as such, react differently to food and, in the case of Diabetes, carbs.