low carb making me tired!

[SouthernGeneral6512]

I find this remarkable is your doctor surprised that an increase in dietry fat has brought down your cholesterol? Ok I'm sure you eat a lot of the healthy fats but it's just been drummed into people over recent decades that high carbs lead to lower cholesterol

My DSN was speechless as she thought the regime I was on was insane.

After my diagnosis in Dec 2011 with an HbA1c of 11.3% I swapped to low carb / high fat primarily to get my blood levels back under control. I had no doubts that would work. I did have doubts as to what that diet would do to my cholesterol however I needn't have worried as effectively within 3 months I had both reduced the total to less than 4 and had significantly improved my good cholesterol. Obviously I continued to avoid trans fats but within that increase to 60% I made no distinction between saturated and unsaturated fats as for the first 3 months getting normal blood levels far outweighed any risks of increasing fat.

When I got my 3 month results which knocked 6% of my hBA1c and normalised my Cholesterol my DSN was so impressed she insisted I book an end of the day 2 session appointment with the practice GP who is also a diabetes specialist to tell him what I had done.

He was not surprised and just said he knew "low carb" worked as he had a friend who did it and that roughly 3% of patients he saw did what I did and it worked for them. His attitude was low carb is great but make sure you do it in a sustainable way.

I specifically showed him what I was eating and his reaction was "just keep doing it as its put your diabetes in remission".

The only thing that irritated him was that the diet had also reduced my blood pressure to a level where he couldn't up my Ramipril blood pressure pills to max strength. He wanted to do that simply because he could see a low carb diet may end up a higher protein diet and therefore can be a bit hard on the kidneys. He is also the kind of GP who thinks everyone should take ACE inhibitors and statins as they are good protective things anyway. I was worried he was going to nick my Metformin but he said "no way" as even if it was pretty pointless for blood levels on my low carb diet it would be protecting my heart.

It always says a lot for a doctor that they can learn from their patients

 

[BeccaJaneStClair]

I specifically showed him what I was eating and his reaction was "just keep doing it as its put your diabetes in remission".

That's exactly what my nurse told me when I was just in for my three-month check-up!

I worked in quite a manual job, went to the gym and was playing rugby and did the old low carb thing.....was constantly tired, hba1c was always around 6.5 so talked to my nurse, she suggested I mix, take carbs on seperate days to proteins, like the slimming world diet, lo and behold, energy levels back and lifes good and no huge weight gain. She trusted me enough to try these things and it worked for me, but everyone's diabetes is slightly different to another, stress, job, excercise, eating habits all count, but you dont need me for that!

I am type 2 and my Hba1c is still below 7 and have had no medication change for 9 years, and still eat chocolate every now and again.

So do you avoid carbs on certain days and then avoid protein on others? Could you give me more details please?