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Low carb

maxjoe121

Well-Known Member
Messages
172
Location
West yorks
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi. I have just been diagnosed as type 2 and have been prescribed metformin. I thought they would if asked me to try the diet first. Think my HABC1 was 58... I have just bought a book called EAT FAT the guide to low carb living.. does anyone know if this book is a good one and also I'm a bit baffled as I need to lose weight about 4 stone but I thought a high fat eating plan would be no good and increase my weight..
any suggestions would be brilliant thankyou. X

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@maxjoe121 - I have the book you name, and the author is a member of this site. She doesn't post often, and isn't here to offer professional advice and support. I liked the book, but I had been up and running for a little while when it was published, so I had gleaned a certain amount of knowledge already,

As far as your weightloss aim is concerned, provided you cut down the carbs and don't quite dive from a great height into a vat of fat, you should be fine.

Personally, when I was trimming back on my carbs, I didn't deliberately increase my fat intake, except for converting to full fat versions where I had been on low fat variants before. That would be things like yoghurt, mayo etc. I got pretty skinny, pretty quickly, and I've kept the weight I lost, without any real effort, even though I had to up my fat intake when I wanted to stop losing weight. To be honest, we're all different and it comes down to some trial and error for a while.

Do you self-test at home? that's how I very quickly realised some of the foods I need to reject, for the time being at least.

I've had great results using a variant of Trudi's dietary concept.
 
Thankyou for that... I only got diagnosed last week so I'm all over the place.. thankyou for your advice x

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Hahahahahahahah, dive from a great height into a vat of fat !!!! Made my day!

I completely agree with @AndBreathe , eating low carb and higher fat promotes fast weight loss for a lot of people. Some of us ( me) need to moderate protein. LCHF is not high protein. Set your carb and protein goal and then fill in with fats until satisfied. If you need to lose weight and you lower your carbs enough your body will burn it's fat store and you will lose weight so you do not eat to dive from great heights into a vat of fat ( haha again). But you still need some. I like AndBreathe don't use lots of excess fat. Most of mine are avocado, full fat mayo and a few pumpkin seeds or nuts. I cou,d describe it as putting a regular meal of protein veggies and carbs on my plate and pushing all the carbs off.

If you give us an idea of what your meals are like we can help you with substitutions and replacements.

Avocado is my favorite diabetic hunger satisfying food. I eat it at all meals.
 
maxjoe121 said:
Thankyou for that... I only got diagnosed last week so I'm all over the place.. thankyou for your advice x

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Click to expand...

Just take it steady maxjoe, and ask lots of questions on the Forum, we all did!

Try to make sure, unless it's how you have always lived, try not to just repeat, repeat, repeat the same meal and end up sick of it. There's so much great T2 friendly food out there and it's proper food, not all specially manufactured.

I can safely say I have never, ever bought or knowingly eaten a food labelled "Diabetic". I have eaten and drunk sugar free stuff, and some stuff with sweeteners, but nothing manufactured specifically for diabetics.

I live a good and healthy life.
 
Hi and welcome.

You can still do the diet and exercise and, when you get your blood glucose under control, you may be able drop the meds. plenty of people round here do.

It seems to be fairly standard for docs to prescribe metformin if your hba1c is 53 or above, but you aren't much above that, so just be assured that you are getting standard treatment.

Re the worrying about fat in the diet... I personally am convinced of the safety of high fat diets for almost everyone. I eat that way myself and feel great on it. But you need to convince yourself before you embrace the idea.

The Eat fat book is a great start. So is reading the forum - there are many many threads and discussions on this! Also lots of new scientific evidence that is slowly reaching mainstream media and some health programs.

 
Hi. We have all been told to cut calories down and hence to have lower fat to control weight and arterial deposits. Neither has proven to be true. Eating fat doesn't make you fat (it's the carbs) and the liver controls what is deposited in the arteries and not what you eat.
 
AndBreathe and Kirstin 251 have covered all the bases so well in their inimitable way. Just a small note on weight loss.
Please do not forget about exercises - diabetics can lose 400-450g of muscle tissue for every kg of fat lost on a diet. By including a serious dose of resistance exercises in your routine you can minimise loss of lean muscle tissue (which burns a lot more calories than fat). My nutritionist recommended 15-20g carbs in liquid form within 1 hour of resistance work (apparently its easier to digest this way).
Once you lose it, its damned hard to get it back - I'm still working on it.
All the best and before you know it you will find what suits you. (All things in moderation - including moderation).
 
How true. Its the quantity (of carbs, fat and protein) that matters. If you don't use it, you end up saving it for a rainy day.
 
Thanks @Jaylee for your trust in my judgement.

Hi @maxjoe121 . You have had some good advice from jaylee's recommended members. I agree with all that. Just to add my thoughts...
I wish the Eat Fat book had been available when I was looking for a suitable eating regime a few years ago. The advice is presented in an easy to understand format. I know it is hard to break away from the years of conditioning about low fat we have been subjected to for many years. The first time I encountered the Low Carb Higher Fat eating regime, I thought the people promoting it were either barking mad, or playing a trick on me. Then, I embraced what I thought was the concept by 'diving into a vat of fat' (nicely put, @AndBreathe ). Lots of cream, butter etc, bullet proof coffee and fat bombs, the 'eat until you have had enough' were a dream come true to a greedy girl like me. I never had enough!! Thankfully, that lasted just a few days, and eventually I found the right balance. Therefore I would recommend taking your time to get to know and understand the concept. For me, having been using the recommended NHS carbs with every meal diet, the sudden and vast reduction in carbs and switch to fats made me feel unwell for about a week. This was later described to me as 'carb flu', literally my body missing the carbs and making me feel ill. Soon had that sorted, now I don't miss carb foods at all. Well, why would I, with the delicious, real food, I can now eat?

As for Metformin, some people have had difficulty with abdominal problems on that. I have been fortunate to be able to have no such problems. It could, along with a reduction of carbs in your diet, help you return your blood glucose levels to a better place.

Sorry, I yarp on a bit. Have a read, ask questions. Take your time. Keep posting about your progress.
Good luck.
 
Thankyou.. your all great on here and I'm learning a lot already..

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@Kristin251 I wish I had your love of avocados, would like to add the occasional one to my diet, but just can't stomach them as they come. Maybe one suggestion on how to make them more palatable would do the trick. Nothing to fancy. Thanks.
 
In my opinion they require sea salt or they are just bland. You can use garlic and onion powder, squirt of lemon or lime juice, smash some onion in. Jalapeños if you like spicy. Hot sauce.

What is it you don't like ? The texture? You can smash them into qua ample, eat hem in slices or chunks. Add any seasoning you like. I actually even like them with oregano smashed in. Some people add them to smoothies. I just like them on celery sticks but as I said they need sea salt in my opinion.
 
Hi @maxjoe121

Sorry I am late to reply to @Jaylee 's tag. I have just returned from holiday. I can't really add to the other suggestions and comments. I also Have the Eat Fat book and find it very helpful and informative. I lost 4 and a half stone in next to no time by cutting down the carbs and increasing my fats. My intention was primarily to control my blood glucose, but the weight just fell off as a wonderful and welcome bonus. I too had to find a way of maintaining my new weight once I reached my weight target, so increased the fats a bit more until I found the right balance. I have been stable now since about November 2014 with good blood glucose control. In my case it was definitely the carbs that were making me fat.

Have you bought a blood glucose meter? You will find one of these will help enormously in showing you which foods are causing your blood sugar levels to rise. They are an essential tool in managing this condition.
 
The carbs are the devil for me and weight gain. Fat does very little unless I way over eat them for long stretches. That's hard to do.
 
Thankyou.... I bought some Burgen bread is it still ok to have maybe a slice on a morning with butter

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maxjoe121 said:
Thankyou.... I bought some Burgen bread is it still ok to have maybe a slice on a morning with butter

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Click to expand...

If you buy a meter, that will tell you if it is OK to eat the bread or not. Each of us react differently to the same carbs, so some can eat Burgen, some can't, but if you absolutely must have bread then it is a good choice. Lidl do a high protein roll that has very few carbs in and they are delicious sliced in half and toasted with loads of butter. Only your meter can tell you for sure.
 
Thanks.. I'm still baffled by it all as I've always tried to stick to low fat and now it's low carb high fat.. usually wen I needed a snack I'd have a rice cke or ryvita with cottage cheese I'm struggling with the snack thing x

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