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Need advice!!

W

Wen0917

Member
Hi, I was diagnosed with T2D about a month ago. A little info about myself, I'm under 20 years ago, arguably young for t2d, and I am at a healthy weight, with a bmi of 19. My hba1c was at 9.6%! I was obviously shocked as my eating habits are quite normal, no different from my friends or family. Although I do admit to living a pretty sedentary lifestyle. Of course, I believe it to be somewhat hereditary, as my grandfathers side of the family is known for their diabetes. On to my questions, I've read a few articles that said that losing weight is a good way to lower the blood glucose levels, but I was wondering, how much more weight can I lose before being classified as underweight? And I am entering uni soon, so food and money will both be very limited, especially living in an Asian country, where rice and noodles make up a large part of our meals. In conclusion, I need help on the weight loss part and also a diet that's budget friendly and doesn't take me too much time to prepare! All help is deeply appreciated.
 
Also, a little more info, I'm currently on 500mg metformin slow release, once per day. My fasting bg levels are around 4.5-5, and the rest depends on what I'm eating, though I have switched to a low carb diet, well, lower than before.
 
With a BMI of 19 I don't think you need to loose weight. What tests did they do to confirm T2?
 
I had a separate test done to confirm that my pancreas is still producing normal levels of insulin. I thought loosing weight is one of the top ways to control it, Am I wrong or is this way just not for me? Thanks
slip said:
With a BMI of 19 I don't think you need to loose weight. What tests did they do to confirm T2?
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Losing weight whilst still eating carbohydrates might not work well - for many people it is the removal of high density carbohydrate foods which gives control.
If you can find a source of low carb foods - fish, eggs, cheese, and non starchy vegetables, salad leaves, celery aubergine cucumber radish beetroot celeriac, mustard and cress cabbage bean sprouts - there are quite a few options, and some, such as bean sprouts and mustard and cress can be grown in the kitchen or even in a bedroom. There are recipes for egg noodles which are simply eggs beaten up and low carb powders used to give some body to the result - pour into a frying pan to make thin discs, stack up and then roll and slice into strips. Coconut flour, soy flour, psyllium flour are all things to try - though some psyllium flours turn purple when heated, which can be a bit startling.
 
Wen0917 said:
Also, a little more info, I'm currently on 500mg metformin slow release, once per day. My fasting bg levels are around 4.5-5, and the rest depends on what I'm eating, though I have switched to a low carb diet, well, lower than before.
Click to expand...
Hi hi and welcome to the forum! With fasting levels like that you're basically in the non-diabetic range already, did they do a HBA1C check at all alongside the insulin check?
 
I'm Asian and I have to agree that rice and noodles make up most of our meals. However, I got my parents to try cauliflower rice and they said it was delicious. They eat a lot of veg now. So you don't need to lose weight, you just need to maintain it by increasing good fats and protein to make up for the reduction in carbs. Lots of meat if you like meat, eggs, avocados, plain yogurt (check nutritional labels) and berries and certain veggies. Most of it is affordable for uni students and you can prep during the weekends. Cauliflower is very easy to cook, boil, steam and mash for roast (roasted cauliflower is very delicious), as mash potatoes, as rice. Noodles you can stir fry zucchini and that is also very easy to cook or eat raw. There are lots of easy low carb/keto recipes
 
Wen0917 said:
I had a separate test done to confirm that my pancreas is still producing normal levels of insulin. I thought loosing weight is one of the top ways to control it, Am I wrong or is this way just not for me? Thanks
Click to expand...

Welcome. Losing weight helps if you need to lose weight but I was diagnosed with a whopping 112 (12% +)but slim and I’ve managed to maintain my weight but drop my Hba1c to 36 for a year now by following the wonderful advice in here and following a very LCHF/keto WOE. I consume roughly 20g carbs a day.

Cauliflower rice is an excellent substitute and starchy carbs are a mindset and if you can get over the habit, it will really help. Good luck
 
They sound like they did a c peptide test. First I would make sure to get copies of the tests they did so you can look up the results for yourself. I remember years ago having a thyroid test done and they told me I was normal but when I looked it up it wasn't in the normal the AMA recommends, nor was it even close to the best area. It turns out that the different medical groups here in America set their own standards. And then anywhere you live, those results are open to interpretation.

So you could be in the normal range, but on the lower normal side. So in case you have another test done you can also compare.

Plus I would suggest an antibody test for a type 1. Because a 19 BMI is unusual to get type 2 that young? People get it young, but they are usually overweight and I suppose if you have a strong family history of type 2, it could show up early.

But you also say your grandfathers side of the family has a history of diabetes, both types do run in families, but when you say grandfather, do you know if he was put on insulin? Because so many of us LADA type 1's were/are misdiagnosed as type 2 first. It's a slower developing form of type 1 (years) it is still misdiagnosed as type 2. So whoever had it on if your grandfathers side, if they were put on insulin, that would have been helping if they were a type 1and they might have just kept thinking it was type 2.

When things don't seem quite right I always like to make sure people keep an eye out for being a type 1 instead of a type 2, way too many of us have been misdiagnosed. I was for 9 years. Drugs etc will work at the beginning because as a LADA or type one you do make some insulin for a while, until you don't.
 
Thanks!
 
But I'm still on metformin, hoping to stop it altogether. My hba1c before was 9.6%,
Caeseji said:
Hi hi and welcome to the forum! With fasting levels like that you're basically in the non-diabetic range already, did they do a HBA1C check at all alongside the insulin check?
Click to expand...
 
Thank you!
 
OK! Thanks!
 
Hi, my c peptide test showed 510? It should be in the normal range according to my doc. My grandfather is t2, but uses a pretty low dosage of insulin since he doesn't control his diet well. I think most of his brothers and sisters are t2 as well. Pretty shocking to find out I have t2 at such a young age but I will definitely look into the possibility of a wrong diagnosis, thanks a Lot!
 
Hi @Wen0917
Warm welcome to the forum.
Wishing you well for your journey ahead .
 
Hi, I realize that my test says fasting, but I had some food and metformin prior to my test, the doctor said it was fine but I still wonder if that affects my results in any way?
 
Well you're certainly not the atypical T2 put it that way so I'd suggest keep an open mind as to your diabetes type.

You may find you suddenly start to feel thirsty and pee a lot, loose weight (with out really trying) because you may just be at the very start of T1, or you could be a very early starting LADA where T1 starts very slowly, or theres MODY a genetic diabetes, who's to say your relatives although labelled T2 weren't in fact some of these which would increase the chances of you also being one of those to an extent.

BTW an early T1 tested with c-pep can easily give a false negative due to the honeymoon period. I don't suppose you have a blood glucose meter you can test at home with?
 
This is another one to keep an eye out for.
How Is MODY Diagnosed?

In general, the symptoms of MODY are mild and show up gradually. That's why many people first learn they have it when a routine blood test shows they have abnormal blood sugar levels.

If a blood sugar test shows you have diabetes, a doctor might suspect that you have MODY for reasons such as:

You were diagnosed with diabetes in adolescence or early adulthood.
You have several generations of people in your family who have had diabetes.
You don't have the typical features of type 1 or a type 2 diabetes such as obesity or high blood pressure.

https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/mody-lada-diabetes-symptoms-treatment#1
 
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