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New Here, Saying Hello And Looking For Some Advice

ChrisT2D

Member
Messages
12
Hi everyone

New to the forums however I have been type 2 for about 3 years. Here’s my current health profile:

Age 30
Weight 19.4 stone (lost 2 lb this week)
Height 5ft 11
Meds 2X1000mg metformin slow release currently taking morning with breakfast and evening with dinner
60mg lisinopril 20mg 3 times a day
10mg amlodopine taken with breakfast.
BP is now around 130/95 (diastolic still too high)
Started to do some light walking for exercise as I’ve been advised not to go to a gym until my BP is under control (meeting with the doc on Tuesday to see what she says)
Still awaiting my latest hba1c as my bloods were done last week. This probably isn’t going to be pretty

Unfortunately I have only just started taking my condition seriously as when I went for my recent eye screening there had been some blood vessels that had burst. Thankfully no treatment is require yet but it’s given me the kick up the backside to do something.

My current strategy is to get the BP and blood sugars under control whilst trying to lose weight. I had been eating high sat fats proteins and high carbs in the past however this week I have changed that following a telling off from the nurse for not taking it seriously. I have tried to change what I eat changing bacon butties, hash browns and KFC for porridge at breakfast, soup and a slice of whole meal bread at lunch, handful of basmati rice with dinners of fish or chicken etc. Snacks of a bit of fruit or a snack a jack. My blood sugar meter readings have been all over the place, as high at 19 and the lowest of 9.9. Today I thought I would try some of this low carb diet strategy. Today so far

4am 9.9 (thought I’d try a cheeky night reading whilst doing the newborns bottle)
9:30am 9.9
Breakfast omelette 2 eggs mushrooms and a slice of ham (taken my metformin and bp meds)
11:30 9.8

I just can’t seem to get the meter reading below 7 and I’m not sure if it’s my diet my meds or what? Hopefully I’ve given an accurate picture of where I’m at and any advice or tips would be appreciated.

Cheers

Chris
 
Welcome Chris
Numbers will start to drop on lchf.

I was diagnosed a few years ago hba1c high 90’s.
Joined here aug 2017 hba1c 65 started lchf
Latest hba1c 43, 21/2 stone lighter & bp normal
Also off all meds for diabetes.
The help from people here is amazing
 

Thanks Jennie fingers crossed and well done
 
It’s early days, your numbers will start to drop rapidly, provided you stick seriously to LCHF. Walking will help your BP not hurt it, but the LCHF diet, in itself, will bring it down. I would buy a BP monitor and take my blood pressure daily, or alternate days, as when if goes down it often goes down with a bump and you may need reduction or removal of BP meds fairly quickly.

Make sure that you eat foods that you enjoy, make your diet tasty and satisfying, you may ‘learn to love’ totally different things, I certainly have.

With a small baby in the picture, you need to take your diabetes seriously!

Good luck
 
Hi Chris and welcome, I see daisy1 has been tagged for her welcome post. You are very early on in your low carb journey, I hope you’ll see results soon. My story is similar in many ways. I’m (cough cough) a little bit older than you, but had been on Ramipril and Amlodipine for my BP for several years before my type 2 diagnosis but was still the high side of normal. I found this forum the night I was diagnosed last May. I started low carb eating, self monitoring and Metformin straight away. In four months my HbA1c was down to non diabetic levels and my BP and weight were coming down. I have maintained non diabetic HbA1cs since, and in February I was able to stop the Amlodipine as my BP readings were actually below normal so I was getting dizzy if I stood up quickly!
Up to today I have lost nearly 6 stone and the weight is still creeping down slowly. At my next review my GP and I are going to look at reducing my Metformin dose too
Stick around, I think you’d find the ‘Success and Testimonials’ and the ‘Low Carb’ Forums helpful. Ask any questions you have, you’ll get loads of help and encouragement.
 
ChrisT2D said:
Breakfast omelette 2 eggs mushrooms and a slice of ham (taken my metformin and bp meds)
11:30 9.8
Click to expand...

Excellent choice for breakfast - and you see that comparing your before and 2 hour reading there was no increase. Well done! By the way, nothing wrong with bacon. Have it with fried eggs, mushrooms and a tomato, and even a high meat content sausage. You can get around 95% meat ones.

Use your meter to guide you with food choices. There should never be a rise of more than 2mmol/l from before to the 2 hour mark. Preferably less. Keeping a food diary including portion sizes will help, especially if you record your levels alongside and watch for patterns. Your own personal danger foods will soon show themselves.
 
Keep it up, you are going in the right direction. Early days to have numbers bang on. Every time you feel it is a struggle, look at that new life and remind yourself why all this is important.
 

That’s good about the bacon one of my favourites although I feel naughty from the guilt certain professionals advise. Will it be ok if still wanting to lose weight and with the BP will the salt go against me?
 

I will defo check out the low carb forums as I’m sort of guessing at the moment as to what I can have and congrats on the results, it is really motivating to see
 
Guys your messages are really encouraging so thank you. Does anyone recommend any books or websites on low carb eating that keep you satisfied especially for a guy that isn’t a fan of salads . By salad it’s the leafs with cucumber tomatoes and raw onion I’m not a fan of. Pasta and potato salad are fine but I think they are things of the past
 

Hi @ChrisT2D the diet doctor website https://www.dietdoctor.com/ is very popular with members here. You can reduce your carbs without having to live off salads.
 

This may help you. It has some recipes and also a list of safe foods and foods to avoid or reduce.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/60-seconds

As for bacon and the salt aspect. I can't answer that. Some people are salt sensitive and others aren't. It has never affected my blood pressure, and I have eaten salt all my 70 years. I guess I am not salt sensitive. You may be of course. Also, when you ditch the carbs and the junk food you are also ditching salt as processed foods are full of it. The advice to low carbers is to increase salt a little to compensate, because too little is as bad as too much. However, the choice is yours. You should find your BP dropping when you start low carb.
 

If you cut the carbs you also need to increase your fats or you will lose energy. Eating carbs and fats will put weight on you. Eating one OR the other and you should lose weight. When drastically cutting carbs it is wise to swap all low fat products for full fat real fats . Very often low fat products have the fat replaced by sugar to make it palatable, and they taste like plastic anyway. In fact, many of them are plastic when you look at the ingredients.
 
You might find you get to love salads if you spice them up a bit. One of my absolute favourite dinners is poached salmon and prawns with a few salad leaves, I make a dressing out of mayonnaise and my home made chilli relish, which has no added sugar, just natural stevia leaves, which gives it a real kick. With the salad leaves, I add a few cherry tomatoes, an avocado, spring onion, celery, cucumber and to dress that part I use EV olive oil and a little bit of balsamic vinegar (be careful with balsamic, it can be very carby). Just remember, full fat dressing only, if you’re using a shop bought dressing check the label for carbs and be aware of portion size. My hubby used to hate salads with a passion, but now I think it’s just about his favourite meal! Melted butter is your friend with steamed veggies like broccoli and virtually everything is improved by sautéing. You should try pan fried shredded cabbage, fry off some bacon bits and a sliced shallot (or 1/4 of an onion) in butter or even bacon dripping. Add finely shredded cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and keep turning it around in the pan to coat everything with the butter. Add a few drops of water (maybe a tablespoon or two) cover with a lid and sauté / steam for about 5 minutes. It’s b****y gorgeous and bears no resemblance to wet dishcloth over cooked cabbage from school dinner days! Brussels sprouts are amazing dealt with in the same way. Try different ways of cooking things and taste with an open mind, you might just be amazed!
 
ChrisT2D said:
New to the forums however I have been type 2 for about 3 years. Here’s my current health profile:
Age 30
Click to expand...

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum. You have youth on your side, see if you can catch "The truth about Carbs" on iPlayer, if you haven't seen it already. It's what a lot of type IIs, especially on this and similar forums, have known for quite some time. If you get a chance to read William Banting's "Letter on Corpulence" it's worth a read. Written in 1864, based on advice he received from his physician who had been attending lectures about diabetes in France. He managed to lose 46lbs in under a year, not bad for a 5ft5in, 14 1/2 st man who couldn't bend to tie his shoe laces. Just show this low carb lark isn't a new fad, not by a long shot.

These two things may not be considered as empirical evidence, but a good indication of what you can do by lowering your carbs, weight wise and blood sugar wise.

When I was first recommended a low carb diet I just stopped bread, pasta, rice, potato and very quickly I was able to throw away Gliclazide and Januvia for BG and Atorvastatin for cholesterol. I did lose about 3 stone at the time, that's work in progress. As for BP, much better but work in progress, needs continuing weight loss which can be illusive when you've cut calories for so long.

All the best.
 
@ChrisT2D

Hello Chris and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

  • Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why

  • Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
 

I like the sound of the sound of the cabbage may try it with spinach. Thanks for the recipe
 
Thanks guys I’ve just been out for a meal with the wife, the first real test of the week in eating out. Pre going out blood was 10.8. Had lamb shank a big bowl of mixed veggies, it was hard to avoid the carbs but I did it. Quick walk for 10 mins with the baby and blood sugar at 2 hours is 8.6!!!!
 
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