Newbie low carb diet

Ali2020 · Mar 11, 2020

Hi. I am a retired nurse who has gone from 58kgs to 60 kgs recently. In my youth was 54kgs. In February my optician was concerned about my eyesight and referred me to my GP. My bloods showed an Hba1c of 87 and I was prescribed metformin and told to check out the diabetes.co.uk website.

Reading “Diabetes? No Thanks?” By Lara-Eric Litsfeldt and watching Jason Kung convinced me to try diet and exercise rather than medication.
I have gone on low carb diet now and walk for at least 15 minutes after each meal in addition to my usual daily 45 minute dog walks. All my glucose readings have been between 4.2 and 6.6 so I am very pleased. I now weigh 55kgs and feel so much better being lighter. Sadly my eyesight seems to have been affected, but I see the optician again tomorrow so hope new glasses will help.

I am sad that diet and exercise isn’t mentioned before medication. Is this other people’s experience?

Good to have a forum to encourage one another. Thank you. Alison

KK123 · Mar 11, 2020

Hi Alison and welcome! Sounds like you are doing great and you may find the eyesight goes back to normal when your glucose levels stabilise over the next few months. x

JoKalsbeek · Mar 11, 2020

Ali2020 said:
Hi. I am a retired nurse who has gone from 58kgs to 60 kgs recently. In my youth was 54kgs. In February my optician was concerned about my eyesight and referred me to my GP. My bloods showed an Hba1c of 87 and I was prescribed metformin and told to check out the diabetes.co.uk website.

Reading “Diabetes? No Thanks?” By Lara-Eric Litsfeldt and watching Jason Kung convinced me to try diet and exercise rather than medication.
I have gone on low carb diet now and walk for at least 15 minutes after each meal in addition to my usual daily 45 minute dog walks. All my glucose readings have been between 4.2 and 6.6 so I am very pleased. I now weigh 55kgs and feel so much better being lighter. Sadly my eyesight seems to have been affected, but I see the optician again tomorrow so hope new glasses will help.

I am sad that diet and exercise isn’t mentioned before medication. Is this other people’s experience?

Good to have a forum to encourage one another. Thank you. Alison

Hello Alison,

Don't get new specs just yet!!!! Your brain has been compensating for the glucose distorting your vision (in your eyeballs, in your tears), and it has to get used to not having to do that anymore. It'll take a few weeks for your vision to stabilise, so if you get specs now, they'll be utterly useless by the time they come in for pick-up. You're better off getting some cheap reading glasses to tide you over for a few weeks. Then, when your vision stops fluctuating and your blood sugars remain stable, you can get the expensive kind if you're a spec-wearer already, but for now, it just needs a little time. (The optician'd probably tell you the same tomorrow).

Anyway, excellent work on your progress! And yeah.... On the metformin leaflet is says people should try a new diet/lifestyle for 3 months prior to starting the medication, but everyone's just put on it immediately as a matter of course. Very few GP's know about low carb, and the NHS is only recently catching on and endorsing it, so a lot of courses still push the EatWell plate, which isn't eating well for a T2. At all. So what your experience was is basically par for the course. I'm glad you found Fung. He's a hero in these parts.
Again, welcome!
Jo

Antje77 · Mar 11, 2020

Hi @Ali2020 , and welcome to the forum!
Well done on the improvement, wonderful!
I'd like to echo Jo here, don't worry about the eyes for now, it'll take a couple of weeks or so for your eyes to get used to the changed amount of glucose in your body so it'll settle

Your title says 'Low cal diet', but it looks like you meant 'Low carb diet'. Would you like me to change the title for you?

Ali2020 · Mar 15, 2020

KK123 said:
Hi Alison and welcome! Sounds like you are doing great and you may find the eyesight goes back to normal when your glucose levels stabilise over the next few months. x

Many, many thanks. I am really encouraged to hear that my eye sight may go back to normal. I thought I had mucked it up long term. I must let my optician know as he thought that now my blood sugars were in normal range it would be ok to get new glasses and just accept that my vision has changed. Many, many thanks!

Ali2020 · Mar 15, 2020

Antje77 said:
Hi @Ali2020 , and welcome to the forum!
Well done on the improvement, wonderful!
I'd like to echo Jo here, don't worry about the eyes for now, it'll take a couple of weeks or so for your eyes to get used to the changed amount of glucose in your body so it'll settle

Your title says 'Low cal diet', but it looks like you meant 'Low carb diet'. Would you like me to change the title for you?

Yes, please do change from Low cal to low carb. Maybe you have already done this. It is SO encouraging to know my eyes mat improve again as I thought maybe they wouldn't and my optician didn't seem aware of that either. Many, many thanks.

Ali2020 · Mar 15, 2020

JoKalsbeek said:
Hello Alison,

Don't get new specs just yet!!!! Your brain has been compensating for the glucose distorting your vision (in your eyeballs, in your tears), and it has to get used to not having to do that anymore. It'll take a few weeks for your vision to stabilise, so if you get specs now, they'll be utterly useless by the time they come in for pick-up. You're better off getting some cheap reading glasses to tide you over for a few weeks. Then, when your vision stops fluctuating and your blood sugars remain stable, you can get the expensive kind if you're a spec-wearer already, but for now, it just needs a little time. (The optician'd probably tell you the same tomorrow).

Anyway, excellent work on your progress! And yeah.... On the metformin leaflet is says people should try a new diet/lifestyle for 3 months prior to starting the medication, but everyone's just put on it immediately as a matter of course. Very few GP's know about low carb, and the NHS is only recently catching on and endorsing it, so a lot of courses still push the EatWell plate, which isn't eating well for a T2. At all. So what your experience was is basically par for the course. I'm glad you found Fung. He's a hero in these parts.
Again, welcome!
Jo

I am so pleased to have found these replies to my message. I couldn't work out where the replies were and am absolutely thrilled to hear my eyesight may be regained. Very exciting, just as I was trying to get used to the idea. I will have to let my optician know tomorrow as he has already ordered me new ones which are VERY different to my previous ones. I currently have 2 pairs of reading glasses on - the pair on top to check out the Tv and the pair below for my laptop! Many, many thanks for all this helpful advice it is so much appreciated. THANK YOU!

Ali2020 · Mar 15, 2020

JoKalsbeek said:
Hello Alison,

Don't get new specs just yet!!!! Your brain has been compensating for the glucose distorting your vision (in your eyeballs, in your tears), and it has to get used to not having to do that anymore. It'll take a few weeks for your vision to stabilise, so if you get specs now, they'll be utterly useless by the time they come in for pick-up. You're better off getting some cheap reading glasses to tide you over for a few weeks. Then, when your vision stops fluctuating and your blood sugars remain stable, you can get the expensive kind if you're a spec-wearer already, but for now, it just needs a little time. (The optician'd probably tell you the same tomorrow).

Anyway, excellent work on your progress! And yeah.... On the metformin leaflet is says people should try a new diet/lifestyle for 3 months prior to starting the medication, but everyone's just put on it immediately as a matter of course. Very few GP's know about low carb, and the NHS is only recently catching on and endorsing it, so a lot of courses still push the EatWell plate, which isn't eating well for a T2. At all. So what your experience was is basically par for the course. I'm glad you found Fung. He's a hero in these parts.
Again, welcome!
Jo

Brilliant to see how well you have done too. You are obviously very active and helpful here. Wonderful. I have a nurse appointment on 24th, so it will be interesting to see what advice she offers. Delighted to be making my own choices and taking control, rather than just accepting advice from the Pharmacist who I consulted with.

Antje77 · Mar 15, 2020

Ali2020 said:
I couldn't work out where the replies were

If you click 'Watch Thread' at the top of your thread you'll get alerts when there is a reaction. The alert is shown as a green envelope.
And I'll change your thread title now.

Very happy to see how much better all the answers have made you feel!

NéjiSaïdi · Mar 15, 2020

Ali2020 said:
Hi. I am a retired nurse who has gone from 58kgs to 60 kgs recently. In my youth was 54kgs. In February my optician was concerned about my eyesight and referred me to my GP. My bloods showed an Hba1c of 87 and I was prescribed metformin and told to check out the diabetes.co.uk website.

Reading “Diabetes? No Thanks?” By Lara-Eric Litsfeldt and watching Jason Kung convinced me to try diet and exercise rather than medication.
I have gone on low carb diet now and walk for at least 15 minutes after each meal in addition to my usual daily 45 minute dog walks. All my glucose readings have been between 4.2 and 6.6 so I am very pleased. I now weigh 55kgs and feel so much better being lighter. Sadly my eyesight seems to have been affected, but I see the optician again tomorrow so hope new glasses will help.

I am sad that diet and exercise isn’t mentioned before medication. Is this other people’s experience?

Good to have a forum to encourage one another. Thank you. Alison

You're so lucky to have come to learn it all by yourself. I did the same thing: lots of viewing Fung, Phinney, Mason, Noakes, Berg, etc. My GP mentioned regular exercise, but he is old school: medication, carbs, avoid "unhealthy fats", i.e. the infamous food pyramid. I disregarded all he said except exercise. I went it all along by myself; spent hundreds of hours on Google and YouTube. Now, my GP is listening to me and very curious about what I did and doing. My labs are sound proof that T2D is reversible, not a progressive chronic disease.
I wish you all the best of luck. You ensured that you will have a better quality of your life, not the lot of a diabetic struggling with degeneration and a handful of drugs each day.

mouseee · Mar 15, 2020

My eyes took about 6 weeks to get back to normal after diagnosis. It was scary, much of my job involves reading and my hobbies are all craft based. I hated the idea that my eyes would get worse.

Thankfully, I can now just blame creeping middle age for my new glasses not anything else!

Also, gave me a good kick up the backside to make sure I keep bs low. I'm not losing any of my sight I'd I can help it!

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