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NEWBIE started low carb today.

D

DiabeticDaddy

Member
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13
Started my low carb journey today. I’ve started off with doing Keto for 30 days to get my sugars level and manageable and then going to try and work in little bits of carbs.

Any handy tips you’ve got? Im also weighing in at 28stone at the mo

I’ve just started on 2x metformin down from 4 and on a pill that basically makes me pee out sugar
 
Keep your eyes on your ultimate target.Its a bit like a long distance run, so that you will from time to time experience the lonliness of the long distance runner. It takes about two weeks to develop new habits, so stay strong during this induction period, it can be very testing for most of us. After this, things get easier but even then you will need to learn to deal with sometimes "falling off the wagon ". Its all part of establishing a new way of eating/living. You will sheds many kilograms of weight and see great improvements in your blood glucose readings. Finally, always remember that if it was easy then then everybody could do it. I wish you well in your journey toward better health.
 
Increase your salt intake while you are losing weight, and keep well hydrated when using the other med (a gliflozin, I suspect?) If it is a Gliflozin, then be careful with the keto since it likes to have some carbs to work on, and will devour muscle and protein if there is none around. I have found keto unecessary for my condition, and am using a low carb version of the mediterranean diet (Pioppi) to control my levels. It is easier than keto and not so demanding. As has just been said, this is a marathon, not a aprint. So you can afford to take some time to do things gently at first. Less trauma.

Keep a food log along with your meter readings. I use a spreadsheet for mine, and it allows me to gradually eliminate meals that spike me. It also produces a nice graph that I can show my doctor to show improvement since the trending functions work well to exaggerate this aspect, which impresses most GP's. I was also able to adjust my medication and reduce meds, and this also impressed my GP since he was supplying me with test strips on scrip, and I was able to justify him supporting my habit.
 
Do you have a Blood Glucose meter?
The danger of going aiming to go Keto for 30days is almost as high as the danger of going on a crash diet. For Keto I mean Burn-out, which also applies to crash diets though they also have the likelihood of semi-permanently reduce resting metabolic rate which makes the weight regain almost inevitable.
Most people don't need to go near as low as Keto in order for Blood Glucose to get low (on finger-prick tests) obviously HbA1C takes longer since it's basically a 3 month average.
The problem is that without a BG meter it's impossible to tell how hard you need to cut the carbs, or even which carbs are most problematic for your body (we all react differently).
Still if you are an all or nothing type of person, all I can do is wish you well with your effort.
 
DiabeticDaddy said:
and on a pill that basically makes me pee out sugar
Click to expand...
What pill? Some medications, especially anything ending 'flozin' put you at great risk of a serious condition called dka if you suddenly and drastically reduce carbs because they act on the carbs in your body, and if no carbs are going in it becomes dangerous

Best if this is the case, to reduce carbs slowly and over several weeks and months rather than suddenly
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/dapagliflozin/
 
MrsA2 said:
What pill? Some medications, especially anything ending 'flozin' put you at great risk of a serious condition called dka if you suddenly and drastically reduce carbs because they act on the carbs in your body, and if no carbs are going in it becomes dangerous

Best if this is the case, to reduce carbs slowly and over several weeks and months rather than suddenly
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/dapagliflozin/
Click to expand...
Diabetes medications ending in flozin are SGLT2 inhibitors and its rare that they put a Type 2 diabetic at risk of DKA (which is almost unheard of in Type 2's), but this is a very serious condition and is another reason to reduce carbs slowly and not to go so far as less than around 20gms per day - which is where continual ketosis kicks in. But side effects on the urinary tract can be quite nasty (the result of all that sugar in the urine). However by cutting the carbs it should be possible to come off the SGLT2's.
 
Oldvatr said:
Increase your salt intake while you are losing weight, and keep well hydrated when using the other med (a gliflozin, I suspect?) If it is a Gliflozin, then be careful with the keto since it likes to have some carbs to work on, and will devour muscle and protein if there is none around. I have found keto unecessary for my condition, and am using a low carb version of the mediterranean diet (Pioppi) to control my levels. It is easier than keto and not so demanding. As has just been said, this is a marathon, not a aprint. So you can afford to take some time to do things gently at first. Less trauma.

Keep a food log along with your meter readings. I use a spreadsheet for mine, and it allows me to gradually eliminate meals that spike me. It also produces a nice graph that I can show my doctor to show improvement since the trending functions work well to exaggerate this aspect, which impresses most GP's. I was also able to adjust my medication and reduce meds, and this also impressed my GP since he was supplying me with test strips on scrip, and I was able to justify him supporting my habit.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much
 
ianf0ster said:
Diabetes medications ending in flozin are SGLT2 inhibitors and its rare that they put a Type 2 diabetic at risk of DKA (which is almost unheard of in Type 2's), but this is a very serious condition and is another reason to reduce carbs slowly and not to go so far as less than around 20gms per day - which is where continual ketosis kicks in. But side effects on the urinary tract can be quite nasty (the result of all that sugar in the urine). However by cutting the carbs it should be possible to come off the SGLT2's.
Click to expand...

Thank you
 
MrsA2 said:
What pill? Some medications, especially anything ending 'flozin' put you at great risk of a serious condition called dka if you suddenly and drastically reduce carbs because they act on the carbs in your body, and if no carbs are going in it becomes dangerous

Best if this is the case, to reduce carbs slowly and over several weeks and months rather than suddenly
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/dapagliflozin/
Click to expand...

Canagliflozin 1 a day
 
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