Newly diagnosed / advice welcome

[Tux 56]

Hi all, absolutely gutted. I’ve been pre diabetic since 2019 with my first reading being 46. I managed to lower it to 43 quite quickly through eating low carb meals. However each year since then my HBA1c has been on the rise despite low carb eating. My reading today is 49. I know my weight has increased which doesn’t help the situation. This weight increase has to be due to the menopause as my food portions are small and I still eat low carb food. I’m physically active so really don’t know what to do next to reduce my HBA1c to a safer level.
I’m due to see the diabetic nurse next week to discuss going forward however I really do not want any meds if it can be avoided.
Other than my plan to exercise more I am totally confused which way to turn.
Any advice welcome please.

 

[KennyA]

Hi Tux 56 and welcome.

When you say you've been eating low carb meals, it would help us to advise if we had an idea of what that actually means for you. Could you give us an idea of a typical day's (better still, several days) food, including anything eaten between meals?

Also, roughly how many carbs/day are you aiming for?

 

[Tux 56]

Hi KennyA,

A typical day for me would be breakfast consisting of fruit. This time of year strawberries raspberries melon. During the winter I would eat 35g of porridge oats made with water with fruit. Tea or coffee no milk. Very occasionally 1 piece of toast with butter and a little jam.
Lunch. Ham or cheese with pickles or salad depending on the time of year again.
Dinner . Meat and veg. I would generally have 1 or 2 very small potatoes.
I rarely eat rice or pasta. Only takeaway which would be once every 2 months would be fish and chips. Batter removed and a half portion of chips.
I enjoy cheese and biscuits with a glass of red wine. I also eat Cashew nuts.

Back in 2019 my carb intake was so low I felt ill so had to increase them. I try not to go over 50g per day now.
Should I be aiming lower?

 

[ajbod]

Eating very low carbs will not make you feel ill, but Keto flu ( the body going through adaption to fat burning ) will temporarily. Unless you are prepared to go through it, you will never be properly fat adapted. Everyone's level is different, some have to drop as low as 20 g a day. Once you are fat adapted, your body switches fuel seamlessly, so any fast of 12 hours or so, allows as much as 4 hours fat burning, without realising.
35 g porridge with fruit is most likely 40 to 45 g of carbs on it's own.
If you are eating small meals, and gaining weight then there almost certainly must be too many carbs for your system.

 

[kateb66]

Hi all, absolutely gutted. I’ve been pre diabetic since 2019 with my first reading being 46. I managed to lower it to 43 quite quickly through eating low carb meals. However each year since then my HBA1c has been on the rise despite low carb eating. My reading today is 49. I know my weight has increased which doesn’t help the situation. This weight increase has to be due to the menopause as my food portions are small and I still eat low carb food. I’m physically active so really don’t know what to do next to reduce my HBA1c to a safer level.
I’m due to see the diabetic nurse next week to discuss going forward however I really do not want any meds if it can be avoided.
Other than my plan to exercise more I am totally confused which way to turn.
Any advice welcome please.

My HBA1c levels have been as high as 114 and been on insulin for a year. I really struggled until my brother also diabetic, signed up to the zoe app. He does all the cooking and we eat lots of veg, pulses, beans, fish and chicken. Eat your dinner in that order too if you can, if eating carbohydrates then eat them last. Avocado is also very good at lowering blood sugars and if I'm eating bread I will have avocado on it with some dakkaah on it. Also find tri- colour salad very good. My HBA1c is estimated at 68 but have appointment in July. Still work to do obviously but real progress made. The Zoe app is brilliant, you can score your meals in terms of how it processes blood sugar and fat, so for example this evenings meal scored over 80, the higher the score the better. Its expensive and it was my brother who signed up to it but I've benefited too. If you take away anything from this reply... Avocado, nuts and eggs for quick fix and always have dakkaah in the cupboard!
Kate

 

[Tux 56]

Hi Kateb66
Thanks for this information. Will definitely look into the App. Could you tell me what dakkaah is please?

 

[Tux 56]

Eating very low carbs will not make you feel ill, but Keto flu ( the body going through adaption to fat burning ) will temporarily. Unless you are prepared to go through it, you will never be properly fat adapted. Everyone's level is different, some have to drop as low as 20 g a day. Once you are fat adapted, your body switches fuel seamlessly, so any fast of 12 hours or so, allows as much as 4 hours fat burning, without realising.
35 g porridge with fruit is most likely 40 to 45 g of carbs on it's own.
If you are eating small meals, and gaining weight then there almost certainly must be too many carbs for your system.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi KennyA,

A typical day for me would be breakfast consisting of fruit. This time of year strawberries raspberries melon. During the winter I would eat 35g of porridge oats made with water with fruit. Tea or coffee no milk. Very occasionally 1 piece of toast with butter and a little jam.
Lunch. Ham or cheese with pickles or salad depending on the time of year again.
Dinner . Meat and veg. I would generally have 1 or 2 very small potatoes.
I rarely eat rice or pasta. Only takeaway which would be once every 2 months would be fish and chips. Batter removed and a half portion of chips.
I enjoy cheese and biscuits with a glass of red wine. I also eat Cashew nuts.

Back in 2019 my carb intake was so low I felt ill so had to increase them. I try not to go over 50g per day now.
Should I be aiming lower?

Hi @Tux 56
While the breakfast of berries is probably OK, it would probably be better with full fat plain Greek Yogurt and fewer berries. Is the melon watermelon? - If not then that is also likely to be sweet and thus have more carbs than the berries. Alternatively why not have eggs for breakfast - on their own or as a mushroom omelette?
Similarly it would be better if you could avoid the toast and especially the jam which is likely to maintain your taste for sweet things.
What sort of fruit do you have with your porridge? Porridge itself is high in carbs - just slower release if whole oats, so although it may not spike your Blood Glucose it ill still raise our background Blood Glucose.

Have you tried having Swede or Celeriac or Cauliflower instead of potato?
Pasta reduces in GI if kept overnight in the fridge and re-heated. Have you tried Cauliflower or Broccoli 'rice' (aka green rice)?

Cheese is good but try it with some walnuts rather than biscuits. If you must have biscuits have crackers rather than sweet biscuits - or make your own low carb ones.

Finally so far as nuts are concerned, unfortunately cashews are one of the highest carb 'nuts', in fact not a true nut. Lowest carb nuts include Brazil, Pecan, Macadamia , Hazel, Walnut, peanut (not a true nut) , Almond. See https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/nuts
The www.dietdoctor website (the free part) has several low carb/keto categories - for fruit and veg as well.

 

[Tux 56]

Hi @Tux 56
While the breakfast of berries is probably OK, it would probably be better with full fat plain Greek Yogurt and fewer berries. Is the melon watermelon? - If not then that is also likely to be sweet and thus have more carbs than the berries. Alternatively why not have eggs for breakfast - on their own or as a mushroom omelette?
Similarly it would be better if you could avoid the toast and especially the jam which is likely to maintain your taste for sweet things.
What sort of fruit do you have with your porridge? Porridge itself is high in carbs - just slower release if whole oats, so although it may not spike your Blood Glucose it ill still raise our background Blood Glucose.

Have you tried having Swede or Celeriac or Cauliflower instead of potato?
Pasta reduces in GI if kept overnight in the fridge and re-heated. Have you tried Cauliflower or Broccoli 'rice' (aka green rice)?

Cheese is good but try it with some walnuts rather than biscuits. If you must have biscuits have crackers rather than sweet biscuits - or make your own low carb ones.

Finally so far as nuts are concerned, unfortunately cashews are one of the highest carb 'nuts', in fact not a true nut. Lowest carb nuts include Brazil, Pecan, Macadamia , Hazel, Walnut, peanut (not a true nut) , Almond. See https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/nuts
The www.dietdoctor website (the free part) has several low carb/keto categories - for fruit and veg as well.

Thanks for the advice. Have taken it all on board.