Rare? type two - not overweight, healthy life style?

There are several "skinnies" on the forum, but what do you call a healthy lifestyle? what many of us have found over the years is that what the experts tell us is healthy, often isn't. Especially in the matter of diet. The so called healthy low fat high carbohydrate diet, is the cause of many problems and if you tried to eat a portion of unprocessed whole grains, you'd be very ill. Also eating cholessterol, doesn't put cholesterol into your blood stream. and eggs are GOOD for you.

We're supposed to be "rare" but actually skinny Type 2s outnumber Type 1s.

Since you have high cholesterol you're probably not a MODY: you probably have high insulin resistance without the overweight that often accompanies it, not uncommon in my family.

You might find the metformin doesn't do much yet and may need an increase to 1500 - 2500 mg, it's usual to start at a low dose and increase slowly. It works especially well with exercise.

Try this

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

a "healthy lifestyle" is probably too many carbs and not enough fat like it was for me

Have you actually asked for the tests to rule out Type 1?

I was diagnosed Type 2 but asked for the tests - which confimed Type 1.

My blood tests were looking OK on low carb diet but I felt something wasn't right.

gbtyke said:

Have you actually asked for the tests to rule out Type 1?

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Good point, some forms of LADA actually progress slower than some forms of Type 2.

Some authorities are very unwilling to do the GAD 65 and c-peptide tests which are usually diagnostic. Failing that the lipid panel can be indicative, insulin resistance gives the typical pattern of low HDL, high LDL and sky high trigs which is much less common for LADA/Type 1

Hi
I was the oppisate, skinny all my life then suddenly my waist size went from 33 to almost 40 in a matter of months
didn't really gain a lot of weuight just what gathered around the middle !!!
i was on metformin 500 for 2 years and got my waist back to 36, i suddenly felt as though my clothes had got tight again and on checking earlier this year i found i had gone back to 38 waist, i went to get a blood check in jan this year and found my GI was back up 9.6, with a reading on that morning of 14.8 !!, i was shocked, but when i looked into what i was actually eating and being really objective and honest then i couldn,t see why,
it would seem as others say its progressive and that despite awhat i thought was a good diet and meds regime it overtook me again, i am now on 2 x 850 metformin and never touch anything with more than trace sugar in it, last weeks blood test over the long term showed i was down to 6.9 overall, but with testing i still get spikes all through the day of anywhere up to 13.5,
mornings are worse for me, so i will see how my next test at the end of august turns out, if i have not got down lower on my GI i will be so dissapointed as i cant really do any more diet wise, will just have to find time for even more exercise
best regards to all
Andy

Hi WaG,

You are correct in saying that type 2s on medication can't alter the dosage, but what tests show is what effect different foods have on your blood sugar. As you probably know all carbohydrate that you eat converts 100% into glucose. You mentioned that you are on a reduced carb diet, and the tests will show how successful that diet is at controlling your BS. If your tests show that your BS levels are not reducing, or are reducing very slowly, then this is a warning that you need to make further adjustments to your diet. If you wait for a 3 monthly or sometimes 6 monthly HBA1C test, the damage will already have been done - and if the level is found to be very high then it could be very serious damage.

Incidentally can I ask why you are cutting down so drastically on alcohol, and specifically what type? Alcohols that don't contain sugar (e.g. wines, spirits and pilsner lagers) actually have the side effect of reducing BS! Not that you should go overboard on it, or rely on alcohol to control BS, but in moderation it actually helps to reduce BS levels.

This protocol has been around for nearly a decade now and was devised by diabetics so naturally there has not been an RCT

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2009/ ... -test.html

Initially I tested a lot, if you read around Alan's site you will understand why: the key is to use the meter readings to drop the foods which spike you and eat more of the ones that don't. Once you have that down pat you can make further dietary adjustments to improve your nutrition. This also allows you to discover your diurnal variation which may be significant.

The vast majority of people who have followed this or similar protocols have made major improvements, and not only to their BG but lipids and BP too, and where necessary have often lost significant weight.

To a degree you may be able to walk or otherwise exercise off a spike, but in some circumstances this might make your BG higher: again the meter will allow you to find your own responses.

WaG said:

As to how successful my diet is I was very disappointed with my Hb at 7.3 then going to 7.1 with meds I have tried hard but want to try to get it under control the best I can without any increase in tablets having said that if I have to I will of course.

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The easy answer would be that you need to reduce the carbs in your diet a little more as the reduction you are getting from low-GI is not quite enough. But it's not as simple as that. You will probably find that there are some foods that you just can't tolerate and others that cause you very little problem. For example bread seems to have very little effect on my BS, whereas even the smallest amount of rice sends it through the roof. For many others the opposite is true.

So you will need to use that monitor to test what effect different foods have on your BS. The foods that cause the biggest rise in blood sugars are the starchy carbs, but as I said above, you will probably find that some are not as bad as others.