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Recently Diagnosed & New to this Forum

Alineden

Well-Known Member
Messages
136
Location
West Cumbria
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Not much really
Hi everyone. I'm Alan. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in August. I had a HbA1c reading of 84 from the initial blood test (annual routine blood test) and I am currently taking 3 x 500mgs of Metformin a day.

I have found myself quite fascinated by the subject since being diagnosed and I am keen to learn as much as I can to help to manage my condition with the long term aim of reducing and controlling my blood glucose levels without the Metformin. I don't know at this stage if that is a realistic goal but that's what I would eventually like to do.

I recently attended a DESMOND course which was really good and I would like to continue my education on all things relating to Type 2 and a low carb lifestyle.
 
Hi Alineden and welcome!
As this is your first post as is tradition here I’ll tag in @daisy1 for her welcome info post.
Looks like you’ve got off to a good start by discovering low carb eating and having a hunger to learn. I was diagnosed with an HbA1c of 70 and got it down to a non diabetic level in 4 months by low carbing. I too started on Metformin 500g x 3/day. Once I had maintained a non diabetic level for a year I dropped it down to 2 per day and have my next HbA1c test next week to evaluate the effect. However I check my blood sugars at home each day so from them I can see minimal effect. To add to your effectiveness in treating your type 2 I would suggest getting a home glucose meter.
Many in here do control their diabetes on diet alone.
 
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Hi and welcome.. yes it certainly is possible. I'll point you to Dr Fung who has a knack of explaining things quite succinctly.
https://idmprogram.com/videos/
There are lots of other resources
But for food ideas www.dietdoctor.com has a huge low carb and keto cook book for free (although you can pay to join to get more detailed video and article resources it's not necessary).
 
Welcome to the forum @Alineden. You will get a lot of good advice and support on here.
I went on the DESMOND course too, which was useful, but the 'Eatwell Plate' isn't good for Type 2s, as it promotes eating starchy carbohydrates which turn to sugar in our bodies.
Have a read round the threads and ask any questions you want.
 
Hi Rachox and thank you for the reply.

I have a SD Codefree monitor and currently use it 6 times a day, immediately before meals and 2 hours after. I've started charting the readings to establish averages and try to discover if anything causes high readings.

Good luck with your test next week
 
Hi Prem51 thanks for the reply
 
Hi Bulkbiker thanks for the reply.

Thank you for that info I will have a look.
 
Welcome Alan. Download mySugr app and record your food and readings. After a few days it will give you an estimated HbA1c number. Highly motivating.
 
Hi and welcome. There is a lot to learn but you'll pick it up. This forum is really useful and helps balance info from the NHS and Diabetes UK which can be both good and bad. Low-carbing is probably the most important thing together with getting a meter.
 
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, yes, you can reduce your levels significantly by low carbing

Oh, and welcome!

I had a similar HBA1C, at 89. I tried exercise and normal-ish "healthy" diet at first (brown rice, brown bread etc), but that only slightly lowered it 3 months later (which oddly pleased the diabetic nurse, but not me!) and then low carb got it down to 48 three months after that. I'm not on meds so that has been through diet changes alone. There's lots of success stories in this forum so have a look around and keep up the motivation! Testing is really useful to know what foods work or don't work well for you as an individual.
 
Hey Alan, welcome!

Echoing the others here: Yes, it can be done without meds, as quite a few people here are diet-only controlled. I was off metformin, glic and statins in about 3 months. Could've been quicker, but I made a few mistakes as I was on my own for a while.... I didn't find this place until I'd already gotten Low Carb/High Fat going, but got even better control and more weight loss on Keto and Intermittent Fasting. (It's easier for me than LCHF, because I can't calculate carbs worth a d*mn... With keto I just go as low as possible, and always remain under 20 grams a day.) Bottom line, reducing carbs can help kicking meds to the curb. Check out Dr. Jason Fung's work and www.dietdoctor.com , it'll be an eye opening experience for you.

Again, welcome!
Jo
 
Hi bulkbiker I've just watched Dr Fungs video on fasting. It was very interesting. Thanks for that.
 
Hi Jo thanks for the reply. I believe I'm doing quite well keeping the carbs low with the exception of a bottle of wine on Friday and Saturday nights. I'm certainly not hungry all the time like I have been for the last 40 years.
But I am struggling to get my head around committing to high fat. I've read the articles and the explanations as to why but it's almost as if I'm scared of it.
My weight when diagnosed was 16 1/2 stone. I'm currently 15 11 which is a start though I do know there's a long way to go. After years of trying unsuccessfully to manage my weight by lowering fat consumption and eating lots of healthy (or not so healthy as it turns out) potatoes and rice and pasta, it's hard to get the idea that fat and the calories that come with it is the enemy out of my head.

I watched one of Dr Fungs videos at lunch time and my next mission is to find out more about intermittent fasting.

Thanks for the welcome
 

Everything we thought we knew goes out the window...! I know it's going against everything we've been taught, and yeah, I was sceptical too... But the science behind it makes sense. Basically, dietary fat doesn't make us fat. It's glucose which gets stored into fat cells. Carbs get turned into glucose, insulin stores the glucose in fat cells... Funny thing, if you want to eat something with a few carbs in it like berries, add double cream or full fat greek yoghurt, and it'll keep your sugars from spiking. No spugar spike, no insulin spike, and insulin is what delegates the glucose to the fat cells, so... No weight gain. It's a little technical, but... Once you get your head around it, and see the results... I mean, every time I tell someone I eat bacon about twice a day, they almost fall of their chair. But I lost over 50 pounds like this. My HbA1c is non-diabetic. I'm off statins, I haven't been on diabetic meds three months from my diagnosis... You can try just going low carb, without upping the fat a little, but do you feel the same about the so-called healthy fats? Would you be okay with avocado, pecan and walnuts, olives and olive oil, coconut oil, fatty fish with loads of good omega oils? It's not bacon, so maybe you'll be okay with that?

Dunno, just trying to think of ways to help.
 
You discovered that the low fat high carb did not work - but the pressure from others convinced you that - somehow it was you that was wrong, not the advice?
Welcome to the club- there are a lot of people who have had the same thing done to them.
 
The Fast Diet by Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer may be of interest. Also, horizon on iPlayer has Michael Mosley's Eat,Fast......
 
Hi again Jo. Thanks for taking the time to write all that. It's very encouraging to hear about your success.

As it happens I love those healthy fats you mentioned and wouldn't have any trouble including them in my day to day diet.

I was interested that you mentioned berries. I've taken to having for breakfast berries with a sprinkling of seeds and a small handful of oats covered with the lowest sugar yoghurt I can find. Can I really replace the low sugar yoghurt with double cream. It just seems so wrong.

I obviously have more research to do to help me convince myself to commit to the extra fat.
 
Throw out anything low fat. Double cream is your friend. The skinnier your milk, the more carbs, plus it contains lactose.
 
Resurgam said:
You discovered that the low fat high carb did not work - but the pressure from others convinced you that - somehow it was you that was wrong, not the advice?
Welcome to the club- there are a lot of people who have had the same thing done to them.
Click to expand...
Hi Resurgam thanks for the reply. Yes I feel quite let down by all the people who have wrongly advised me about my diet over the years.
 
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