Several Questions

[Mud Island Dweller]

Today is my first day VLCD so have been looking at a list of questions:


How soon post meal on a VLCD diet should l do my bloods is it still 2 hrs or at 3 as well.


Is there any fat amount l should try for.


What is the lowest carbs l should try for.


I find generally a mug of milk (we use goats milk) There is 4.4g carbs/100ml. I have cut down tonight to 250ml in my mug.

I have found it helps me sleep all night most nights, after many years of insomia due to 11 years of night duties l am loath to give it up.

I am also worried about the Dawn Phenomenon talked about. I think my milk may help keep it at bay. My meal tonight l was 5.1 @ 2hrs post meal.

I have had 11gram carbs in total during today as l knew the milk would bulk me up.


Have been trying to read most of the posts on the forum but as there is thousands l do get lost at times. So have started trying to cross ref, and take notes…problem is that l have read 100s that l didn’t and answers may be in there that l have forgotten.


Many thanks for everyone’s help sorry l am going to be popping up with lots of questions but am trying to get as much info as possible, once l understand things l will return the favour to others in same position as l am.
MID

 

[Andy12345]

hey, nice job for giving it a go

the amounts of carbs to go for is personal but if your looking to shift weight my personal advice would be try for 30g the fat is going to fuel you so that depends on if you need more fuel you will need more fat, i tend to just use real butter, never eat anything low fat and eat lots of meats and cream etc which seems to be fatty enough for me even when running long distances, the 2 hour test seems ok but you will soon find that your bgs are always low before and after eating, its awesome, the dawn thingy is what it is, most people will fast whilst sleeping so we can all suffer from that but the more controlled your bgs the less of the dwn thing you should (or i did) suffer from, as there is nothing you can do about it dont worry about it would be my advice....some people feel ****** for a couple of days when they cold turley carbs, so expect that, i think its while your body gets used to the idea that it will need to use the fat not the carbs are fuel, i didnt cold turkey i did it gradually so i didnt suffer this, best of all your going to love the effects it has on energy levels and bg levels

best of luck i hope it does for you what it did for me

please keep us posted

 

[Mud Island Dweller]

Many thanks, l have sort of run down slowly been on about 120 to 150 grm the past 6 weeks or so since diagnosis, but decided to bite the bullet. I did have the trots today but expect that to go. The villus in the intestines take about a week to change so the new ones that come in will be used to new diet the old ones are confused..

Hate marge since l read a few years ago about it being made of same stuff as plastic. Only real butter.

Interesting comments about the dawnP l was getting paranoid seems like l may not need the paranoia just worry about the sleep one less worry is always good news.

I will try to aim for 30gram of carbs l have lost a stone so far want to weigh myself on Monday and intend to head for 80kg
2 weeks ago was at 95kg if l don't reach 80 it wont be the end of the world l have lost 7% fat and that is more important. We have a brill PT guy who kills hub and l once a week and gives us homework.

 

[Andy12345]

ohhhh i remember my PT, saturdays mornings, then on tuesday i would stop hurting just in time to look forward to the following saturday lol brilliant though, it made such a difference well done for shifting the weight i actually found the opposite, i needed to keep the fibre up to keep me moving, i always have milled flax seed with my yogurt for brekkie that seems to do the trick for me but then i think i had IBS before dx so i was either one way or the other for years, im perfect now

 

[badcat]

there are more varieties of low carb than you can shake a stick at!
Basically anything under 100g carbs is classed as low carb, under 50g as very low carb and under 25g or so is ketogenic ( where the body is invited / forced to use fat as a fuel rather than glucose). How much fat you add into the mix will depend partly o0n where you pitch your carb intake and whether you choose to go low carb/ high fat or low carb/moderate fat. If you go for LCHF them youll be looking at around 65% of your nutrition ( in terms of calories) coming from fat.
I go for around 50g carbs as this enables me to keep a good fibre intake (over 20g), I also limit animal fat but have lots of fat from nuts, seeds, eggs and fish with meat a couple of times a week

 

[Mud Island Dweller]

Thanks Badcat here is me thinking l am getting a handle on things and now have to rethink. I am a bit of a fly-by-eat at decisions not good at meal planning ahead. Hub cooks and decides at the time for the evening meal what it will be based on my present choices. I do my own breakfast, unless it is more than scrambled egg or as used to be porridge...the extent of my skills. And lunch is salad l take care of.

I think l have discovered it is really easy to low carb which is worrying me as l thought it would be hard. I don't want to cause a problem health wise by not having enough. I think l will aim for around 30 -50 gram/day and then with luck l will reach 25 gram/day I do go through phases eating a lot of sunflower/pumpkin seeds and need to get back to hemp and sesame so they should help to bulk me up.
I want to burn fat so will see how things go and be careful of animal fats which l am guessing you mean meat?

l need to drink more l dislike plain water ok sparkling if l have to, l discovered sparkling water with 2 squeezed slices of lemon thrown in drank and enjoyed that last night, coffee almost non existent since l cut out sugar. And tea no sugar forget it. And have a teabag problem if one has been near tea l feel ill and looking at a used teabag

 

[badcat]

Thanks Badcat here is me thinking l am getting a handle on things and now have to rethink. I am a bit of a fly-by-eat at decisions not good at meal planning ahead. Hub cooks and decides at the time for the evening meal what it will be based on my present choices. I do my own breakfast, unless it is more than scrambled egg or as used to be porridge...the extent of my skills. And lunch is salad l take care of.

I think l have discovered it is really easy to low carb which is worrying me as l thought it would be hard. I don't want to cause a problem health wise by not having enough. I think l will aim for around 30 -50 gram/day and then with luck l will reach 25 gram/day I do go through phases eating a lot of sunflower/pumpkin seeds and need to get back to hemp and sesame so they should help to bulk me up.
I want to burn fat so will see how things go and be careful of animal fats which l am guessing you mean meat?

l need to drink more l dislike plain water ok sparkling if l have to, l discovered sparkling water with 2 squeezed slices of lemon thrown in drank and enjoyed that last night, coffee almost non existent since l cut out sugar. And tea no sugar forget it. And have a teabag problem if one has been near tea l feel ill and looking at a used teabag

Yes re the meat thing - from an animal welfare point of view and because of all the antibiotics etc fed to most commercially reared food I buy organic outdoor reared meat and limit it to a couple of meals a week.
Sliced Lime is nice in sparkling water too. I've also recently started using liquid stevia to sweeten tea /coffee - it's price tat £8 a bottle but I find I only need 2 drops per mug so it should last ages and be a better bet than either sugar or things like Splenda etc
In coffee I have a little cream instead of milk as it's both lower carb and has its own sweetness - I'm also intolerant to cows milk so use either goats cream or lactofreee cream which seems ok