Skinny type 2???

Yvette84 said:

Hi,
I'm looking for some advice for my mum. Last week she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, however the nurse said she's a tricky diabetic because she's classed as a skinny type 2!
My mum is 67, 5'2" and weighs just under 7 stone so is quite underweight and has always struggled to maintain a decent weight!
Obviously she is now having to change her diet for foods that are low or have no sugar in them but is concerned about losing more weight. I was wondering if anyone could recommend some high fat low sugar products? A milkshake that is high in fat but low in sugar would be ideal!
She is very scared and upset so any help would be very much appreciated!
Thank you xx

Click to expand...

Gosh, you Mum is very slight indeed.

There are lots of options for reducing the troublesome foods, but getting plenty of calories. I'm 5' 3" and just under 7 and a half stones, so I appreciate the issue a bit at least.

Do you know what sort of blood scores your Mum recorded when she was diagnosed? That might help to understand if she needs to trim certain foods back a bit or if there's more work to do. Also, does she have a meter to test her own bloods when she's eating? I found that to be completely pivotal in terms of how quickly I got a handle on things. Does she have any other health problems or trouble getting about?

Have a look in a couple of areas of the site - Various threads for "what have you eaten today?" and there are also loads of recipes on the site, posted by members, that you could suggest your Mum tries.

Cooking with cream and butter and eating fatty meats might help with both weight gain and lowering her blood glucose levels. Good luck Yvette's mum

Nuts and full fat yoghurt. I would also go with the meat option as well.

Hi, yes, extra good fats are a good idea. Using full fat products in preference to low fat ones. Full fat yogurts, butter, cream, cheese, eggs and so on. Plenty of meat and oily fish (tinned salmon is a good lunch option, with real mayonnaise)

It is a fine balance getting a suitable diabetic diet for slim people. I have found the same problem myself since I lost all my excess weight. I just kept on losing eating a low carb diet - so increased the fats, had extra fry ups, and eventually found a balance.

I wish her luck.

Hi and welcome. I would question the T2 diagnosis. Many 'skinny' T2s are in fact Late onset T1 (I'm one of those). The skinniness can be caused by the body burning fat as it doesn't produce enough insulin to burn the carbs. Yes, do keep the carbs down and protein and fats up. There are two tests for Late onset T1 (aka LADA) i.e. GAD and c-peptide but anyway she will probably be put onto Metformin which is fine but may not help much but with LADA the tablet Gliclazide can help as it stimulates the pancreas so do discuss the tests with the nurse (she may not have heard of them). Do get hold of a glucose meter such as the low cost SD Codefree on the web and if her sugar is higher than it should be discuss the possibility of a script for Gliclazide which many LADAs use.