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Skipping breakfast Good or bad?

zolabud

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,285
Location
Lewes. Near B right on. East Sussex.
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Whelks,winkles... All crustaceous seafood except prawns. Can't do crab.lobster or scallops.
Don't like the way they are killed and cooked. Save our Scallops. SOS !!!
Also HATE evaporated milk.
Had a late night last night after watching the last episode of The Tudors. BBC 2 have been doing reruns for weeks putting 2 episode on every night which start at 11.20 and they finish at 1.00. LOVE IT... But for some reason they are not available on the I Player.

Anyway late night,up at 8.00 and I have noticed recently that I don't feel hungry so early for my breakfast. I can't eat when I'm not hungry and always have a cup of tea soon after waking but what is this prolonged fasting doing to my blood sugar levels?
I still haven't eaten yet and it's almost 1.00....

I need to lose some weight anyway but I am aware that of you don't eat you body goes into "starvation mode"... Something like that.
Your body will convert something into something else to make up for the fact you haven't eaten.

Am I making sense.

So...Skipping meals. Good or bad?

Many thanks.
 

If you skip a meal because you are not hungry, then your lack of hunger probably means you have enough energy for the time being, unless you are feeling ill of course. It can be hard to force down food if you don't feel like it. However, you are possibly inviting a potential hypo later on depending on how active you are at the time. I would certainly suggest that you do eat as soon as you start feeling hungry or make sure you are carrying some kind of food if you are out and about. With regards to the body converting something, I tend to eat breakfast about 2 hours after getting up during which time my bGs rise a little. I assume it's my liver kicking in to adjust my bG levels to where my body wants them to be. I'm not too worried about the actual mechanics though. I run quite low during the day and I always take an apple and munch it when walking the dog to stave of a hypo due to the exercise even if I don't feel desperately hungry at the time. It's just about enough for me. I have also discovered by experiment that sitting through a hypo puts my bG up without intervention, although I would not recommend this approach and wouldn't normally do it myself.
 
Thanks for that.

I an sedentary most of the day as I find exercise such a pain as I have Emphasyma.

Vicious circle really. And the same as being diabetic as exercise helps so much and is an essential part of managing it.

So by adopting a low carb diet and getting off my fat **** I will hopefully kill 2 birds with 1 stone and do both my afflictions a bit of good.

I don't skip meals on purpose. I just haven't felt hungry today which is strange as I normally cook scrambled eggs at about 10.30. Halfway through Homes under the Hammer....

I do like my telly !!
 
Hi, i am no expert but im pretty sure its bad, i think its actually better to eat more in the morning and less at night, there a saying i heard alot something like eat breakfast like a king lunch like a duke and dinner like a pauper or something like that, so my vote is "bad" sorry
 

I have known a few people with emphysema, oxygen bottles in the house and often struggling to get a sentence out. I would imagine that the effort it takes for you to get around is probably exercise in itself to some extent. I sometimes don't feel like breakfast until lunchtime, so I have the breakfast and skip the lunch (or the other way round!). It's good that you don't skip meals on purpose, but, if you are genuinely not hungry, just treat it as one of those days, but do be aware that your bGs may be quite low and that it may not take you a lot of effort to use up what energy you have left.

Speaking of 'fat' arses, my biggest problem with weight loss is that I have lost the 'padding' and I just can't sit on hard chairs any more. A slightly irritating downside of weight loss. :shock:
 
I never eat much during the day.
Being a drinker I always eat a dinner at about 6.00 and my wine consumption starts at 7.00.

I now mix my Rose wine with half sparkling mineral water and so far it's going ok. Half a bottle of 8% Rose is a lot better than a whole bottle I used to drink before.
(I know,I know...)
I don't regard myself as a total pisshead... Just someone who is alcohol dependant.

I can't join any Facebook alcohol support groups as most of my family are on Facebook and I don't really want them to know....

Which is why I am talking about it here.

I am aware that drink may raise my blood sugar and I am going to have to have an alcohol free night or 2 to make sure I get a 'proper' reading in the morning.

My step dad is type 2. Not an ounce of fat on him. He drinks everyday too and a lot more than me. He doesn't ever test. He eats pork pies,cream doughnuts,biscuits....He just isn't worried in the slightest.

What makes one person worried and the other not I wonder?
 

I crept up to 2-3 bottles per day! (confession time!). It seemed to be the wine which put my weight on after having lost so much before ... but it creeps up slowly. Your 1/2 bottle sounds fine as its the equivalent of a couple of large glasses in the pub but make sure the amount you drink is still satisfying you, if you know what I mean. It didn't 'seem' to affect my bGs but maybe I forgot to test now and again :eh:. I suggest you bear this in mind if, like me, you are not one of those bas...ds who can eat and drink whatever they like!!! Waste of good food and drink they are! Possibly, another problem with the drink is that it reduces 'resolve' and may tempt you to grab the odd sarnie or something. I'm off the wine totally simply because I can't trust myself to have just 'one little glass'.

I have found that I can lose weight by eating 3-5 times a day rather than once ... spreading the food across the day although my biggest meal is still the evening. I found that by responding to the hunger and eating a snack kept me going through to lunch or the evening. My diet is normal but I have reduced the evening portions. I figure that, since I am sat on my **** for the evening, there's not a lot of point to a huge evening meal. Might be better for me if I had it during the day, but then 'she' would not enjoy eating on her own etc. (or maybe she would!) :cry:
 
For me personally skipping breakfast is a MASSIVE NO!

I generally leave the house within 40 mins or so of getting up. I have a breakfast in this time. I found that when I had to fast for my yearly review a few months ago that I left home went for my blood test, drove to work had breakfast. Can't rember what I ate but it wasn't my usual but it was low carb as im on a vlc diet. By 10am I was almost asleep with a very bad headache, so I tested my BG levels and was at 14!!!! Its usually no higher than 8 at worst. I then proceeded to struggle to get these down for the rest of the day.

So in conclusion I have found that if I don't eat a decent breakfast within say 1 hour of rising, that my body releases glucose and keeps on releasing it until I eaten enough to make it stop.

The only way to tell is to get testing.
 
Personally I dont skip breakfast, but I get up at 5.30am and there's no chance of eating that early. By the time I get to work and get settled its usually around 7 by the time I eat. My BG is usually around 7 first thing and 5-6 before lunch so that hasn't affected my BG at all and I've been doing it for months
 
My much adored son (32) likes a drink every night and a bit of the old grass and he eats at about 10.00pm.
This drove his girlfriend mad and they have now split up as she didn't like his drinking and he got ****** off with her constant untidiyness.
Made it difficult for me as I could see both sides.

They both have new partners now and my son is going out with a girl who smokes a lot of grass and has the odd drink. Which my daughter in law didn't do. (She was a binger.Went out once a month and drank as many units as I do in a month.)

Alcohol has been very prevalent in my life as a young Mum years ago as my partner who I loved dearly,was an alcoholic. He drank 2 bottles of Vodka a day. He used to drink half a bottle to get himself 'into gear' first thing in the morning. Then he used to get in his car and drive to work as a builder. He never once had an accident and never acted like he had had a drink. He was always like that....

When we were younger he was a laugh when he had a drink.
As he got older he got morose... He was constantly accusing me of sleeping with other men (which I never did) and his treatment of me was appalling. Of course he could never remember what he had said the next morning...

When he was ill 3 of my girlfriends got in touch and said that when my son was little they had affairs with my partner. They asked me if I minded. I said that I had no idea but it didn't surprise me. I have since lost touch with them all. I have tried to find them on Facebook but to no avail.
It then made sense why he was always accusing me of bed hopping. He had done it many times himself....

Myself and my son managed to get him down to 1 bottle. Then in 1997 I had a brain haemorrhage. I survived and promptly had another soon after. I was in hospital for 3 months in all and when I got out I found out my partner was again on 2 bottles a day and because my life had changed so much (and I was bald) I decided I had to leave him.
Actually I missed something out. His stomach began to get larger and larger. His arms,legs and face were really skinny.Legs like sticks of spaghetti but he had this enormous stomach.
One night he became really unintelligible. More than usual so I called out the doctor who took one look at his stomach and said "Ascites".
"I give him 6 months".
This put myself and my son (then 16) into total shock.
My partner began to treat me VERY badly and he would stay in bed with the curtains shut. He slept erratically and if he ever slept at night (which was rare) I would sneak into the spare room to get a bit of much needed kip and he would get up and appear at the door and he had my largest sharpest knife in his hand and he would ask me to come back to bed. Of course I went. I was too scared not to.
The doctor (who was very unsympathetic towards my partner) said "You know he has a knife don't you?"
I replied "Yes" and left it at that.

My partner was taken to hospital and had all the fluid drained off. Something to do with your liver isn't it- Ascites?
27 litres was drained. He went in weighing 12 stone and came out weighing 7 1/2...Something like that.
He looked skeletal. And very ill.
The fluid built up again slowly and he was admitted again. This time he had 17 litres drained.
He never gave up drinking. I was to blame really as I was the one who went and got it from the corner shop. But if he didn't get it he would have made my life even more intolerable.

One day he wouldn't let me have my bag which had my purse,mobile phone in and when I tried to get it from him he lashed out and I fell and smacked my face on the doorframe. He didn't mean to do it as he was so ******... And dying. I had just come out of 2 open head surgerys and against all odds I survived and it must have been awful for him to see me getting stronger (or trying to)....
I went to the council ,explained what had been happening and they asked if I wanted him removed. I had a massive black eye and as much as I tried to say he didn't do it I don't think they believed me... They put me in B&B and said when he died I could return to my council house.
He lasted 5 years. He was a complete git the whole time. I left my son to look after him and my son didn't speak to me or return my daily texts which hurt a lot. In the mean time after 6 months in B&B I was given a lovely flat in a halfway house nowhere near where I lived.
He died in 2003 and it was his lungs which got him in the end. He had Emphasyma. His pancreas had dissolved and his liver was shot.
My son and myself hugged at his graveside and I moved back into my house in the country. My son moved in with his girlfriend and I was incredibly lonely and the house held so many bad memories so I rang the council and they suggested a flat. They said I would get £1,000 + £500 towards the removal fees.

I came to look at the flat and it was lovely. So I agreed to move and dumped 95% of my life in the back garden of my old house and paid the binmen £20 to take it all away. I didn't have a bed... Or a sofa or chairs. I just moved in with a few things and began my life again.
All I have now is what I need and nothing more.
It was cathartic ( Is that the word? ) dumping my life and starting from scratch....
I was left with a lot of bills that I couldn't pay so the £1,000 didn't go very far really....

Then in 2011 I was diagnosed with Emphasyma. I gave up smoking straightaway. Now I have Type 2 diabetes. I have fits linked with my brain and all the hardware they put in it to sort the haemorrhages. I have had a wet room fitted which is amazingly efficient. (My bath was deemed too dangerous in case I have a fit.) And I have a Lifeline alarm fitted in case I fit again.

I drunk a bottle of Rose everyday since I came out of hospital in 1997. I wasn't a regular drinker until then. I have been honest with my doctor about the amount that I drink and I have heard that folk halve the real amount when talking to their GP. I find that a slight worry.
I have halved it as wine and mineral water doesn't taste much different to be honest. So I am now down to 4 units a day. And I am sleeping much better. I noticed that straightaway....And it isn't exactly strong at 8% is it?
But it pains me that I still drink everynight. I have an alcohol support group near me in the small town where I live but I don't think I can bear to go. But the Type 2 diagnosis was a bit of a shock. But if I am sensible I can crack this and help my Emphasyma and my Type 2.

If.....

This is the first time I have recalled this in writing. I am feeling quite low at the moment and hope I haven't bored you but I felt a need to share....
 
zolabud said:
This is the first time I have recalled this in writing. I am feeling quite low at the moment and hope I haven't bored you but I felt a need to share....
Click to expand...
What an incredibly tragic story ... words fail me. I hope that it has helped you to share it, not just with me, but with others too. You may well find that there are others here who are harbouring tragic stories and experiences who will empathise with you. I know this is not 'Skipping Breakfast' material but so what. One of my sons son died at 18 months from AIDS and unfortunately it was world headlines, which didn't help. I spent a few months writing about it for my own consumpton. I kept it hidden for 25 years, even from my then wife, but together with my new partner I have reincarnated and updated it, and given it to a few friends and acquaintances to read. I am so glad that I wrote it, even though I didn't know why at the time. In a way it's easier for them to read it rather than for me to recount the story individually. And it is nice to have the permanent memories, good and bad. It also made me aware of other people hidden away out there who were or are suffering tragedies of their own and that helped me feel I wasn't alone. Not very good at this stuff, I'm afraid!

Anyway, enough of this from me for the time being. Otherwise I may get a complaint for going off track.
 
Yes, it helped enormously.

Sorry for going off on a tangent.....
 
zolabud said:
Yes, it helped enormously.

Sorry for going off on a tangent.....
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it. If it helped, that's good. We're all juggling with more than bG levels to one extent or another.
 
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