- Messages
- 5,981
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Hi Folks,
Yeah, I’m asking the hive mind for help. I have a suspicion something’s wrong, but I don’t know quite what yet. So I want to pick your brains, if that’s okay.
So there’s a few things going on, and while I know they’re not directly diabetes-related, they do involve diet. And no-one knows our way of eating and the options we have, like you guys. I want to know what is wisdom here. And no, not asking for a diagnosis, that’s what I’m working with my GP for right now, but I also know she’s against fasting of any kind. And I want to get input with all dietary options considered, not with a bunch ruled out from the get-go.
Getting to the point. Or points, plural, so please keep reading even if some things don’t touch your area of expertise, okay?
My thyroid’s messed up. It’s swollen etc, and my doc checked my levels: turns out I’ve been overstimulating with too high a dosage of levothyroxine, given to me due to hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s. My dosage has been reduced to 100 micrograms a day (4 years ago I was at 175 micrograms), and in a few hours I’m due for an ultrasound to check whether the swelling is actually a goiter or cancer. I’m hoping it’s neither, because I seriously do not want to be operated on, so fingers crossed there. In any case, the medication stimulating my thyroid’s been overdoing it. Normally, HYPERthyroidism, even medicinally induced, would cause weight loss. I, on the other hand, have been steadily gaining weight.
I eat a ketogenic diet combined with IF, usually eat two meals a day, more often than not, with a 4 or 5 hour eating window. Back when I first started on a dietary road to better health, I was moderately low carb. Meaning I ate about trice the mount of carbs, if not more, than I do now. BUT…. Weight gain, still. My fasting blood sugars yesterday were 6,7. My HbA1c, which was 32 on moderate LCHF, has risen to 36. I know, still in the normal range, but it’s weird, isn’t it? I was 75,5 kilo’s two years ago on LCHF, now I’m back at 84 kilo’s or thereabouts on Keto. Insane, isn't it? The thing I’m noticing? It’s ALL on my gut. My legs and arms are what you’d consider “normal”, but it’s my gut that’s big. I’m not getting fat in proportion, like I was before this whole thing. My legs aren’t tree trunks, neither are my arms. Bloated on some days, not all the time, and then usually in the evening. (I do have IBS, but haven’t noticed much of it since going low carb). Now I’m experiencing pain in the liver area again, which is what got me to go to the doc 4 years ago in the first place, where I ended up with a diagnosis of extreme fatty liver disease and diabetes….
One more thing to make the picture complete: my bloodwork came back; after a long time doing absolutely fine, my cholesterol (ratio’s) are somewhat off. And my ferritin is too high. (Should be in the 15 to 150 range, mine’s 206). Now, too much iron can create deposits in the liver and pancreas, causing various things, like waterbelly, NAFLD, and diabetes. How those levels got so high, you ask? Well…. I’ve been eating way more fish than is recommended. That's entirely on me. It’s the only way I have to keep my vitamin d deficiency a little under control, as the supplements give me massive migraines for weeks on end. Guess eating fish every day doesn’t agree with me though. I’ve signed up to be a blood donor to deplete the iron, but they don’t need any right now, (just my luck), and I’m in the process of discussing this iron suspicion with my doc, but she was out yesterday. But it would make sense, I guess, if something’s going on that’s iron related…?
So now I don’t know what to do. I’m cutting out, for the moment, fish, spinach and red meat, trying to get my iron-overload fixed. But I am unsure on what to do with my morning numbers going so high… Do I take fasting further and let my liver just dump like mad in the interim? Try OMAD or several days’ fasts? I know if I fast I get my weight down, but if I am more active on a weekend and eat twice or three times because I do get hungry, the weight on my gut comes right back. So I feel like fasting’s a temporary solution, and I need to find the root cause of why my gut’s doing what it is doing, as it seems to be making my insulin resistance that much worse. (Which, of course, visceral fat would)
What would you do/try in my shoes?
Thanks people!
Jo
PS: It took me a long time to ask this because I felt like a fraud. I see people doing wonderfully on the Nutritional Thingy, while I’m failing miserably. But I just feel like there’s something affecting my blood sugars and body other than my diabetes, and I need to figure out what it is.
Yeah, I’m asking the hive mind for help. I have a suspicion something’s wrong, but I don’t know quite what yet. So I want to pick your brains, if that’s okay.
So there’s a few things going on, and while I know they’re not directly diabetes-related, they do involve diet. And no-one knows our way of eating and the options we have, like you guys. I want to know what is wisdom here. And no, not asking for a diagnosis, that’s what I’m working with my GP for right now, but I also know she’s against fasting of any kind. And I want to get input with all dietary options considered, not with a bunch ruled out from the get-go.
Getting to the point. Or points, plural, so please keep reading even if some things don’t touch your area of expertise, okay?
My thyroid’s messed up. It’s swollen etc, and my doc checked my levels: turns out I’ve been overstimulating with too high a dosage of levothyroxine, given to me due to hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s. My dosage has been reduced to 100 micrograms a day (4 years ago I was at 175 micrograms), and in a few hours I’m due for an ultrasound to check whether the swelling is actually a goiter or cancer. I’m hoping it’s neither, because I seriously do not want to be operated on, so fingers crossed there. In any case, the medication stimulating my thyroid’s been overdoing it. Normally, HYPERthyroidism, even medicinally induced, would cause weight loss. I, on the other hand, have been steadily gaining weight.
I eat a ketogenic diet combined with IF, usually eat two meals a day, more often than not, with a 4 or 5 hour eating window. Back when I first started on a dietary road to better health, I was moderately low carb. Meaning I ate about trice the mount of carbs, if not more, than I do now. BUT…. Weight gain, still. My fasting blood sugars yesterday were 6,7. My HbA1c, which was 32 on moderate LCHF, has risen to 36. I know, still in the normal range, but it’s weird, isn’t it? I was 75,5 kilo’s two years ago on LCHF, now I’m back at 84 kilo’s or thereabouts on Keto. Insane, isn't it? The thing I’m noticing? It’s ALL on my gut. My legs and arms are what you’d consider “normal”, but it’s my gut that’s big. I’m not getting fat in proportion, like I was before this whole thing. My legs aren’t tree trunks, neither are my arms. Bloated on some days, not all the time, and then usually in the evening. (I do have IBS, but haven’t noticed much of it since going low carb). Now I’m experiencing pain in the liver area again, which is what got me to go to the doc 4 years ago in the first place, where I ended up with a diagnosis of extreme fatty liver disease and diabetes….
One more thing to make the picture complete: my bloodwork came back; after a long time doing absolutely fine, my cholesterol (ratio’s) are somewhat off. And my ferritin is too high. (Should be in the 15 to 150 range, mine’s 206). Now, too much iron can create deposits in the liver and pancreas, causing various things, like waterbelly, NAFLD, and diabetes. How those levels got so high, you ask? Well…. I’ve been eating way more fish than is recommended. That's entirely on me. It’s the only way I have to keep my vitamin d deficiency a little under control, as the supplements give me massive migraines for weeks on end. Guess eating fish every day doesn’t agree with me though. I’ve signed up to be a blood donor to deplete the iron, but they don’t need any right now, (just my luck), and I’m in the process of discussing this iron suspicion with my doc, but she was out yesterday. But it would make sense, I guess, if something’s going on that’s iron related…?
So now I don’t know what to do. I’m cutting out, for the moment, fish, spinach and red meat, trying to get my iron-overload fixed. But I am unsure on what to do with my morning numbers going so high… Do I take fasting further and let my liver just dump like mad in the interim? Try OMAD or several days’ fasts? I know if I fast I get my weight down, but if I am more active on a weekend and eat twice or three times because I do get hungry, the weight on my gut comes right back. So I feel like fasting’s a temporary solution, and I need to find the root cause of why my gut’s doing what it is doing, as it seems to be making my insulin resistance that much worse. (Which, of course, visceral fat would)
What would you do/try in my shoes?
Thanks people!
Jo
PS: It took me a long time to ask this because I felt like a fraud. I see people doing wonderfully on the Nutritional Thingy, while I’m failing miserably. But I just feel like there’s something affecting my blood sugars and body other than my diabetes, and I need to figure out what it is.