The most/least successful things to do for managing blood sugar levels

[HHardy39]

For me the intermittent fasting just seemed to follow on naturally from low carbing.
T2's have trouble using carbs for energy so instead of being able to use the glucose from carbs it was being stored as fat, I was getting fatter and hungrier.
When I started to use protein and healthy fats for fuel, my hunger and the extra weight just seemed to magically disappear. Instead of eating every few hours and waking up ravenous, I found my self hardly thinking about food at all, sometimes missing meals without even realising.
Breakfast was the easiest meal to cut because I just wasn't hungry, I found I was eating it out of habit. Why eat if your not hungry, now I don't really have any set times to eat, I just eat when I need to, sometimes two meals a day sometimes one, occasionally none.
I must admit not having bread is hard and I have been so tempted on many occasions. There are low carb breads out there and I've tried a few but found them to fall short of the real thing. My problem with having the occasional treat is basically I'm a breadaholic, one slice or one sandwich wouldn't be enough, the occasional treat would go to once a month, a week, a day. Bread is definitely my kryptonite.

Ahh, I see, @catinahat, that all makes sense! Thank you for the insight

 

[Antje77]

Shame about the bread! Is even an occasional bit of sourdough out of bounds?

Sourdough has as many carbs as regular bread.

 

[Outlier]

Keto is brilliant for me. And the support from this Board. I keep a check on my blood glucose, and I keep carbs to an absolute minimum.

 

[Noel M]

As has been noted, managing carb intake has the most effect, both in terms of volume and time of day - minimise bread etc with evening meal.

Overall volume has been reduced by intermittent fasting, or reducing the hours in the day when food is consumed, as this reduces the need for snacking between meals, therefore lower intake overall.

Of late I have also found that the sequence of foods has had an effect. Eating veg / fibre before protein and carbs last helps to eliminate spikes in blood glucose. In addition, eg a salad with dressing (something acidic therefore) slows down the absorption of glucose into the blood stream.

By combining a few of these together I find the effect quite noticeable.

 

[HHardy39]

As has been noted, managing carb intake has the most effect, both in terms of volume and time of day - minimise bread etc with evening meal.

Overall volume has been reduced by intermittent fasting, or reducing the hours in the day when food is consumed, as this reduces the need for snacking between meals, therefore lower intake overall.

Of late I have also found that the sequence of foods has had an effect. Eating veg / fibre before protein and carbs last helps to eliminate spikes in blood glucose. In addition, eg a salad with dressing (something acidic therefore) slows down the absorption of glucose into the blood stream.

By combining a few of these together I find the effect quite noticeable.

Glad to hear it @Noel M, thanks for sharing.

 

[HHardy39]

Keto is brilliant for me. And the support from this Board. I keep a check on my blood glucose, and I keep carbs to an absolute minimum.

That's interesting @Outlier, do you do the full Keto or have you adapted it?

 

[sue512]

I started by googling carb content of everything I ate until I got to know and try to keep carbs to 20-50 a day. My weight has fallen, blood pressure back to normal, asthma improved, back pain gone, so for me change in diet proved a huge anti- immlamatory effect. I’m a lover of meat and cheese which helps and by keeping fats up I no longer get hungry so it’s not difficult to do. Threads on what people have eaten today on this website can help with ideas for meals and when eating out it’s back to the meat just pass up the chips and bread rolls. Someone recommended the low carb company for bread. Their bread rolls are nice and their sliced grained bread. They don’t store long so I freeze them and defrost as required. I’ve not managed to find successful alternative for toast as when toasted texture feels like warm cake!!! Pizza bases are nice as well, although they are not cheap so I use as treat.

 

[HHardy39]

I track everything on Cronometer. Set it for Keto. Then tend to watch carbs more closely as need to keep below 20 if possible but can have a day at 30. Bearing in mind I am also losing weight. Good Luck.

Thanks @filly, I hadn't thought of that.

 

[HHardy39]

I started by googling carb content of everything I ate until I got to know and try to keep carbs to 20-50 a day. My weight has fallen, blood pressure back to normal, asthma improved, back pain gone, so for me change in diet proved a huge anti- immlamatory effect. I’m a lover of meat and cheese which helps and by keeping fats up I no longer get hungry so it’s not difficult to do. Threads on what people have eaten today on this website can help with ideas for meals and when eating out it’s back to the meat just pass up the chips and bread rolls. Someone recommended the low carb company for bread. Their bread rolls are nice and their sliced grained bread. They don’t store long so I freeze them and defrost as required. I’ve not managed to find successful alternative for toast as when toasted texture feels like warm cake!!! Pizza bases are nice as well, although they are not cheap so I use as treat.

Thanks @sue512, that sounds like a sensible strategy. Do you eat much fruit and veg?

 

[Retanna]

For me cutting out bread, pasta and potato benefits blood sugar came tumbling as did the weight. Waist size dropped 4 inches since July and I am not going hungry! I use Cauliflower rice, bare naked rice and bare naked noodles as an alternative. Had a lovely Chicken Sag masala with Cauliflower rice last night with three poppadums and BS 4.9 at 5am this morning!

 

[Melgar]

Q - "The most/least successful things to do for managing blood sugar levels?" For me carbs are a s*** storm. If I reduce my carbs, for instance on a low carb diet, I am battling low blood sugars, sometimes falling into the low 2's. When I increase my carbs to stop the hypos my BS's go up but also I put on weight. Stuck between a rock and hard place.

 

[bulkbiker]

Q - "The most/least successful things to do for managing blood sugar levels?" For me carbs are a s*** storm. If I reduce my carbs, for instance on a low carb diet, I am battling low blood sugars, sometimes falling into the low 2's. When I increase my carbs to stop the hypos my BS's go up but also I put on weight. Stuck between a rock and hard place.

Are you taking any medications? .. your profile says no but to get down into the 2's through diet alone sounds a bit odd.

 

[Outlier]

That's interesting @Outlier, do you do the full Keto or have you adapted it?

Full keto.

 

[Melgar]

Are you taking any medications? .. your profile says no but to get down into the 2's through diet alone sounds a bit odd.

@bulkbiker no meds. I am waiting for an appointment date with the endocrinologist. There has to be a reason for it.

 

[bulkbiker]

@bulkbiker no meds. I am waiting for an appointment date with the endocrinologist. There has to be a reason for it.

Interesting.. and blood levels are from finger prick tests?
Who diagnosed you as T2 and at what HbA1c level?

 

[Melgar]

Interesting.. and blood levels are from finger prick tests?
Who diagnosed you as T2 and at what HbA1c level?

Yes, blood draw plus symptoms, clammy, pounding heart and anxiety. Since my Dr and DN recommended I increase my carb intake I am not getting the serious hypos. Very recently diagnosed T2, I became prediabetic September 2019 then it progressed to T2 December 2020 by the ER Dr. I am having GAD antibody test, Lipase, C-Peptide and Amyglase and H6A,C tests done. I am lactose intolerant, I suffer from GERD, IBS and Gluten sensitive. Tested negative for Helicobacter pylori. Normal weight, very active and no T2 in family. My bro is T1.

 

[sue512]

Thanks @sue512, that sounds like a sensible strategy. Do you eat much fruit and veg?

Only berries for fruit in small amounts as fruit spikes my blood sugars. Probably not as much veg as I should, but asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and variety of frozen veg to chuck in, stir fry mixes and less often salads. Coleslaw with full fat mayo or yoghurt.

 

[HHardy39]

Only berries for fruit in small amounts as fruit spikes my blood sugars. Probably not as much veg as I should, but asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and variety of frozen veg to chuck in, stir fry mixes and less often salads. Coleslaw with full fat mayo or yoghurt.

Thank you @sue512

 

[BoldItalic]

Hello, I'd like to ask what people find they succeed with and what they struggle with most when it comes to managing blood sugar?

Hi. Diagnosed a few months ago (HgA1c = 50) so I'm still experimenting with what works for me but basically low-sugar, low-carb with enough fat and protein to keep the calories up (I'm marginally underweight and always have been).

I'm using test strips to get enough data to work out the right balance. My baseline AC level is about 5.1 or 5.2 mmol/L which I'm happy with so it's just a case of adjusting the intake to limit the peaks.

For me (and these numbers will only work for me, not anyone else), the fast sugar peak (within the hour) seems to go up by about 0.5 per gram of sugar eaten so I've arbitrarily decided to limit sugar to 10 grams per meal and get peaks of around 10 - 10.5. There doesn't seem to be any official recommendation about whether that's a good number or not but if I reckon the peak lasts half an hour, three times a day that represents an increase in the daily average of around 0.15 which is going to raise the next HgA1c by one or two points. I can live with that. 10 grams isn't a lot, maybe a glass of milk and a piece of fruit but it's something to plan around.

Then I have to limit starch as well. They don't quote starch separately on food labels, so I estimate it by taking total carbs and subtracting sugar and fibre. For me (and everyone is different), the two-hour peak seems to work out at around 0.8 above baseline per 10 grams of "starch" in the meal so I limit meals to 30 grams of that and get a typical PC peak of 7.6 which is comfortably inside the recommended 8.5 and just inside the normal. non-diabetic range of 7.8. It's a bit tricky balancing meals to that limit - it mostly goes on vegetables for dinner or a bowl of cereal for breakfast - but it's possible.

Boosting calories is a struggle. I try to aim for 500-600 kCal per meal with plenty of meat, eggs and cheese (avocados are good, too) but even so, I've lost a few pounds in weight over the last two months and I didn't want to do that. I don't want to have to buy new clothes.

I'm hoping that the next HgA1c test result will be below 40.

 

[Antje77]

They don't quote starch separately on food labels, so I estimate it by taking total carbs and subtracting sugar and fibre.

In the UK, don't subtract fibre from the carbs, they're listed separately.
If using US sources, the fiber is included in the carbs, noteworthy when doing a quick google search. Quickest trick to know if you need to subtract fibre when using the internet is to check the spelling: fibre - ignore, fiber - subtract.

Like many T1's using nutritional information on foods to work out insulin doses, I just look at the carbs and ignore the 'of which sugars', a carb is a carb.