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Thin type 2 diabetics

G

GMC 007

Member
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6
Hi, I was diagnosed with type 2 two years ago and being a very active 5’10 male and then about 12stone. My diet was pretty good meal wise but was drinking a lot of Coca-Cola and had a very sweet tooth ! Cut that out and got hba1c down from 86 to 53 in 9 months but lost over a stone and was being very strict on sugar not so much carbs . Started on metaformin of which I was advised to do at start but felt I could do with out meds and do it diet only not realising that weight lost and muscle loss would occur .
Did have a test for type 1.5 c-petide I think which was negative .
Problem now is hba1c is at 77 and haven’t changed diet apart from the occasional pudding no sweets biscuits or cocoa cola .
What’s going on ?
 
GMC 007 said:
and was being very strict on sugar not so much carbs .
Click to expand...
For diabetics it is actually carbs you need to be wary of not just sugars (no the doctors probably did not tell you that), as all carbs turn to glucose anyway, so it may just be that you're eating more carbs than your body can cope with.
Many of the T2's on these forums are doing low carb diets and it is helping to control their diabetes, I'm sure some of them will along to give the details. Also do you have a testing kit, if not you probably want to get one so you can test to see how many carbs you can deal with (again some of the T2's can link you the meters with the most affordable test strips) - the doctors may well tell you that you don't need to test, however if you want to know whats going on you do.
 
Two possibilities immediately occur
1) Too many carbs - if you describe a typical day's diet the folk on here will be able to give you some pointers
2) misdiagnosis of T2 and you're actually T1/LADA
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Tagging @daisy1 for the info pack offered to all newcomers.

Well done on the initial success. I agree with the comments up thread but would like to add that sometimes we think we are cutting carbs a lot but those pesky things get into everything. If you could give us a typical day's menu we may be able to help you tweak it a bit.

As for being TOFI (Thin on the Outside Fat on the Inside) this can be tricky but not impossible to address. As you are fit and active you can build muscle (resistive training will do this and has the benefit of helping to improve blood glucose levels) which should help you stabilise your weight but you do have to start testing with a glucometer and checking the carbohydrate value of foodstuff you eat.

Have a wander around the forum and ask as many questions as you like.

Edited typos.
 
Typical diet :
6.20. Glass of water and a banana
8.30. Large bowl of cereal , 200g yogurt and 2 slices of toast . Cup of tea and glass diluting juice
13.00 2 ham and cheese rolls, bag of crisps ,grapes and a cup of tea and diluting juice.
18.00 Meat veg and a few potatoes or chips.
20.00. Bag of crisps and some fruit .

This is what I was eating when got bs down to 53 I do have a bs monitor and have played about with it McDonald’s is a no no !
I struggle as I’m a pick up and eat person apart from evening meal which my wife cooks
 
GMC 007 said:
Typical diet :
6.20. Glass of water and a banana
8.30. Large bowl of cereal , 200g yogurt and 2 slices of toast . Cup of tea and glass diluting juice
13.00 2 ham and cheese rolls, bag of crisps ,grapes and a cup of tea and diluting juice.
18.00 Meat veg and a few potatoes or chips.
20.00. Bag of crisps and some fruit .

This is what I was eating when got bs down to 53 I do have a bs monitor and have played about with it McDonald’s is a no no !
I struggle as I’m a pick up and eat person apart from evening meal which my wife cooks
Click to expand...
Wow and your HbA1c is only 77 after eating that lot... !
 
GMC 007 said:
Typical diet :
6.20. Glass of water and a banana
8.30. Large bowl of cereal , 200g yogurt and 2 slices of toast . Cup of tea and glass diluting juice
13.00 2 ham and cheese rolls, bag of crisps ,grapes and a cup of tea and diluting juice.
18.00 Meat veg and a few potatoes or chips.
20.00. Bag of crisps and some fruit .

This is what I was eating when got bs down to 53 I do have a bs monitor and have played about with it McDonald’s is a no no !
I struggle as I’m a pick up and eat person apart from evening meal which my wife cooks
Click to expand...

That is a lot of carbs, if that's how you have been eating all along then that explains the reason your hba1c has jumped significantly and why you are T2

I'd look into the low carb way of managing your diet if I were you. Plenty of low carb info on here.

www.dietdoctor.com is a good resource outside of the forum.

You can also ask about diet here also. Plenty of people to help you out.

@JoKalsbeek has a really good write up that could help you a lot, so hoping she sees this and posts it.
 
A ‘sweet tooth’ is simply carbohydrate dependency.

Regarding obesity, it’s a pretty meaningless measure of metablic health, since we know that many obese people never become diabetic, and that many skinny people do. Of far more importance with insulin resistant diabetes is intraorganic fat. Specifically that in and around the liver and pancreas. This can only be fixed by aggressive reduction or virtual elimination of carbohydrate in the diet.
 
GMC 007 said:
What’s going on ?
Click to expand...

GMC 007 said:
Typical diet :
6.20. Glass of water and a banana
8.30. Large bowl of cereal , 200g yogurt and 2 slices of toast . Cup of tea and glass diluting juice
13.00 2 ham and cheese rolls, bag of crisps ,grapes and a cup of tea and diluting juice.
18.00 Meat veg and a few potatoes or chips.
20.00. Bag of crisps and some fruit .
Click to expand...

:shifty:
 
Ok thanks for the replies . I have been paying more attention to sugar levels than carbs . But initially my sugar intake was the problem and when I cut it out my bs levels dropped regardless of my carb intake . Why is it a problem now and what can I eat to gain some weight and give me some calories to burn as I feel really low carb diets are for loosing weight but appreciate likely to be the cause now which I’ll have to address.
 
GMC 007 said:
Typical diet :
6.20. Glass of water and a banana
8.30. Large bowl of cereal , 200g yogurt and 2 slices of toast . Cup of tea and glass diluting juice
13.00 2 ham and cheese rolls, bag of crisps ,grapes and a cup of tea and diluting juice.
18.00 Meat veg and a few potatoes or chips.
20.00. Bag of crisps and some fruit .

This is what I was eating when got bs down to 53 I do have a bs monitor and have played about with it McDonald’s is a no no !
I struggle as I’m a pick up and eat person apart from evening meal which my wife cooks
Click to expand...

Blimey, you'd be better off with the McDonald's!
 
Totally incorrect ... carbs ARE sugars.

Why is it a problem now? Your diet is really bad for correcting your HBA1C

That is your answer
 
GMC 007 said:
Ok thanks for the replies . I have been paying more attention to sugar levels than carbs . But initially my sugar intake was the problem and when I cut it out my bs levels dropped regardless of my carb intake . Why is it a problem now and what can I eat to gain some weight and give me some calories to burn as I feel really low carb diets are for loosing weight but appreciate likely to be the cause now which I’ll have to address.
Click to expand...
After my diagnosis of being ‘diabetic’ (still awaiting type) I lost approx. 1 stone in weight in the space of 3 weeks.

I too was advised not to go too low carb as I was thin in the first place.

In order to put the weight back on I ate a lot of cheese and also made chocolate fat bombs (google and you will find loads of recipes). Both of these foods were low in carb so didn’t raise my blood sugars, but helped me get additional calories :)
 
Blimey that’s a hell of a lot of carbs!

Initially cutting just sugar may have helped as it lowered your carb intake then. Carbs may have crept up or your insulin resistance may have got worse in the face of the carbfest diet during the last two years.

Heres jo’s Blog with her info. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/

and https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/ for food ideas

also https://www.dietdoctor.com/ for more food ideas and general info of carb content of foods. Lots of other websites for recipes out there too. Just use the term low carb or keto with whatever you fancy.

Fat will replace carbs and help maintain weight, and resistance training would be great if you can do it.

IMPORTANT: if you lower your carbs then some diabetic meds need to be adjusted accordingly to make sure you aren’t taking more than your new diet requires. It can cause a hypo if you have more gliclazide or insulin than your carb intake requires. Ideally do this with your dr.Please don’t be put off by an ill informed out dated rubbishing of low carb diets or being told you should eat carbs to match meds. It’s the other way round!
 
No fruit (save for avocados) no cereal, no pasta, no beer, no underground vegetables

LOTS of fish, meat, bacon, eggs, chicken, stews and fats
 
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