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Trying low carb and not taking Metformin

Charis1213

Well-Known Member
Messages
513
Location
Lincolnshire
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I have been doing the low carb diet and haven't taken the Metformin prescribed as I have mental illness and frightened of medication because of a bad experience with antidepressants.
So I have started low carb and loving it , not feeling hungry at all , i am full of energy i am sleeping better my joints are less painful, my skin looks better and the best part i have lost six pounds in weight since last Friday .

I found my blood reader and hubby phoned for some testing strips and lancets . should be here tomorrow. I'm hoping my numbers have dropped with the weight loss and i plan to test what spikes my sugar , I love porridge oats and I have been making oat crumble with butter and a teaspoon of honey with apple and blueberries, i am not keen on custard so have putting a small serving of evaporated milk on (none sweetened) .

I feel amazing I really do , its like a miracle lol . The results are so fast with low carb.

I've been making oven chips from swede and they are delicious had haddock and swede chips with garden peas last night , and i am really enjoying this diet so far . I have been taking sugar in my coffee but i am weaning myself off it slowly .

I'd love to have cream in coffee and on my oat crumble but i can't eat fresh cream it makes me ill . That's why i have the evaporated milk instead . I also can't eat artificial sugars and I am intolerant to bananas and other fruit with latex , I know i sound a right pain in the backside lol .

Do you think my numbers will have dropped with the weight loss or am I living in hope ?

Thanks for reading hope i didn't bore you all xx
 
If you have stopped eating some foods which are high carb then you will probably see improvement from that time to now - but oats, apples, honey, evaporated milk, are not on the low carb food list. You could still be having high blood glucose after eating those foods, even though your weight has gone down.
 
It is early days yet but I'm glad to hear you being so positive!
 
Hi,
Well done, you will find out what suits your body.
Test your blood sugars pre food and 2 hours afterwards it will show food spikes etc.
Sorry to hear you have depression and poorly joints.
I have fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis to.
Take care
 
Thanks everyone, I didn't do the low carb diet last year when i got diagnosed I just cut calories and exercised and the weight dropped off,but this time i wanted to get results fast to lower the blood sugar numbers.

I hope I can still eat oats and the evaporated milk as i am restricted otherwise and my phobia of anything artificial makes me ill, as i said i cannot eat fresh cream because it causes me sickness the cream doesn't agree with me I've always had this problem ended up at emergency GP a few years back the pain was so bad , so i have to avoid it now .

I think I have to try testing once the strips and lancets come because I do a lot of exercise and so that will bring sugar down . I am a full time carer for my mum she's eighty five and in a wheelchair so i push that around quite often and i also walk at least an hour daily .



I just want to test then go from there and look for an alternative if the oats and evaporated milk are a sugar spike , won't know until i test . I also get the feeling the sugar numbers have dropped as i am not waking up nauseous and that was happening all the time for months until i cut the carbs, I think by eating the oats and evaporated milk and honey I'm probably medium carbs, but i feel i need to do it this way at least until i know what spikes the sugar .I will post here when I know the results .x
 
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I've recently been diagnosed. I've been low carb for the past 12 months and had been using sweet potatoes wedges instead of having chips - been self testing for a couple of weeks and discovered they send my sugars high. As does having a hot drink with lunch or tea (bizarrely breakfast is OK!) Good luck!
 
Hi all, My test strips and lancets came today, I've had breakfast lunch and coffee with one sugar , I did a test and it said 11. . I put the numbers in what the doctor said and it showed on the converter as 16 which means its down to 14.9 as my finger prick reading says 11 , is this right and if so my reading today is not bad ? I really get confused with this .
 
Thanks fancy a cup of tea or other hot drink raising sugar .
 
A blood glucose reading of 11 is not one to aim for - but was it 2 hours after the start of a meal? That is used as a 'telltale' time for the right amount of carbs to have eaten. I aim for under 6mmol/l these days - but I'm just that personality type to go at things full on. I was doing 7 but not losing weight.
If you test just before starting to eat, and then two hours later the increase is more than two whole numbers, then most low carbers consider that too much. It is just what works for most people.
 

Hi thanks for replying, I really can't understand it . Can you work out if my numbers have come down at all cos now I am confused ?

Also i did only get my test back last Frday , so i really hope it has dropped since then .
 
The Hba1c test which is used for diagnosis and 'status' is an indication of the average level of glucose in the blood for the last three months, so it is not possible to draw conclusions about it very easily.
I realized that mine had dropped quite rapidly, several points a week, but that was only possible after getting the result.
The continuous monitor devices can give an approximate Hba1c number, but without continuous data it isn't possible.
The main thing is to find out what you can eat without causing spikes - testing before and two hours after starting to eat is the usual way to do that, looking for meals which don't raise levels more than two whole numbers.
 
By the way - the oatmeal will be 2/3rds carbohydrate by weight, and the evaporated milk - you'll need to consult the label - the honey is mostly sugar - weighing and calculating the carb content of a meal then recording the rise in BG levels might be useful.
 

Please can you explain what you mean? If your meter said you were 11mmol/l then that is what it was. Which converter are you using? What is it converting it to? If you are trying to convert it to an HbA1c measurement it would be 70 or 8.6% but as the HbA1c is an average of your glucose levels over the past 2 to 3 months, you cannot convert your single test of 11mmol/l. You need a few months of tests taken several times a day before and after meals to do that.
 
Hi, well done for being positive and checking your post meal sugars to see what foods you can eat.
When I was first diagnosed 3 years ago I went on Metformin and a low carb diet (Atkins) and after 6 months my A1c was 34. I lost 20Kg and felt a lot better. Unfortunately after a couple of years I had to stop Metformin due to side effects, and my A1c went up to 38. I also found it a lot harder to lose weight and slowly gained 7Kg. But the fact that the A1c only went up by 4 points showed me that the main factor in reducing my A1c was the diet.
The low carb diet I follow is quite strict and I aim for a 2 hour post-meal blood sugar of less than 6.6, which I could not achieve eating your diet, (and don't always achieve eating my diet if I cheat!). The only fruit I eat is berries buts lots of green vegetables supply the vitamins. But we are all different and you will find what you can eat when you do the post-meal tests. Good luck!
 
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