• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 2: Fasting Experiment To Lower Bg

This is a completely new concept to me and this thread was one of the first I came across in my research. It is like a really good novel: couldn’t stop reading until the end!
I have learned so much from your journey so far. Thank you for taking the time and effort to log it.
Can I ask (because I must have missed it in the thread) how many times a day you test your BG? You must be using hundreds of strips and lancets
 

Probably around 4-7 times, mainly to see what effect the food is having.
 
Thank you for your quick response.
 
Feeling really full of cold today. Over the last few weeks I have been low in energy, and eating too much after the BP meds fiasco, where I reacted badly to Ramipril. I was just starting to get over that, when I was put on Losartan by my doctor. This had worse side effects than the Ramipril. After only one tablet I felt extremely fatigued. After the next dose a day later I was dragging myself around, feeling like my whole body was made of lead. I made the decision to stop taking them, and deal with the blood pressure through exercise.

A couple of days later, having missed two doses, I feel much better energy-wise, even with a cold. I did more exercise yesterday than I have done for weeks, and finally got back into the mid 5s, for the first time since the Ramipril fiasco.

I tracked my blood sugar during that period, and it is higher than normal for me - probably die to eating too much due to extremely low energy, and also because I was unable to do more than a token amount of exercise. Interestingly you can actually see when I started the BP medication as the blood sugar readings went up and stayed up. Before the meds I was consistently in the 5s most of the time. After, mainly high 6s and 7s.

I am not suggesting people should not take BP medication, but my BP was not really high - it was in the 140s, and the medication had such a dreadful effect on me I am reluctant to go that route when I had already lowered it quite a lot using exercise before the medication started.

At some point I will go back to fasting, but at the moment I am concentrating on keeping the carbs low - 10-20g per day, and making sure fluid intake is good and the exercise targets are met.
 

Hi Allie, I follow your thread with interest. Well done on your progress, and thanks for sharing the details. It looks like you hit a landmine along the way. Your current approach with LC only seems completely sensible to me.

A couple of years ago and 6 stone heavier I had high BP, now I can have very low BP sometimes as low as 85/55. Carb restriction along with calorie restriction can put me really low and dizzy, so I have to curb my enthusiasm and play it safer. I also find it is necessary to take some table salt and potassium ( Low Salt brand is high in potassium ).

So just sharing an experience, it may not relate to you, but might provide info for someone else reading the thread. Hope you feel better soon.
 
Last edited:
Back for an update after a long gap. I have had a massively stressful few weeks - my Mum was taken ill and admitted to hospital as an emergency and thankfully is OK now, but I had to spend a week there stopping her doing too much. When you are in your fifties it is hard to go back home, especially if you are having to set the ground rules for someone who is used to being very independent.

We went on holiday to recover from the stress, and on day two found out that my husband had been defrauded on his credit card via his mobile phone number, which had been stolen (they requested a PAC code, which the mobile phone company gave them). In an area with hardly any phone reception, that was really hard to deal with and took up most of the holiday, and ramped up the stress levels rather than bringing them down.

Unfortunately I crumbled a bit under the pressure and stress and was not eating keto, or measuring blood sugar, so that will have had an impact. I managed to pull myself out of that after around a week, when I felt dreadful because of the carbs - not lots but clearly too many for me.

So here I am, back to eating to my meter, with good results in the 5s and 6s again after only a few days back on the horse. I am exercising plenty every day - another thing that slipped due to fatigue and stress - and already feeling much better.

I am still shocked at how bad I felt, both physically and mentally after a few days of uncontrolled eating. I am still feeling my way around, and have had to limit veggies to small amounts and raw, rather than cooked, as anything other than small quantities of very lightly cooked or raw veggie spike the blood sugar. Veggies for me at the moment are mainly avocado and olives with around half a pepper. Keeping them fatty seems to help. Veggies are the thing I miss, as I used to eat a lot of them, but it is no sacrifice if it keeps me healthy.

My blood pressure is still higher than it should be, but not bad considering the stress of the last few weeks, and the stress of being in the surgery - it goes up with the dreaded white coat syndrome. I have seen that there is a self reporting form for BP on my doctor's website, so I will be filling that in once a week to see if that is coming down.

I will be posting a bit more regularly with progress. So far I have dropped around 5 pounds this week, which will be retained water from carbs. I am hoping to get a chunk off by Christmas and get close to the 210s by the end of the year. I am 252.2lb at the moment, so here we go!
 
Last edited:
Hi @AllieRainbow I just noticed your "dreaded white coat syndrome" I have had that for quite some years now and this new doctor i go to, still insist on taking it 3 times in a row and needless to say it's higher all the time. Wish they would listen to me and just except my own blood pressure kit readings. Am on a blood pressure tablet but had to halve it after losing almost 3 stone. Hoping to get off it completely and just do it rather then telling the doc.
 
Wow you have been through the wars a bit.. have a big hug from me and welcome back home!
 
bulkbiker said:
Wow you have been through the wars a bit.. have a big hug from me and welcome back home!
Click to expand...
Thank you! I just need to work on dealing with stress better - I think I had better get back to the meditation classes once they start again in September.
 
AllieRainbow said:
Thank you! I just need to work on dealing with stress better - I think I had better get back to the meditation classes once they start again in September.
Click to expand...
How about trying a free trial if the mindfulness app “Headspace” meanwhile? There’s a ten part simple meditation series that’s free and only 10mins a time. I’d recommend the app as you can do anytime and Just a few mins a day
 
Back again for an update.

I have just come back from a short camping trip, which was not without its complications...

When we got there after a nearly 2 hour drive, we realised that I had picked up the wrong set of car keys, and had my daughters instead of a spare set for our car. Doh! So then I had to drive back to deliver the keys and make the house secure. At 1am I was driving back, when we found that my daughter could not get into the house as her front door key no longer worked. We had left the car keys in the house, so that was no use. We got back home at 2.15am and decided to stay the night.

The one positive was that when we got back to the campsite, we had set up the tent the day before, so it felt like someone else had set everything up for us. That was a good feeling after the disasters of the day before.

We then got to experience camping in lovely sunny weather, and although we only had a couple of days, it was wonderfully relaxing and the stress just melted away.

I am going to get a smaller tent next year for lone camping trips, as it was instant relaxation and I slept like a baby every night. Next time I will take my blood pressure monitor with me to see what effect it has, and I am planning to do several writing retreats so I can work away for the noise and bustle of our technology dominated lives.

The food could have been better, so I am buckling down this week and keeping carbs as low as possible, and getting plenty of exercise in to make sure that I can keep everything under control when I go camping.

I will be working on evening out blood sugar and getting little lower on the next HbA1c test.
 
hi
i just wanted to say great work and ask how you were doing now
and if you take any diabetes medication or did
before you began
 
cdpm said:
hi
i just wanted to say great work and ask how you were doing now
and if you take any diabetes medication or did
before you began
Click to expand...
I am starting to get better numbers now, and have not taken any diabetes medication. My 2nd HbA1c was 42, so I am very happy with that result so far, although I feel I have a long way to go with adapting emotionally to the challenges of diabetes.
 
Last edited:
I am feeling lot more in control today. I have been feeling quite resentful of the diabetes over the last couple of weeks, which has made it hard to stick to a low carb diet. I have had a couple little lapses, and really need to get my head around the whole issue of having diabetes, and that it is a permanent condition.

I was really starting to miss things like bread, and having days where I didn't really know what to eat at all except for meat, fish and full fat dairy.

Fortunately I have revisited the Headbanger's Kitchen YouTube channel and website, and decided to try his 90 second mug bread. I have adapted the recipe a little, and have a great recipe I can use when I want to eat something bready.

This makes around 6 slices, and has around 1.5g of carbs per 40g slice.

90g almond flour/meal
2 eggs
(HK uses 1 egg and 10g butter per 30g almond meal - I forgot the butter and realised it didn't make any difference)
1-2 tsp psyllium husk
0.5 tsp xantham gum
0.25 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp water (I have added this instead of a third egg in order to reduce the eggy taste.

If making a smaller quantity, reduce the xantham gum to 0.25 tsp. The psyllium husk can be reduced if wanted, but it provides a little fibre and makes the texture a little more bread like. Reduce the water so the batter isn't too runny.

You can omit the xantham gum and psyllium husk if wanted, they are there to improve the texture.

Mix the above ingredients in a microwaveable mug or plastic container - I use a sistema medium microwave soup mug (656ml).
It should be a thickish batter - make sure you incorporate all the ingredients.

Microwave for 90 seconds, up to 45 seconds more if needed.

Turn out onto a plate and slice.

You can eat it as it is, toast it, or fry it in butter. It has a similar texture and size to a sliced English muffin.

I add black pepper, Himalayan salt, chilli flakes, herbs, or little chunks of cheese or bacon to it for flavour.

Two or three slices of this are also ridiculously filling and keep you feeling full for hours. It makes a great breakfast open sandwich with avocado and bacon, and is great with peanut butter on after either toasting it or frying in butter.

I have managed to keep my carbs pretty low after adapting that recipe, and I am feeling a lot better about things - it is amazing how a single recipe can make so much difference. I actually got a 5.4 for the first time in a few weeks.
 
Last edited:
Your experiences are a mirror image of my own, as I take a similar journey. You cannot believe how much reading your posts is helping and motivating me.
I hope my next blood test is as outstandingly improved as yours.
 
I am seeing better blood sugar control now, and eating less. I have upped my activity level considerably, so feeling a little tired, but seeing the benefits in blood sugar control and weight loss. I have seen the return of the foot cramps at night, though, so I think I need to start having a magnesium foot bath at night to see if that works, and add a little more salt to my diet.

Mood wise, I am feeling a lot better. I have been sorting out a lot of jobs in the house, and this is creating a calmer environment for me. I am feeling a bit less pessimistic about the diabetes. I suspect lots of stress from other issues has not helped, and I noticed a rise when I was particularly stressed on Thursday, which then went down as I started to feel calmer.

Food wise, I now feel a bit better about food choices and less baffled about what to eat. I think having a menu to go to if I am feeling like that will help get past those issues. I suspect it is just part of the process of getting used to being diagnosed with a chronic health condition that could have very negative consequences if not carefully managed.

If I can get my weight going reliably downwards, I am sure I will feel a little more in control. At the moment, I am not worrying too much about calories, as I think they will limit themselves if I make the right food choices to manage the blood sugar, as portion size seems to be a factor as well as what is eaten.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…