Brilliant result
@Jono60 - you should feel extremely chuffed with that. Enviable indeed.
This will probably seem like a retort to
@HairySmurf but it isn't supposed to be, I think we agree on much more than we disagree.
The key to understanding the question you are asking (can I feel like I'm in control of my weight and how that effects blood sugar) is .. well, what is it that controls this, biologically?
The answer is undoubtedly - hormones - we have stimuli from things we eat, and stress and sleep, and genetics, and all sorts - and the result is that we produce certain hormones, and they drive our behaviour - in the cells, in the organs, and as whole humans (like, we feel hungry, or motivated to do that exercise or not).
All of that is (at least in my mind) totally beyond question, and non-controversial. Take one step beyond that, into which hormones, and in response to what types of food, and why, and you get into much more tricky territory. There are agendas, biases, and .. it's just difficult to explain and prove, so a lot of what is said as fact, is really opinion.
For me - I think that safely reversing T2DM is a challenging task, that has to take into account the individual, their beliefs and willingness to learn and motivation to change for the long term. That's a world away from what you are asking though. For anyone not trying to reverse the effects of 10-20 years of a thing slowly happening to them, it's a much more fundamental question -
What really is healthy lifestyle given the choices available?
And - it's a tricky question to answer - there is a flood of articles in every type of media every day, selling this view, or that product, or this diet or that supplement. it's overwhelming (and in my opinion deliberately so).
It's somewhat surprising to look into the history of nutrition, and food production, and medicine, and realise that the current way of thinking is actually fairly new, somewhat knee-jerk and based on fairly shaky evidence ... but it's enormously entrenched.
Go a little back - and for hundreds of years, the prevailing view was that "sugars and starches are fattening".
People did more, and generally had less to eat, but I think it still works as a maxim to live by.
I don't think (and I'm way way down the metabolism rabbit hole) it ever needed to be more complicated than that. Much of the complication comes from a refusal to accept that the current thinking might be wrong - "we can explain this new paradox if we invoke that this particular fatty acid chain is more prevalent in this particular food, so this population that eats this food is different to the rest of us" - most of the thinking is just nonsense, as Mr Occam would attest.
or put more specifically - everything still has an effect; you have to see your whole life as a balance, and we are complicated and unique... but sugars and starches are fattening because they drive insulin - and when insulin is high, you cannot help but store energy as fat, and drive the feedback loop that is insulin resistance, so it just makes you less likely to be healthy in the long term.
You will know, yourself, whether you are feeling well, and whether your weight or waist size is creeping up - there are many ways to keep tabs on it, and you will know what works for you - do whatever you feel most comfortable with, but just know that the biggest lever you can pull, is the one marked "sugars and starches".
