Was advised against low carb diet

[Doctorpdb]

I have been following a low carb diet, lost a lot of weight, cut down on both oral medicines and dosage of insulin. I was quite happy until I went for my dietetic appointment. There I was advised to up my carbs as the loss in weight was due to loss of fat certainly but also muscle.
I've got a balance just now, when I eat more carbs my blood sugars go up a lot and I need far more insulin. I also don't feel as well. Any advice out there? Should I be a rebel and stick to my diet or give in and up my carb intake? I should mention that my present diabetes doctor, a new person, wanted me to lose weight and try to get my insulin down. What should I do?

 

[Freema]

I havent lost a lot of muscle but I also make sure that I most days get a high amount of proteins...like at least 1 gram pro kg bodyweight.. some days even more after I have been lifting weight

 

[Resurgam]

Has the muscle loss been measured in some way?
It is just that when studies have been done on the low carb diets it was found that the weight lost was almost entirely fat - far more fat than lost by fasting, and at a greater rate than low calorie diets.

 

[Lamont D]

I have been following a low carb diet, lost a lot of weight, cut down on both oral medicines and dosage of insulin. I was quite happy until I went for my dietetic appointment. There I was advised to up my carbs as the loss in weight was due to loss of fat certainly but also muscle.
I've got a balance just now, when I eat more carbs my blood sugars go up a lot and I need far more insulin. I also don't feel as well. Any advice out there? Should I be a rebel and stick to my diet or give in and up my carb intake? I should mention that my present diabetes doctor, a new person, wanted me to lose weight and try to get my insulin down. What should I do?

How do you feel?
Is your general health better?
Have you more energy?
Was you happier?
Do you really want to rely on more meds?

It's your choice!

Have a look at the success stories forum, the answers are there!

Best wishes.

 

[Goonergal]

Personally I am targeting reducing blood sugar levels as my priority as keeping those as low as possible will give the best chance of avoiding future complications. My doctor offered an appointment with a dietitian, but I declined as I was confident about what I wanted to do with a low carb diet. My initial results were good and the doctor commented that 'whatever you're doing it's working '.

From what you say it sounds like your doctor is focused on reducing your sugar levels and your own evidence is that is easier - and you feel better - when reducing carbs so I'd tend to suggest following your instincts. Since you're taking insulin you do need to take care to get the balance right when reducing carbs. The doctor sounds like they might be supportive so how about a chat with them?

 

[Squire Fulwood]

There I was advised to up my carbs as the loss in weight was due to loss of fat certainly but also muscle.
Should I be a rebel and stick to my diet or give in and up my carb intake? I should mention that my present diabetes doctor, a new person, wanted me to lose weight and try to get my insulin down. What should I do?

My personal opinion is to do the latter. You could do muscle toning exercises if your muscles give concern but it is also my opinion that anyone who seeks weight loss should do this since I believe that in some cases weight loss is not just from fat.

Be a rebel and do some exercise.

 

[Winnie53]

You're doing great. Be a rebel!

Congrats on reducing your carbs, your weight, your glucose levels, your medications, and your insulin. Way to go girl!

The only way I know to increase muscle mass is by eating adequate protein and engaging in some form of physical exercise. When there are physical limitations, lots of chair exercise videos are available on YouTube. and adapted as needed. Hand weights can be used too.

Confused by the advice you received. That's a head scratcher.

My question to you would have been, if you're losing muscle mass - (and I should ask, are you?) - what is your daily protein intake? Do you need to increase it?

As for the carbs, it's hard to go wrong eating more non-starchy vegetables, a mix of raw and cooked. As a rule, I include healthy sources of protein and fat, and vegetables in every meal.

Congrats again. Well done!

 

[Oldvatr]

If you are running LC with very low carb input, then you may be entering ketosis, or fat burning mode. In this mode, the body burns up fat to produce ketones, which the brain cells and nerves use for energy instead of glucose. However, if there is insufficient fat (lipids) in the bloodstream, then the body scavenges muscle tissue instead. So on the LCHF diet I am on, we need to increase the fat intake to make sure we have ample fat reserves to burn as fuel to protect the muscles. It is only required when in ketosis mode, but can give muscle wastage if not compensated for, Note: initially, the fat stores in the liver and adipocytes provide the fat for fuel , but when these stores get depleted following weight loss from the midriff, then it is time to up the fat intake,
Not all LC diets compensate in this way, and Atkins#1got bad press as a result. They have revamped Atkins to correct this.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi Pauline,


Quite off topic, but may I point out it isn't a good idea to have your email address as your user name. This is a public forum. Any one in the world can read it. You are laying yourself open to spammers. Perhaps you should tag administrator and CaptainWard or Giverney to see if you can change it.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Keep up the low-carb diet as it will not be the reason for losing too much weight. The body is very good at stabilising your weight when it comes into the good range as long as you have enough proteins and fats. Personally I would ignore any advice to up the carbs. You body shouldn't burn muscle if you eat enough protein and fat and are taking insulin to match the carbs you do have.

 

[Winnie53]

I agree with Oldvatr. If you're not eating enough healthy fats throughout the day, that could be the problem.

 

[Oldvatr]

I agree with Oldvatr. If you're not eating enough healthy fats throughout the day, that could be the problem.

Just to add to this theme. Upping fat is a compensation and thus a preventative measure. It is easier than upping protein, since this only replaces muscle once it is lost, and therefore necessitates strenuous exercise to make the muscle. Thus protein is not preventative, it is rebuilding after the demolition has occurred.

 

[bulkbiker]

I was quite happy until I went for my dietetic appointment.

I'd carry on being happy just watch out for OD ing on insulin and going hypo as your sugars come down. I had a discssion today with an ex-nurse about carbs and diet. She started to say that her dietician friend said"essential carbs..."... I asked how long ago she was trained.. ooo about 25 years ago came back the reply... Things do move on

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

loss in weight was due to loss of fat certainly but also muscle.

As has been mentioned already, it might be a possibility but not a certainty. When I started my low carb journey, before I found this forum, I was consulting a Nutritional Therapist. I was having my weight measured by one of those scales that measures fat and muscle. I've actually had those same measurements done in a Bodpod at London University, Westminster and the results are identical to the scales so the scales are pretty accurate.

I'm pleased to say that the weight I lost was mainly fat with very little muscle loss at all.

Salter do a set of scales that do something similar and they're fairly accurate as well.

Most important is how do you feel? That's what you should base your decision on, rather than a dietetic specialist who isn't a diabetic specialist. I recently saw a diabetic specialist and the book on her desk was "The Low carb diabetes cookbook" which she was going to recommend. I'd beaten her to it.

 

[Robbity]

Contrary to what I was originally led to believe, our bodies aren't actually daft enough to start consuming our muscle -except perhaps in very dire circumstances as a last resort if we end up in "starvation mode".... As long as we're replacing carbs with enough (either body or dietary) fat for our energy requirements, our bodies will manage just fine without needing to munch up our muscles.

So if you're otherwise happy and healthy on your low carb diet, it's ultimately your body and your lifestyle choice, so stick with it.

Robbity

 

[azure]

Bumping for the benefit of the OP

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Perhaps ask for a referral to a dietitian, if they feel your diet is OK then your doctor cant argue with it, the one I saw was quite happy that I was only eating 60g of carbs a day and the only comment she made when looking at my weekly menu sheets was that I should really be eating more oily fish, but as I dont happen to like oily fish that was a non starter.

Not every hcp is anti low carb, I have experienced lots of interest when I have explained how I managed my T2 so well, in fact only yesterday I had to see the practice nurse to have a vit B12 injection and she seemed quite interested in how I had done so well, even when I explained how important I felt self testing was she didnt really have an argument against it when I explained briefly how it had helped me.

Give it a try as long as you are eating a diet of healthy whole foods and not ready meals and fast foods and getting enough vitamins and nutrients what can they say?

 

[covknit]

I have been following a low carb diet, lost a lot of weight, cut down on both oral medicines and dosage of insulin. I was quite happy until I went for my dietetic appointment. There I was advised to up my carbs as the loss in weight was due to loss of fat certainly but also muscle.
I've got a balance just now, when I eat more carbs my blood sugars go up a lot and I need far more insulin. I also don't feel as well. Any advice out there? Should I be a rebel and stick to my diet or give in and up my carb intake? I should mention that my present diabetes doctor, a new person, wanted me to lose weight and try to get my insulin down. What should I do?

I am sure every nation and GP have their own recommendations. I got this recommendation from the University of Dublin:-
The following recommendations have been set for individuals with type 2 diabetes (Colberg et al 2010):

• Aerobic exercise: A minimum of 150 minutes/week of moderate intensity or, in moderately fit people, 60 minutes/week of vigorous exercise
• Resistance exercise: At least 2-3 days/week of moderate (50% of one-repetition maximum) to vigorous resistance training (75-80% of one-repetition maximum)
• Unstructured physical activity: Increase total daily unstructured (commuting, occupational, home and leisure time) physical activity
• Combining aerobic and resistance exercise: Combined aerobic and resistance exercise is recommended as it is more effective than either one alone
• Exercise counseling: Structured exercise counseling is recommended, but it is more effective in combination with supervised exercise training (Balducci et al, 2010, 2012).
• Flexibility: This may be included as part of a physical activity programme, although it should not be a substitute for other training.

Adjunct modality: Low-volume high-intensity interval training (HIT)
Many individuals with T2D cite ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to regular participation in exercise programmes. High-intensity interval training (HIT) is physical exercise characterized by brief, intermittent bursts of vigorous activity. Low-volume HIT is emerging as a time-efficient exercise strategy for improving health and fitness in people with or at risk for cardiometabolic disorders.

A practical model of low-volume HIT consists of 10 × 60 seconds work bouts at a constant-load intensity that elicits ∼90% of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60 seconds of recovery. This means that only 10 minutes of exercise is performed over a 20 minutes training session (Gibala et al, 2012).

This practical, time-efficient HIT model is well tolerated by people with T2D, and preliminary studies suggest that it improves glycemic control (i.e regulation of blood sugar levels) in T2D (Little et al, 2011).

Because of the cardiorespiratory response in diabetes, exercise is harder than it is for the general population of the same age. With this in mind the university claim they reccomend ways of introducing more exercise into carrying out the normal daily routine. There are many athletes with diabetes so the VO2 is not necessarily a barrier to fitness as long as you build up to it gradually. As a regular way of monitoring your general fitness you might consider your personal variation of the 6 minute walk test. Health professionals use cones in a long hallway with a set regime of encouraging remarks at designated stages. We set a stop watch for 6 minutes and walk to the shops. Briskly, not running etc (no roads to negioate) when the alarm goes we note the address of the property we have got too. Do that once a month and at least you know how you are getting on and if you need to be concerned.
Since I do have links to reports you might like this one. A small participant group but it illustrates some of the issues to be considered.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21868679

 

[Bluetit1802]

I am sure every nation and GP have their own recommendations. I got this recommendation from the University of Dublin:-
The following recommendations have been set for individuals with type 2 diabetes (Colberg et al 2010):

• Aerobic exercise: A minimum of 150 minutes/week of moderate intensity or, in moderately fit people, 60 minutes/week of vigorous exercise
• Resistance exercise: At least 2-3 days/week of moderate (50% of one-repetition maximum) to vigorous resistance training (75-80% of one-repetition maximum)
• Unstructured physical activity: Increase total daily unstructured (commuting, occupational, home and leisure time) physical activity
• Combining aerobic and resistance exercise: Combined aerobic and resistance exercise is recommended as it is more effective than either one alone
• Exercise counseling: Structured exercise counseling is recommended, but it is more effective in combination with supervised exercise training (Balducci et al, 2010, 2012).
• Flexibility: This may be included as part of a physical activity programme, although it should not be a substitute for other training.

Adjunct modality: Low-volume high-intensity interval training (HIT)
Many individuals with T2D cite ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to regular participation in exercise programmes. High-intensity interval training (HIT) is physical exercise characterized by brief, intermittent bursts of vigorous activity. Low-volume HIT is emerging as a time-efficient exercise strategy for improving health and fitness in people with or at risk for cardiometabolic disorders.

A practical model of low-volume HIT consists of 10 × 60 seconds work bouts at a constant-load intensity that elicits ∼90% of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60 seconds of recovery. This means that only 10 minutes of exercise is performed over a 20 minutes training session (Gibala et al, 2012).

This practical, time-efficient HIT model is well tolerated by people with T2D, and preliminary studies suggest that it improves glycemic control (i.e regulation of blood sugar levels) in T2D (Little et al, 2011).

Because of the cardiorespiratory response in diabetes, exercise is harder than it is for the general population of the same age. With this in mind the university claim they reccomend ways of introducing more exercise into carrying out the normal daily routine. There are many athletes with diabetes so the VO2 is not necessarily a barrier to fitness as long as you build up to it gradually. As a regular way of monitoring your general fitness you might consider your personal variation of the 6 minute walk test. Health professionals use cones in a long hallway with a set regime of encouraging remarks at designated stages. We set a stop watch for 6 minutes and walk to the shops. Briskly, not running etc (no roads to negioate) when the alarm goes we note the address of the property we have got too. Do that once a month and at least you know how you are getting on and if you need to be concerned.
Since I do have links to reports you might like this one. A small participant group but it illustrates some of the issues to be considered.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21868679

Goodness. I'm glad I don't live in Ireland!!

 

[covknit]

Goodness. I'm glad I don't live in Ireland!!

and every one of the group are young and into sport and dieting. Lol. I have reached the age were I can remember how sporty some people used to be. Sadly not all of them are still around. Happily I am not yet of an age were I have to say the same for the people whose main exercise was getting to the pub or restaurant.