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Weight loss dilemma

S

summer dreamer

Well-Known Member
Messages
58
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all, I have a dilemma at present and would welcome your thoughts. I was diagnosed back in May and am diet controlled. For the first few months I ate lchf and gradually lost a stone, however my weight loss then stalled completely and I was unable to lose any more, also my cholesterol rocketed. I've recently had surgery which has drastically reduced my mobility too. In desperation I have joined slimming world and do seem to be gradually losing on it, however my bg levels have gone up. I have about 2 1/2 stone to lose.

So what is most important? Eating lchf which kept bg down but cholesterol high. Losing the weight but bg running high? Really not sure which way to go?

Thanks in advance, Summer x
 
No BS / weight figures in your post so VERY hard to start. Not your fault but it should be a lesson to others. Suggest we can't offer anything without some further information to work on ....

What are your readings at the moment? What's your weight? What's your diet? There's a connection between those elements. High cholesterol and high bs are not ideal at all. Can you fill in the gaps?

Mike
 
and if I had to write one down, it'd be that as well
 
What sort of things were you eating on the LCHF diet? Most but not all notice an improvement in their lipid profile on it but there are those who see an increase. I do think that you can get carried away with eating too much fat if you are overweight as ( and I include myself in here) portion control is not always one of our strengths. So if you were cooking everything in butter, drinking bulletproof coffee and cream with everything, maybe give it go again, but use more unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado, few nuts. The old red day on Slimming World may have less effect on BS as carbs were heavily restricted on it.
 
Sorry Mike, figures.........cholesterol on lchf went from 3.6 to 6 but blood sugars stayed consistently in the 5s. Weight was 92.5kg, now down to 86kg, but should be about 70kg. Blood sugars on slimming world are around 6 prior to a meal and in the 9s 2 hours after.
I'm vegetarian so was eating lots of eggs and cheese on lchf, slimming world I kinda have to do green being veggie and the group leader said it was fine to do being diabetic, using wholemeal pasta etc.
Feeling like however I eat my body is trying to kill me !!!

Summer x
 
I think slimming world's green diet is what made me diabetic with the unlimited spuds, pasta and rice. Eggs aren't bad for cholesterol as dietary cholesterol is different from the stuff we make ourselves as far as I can understand it. Cheese I tend to eat in moderation mainly because of he calories. If you look on the what have you eaten thread in the low carb forum there's plenty of veggie suggestions and there's a veggie recipe thread too. Also I have read that cholesterol can go up initially on weight loss. What was your lipid profile like as it is the HDL and trigs that really matter.
 
Thanks coldethyl, I can't remember specifically but it was the HDL that had increased so dramatically, they've put me on statins now because of it. I'm desperate to get the weight off as I've now had 3 lots of surgery on a hip injury and know that it's deteriorating relatively fast.
Hubby thinks I should stick with slimming world green but may need metformin too. Is that admitting defeat?

Summer x
 
I take Metformin - it reduces appetite a bit and helps a bit with fasting levels.. Has limited effect on BS in general though does have some impact on LDL cholesterol I think. Do you mean HDL or LDL as I understood HDL is meant to be high - it's the LDL they worry about though there's debate about whether LDL figure is enough and it is type of particle size and number that matter more. I would be very wary of Slimming world tbh - green days especially. I seem to recall @Avocado Sevenfold who is also veggie blaming them for her weight gain ..
 
HDL is good! It needs to be up. The triglycerides need to be very low (under 1.7) as they are the main culprits. Your total cholesterol of 6 is much less important and fairly meaningless on its own. Perhaps you should get a print out of the results so you know exactly where you stand.

I wonder if you weren't getting the right balance in your lchf diet. If you follow this diet conscientiously, you should lose weight and your lipids should improve. There are obviously exceptions to the rule!

Personally I would stay away from Slimming World and Weight Watchers. Too many carbs.
 
No worries at all .... but are you eating pasta ?? Mike
 
You could go against the tide in here and go no major carbs and extra veg and give the HF the flick.(that might bring your cholesterol down etc)

My specialist put me on no major carbs and extra veg and it worked fine for me. My heart specialist is happy too.

When it came to a conflict between forum advice and my specialist advice I chose my specialist (he is not free I pay for it) and I have not regretted it.
 
Thanks guys, I am slowly getting more active but have had pretty major surgery on my hip, yoga is banned by my consultant, too much risk of dislocating my hip completely unfortunately and I'm only just walking without crutches, will be getting back in the pool soon though.
It's complicated as I am fighting a few health battles which almost conflict with each other in their management!
1 : I need to manage my diabetes in the best way possible.
2 : I need to keep my cholesterol down - brother had a heart attack at 48.
3 : very high genetic risk of bowel cancer - hence the vegetarian diet.
4 : I have to get the weight off to protect my hip for as long as possible, not to mention helping all of the above.

#sigh

Will keep testing and experimenting.

Summer x
 
Hi @summer dreamer
You've listed four things that you need to achieve and I believe you can do all of these with one diet, that is Low Carb. LC will bring down your blood sugars, very possibly to non-diabetic levels and also, possibly, in due course, remove the need for any diabetic medication. There are many who have done this, and even if you don't get quite that far, you will have ticked number one.
No. 2. Cholesterol. There is much evidence out there that says that cholesterol levels have little, if any influence over whether you have a heart attack or not and that for mature women, higher is generally better. Most of the cholesterol in your body is produced by your own liver and has nothing to do with diet. However, most people on LC find that, after a time, LDL cholesterol levels do come down and triglycerides drop down very low. If cholesterol and fats in your blood worry you, LC is a good way to be healthy. Forget the high fat bit for now.
No. 3. Cancer. There is a rising tide of opinion that says that cancer cells are fed by glucose and that some (?) / many (?) cancers can be held in check or reduced by going on a strict LC diet.
4. Weight. Eating carbs causes the body to produce insulin. Insulin is the fat building hormone. Many people have lost lots of weight by going low carb. This is basically what Atkins was on about.

To achieve the above, you have to do Low Carb properly. That is no sugars, cakes, biscuits, sweeties, honey, sugary drinks etc. You also need to give up, almost entirely, all flour products (bread, pasta, biscuits, cake etc), all cereals (breakfast cereals, porridge, rice), potatoes and similar roots and avoid most fruit, the exception for many people being strawberries/raspberries/blueberries, which contain less sugar than tropical fruits. If you do this properly, and you don't have to do it all at once, or any of it today (christmas day) it has the ability to change you life.

good luck
Sally
 
Hello Sally,

Just to add to your post.

Re giving up - all the flour products (anything made from grains)

The smart way to go is learn to cook with nut flours,so you do not have to give up anything

Pick 2 nut flours - I chose coconut flour and almond meal because they are very different

Pick 1 gluten replacement - I chose Xantham Gum it is available in major super markets and specialty shops and is in a lot of commercial products so you have already eaten it.

Pick 1 an oil because coconut flour needs added oil - I chose olive oil

You also need baking powder to make the equivalent of Self Raising Flour.
I also use desiccated coconut to bulk out recipes but it is not necessary.
Extra egg helps lack of gluten too.

Pick any recipe and work out how to adapt it using the above. Some recipes can turn out better than the original flour recipes - eg pancakes.

Experimenting can be fun I found Strawberry jam can be made with Xanthan GUm and sweetener in a microwave. Frozen strawberries took 8 minutes to thaw and cook, I use it as jam but also eat it with a spoon in a trifle.

As for cholesterol and the quasi conflicting "facts". Anyone can believe what they choose but heart surgery is drama personified - I only got a pacemaker but my cardiologist convinced me that eating excess fats is not worth the risk.

It is not political, words change nothing - I assess my risk and anything I can do that might help avoid heart surgery, or my early demise is my first choice.

So, as for diet, others can spruik the benefits of LCHF but the safest option for me has to be no major carbs with extra veg.




 
Hi,

This is how it seems to work for MY body (I'm not claiming anyone else's does the same, but heck, I'm unlikely to be the only human that this happens for...)

If I keep my blood glucose steady, I produce less insulin, and I can eat a lot of calories without gaining weight (I low carb). This means I slowly and effortlessly lose weight.

But as soon as I eat higher carbs (any rice, bread, pasta, etc. AT ALL) my BG rises mean that my poor pancreas flogs itself to produce the insulin to bring my BG down - and that excess BG gets tucked away as fat. So I have to be careful about portion sizes and calorie intake. I also retain water. It is VERY difficult for me to lose weight like this.

I may be much more carb sensitive than you. I have several factors which cause me insulin resistence. You may not.

But personally, I wouldn't touch one of those diet organisations with a barge pole. Their diets are simply not designed for my insulin resistant type 2 body.
They say stupid things like 'a little of what you fancy...'
- I say that will set off 3 day carb cravings.
And, they say 'no food is a sin'
- ok, it may not be a sin, but if it spikes my BG to 10, I'll be up half the night widdling, and that level of blood sugar is killing my remaining beta cells, so no thanks!

I recognise your concerns about cholesterol - and I would be concerned too, in your situation. But cholesterol is no longer considered the best marker for heart attack risk.

Did they give you a fasting cholesterol test, with a full lipid profile? It is the triglyceride number you need to be watching. It is far more important than your total figure (unless your total figure is silly-high).
They can also test for inflammation markers, which are very informative.

But, please bear in mind that I am not vegetarian, or have your family history - I can only speak from personal experience.
 
I'm with Sally. If you are concerned about your cholesterol ( and I must admit I do a bit as it is too high and I want to avoid statins even though I have a family history of CVD) then focus on the low carbing element of the diet and don't go too high fat. So you could use cottage cheese in place of some cheese, lower fat dairy ( but check carbs ) and use olive oil instead of lashings of butter. Flax seeds have been shown to lower cholesterol naturally and are good for the bowels and heart as a source of omega 3. Nuts also have cholesterol lowering properties, as does green tea.
 
curiosity has got me, you may have a lot of weight to lose. if not, if you aren't eating carbs and you aren't eating more fats to replace some of the energy, what are you eating besides lc veg, it seems to only leave protein?
you may find the scientific studies indicate that reduced carbs lower lipoproteins and lipids
 

G'day Jack,
My diet is as directed by my encro specialist and with periodic blood tests and consultations and has been ongoing for 9 months with me being directed to make no changes so far.

No dramas my energy levels have risen a bit with weight loss and as I lose weight he wants me to reintroduce some more carbs.

My evening meals are "normal meat and 3 veg" as they serve up anywhere but instead of potato I have zuccini and pumpkin as extra veg.
Sometimes I have spag bol but instead of spaghetti I have zuccini strips
Instead of rice I have grated cauleflower
Instead of bread I make nut flower pancakes or cakes
We do a lot of slow cooking, and BBQ, and microwave veg
Lunches are mostly salad and ham or tinned fish
Breakfast is leftovers or diet jelly and a small amount of allbran
I eat a banana most days and it fixed my low potassium problem which was making me feel unwell (so the doc said)

My weight loss has stopped and now if I want to lose weight I will have to reduce portions. I should lose another 10KG but I woud be happy with 5 KG but I have lost 20 without portion control.

The advice was: nothing grain related, no potato or sweet potato no sugars of any kind, limited fruit, no dried fruit, definitely no grapes.

I told him it was easy and he said a lot of his patients do not find it easy - I have thought about it and I think baking/cooking with nut flours is what makes it easy in the "mind game" sense. Some effort is required and eating out has problems.

Eating out has got easier now I can do a 1/2 a subway without a dramatic rise in BS. But it does no help my weight loss.
 
ok, that explains it, you are still in weight loss mode and using body fat. you should be ok with what you're eating then
 
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