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Weight loss

G

gillin1

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
What's the thing people eat to loss weight with diabetes 2 I have lost some but still more to go not sure what foods would keep my blood sugar steady but help with weight loss thanks any ideas would be helpful
 
If you have access to a dietician, they should be able to help. Yes, it may cost if you have no insurance, but it could be worth it.

As well ask the Dr. for a referral to a diabetic clinic, most are free and offer good ideas.

Lots of info on line too.
 
gillin1 said:
What's the thing people eat to loss weight with diabetes 2 I have lost some but still more to go not sure what foods would keep my blood sugar steady but help with weight loss thanks any ideas would be helpful
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A lot of T2 members here choose to seriously decrease their carb intake. I'm not particularly knowledgeable on diets, but I'll tag a couple of members for you @Kenny and @ianf0ster . You may also want to check out the Success Stories

Success Stories and Testimonials

Lowered your HbA1c? Lost some weight? Maybe you’re proud of something someone else has done. Whatever it may be, share it here!
www.diabetes.co.uk

I can also send you a link to 'Jos Nutritional Thingy' , which has some very good info.

Thread 'Jo's Nutritional Thingy'

There’s a few things you should know.

1. Practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, so not just straight sugars, but starches too. Food doesn’t have to taste sweet to make your blood sugars skyrocket.

2. A meter helps you know what foods agree with you, and which don’t. Test before and 2 hours after the first bite. If you go up more than 2.0 mmol/l, the meal was carbier than you could handle. (It’s easy to remember, as you’re a T2: all 2’s, all over the place!)

3. In case you didn’t know already, this isn’t your fault. It’s genetics, medication, decades of...
 
gillin1 said:
What's the thing people eat to loss weight with diabetes 2 I have lost some but still more to go not sure what foods would keep my blood sugar steady but help with weight loss thanks any ideas would be helpful
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Hi and welcome to the forums.

I'd turn your question round. It's not that I eat things to lose weight, it's what I don't eat that matters.

I didn't set out to lose weight, my main intention was to get my BG back to normal. So in December 2019 (I was eventually diagnosed after being told for years that I wasn't diabetic) I dropped almost all carbs. The reason for this is that carbs are digested to glucose, which raises glucose levels throughout the body, and raised glucose levels over time will cause physical damage.

This has meant no potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, pastry, most fruit, cereals/porridge, beer, sugar etc. You'll see that these are all starchy or sugary carb foods. I still don't eat very much carb, around 20g/day and what I do eat comes from vegetables - eg green veg, onions, tomatoes.

In 2020 my BG went from diabetic levels in January to normal four months later and has stayed there.

I didn't lose a lot of weight at first, but from 2021-3 lost quite a bit - probably around 40kg or 6 stones. I don't really know what I weighed when I started as my scales wouldn't go that high. I didn't do any exercise during weight loss. I've restarted that now I'm at an ideal weight and don't risk injuring myself too much running about.

What I do know for sure is that my waist size was 42/44 inches in 2020 and is now 32 inches. I've not had an HbA1c reading out of normal range since January 2020.

Almost all my meals are just "normal meals" with the carb items excluded. I don't use supplements or anything like that, but I do buy low carb "bread" and zero carb beer. I eat lots of meat and cheese, and occasionally some beans and legumes, as I've discovered I can deal with the level/type of carb they have - it helps a lot if you thoroughly rinse as much starch off as possible.

Official "healthy eating" advice from people in the NHS in the UK will be to base all your meals on starchy carbohydrates. This is based on the "Eatwell Guide" that is still the official answer to "what you should eat".

I would not advise anyone with a blood glucose issue to follow that advice, and I strongly suspect that diets heavy in carbohydrate and processed foods (such as have been recommended since the 1980s) are the major contributors to the rapid increases in Type 2 diabetes and obesity that started then.
 
gillin1 said:
What's the thing people eat to loss weight with diabetes 2 I have lost some but still more to go not sure what foods would keep my blood sugar steady but help with weight loss thanks any ideas would be helpful
Click to expand...
Hi @gillin1 There are 2 main approaches to both losing weight and keeping Blood glucose moderately low and steady (it always fluctuates even in non-diabetics).
They are: A). A very low calorie diet - see 'Newcastle diet' or Dr Michael Mosely's 'Fast 800 blood sugar diet'.
Or for better results, B). A Low Carbohydrate 'way of eating' - not a 'diet' as such since you can eat as much as you want, just reduce the carbohydrates.
B). is the most popular one on this forum and the one I used to get into and maintain T2D remission for over 5yrs now.
As mentioned above, a good link for beginners is https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/jos-nutritional-thingy.210026/

Things like additional exercise and Intermittent Fasting are easier done after weight has been lost and Blood Glucose reduced. I only added those after I became 'fat adapted' and so no longer felt hungry at breakfast time.

One big reason why Low Carb gives better results over low calorie or very low calorie diets is that there is no hunger. This makes it lifelong sustainable. Another is that there is some evidence that Very Low Carb can also improve mental health (Depression, Bi-Polar and Schizophrenia) outside of just feeling better due to weight loss, BG normalisation and being able to reduce or even come completely of some medicines.

Pilot study shows ketogenic diet improves severe mental illness

A small clinical trial led by Stanford Medicine found that the metabolic effects of a ketogenic diet may help stabilize the brain.
med.stanford.edu

Some people worry about high LDL cholesterol on a low carb way of eating, but low carb patients of several GP practices (including those of Dr Davin Unwin and the Freshwell practice) show no significant increase in LDL and in many cases a decrease in LDL on low carb, as well as improved HDL and Triglycerides. Anecdotal evidence from this forum backs this up with the exception of the experience of several slim T2 Diabetics (who have never been overweight), for some reason in some of those their LDL does increase despite the usual beneficial changes in HDL and Triglycerides. - I'm one of those and I still use Low Carb to maintain my 5yr T2D remission.
 
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I tried so many diets to lose weight. They either didn't work or were not long term answers. My doctor recommended the GI diet. I put on 8 pounds in 2 weeks on that one.

I gave up. I tried to eat 'healthily' switching to wholemeal bread etc but I was always hungry.

My son and I used to have bacon sandwiches for breakfast. I was always ravenously hungry by 10 a.m. at the latest. One day I was short of bread so I gave that to my son and I just had the same amount of bacon as usual, with no bread.

I worked hard that morning as I had more energy than usual. I happened to glance at the clock and it was 1 p.m.! I wasn't even very hungry then. It didn't make sense. How could less food satisfy me for longer? At that point I wasn't diabetic and had never heard of a low carb way of eating. I experimented with cutting out bread, pasta, flour, rice (I had stopped having sugary things years before) and found that I felt better and began to lose weight.

So for me a low carb way of eating has been the answer. It found me when I wasn't looking for it, so no confirmation bias there, just my body showing me the way.

The new weight loss drugs are said to work by lessening the appetite. Low carb did that for me without any nasty side effects.

My non diabetic husband and my daughter in law have also lost weight following the low carb leaflet that my doctor's surgery now give to T2s.
 
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