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What am i doing wrong.....

bigjim2015

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi All,
I was diagnosed just over a month ago with type 2 diabetes, and was put on Metformin (2000mg a day), then when i see the diabetic nurse she said i would need insulin also (which refused) - I have made an agreement with her that if my readings are not improved by my next visit i would go on insulin.
My fasting readings had been as high as 19.6 and i spent most my time in the mid twenties.

I am very over weight (25 stone) and after reading this forum i knew that doing a very low carb diet would suite me well, bring down my sugars and help me lose weight. I have spent HOURS researching diabetes and the low carb diet. I was that convinced that i could do this, that i havent bothered with my medication.

So i have been doing the low carb diet for about 4 weeks.... I have had one slip up on the second weekend of the diet but started again on the monday.
I am eating mainly tuna salads, bacon, eggs, (decent) sausages, meat and veg. I have done, as far as i can tell very well, and i know i haven't cheated. I check the label on EVERYTHING i see, and i use an app on my phone to keep track of my carbs.

Even if i wasnt doing it 100% right, the amount of rubbish i have cut out of my diet and all the healthy food i am now having, i would have thought i would lose some weight... I am a 30 year old man, at 25 stone eating less than 20g of carbs a day.. the fat should be falling off me!

But every time i weigh myself i am always between 24st 10lb to 25st 1lb... Its driving me crazy. I am also still craving carbs after all this time to.

The only plus side to all this, is after 4 weeks my blood sugar levels are around 7.2 two hours after any meal. (A little higher first thing in the morning tho....) I am sooo pleased that my sugars are so good, but i am just disapointed i am not loosing the weight

Am i doing something wrong??
Thanks
Big Jim
 
Welcome to the forums .. I am tagging @daisy1 who will be along soon with your welcome pack.
Are you able to exercise? As this may impact on your weight loss or lack of it
 
Thanks Enclave, I have read the welcome pack... great information, shame my doctor or nurse couldnt have given me that sort of information and help! I have learnt more here than from any appointment. They asked me to go on a course called "DESMOND" which i thought would be good, see what i can learn. When i got my appointment, it is in November!!

I have increased my physical activity too. The last 2 weeks i have done as much walking as i can. I have few other medical issues which make it hard for me to do much else. But i intend to increase the walking as much as i can.
 
The weight will go .. If your bs are in a good range then your carbs are going to be right .. I am vegetarian so cannot advise on the meat or fish parts of the diet.. I can say that over 18 months I have lost 5st .. At first I was not able to walk to far ..now I walk for miles with the dog. I have heart failure so that slowed down things for me a little.
 
Congrats on the weight loss... I imagine you can really feel the difference being 5 stone lighter.
I enjoy walking which is good, its just not so easy. But i am sure as i loose the weight, that will come a whole lot easier!
 
One thing you haven't mentioned, bigjim, is the amount of food you're eating. You may have changed to low carb but if you're putting away 5000 calories of it then you're not going to lose any weight!

Maybe have a look at your portion sizes?

As well as low carbs, some of us have gone for a high fat regime as well. You didn't mention many fatty foods in your post... nuts, olive oil, butter, cheese. I don't want to get into too much detail, but if you starve your body of carbs like you have done and feed it good fats instead, then your body will quickly adapt to burning fats for fuel. If you then also eat slightly fewer fats than you need then the body will start to consume the fat it's got already stored.

So one, slightly perverse, answer you might consider - to lose fat you could eat more fat !!
 
No you're not doing anything wrong - you have improved your blood glucose figures immensely. I am sorry the weight isn't shifting yet, you may need to tweak things a little bit. It's going to be trial and error for a while for you. You are doing the right thing by trying to manage without insulin though, weight loss could become even more difficult if you were on insulin.

I wonder are you drinking enough water? I need at least 3 litres a day if I want to lose weight. Have you replaced the carbs with protein? If so, fat is better.

Do you use myfitnesspal or similar to track your daily food intake?
 
Hey, Thanks for your replies.

I wasnt aware that eating fat and drinking water was needed for losing weight Something i need to increase then i guess.
I am probably still eating too many calories, and not enough fat!

I found myfitnesspal app yesterday, so have been using that today Its a great app, much better than what i was using before.

Thanks again for the info and tips
 
Hi bigjim

The effects of the change in diet will not be immediate.

Stick with it, your BG has already improved immensely and the weight will start to go as you continue on the better diet, and the advice about portion sizes will become easier to follow the longer you follow the healthier eating plan.

Keep the faith.
 
So you've got a few new things to try now. Don't forget to let us know how you are getting on.
 
Really we'll done,going from 20 something to low 7's is a great achievement on the B.G. front,and shows how well you have stuck to low carb.I am sure the weight loss will follow,but the main thing right away is you have markedly reduced your likelihood of complications.And from your OP your deal with the nurse was about B.G. levels!!

Don't be so hard on yourself.Good going in my book.
 
You could also look at this low carb nutrition calculator as a guide to what you should be eating to lose weight. I don't know whether Myfitnesspal does this specifically for low carb eating as I don't use that.

Robbity
 
Well done, I think you are doing great! Like the others said, I am sure the weight loss will come, with a bit of tweaking.

You mentioned a few other health issues... do they include obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA)? It is common in people who are very overweight. If you haven't done so already, asking your GP for a referral to a sleep clinic for a sleep study is the way to get a diagnosis and treatment. Well controlled OSA can help with weight loss because it usually normalises the hormones leptin and ghrelin, which control appetite.

I wish you well. Keep up the good work!
 
I would get your Vitamin D3 levels tested. It's very common for overweight diabetics to be low in D3 - I certainly was and prior to supplementing no amount of dieting or calorie counting helped me. Once I started supplements, I started feeling more energetic, spontaneously wanted to exercise and finally started losing weight after a few weeks. I believe it can be quite difficult to convince GPs to get tests done in the UK, so I'd be inclined to try a course to see if it helps.
 
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IMO this is good advice for everyone. Not many of us spend enough time out in the sun all year round with large areas of skin uncovered. So we are not getting enough Vit D from the sun. We are also not likely to be getting enough from our food. My GP says they don't usually bother testing for deficiency here because chances are people are deficient anyway, so they prescribe Vit D tablets without testing. I've been taking one a month for a few months and haven't noticed any improvement in energy levels, but I know they are helping me anyway, which is a good feeling. The tablets are not very expensive so if you don't get any joy from your doctor, just buy some and start taking them.
 
Thanks everyone for your help with this.
I really am pleased that i have reduced my blood sugar levels and so i know i am doing something right
I dont have OSA thankfully, my other issues are mainly pain related.
I think i might well take the D3 supplement and see how that goes. My doctors are not the best, and i dont think they will send me for tests.

Thanks again.....
 
Hi,

A couple of other things influence weight loss - sleep deprivation, and stress hormones.

The ideal situation is to get plenty of exercise, 8 hours sleep a night, drink plenty of water, cut the carbs AND eat a diet that suits you... Tall order, eh?

Well done on those bg improvements though. That is a tremendous achievement.
 
I hope you don't mind me asking this, but how do you know you don't have OSA? Sometimes it can be very hard to tell, and a sleep study is the only way to know for sure. Do you get sleepy during the day? Do you have high blood pressure? If you are on opiate pain meds, that can contribute to OSA by reducing your breathing.

Another thing a sleep study can do is find out if there are any other conditions affecting your sleep, such as spontaneous leg movements (these interrupt the sleep cycle like OSA does). If you need a sleep study and your doctors aren't convinced you do, I can give you some info that will help get the point across.

Have you been to a pain clinic? That's another thing that may be of help, and I can give you some info on that too if you would like it. Pain can affect sleep, which affects weight.
 
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