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Why isn’t it working yet?

L

Lilysun

Active Member
Messages
29
Hi all,
I started low carb about a week ago. I’m logging everything I eat and doing an average of about 20mins (cardio) exercise every day. My overall carbs are low - but I’m not seeing a difference in either weight or blood sugar levels. For example, yesterday for breakfast I had an omelette with tomatoes and mushrooms and a side salad. 2 hrs afterwards, my blood glucose levels were around 11-12. Tested again after another hour, they were at around 10, and then bizarrely jumped back up to 12 even though I hadn’t eaten anything else. My weight is stuck at the same number.

Is it a question of being patient, and if not, what am I doing wrong?
 
I think a week may be a little optimistic..
I'm guessing it took you many years to become ill with T2.. whilst Low carb can be very effective it does need a few weeks to really start to "work" maybe you could help it along by skipping a meal here and there?
What are you eating for your other meals?
If you have a high blood sugar level from dawn phenomenon maybe eating in the morning isn't so great for you?
 
I would try increasing your basal slightly and waiting a week to see if anything changes. Good luck ps: my nurse said doing cardio can increase bg and later make it drop...or keep it high.... I find power walking is best for me to slightly lower my bg.
 
bulkbiker said:
I think a week may be a little optimistic..
I'm guessing it took you many years to become ill with T2.. whilst Low carb can be very effective it does need a few weeks to really start to "work" maybe you could help it along by skipping a meal here and there?
What are you eating for your other meals?
If you have a high blood sugar level from dawn phenomenon maybe eating in the morning isn't so great for you?
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Thank you - for other meals it’s usually fish with salad, or berries and nuts in Greek yoghurt, or chicken and veg. Yesterday the fish I had was the birds eye battered one (needed something quick) so that may explain it somewhat. I just did a reading now, haven’t had breakfast yet, and it’s 11.9 :(
 
Waterfall 888 said:
I would try increasing your basal slightly and waiting a week to see if anything changes. Good luck ps: my nurse said doing cardio can increase bg and later make it drop...or keep it high.... I find power walking is best for me to slightly lower my bg.
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Thank you. May I ask what increasing basal means? It’s all relatively new to me so still learning :)
 
Lilysun said:
No - I haven’t taken medication before and have only just been prescribed metformin which I started yesterday
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Looking at you past posts and youth I wondered if anyone medical had suggested a c-peptide test to check on your insulin production? Your sugars seem to be on an upward trend which might be a bit worrying. Do you have excess weight to lose?
 
bulkbiker said:
Looking at you past posts and youth I wondered if anyone medical had suggested a c-peptide test to check on your insulin production? Your sugars seem to be on an upward trend which might be a bit worrying. Do you have excess weight to lose?
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I think a few years ago I did do a c-peptide test - would that be to check that for another type of diabetes other than t2? I do have excess weight to lose (my bmi is in the overweight range). I’m guessing the reason my sugars went up so drastically is because of a variety of reasons. I not only “fell off the bandwagon” on watching what I eat but my diet over the last few months has been pretty terrible by any standard - stress, junk food, more stress and more junk. A couple years ago my hba1c was 62. It’s now 97. So I have no choice now but to step up and take responsibility for my heath in a sustainable way, or sit here and wait for the scary complications to arrive!
 
If your diet was as bad as you say, your body will have been desperately stuffing glucose into every nook and cranny trying to lower your blood sugar levels. Your body will take every opportunity it gets to use up some of that excess. Every time you see higher levels despite not eating, that's the stored glucose getting used up. You are not going to fix it in a few weeks.
Now you've stopped digging your own grave with fork, thing's will improve eventually.
 
catinahat said:
If your diet was as bad as you say, your body will have been desperately stuffing glucose into every nook and cranny trying to lower your blood sugar levels. Your body will take every opportunity it gets to use up some of that excess. Every time you see higher levels despite not eating, that's the stored glucose getting used up. You are not going to fix it in a few weeks.
Now you've stopped digging your own grave with fork, thing's will improve eventually.
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Thank you - it’s very sobering because in thr past my body always reacted quickly to changes I made and I was seeing improvements in a few days. So I think your phrase “digging my own grave with a fork” is very true. But reading the posts on here gives me hope that I can still turn it around.
 
Lilysun said:
I think a few years ago I did do a c-peptide test - would that be to check that for another type of diabetes other than t2? I do have excess weight to lose (my bmi is in the overweight range). I’m guessing the reason my sugars went up so drastically is because of a variety of reasons. I not only “fell off the bandwagon” on watching what I eat but my diet over the last few months has been pretty terrible by any standard - stress, junk food, more stress and more junk. A couple years ago my hba1c was 62. It’s now 97. So I have no choice now but to step up and take responsibility for my heath in a sustainable way, or sit here and wait for the scary complications to arrive!
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I will just say that if you do have quite long standing insulin resistance plus a history of processed foods, I think you will need to be more patient. You are changing your fuelling strategy after all from rocket fuel to high quality and slow burning stuff. There's too many keto miracle stories out there and whilst it is true that there can be dramatic loss these are people who may be younger, male and with less insulin resistance than you. Your strategy is still going to work better than merely dropping calories though!
This is now going to be your way of life going forward so you will have to tailor things to be sustainable for you and your lifestyle e.g. having a few go to quick recipes so that you don't need the battered/breaded fish option you mentioned.
How about also noting how the new food is making you feel e.g. a food diary (note energy levels, sleep as well as any bg or weight measurements) If you are truly low carb then I wouldn't be constantly finger pricking either as stress pushes up bgs just as much as high carb, and it is disheartening to be jumping on the scales too much. Maybe a favourite slightly tight pair of jeans would be a good reference point? Or even just a candid photo done every month.
Ref exercise, if you can do it after a meal and add some resistance in (hills if walking or cycling) or squats/push ups
 
NicoleC1971 said:
I will just say that if you do have quite long standing insulin resistance plus a history of processed foods, I think you will need to be more patient. You are changing your fuelling strategy after all from rocket fuel to high quality and slow burning stuff. There's too many keto miracle stories out there and whilst it is true that there can be dramatic loss these are people who may be younger, male and with less insulin resistance than you. Your strategy is still going to work better than merely dropping calories though!
This is now going to be your way of life going forward so you will have to tailor things to be sustainable for you and your lifestyle e.g. having a few go to quick recipes so that you don't need the battered/breaded fish option you mentioned.
How about also noting how the new food is making you feel e.g. a food diary (note energy levels, sleep as well as any bg or weight measurements) If you are truly low carb then I wouldn't be constantly finger pricking either as stress pushes up bgs just as much as high carb, and it is disheartening to be jumping on the scales too much. Maybe a favourite slightly tight pair of jeans would be a good reference point? Or even just a candid photo done every month.
Ref exercise, if you can do it after a meal and add some resistance in (hills if walking or cycling) or squats/push ups
Click to expand...
Thank you this is really helpful. Stress is a huge one for me - being a working mum of a very demanding three year old doesn’t help and I can actually see the BG spikes when I get stressed because I’m using a CGM.

I’ve been keeping a note of what I eat, how much I exercise and how I feel since I started low carb just under two weeks ago now. I’ve also started metformin - today I was at Nando’s but proud of myself for having the grilled chicken with broccoli and peas instead of the usual wrap and chips I always used to get. I couldn’t quite resist a piece of garlic bread though. And my husband brought home a slice of chocolate cake (criminal!) and I had three bites of that. BC spiked to 12 an hour after :( but apart from this lapse I’ve been doing ok and finding that I have a very greatly reduced appetite. Numbers are better than last week (averaging 7.5) so something must be starting to work!
 
@Lilysun , yes, be kind to yourself in all this, I would say. You are doing all the right things now to turn your situation around.

I feel for you regarding the garlic bread and the cake. With an HBA1c at 97 - yeah - I don't know how motivation works for you. But I would use that very high blood glucose as incentive to not take those bites! Could your husband not overly tempt you by not bringing the cake home? It's not that it's criminal - just that with an overloaded, hugely overloaded glucose and insulin system - such food is toxic to you. Well, that's one way to look at it at any rate. (That's how I look at it.)

And I agree with those above - it can take a while for the low-carbing to really kick in, and all of our metabolisms are different. The same goes for any anti-diabetic medications - they can actually work on different folks in different ways, is my understanding, even if the basic chemical situation is the same, our bodies levels of ill-health aren't. With metformin they say to wait three weeks to three months to see how it is going to work for you, and what, if any, side effects you are going to have. But nothing beats 'diet and exericse' for really getting to the underlying cause of type two, emphasis on diet.

It took me five months of hard slog and newly to meds to get from low 60s hba1c to mid to high 40s (this is not my first time) - a longer time to bring blood glucose (and the insulin of course) down for insulin-resistance based type two can be how it is for you. Be patient with yourself and your blood glucose regulation system while you find out how your type two plays out? Is what I would recommend.
 
@Lilysun I find Mary Berry's 2 bite rule helps me when temptation is all around. She was quoted as keeping slim by only having 2 bites, the first satisfies the "what does that taste like" and the second satisfies the craving, ie. I don't need any more.
Luckily I have a husband who allows me 2 bites of his carby food, and yes it is enough to taste and to kill a craving.

In fact now 2 and a half years in often 1 bite I enough...I don't like most things any more. Today for example I had 2 bites of proper American pancake swith maple syrup. First bite tasted awful all baking powder acidic, second bite too sweet. I was happy to gorge on my meat omelette instead
 
MrsA2 said:
@Lilysun I find Mary Berry's 2 bite rule helps me when temptation is all around. She was quoted as keeping slim by only having 2 bites, the first satisfies the "what does that taste like" and the second satisfies the craving, ie. I don't need any more.
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MrsA2 said:
Depends how big your gob is though (I have a big gob) @Lilysun I haven’t got a sweet tooth and could always pass up cake etc, in the beginning garlic bread would be more difficult, now not very much, you are doing well and it take time for our palates to change. Like others have said use your high numbers as motivation, love Nando’s I usually get the 4 thighs and either the broccoli or salad, I add some hallumi for that extra bit of bite and fat for satiation
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My previous post seemed to have done a weird thing and put what I posted as me quoting @MrsA2 said - don’t know how to fix it :confused:
 
My lovely (now no longer with us) American aunt used to growl to herself "What do you want another bite for - tastes just the same as the first!"

She was very petite, and stayed that way with an iron will.
 
Well, how we deal with our sugar/wheat/carb addiction is another thing that can be very different! Obviously from above. I can't take one bite or three, as I just want to keep eating more. My understanding is that is not uncommon for addicts :D .

I deal with the longing by having two days a year where I have a treat food carb-run (and I have to work very hard at sticking to that - I have extended the one day to four, to seven in years past - and a big ouch on my blood blood glucose) . This year I skipped the first one, and I was very happy to do that weirdly. (If I am going to carb-out I want it to be a big social occasion, and this year it was not.) My big one is December the 25th, and boy do I appreciate having a low-carb-free day on that one.
 
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