• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Yet another post about dieting...

F

FoxgloveUK

Member
Messages
12
Hi everyone

I've been trawling the board for weight loss tips and I think I can safely say I'm more confused now than when I started :-) I have a load of health problems, some of which are caused by diabetes. I need to lose a lot of weight and even though I have been following a healthy eating regime for several years, I'm not doing very well and my weight has gradually been creeping up. So, I'm hoping someone can help.

I didn't want to waffle through my medical history, so the shortened version is I am T2, taking 1000mg Glucophage (slow release metformin), 30mg sitagliptin and insulin twice daily. Since I started the insulin in 2011, my weight hasn't increased, but it hasn't gone down either. My BG has been really high (I've been testing two hours after eating), but my HbA1C has been really good and my health professionals have been really happy with me. However, I need to drop 10% of my weight, fairly quickly, so at the beginning of the year I decided I had to do something radical.

I've been following a very low fat diet, restricting my calorie intake to around 1200. I have a gluten intolerance, so I don't eat bread or the usual suspects, although I'm not too bad with oats. I've reduced my carbs to low GI. My evening BG has started to come down to something sensible, so I'm happy with that now.

I have restricted movement, so I find weight bearing exercise very difficult, but I have been doing wheelchair aerobics and low impact aerobics and generally trying to move around more. I've been using a very good site that gives me my daily calorie count (and exercise calorie usage). I was absolutely delighted that I lost 7lbs the first week and now I'm horribly stuck. I don't think I've ever plateaued after a week LOL.

So, does anyone have any tips to clear my befuddled mind and up my weight loss, please?

MTIA

Fox
 
For the first time in my life I am consistently losing weight, gradually, and keeping it off, by:

reducing my daily carbs to 100g-120g a day
eating full fat, using butter, lard, olive oil and seed oils and avoiding low-fat anything. I eat full fat cheese too, and loads of eggs. I have semi-skimmed milk because I dont like the taste of full-fat milk.

keeping to around 1400 cals a day. I am 5'2" tall.

Strangely, my cholesterol levels have gone down on this diet. Or rather, my HDL (the good cholesterol) has gone up and the LDL(bad cholesterol) has gone down.

ask away.
 
Thank you for the reply :-)

I have been reading the boards with great interest about the LCHF diet. Unfortunately, I can't have anything with fat because of a liver problem (caused by diabetes). I'm told that if I get my weight down I may be able to reverse the problem. I'd seriously love to have loads of eggs :(

I did the Atkins when it first came out and I lost loads of weight, but that was in the good old days. I rarely eat meat anymore and I'm trying to get my 'five a day' in. I stopped listening to the dietitian a long time ago, when it was obvious 'eating carbs at every meal' was pretty much useless information.

I think my cholesterol is the only good thing I have going for me :lol:
 
eggs are low fat.

How are you able to manage to find enough to eat without meat or cheese or things like that? where does your protein come from?

it must make eating rather difficult for you. I dont add fat to my diet. But am able to eat the naturally occurring fat.

Is there a reason why you cant have lean chicken or fish?
 
Hi

I am also interested in losing weight, have been trying for years, I am type 2 on 2000mg metformin.

Just rang docs for new HBAIC which has now gone up to 8.5, so I know next docs visit will be more meds, Really want to avoid this.

I have been reading forums and low carbing seems to work for a lot of people. Does it make you tired or ill? How many carbs/cals should you eat? Do you feel hungry?

Any advice would be grateful, I'm getting desperate :(
 
I have been watching my carbs for a year now. I started with about 150g a day, spread out over several meals. I used my meter to test 2 hours after each meal. Then I was able to see what sort of carbs affected my blood sugar levels, and how much carb I could have to keep in the safe zone.

I have tons more energy now. Instead of carbs giving me energy, they made my diabetes worse and I felt tired all the time. Now I dont get tired half as much. I have lost, and kept off 2 stones, and am still losing, gradually.

I found that 100-120g of carbs is my safe limit, but everyone is different, so your meter will tell you how much you can have.

I now have a HbA1c of 5.7 and no meds.

I have about 1400 cals a day but again, each persons calorie requirement is different.
 
Hi, FoxgloveUK :)

Welcome to the forum, you will get lots of help shortly.

Fully understand why you get confused with all what is out there.

I am quite lucky as I am trying a rather odd diet which is so far working well for me. However might not be favorable, as it is a vegan diet and no sugar or oil/fat ( just what comes from natural foods). I thought I give it a go 8 months ago and so far so good.( to think I am not even a vegan)

Hope you find something that suits you.

Good Luck,

Roy.
 
FoxgloveUK said:
Thank you for the reply :-)

I have been reading the boards with great interest about the LCHF diet. Unfortunately, I can't have anything with fat because of a liver problem (caused by diabetes). I'm told that if I get my weight down I may be able to reverse the problem. I'd seriously love to have loads of eggs :(

I did the Atkins when it first came out and I lost loads of weight, but that was in the good old days. I rarely eat meat anymore and I'm trying to get my 'five a day' in. I stopped listening to the dietitian a long time ago, when it was obvious 'eating carbs at every meal' was pretty much useless information.

I think my cholesterol is the only good thing I have going for me :lol:
Click to expand...

I have found a really good recipe book for low carbers. I can post some over the next few days. Personally, I cannot have a lot of the recipes, but I am going to have fun adapting them- but still sticking to the low carbs. I am doing really well. I have increased my calorie intake from 200 calories to 300!!! Getting there really really slowly. I have bad days so hubby blends it down.
 
lucylocket61 said:
eggs are low fat.

How are you able to manage to find enough to eat without meat or cheese or things like that? where does your protein come from?

it must make eating rather difficult for you. I dont add fat to my diet. But am able to eat the naturally occurring fat.

Is there a reason why you cant have lean chicken or fish?
Click to expand...

Eggs are pretty high in calories though for such a small item - I do eat them but not as often as I would like. At the moment I eat turkey (I really don't like chicken for some reason), fish and Quorn (I know - I'm not going to be eating it for long, that's for certain). I use half fat cheese, but because it tastes so awful, I don't use much.
 
Thanks for the welcome, Roy. I've been a lurker for a while but decided to come out into the open :-)

I'm currently having problems with my evening meal - because I'm having low calories (and not many carbs) my BG is much lower than it was, but I'm on the same amount of insulin. The last time I spoke to the nurse about it, she told me I was supposed to be having carbs :?

I'm open to anything and if I can lose weight with a LCHF diet, without doing more damage to myself, then I'm quite happy. It makes more sense to me - I'm restricted with what foods I can eat from the gluten point of view so I'm halfway there (I think).
 
Back
Top