Confused

[zelda]

HbC1a 100 Glucose 26 at time of diagnosis

It's only 2 weeks since my diagnosis of type 2, week 1 I took 1 x 500mg metformin daily and 2nd week i take it twice daily. I had covid in Jan this year which they think is linked to the diabetes and other health issues i'm now experiencing.

My query is regarding diet (which is consuming most of my thoughts just now), I have a very supportive surgery (& hubby) who have encouraged me to follow a healthy diet, reducing sugar intakes so I would say i have been mostly having a Mediterranean diet of fish and chicken and veg and I've lost 12lbs, however this was without trying previous to meds. I can afford to lose the pounds so this is welcomed 🙂

Which leads to my confusion - carb counting/reduction - my nurse didn't mention anything about a low carb diet but that's a big focus when i read posts regarding recipes and meal suggestions. How do you know how many carbs you can have? Is it a daily amount or a certain amount for each meal? I've been told it's not ness to test my sugars for now so i have no idea if i'm doing anything right.

staying positive trying to inform myself but at the same time feeling a little overwhelmed about eating the right things 🙄

any info is appreciated

 

[rosalindb]

HbC1a 100 Glucose 26 at time of diagnosis

It's only 2 weeks since my diagnosis of type 2, week 1 I took 1 x 500mg metformin daily and 2nd week i take it twice daily. I had covid in Jan this year which they think is linked to the diabetes and other health issues i'm now experiencing.

My query is regarding diet (which is consuming most of my thoughts just now), I have a very supportive surgery (& hubby) who have encouraged me to follow a healthy diet, reducing sugar intakes so I would say i have been mostly having a Mediterranean diet of fish and chicken and veg and I've lost 12lbs, however this was without trying previous to meds. I can afford to lose the pounds so this is welcomed 🙂

Which leads to my confusion - carb counting/reduction - my nurse didn't mention anything about a low carb diet but that's a big focus when i read posts regarding recipes and meal suggestions. How do you know how many carbs you can have? Is it a daily amount or a certain amount for each meal? I've been told it's not ness to test my sugars for now so i have no idea if i'm doing anything right.

staying positive trying to inform myself but at the same time feeling a little overwhelmed about eating the right things 🙄

any info is appreciated

Zelda a glucose meter would help you monitor BG levels, as others in this community will say. I think someone said that it is like driving in the dark with no lights on without one. Can you afford to buy one? Just watch for price of test strips as that is where the expense lies. I have bought a one where the strips for £8 for a 50 strip tub, I got it on Amazon.

The thing to remember is that it is total carbs to watch out for, not just sugar. I was diagnosed February this year and given next to no info on diet, told to just reduce carbs. The amount of carbs you can tolerate is individual to you, so a bit of experimenting as a newbie is to be expected. It seems to be a thing that we get no real valuable advice diet wise, disregard NHS diet advice, it involves stuff that could spike your glucose.

There are plenty of friendly helpful people here to help you so ask away. No question is silly.
e

 

[Ljc]

Hi. How many carbs, Good question but sadly their is not an easy answer. On here we recommend self testing and keeping a food diary.
Intially we just before eating then two hrs later and see what the difference is , if you are no more than 3 or 4 mmol higher afterwards then that meal is fine .
You see we are all different in how many and what carbs our body can tolerate .

Many medics and nurses will only go by the eatwell plate sometime called the healthy eating plate, this is probably fine for non diabetics and a few T2s but most with diabetes find that plate is too carby.
Slowly but surely the word us getting out there and some are advocating reducing carbohydrates If you are predominately eating fish,, chicken and veg minus the pasta and rice then you are probably going quite low carb already.

Whatever you choose to do, just make sure you can continue with it long term , as the last thing you need is to go so strict that you set yourself up to fail.

 

[zelda]

Confusion isn't that unusual at the beginning but we're here to help.

A low carb diet is generally considered to be less than 130g per day, although many go lower and some a lot lower. I try not to exceed 100g per day and try and stay under 25g per meal. That gives me a little leeway for a snack between meals if I want one. For comparison a 'normal' diet would be between 225-325g per day.

Because there's no one-size-fits-all diet for T2 no one can say how many carbs you can have as we are all different in what we can tolerate. This is why, despite what your DN said, self-testing is valuable. Testing just before you eat, then again 2 hours later, if your post-meal BG is less than 3 higher than pre-meal then whatever you had is OK. If more than 3 then think about reducing portion size or maybe not having that at all in future.

Testing on waking (fasting test) is also useful as it will tell you how well your body is managing your BG in the absence of food or exercise, since unless you went sleep-walking to the larder during the night you won't have eaten anything for several hours. The NHS recommends a fasting test after a minimum of 8 hours without food. I don't usually eat anything after 9pm and I get up at 7am most mornings, so my daily test on waking is off the back of a 10-hour fast.

Attached is something about diabetes and diet that I came across a while back which I think covers all the basics, which you might find useful as a guide. Also, you need to focus on all forms of carbohydrate not just sugar.

thanks i appreciate the time you guys take to reply. going to get a testing kit ordered and start a journal to keep details of what ive had etc. thanks again, will check out the attachments too.

 

[zelda]

Zelda a glucose meter would help you monitor BG levels, as others in this community will say. I think someone said that it is like driving in the dark with no lights on without one. Can you afford to buy one? Just watch for price of test strips as that is where the expense lies. I have bought a one where the strips for £8 for a 50 strip tub, I got it on Amazon.

The thing to remember is that it is total carbs to watch out for, not just sugar. I was diagnosed February this year and given next to no info on diet, told to just reduce carbs. The amount of carbs you can tolerate is individual to you, so a bit of experimenting as a newbie is to be expected. It seems to be a thing that we get no real valuable advice diet wise, disregard NHS diet advice, it involves stuff that could spike your glucose.

There are plenty of friendly helpful people here to help you so ask away. No question is silly.
e

going to order a monitor today and keep a journal to try to keep track of what does what to my body. thanks for taking the time to reply, i appreciate it.

 

[zelda]

Hi. How many carbs, Good question but sadly their is not an easy answer. On here we recommend self testing and keeping a food diary.
Intially we just before eating then two hrs later and see what the difference is , if you are no more than 3 or 4 mmol higher afterwards then that meal is fine .
You see we are all different in how many and what carbs our body can tolerate .

Many medics and nurses will only go by the eatwell plate sometime called the healthy eating plate, this is probably fine for non diabetics and a few T2s but most with diabetes find that plate is too carby.
Slowly but surely the word us getting out there and some are advocating reducing carbohydrates If you are predominately eating fish,, chicken and veg minus the pasta and rice then you are probably going quite low carb already.

Whatever you choose to do, just make sure you can continue with it long term , as the last thing you need is to go so strict that you set yourself up to fail.

thanks going to order a monitor now and keep a journal. ye it was the healthy eating plate that was discussed as being sufficient for now? are wholewheat pastas and rice still heavy on carbs?

 

[pippen]

I found the book....carb and calorie counter an enormous help.
I've lost about a stone and down from 49 to 40.
I try to keep around 80 a day

 

[zelda]

I found the book....carb and calorie counter an enormous help.
I've lost about a stone and down from 49 to 40.
I try to keep around 80 a day

thanks for that, ive spent 2 weeks concentrating on sugars so a book might be helpful.

 

[rosalindb]

thanks going to order a monitor now and keep a journal. ye it was the healthy eating plate that was discussed as being sufficient for now? are wholewheat pastas and rice still heavy on carbs?

Thats fine for non diabetics. Avoid pasta, rice, bread

 

[zelda]

Zelda a glucose meter would help you monitor BG levels, as others in this community will say. I think someone said that it is like driving in the dark with no lights on without one. Can you afford to buy one? Just watch for price of test strips as that is where the expense lies. I have bought a one where the strips for £8 for a 50 strip tub, I got it on Amazon.

The thing to remember is that it is total carbs to watch out for, not just sugar. I was diagnosed February this year and given next to no info on diet, told to just reduce carbs. The amount of carbs you can tolerate is individual to you, so a bit of experimenting as a newbie is to be expected. It seems to be a thing that we get no real valuable advice diet wise, disregard NHS diet advice, it involves stuff that could spike your glucose.

There are plenty of friendly helpful people here to help you so ask away. No question is silly.
e

@rosalindb just had a look at amazon, wow there are so many monitors to choose from. any recommendations or even a make would really be welcomed, doesn't matter about cost.

 

[Ljc]

thanks going to order a monitor now and keep a journal. ye it was the healthy eating plate that was discussed as being sufficient for now? are wholewheat pastas and rice still heavy on carbs?

That’s another thing that we will all differ with . Some find they can cope with a certain amount of wholemeal things
As an insulin user who uses a Libre , it that gives a continuous graph of my BG levels, I have found that the glucose from wholemeal varieties of things hit my bloodstream just as quick as the white varieties.


You would need to do some in depth testing to find this out. Before eating, one, two three three hours after eating (post prandial)

 

[rosalindb]

@rosalindb just had a look at amazon, wow there are so many monitors to choose from. any recommendations or even a make would really be welcomed, doesn't matter about cost.

I got gluconavii as it was reasonably priced

 

[Ljc]

It’s the ongoing cost of the testing strips you need to watch , the Gluco Navii uses strips that cost £8 for a pot of 50. many other meter use strips that cost £15 to 35 for a pot if 50
You can only use a strip once so you soon get through them.
All meters sold in the uk have to comply to the same standards, so a dearer meter doesn’t mean better accuracy.

 

[Ljc]

Oops forgot, you will also need lancets as well as test strips

 

[zelda]

It’s the ongoing cost of the testing strips you need to watch , the Gluco Navii uses strips that cost £8 for a pot of 50. many other meter use strips that cost £15 to 35 for a pot if 50
You can only use a strip once so you soon get through them.
All meters sold in the uk have to comply to the same standards, so a dearer meter doesn’t mean better accuracy.

very useful. thanks

 

[Lizzie Wizzie]

thanks i appreciate the time you guys take to reply. going to get a testing kit ordered and start a journal to keep details of what ive had etc. thanks again, will check out the attachments too.

Myfitnesspal tracks your carbs, calories, fat, protein and sodium and sugars so even if all you do is use it for a food diary you can tell at a glance what you are eating and it adds it all for you. It’s free for the basic one and I find it really useful for keeping an eye on the carbs, fat and protein I eat (I have a serious foot injury that was a result of undiagnosed type 2 in august 2020 so protein is really important for the healing. I was 57 hba1c in Feb 21 and down to 42 in may- they have lowered my insulin a bit and hoping to get me off it at the point so I only take metformin ;I s as m taking both at the moment). Good luck with the food thing, I find the internet really helpful but as everyone says, no one size fits all but some good advice on here

 

[zelda]

thanks for that, will have a look. I had covid in jan and my body still has infection of some sort with no fighting white blood cells which i am told will have an impact on my glucose levels. so lots of blood tests at the moment, hoping to get my head around it soon

 

[leonS]

There are a few things that ring alarm bells.

A loss of weight, a high BG, not top high hba1c and not very old all say that this (just) could be type 1. If it is the wheels can come off very quickly. Test every day for a while and it the BG goes up, rather than coming down, get help quickly!

Type 1 is often triggered by a infection.

Once a day test should be enough, but an ocasional test before a meal and two hours afterwards will tell you more about how the meal has affected your BG. By the way you do not need a new lancet each time if you want to save a copper or two.

 

[zelda]

Thanks i go back to the doc in a week but will be watching closely

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @zelda

Glad you have invested in a BG meter to help you with your blood glucose management.

Many members here find checking immediately before eating and again 2hrs later. Initially just keep a note of the amount of total carbs involved, what the type of carbs were, and the BG readings, in particular the amount your blood glucose rises by the 2hr mark.

Ideally you will want to rises of no more than 2-3mmol/L, so where you see bigger ‘spikes’ after meals, you can think about reducing portion sizes, or perhaps swapping types of carbs. In a way, to begin with the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them - if you can keep the ‘meal rises’ small, your overall numbers will gradually begin to come down 🙂