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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Newly diagnosed Type 2 here.
- Thread starter Jurasik
- Start date
- Status
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi and welcome to this friendly and helpful Forum
You will feel shell shocked at first - we all did - but you have come to the right place. To help us help you could you give us some information. How did you come to be diagnosed - did you have symptoms or it came out of the blue? Do you know what your HbA1c was - that's usually a number of 48 or above? Have you been given Metformin, or other medications? Were you given dietary advice? Were you told what tests to expect, now and at least annually?
The place to start is with the Learning Zone (orange tab above). I suggest you just do one module a day so you can take in all the information. At some stage you should be put forward for a course - usually DESMOND for type 2 - but with COVID it's a bit hit and miss.
You can expect to be sent for a retinopathy test, have your feet examined, have regular blood tests checking glucose cholesterol kidney and liver functions, blood pressure monitoring, weight monitoring, a talk with a diabetic nurse and a dietician (usually phone these days). The good thing is now you are in the system you should be well monitored for life if your GP practise is any good.
You can help yourself as well.
Many Type 2 find that following a lower carb diet has greatly reduced their blood glucose. By carbs I mean bread, potato, rice, pasta, cereals, below ground veggies, most fruits particularly tropical, cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries. Sounds drastic but you can eat very well with fish, poultry, above ground veggies, salads, nuts, seeds, eggs, cheese, tofu. There is a Forum for Food/Recipes and a post "What did you eat yesterday" with lots of suggestions.
Everyone is different so you will need to find out what suits your body best. Some people are very sensitive to carbs so follow a very low carb diet. Others like me can tolerate a bit more. I experimented between 50gm - 130gm carbs per day, settling on 90gm. Low carb is suggested as less than 130gm. You will be surprised at how high in carbs some foods are, and how small a portion can be. The first thing I did was get an app which keeps a food diary for me, showing the cals and carbs amongst other things. You don't want to go overboard with cutting down, as that can cause eye issues, some long term. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
The next thing is to get a monitor, and test immediately before eating and 2 hours after first bite of each meal. If you note that in conjunction with your food diary you will soon see what foods make your blood glucose shoot up. Again, it's different for each person. I can manage a couple of new potatoes, or a 25gm slice of wholemeal bread, but can't touch rice, pasta, apples. Testing will be fairly intense at first but once you know your foods, you can ease back and just test for new foods. I'm sure someone will post about the best monitor and strips to get, as I'm 3 years out of date. GP's usually don't like Type 2 testing but in my opinion, if you don't test, how can you know what foods are OK for you.
The next thing is exercise. My diabetic nurse wanted me to do 30 minutes exercise five times a week, but was happy when I said I would do three 45 - 55 minute aquafit classes a week. But exercise can be simply walking (dog optional), a home exercise bike, cycling, steps. If very unfit, it can be built up.
With these lifestyle changes, if you need to lose weight it should decrease. But not all Type 2 are overweight and/or live on junk food.
Finally - the dreaded Metformin, if you are taking it. It can have nasty side effects. Sometimes they subside after a few weeks, and sometimes they don't. If they disrupt your life or work, like dashing to the loo constantly and being doubled up with cramps, you can ask for a slow release version which is kinder on the inner workings. The pills are best taken in the middle of a meal.
This is a lot to take in, so please feel free to come back with all your questions. Also prepare a list of questions for your phone consults. Best wishes
You will feel shell shocked at first - we all did - but you have come to the right place. To help us help you could you give us some information. How did you come to be diagnosed - did you have symptoms or it came out of the blue? Do you know what your HbA1c was - that's usually a number of 48 or above? Have you been given Metformin, or other medications? Were you given dietary advice? Were you told what tests to expect, now and at least annually?
The place to start is with the Learning Zone (orange tab above). I suggest you just do one module a day so you can take in all the information. At some stage you should be put forward for a course - usually DESMOND for type 2 - but with COVID it's a bit hit and miss.
You can expect to be sent for a retinopathy test, have your feet examined, have regular blood tests checking glucose cholesterol kidney and liver functions, blood pressure monitoring, weight monitoring, a talk with a diabetic nurse and a dietician (usually phone these days). The good thing is now you are in the system you should be well monitored for life if your GP practise is any good.
You can help yourself as well.
Many Type 2 find that following a lower carb diet has greatly reduced their blood glucose. By carbs I mean bread, potato, rice, pasta, cereals, below ground veggies, most fruits particularly tropical, cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries. Sounds drastic but you can eat very well with fish, poultry, above ground veggies, salads, nuts, seeds, eggs, cheese, tofu. There is a Forum for Food/Recipes and a post "What did you eat yesterday" with lots of suggestions.
Everyone is different so you will need to find out what suits your body best. Some people are very sensitive to carbs so follow a very low carb diet. Others like me can tolerate a bit more. I experimented between 50gm - 130gm carbs per day, settling on 90gm. Low carb is suggested as less than 130gm. You will be surprised at how high in carbs some foods are, and how small a portion can be. The first thing I did was get an app which keeps a food diary for me, showing the cals and carbs amongst other things. You don't want to go overboard with cutting down, as that can cause eye issues, some long term. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
The next thing is to get a monitor, and test immediately before eating and 2 hours after first bite of each meal. If you note that in conjunction with your food diary you will soon see what foods make your blood glucose shoot up. Again, it's different for each person. I can manage a couple of new potatoes, or a 25gm slice of wholemeal bread, but can't touch rice, pasta, apples. Testing will be fairly intense at first but once you know your foods, you can ease back and just test for new foods. I'm sure someone will post about the best monitor and strips to get, as I'm 3 years out of date. GP's usually don't like Type 2 testing but in my opinion, if you don't test, how can you know what foods are OK for you.
The next thing is exercise. My diabetic nurse wanted me to do 30 minutes exercise five times a week, but was happy when I said I would do three 45 - 55 minute aquafit classes a week. But exercise can be simply walking (dog optional), a home exercise bike, cycling, steps. If very unfit, it can be built up.
With these lifestyle changes, if you need to lose weight it should decrease. But not all Type 2 are overweight and/or live on junk food.
Finally - the dreaded Metformin, if you are taking it. It can have nasty side effects. Sometimes they subside after a few weeks, and sometimes they don't. If they disrupt your life or work, like dashing to the loo constantly and being doubled up with cramps, you can ask for a slow release version which is kinder on the inner workings. The pills are best taken in the middle of a meal.
This is a lot to take in, so please feel free to come back with all your questions. Also prepare a list of questions for your phone consults. Best wishes
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Welcome to the forum,
I assume the medication you have started is metformin, hopefully you will be fine but some people do get a dodgy stomach when they first start it. What is your HbA1C that has led to your diagnosis as that will indicate how much you need to do to get levels back to normal. Metformin reduces the amount of glucose produced in the liver, and also makes muscle tissue absorb more glucose so does not act directly on food.
There is a lot to get your head around when first diagnosed and often very little is explained to you which is why this forum is very useful as you can ask the many questions which I'm sure you will have.
First of all metformin does not work directly on food, it helps your body to use the insulin it produces more efficiently but you also need to modify your diet.
Breakfast cereals are a high carb food and many people find their body is more sensitive to carbs in the morning so would try to have a low carb breakfast.
With Type 2 diabetes your body cannot cope with carbohydrates and therefore it is important to reduce them in your diet.
It is ALL carbohydrates that convert to glucose so you need to reduce your intake of things like potatoes, rice, bread, cereals, pasta, pastry, tropical fruits, as well as the obvious cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks and snacks like crisps.
Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, nuts and seeds, vegetables, salads and fruits like berries
Have a look at the Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) as that will give you a better understanding of how to manage your condition.
It is recommended that you get a monitor then make good use of it to find meals that you an tolerate without your blood glucose levels rising too much. The guide is no more than 2-3mmol/l increase 2 hours after your meal, as your premeal levels come down you would aim at no more than 8.5 mmol/l 2 hours after your meal. If it is more than that then the meals was too carb heavy so you need to cut out or reduce portions of the high carb foods.
Keeping a food diary of everything you eat and drink and an estimate of the carbs will really help you see where savings can be made.
Many people find a low carb approach works, that being less than 130g per day so your food diary will give you an idea of where you are compared to that.
Do come back with any questions you have.
I assume the medication you have started is metformin, hopefully you will be fine but some people do get a dodgy stomach when they first start it. What is your HbA1C that has led to your diagnosis as that will indicate how much you need to do to get levels back to normal. Metformin reduces the amount of glucose produced in the liver, and also makes muscle tissue absorb more glucose so does not act directly on food.
There is a lot to get your head around when first diagnosed and often very little is explained to you which is why this forum is very useful as you can ask the many questions which I'm sure you will have.
First of all metformin does not work directly on food, it helps your body to use the insulin it produces more efficiently but you also need to modify your diet.
Breakfast cereals are a high carb food and many people find their body is more sensitive to carbs in the morning so would try to have a low carb breakfast.
With Type 2 diabetes your body cannot cope with carbohydrates and therefore it is important to reduce them in your diet.
It is ALL carbohydrates that convert to glucose so you need to reduce your intake of things like potatoes, rice, bread, cereals, pasta, pastry, tropical fruits, as well as the obvious cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks and snacks like crisps.
Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, nuts and seeds, vegetables, salads and fruits like berries
Have a look at the Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) as that will give you a better understanding of how to manage your condition.
It is recommended that you get a monitor then make good use of it to find meals that you an tolerate without your blood glucose levels rising too much. The guide is no more than 2-3mmol/l increase 2 hours after your meal, as your premeal levels come down you would aim at no more than 8.5 mmol/l 2 hours after your meal. If it is more than that then the meals was too carb heavy so you need to cut out or reduce portions of the high carb foods.
Keeping a food diary of everything you eat and drink and an estimate of the carbs will really help you see where savings can be made.
Many people find a low carb approach works, that being less than 130g per day so your food diary will give you an idea of where you are compared to that.
Do come back with any questions you have.
Jurasik
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi both. I've no Idea what my HbA1c number is tbh. I've got an appointment on Monday with the nurse. It's one of the things I need to ask. I am overweight, because I just don't exercise. My diet isn't great either, but most of the stuff that I need to reduce is ok, because I don't eat them much anyway. What I do like is potatoes & rice. That is going to be the hardest to reduce. I do like real ale, (genuinely only about 3 beers a week) so that is going to hard to cut out. I went to the GP a few weeks ago for a blood test, requested by them out of the blue (I'm nearly 50 so that is probably why) & they had to do 2 tests. The first one had a glucose level of 8. The second had a level of 9.6. Both fasting. I was told my BMI was 39. I'm 5'10", so still very overweight. My BP was 140/104, so a little high. There is a bloke at work who is type 1 & has been since he was a child. He has a device on his arm which is tied to his phone. He showed me the way it worked & I felt that was a pretty good way to monitor the glucose level. I've checked & I don't think the NHS provides them for type 2, but I was wondering if they were available to buy?
Also, yes the tablets are Metformin (Sukkarto SR) twice a day with meals.
Also, yes the tablets are Metformin (Sukkarto SR) twice a day with meals.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Although air fryers cook well, so making a batch of crispy but succulent chicken thighs is very easy they don't actually help the nature of type two diabetes itself as that is all to do with starches and sugars.
Jurasik
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
This is the sort of thing I was talking about - sensor on the skin: https://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/libre/discover/discover-freestyle-libre-2.html
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If you are prepared to follow a low carbohydrate dietary regime then protein and fats are foods that will give you energy and fats do not convert to glucose. So far from reducing healthy fats people have normal or higher fat and avoid low fat products as they are often higher in carbs.
Don't worry about calories it is all to do with carbs.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is a good guide to the carb values of a whole range of foods and you can always Google for Total carb in X
Don't worry about calories it is all to do with carbs.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is a good guide to the carb values of a whole range of foods and you can always Google for Total carb in X
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If you look at this you will find that it is quite expensive to self fund as the sensors are I believe £40 each and last for 2 weeks. There are a lot of Libre users on here, mostly type 1.
You do need to be able to interpret the data for it to be useful.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
An inexpensive reliable blood glucose monitor with the cheapest strips is the GlucoNavil £15 ish for the monitor £8 for 50 for strips. (Amazon ) You get a few in the kit and a few lancets but I should buy quite a lot of extra strips at the outset as you will do quite a bit of testing to start with to find foods which you can tolerate. Another one is the Spirit TEE2. but I think the strips are a bit more expensive. You do not need to pay VAT.Hi Leadinglights - looks like we posted at the same time!
You may be lucky and your GP may prescribe one but often only enough strips for once a day testing and although you could buy extra for that one they tend to be more expensive, strips are not interchangeable between makes of monitor.
Some nurses will say NO NEED TO TEST but most people find it is crucial to the management of your condition and gives you control.
Jurasik
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Thanks. I've been looking for a meter & I've found this one: https://www.betachekc50.co.uk/blood-glucose-monitor
It's a little more that some of the monitors I've seen, but it's an all in one device. Can you tell me which is the best subforum to ask to see if this is a good one?
It's a little more that some of the monitors I've seen, but it's an all in one device. Can you tell me which is the best subforum to ask to see if this is a good one?
Bruce Stephens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Looks like the tests are £12.50 for 50, so more than for the GlucoNavil (apparently).
I can see the attraction of an all in one device, but watching the video it feels like more of a gimmick than something that's particularly easy to use. I suspect it's easier to use a separate finger pricker.
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi
I've followed your conversation with Leadinglights so I'll try and stick to things you've not covered.
As your cholesterol was OK, you can quite happily have full fat in your diet. It will make you feel fuller for longer, and I think tastes better. I have a lot of full fat Greek yogurt with a few berries when I want something sweeter. A fruit portion is 80gm. It also makes a low carb breakfast when sprinkled with nuts and seeds (not granola as that is high carb). Another good breakfast is eggs. Omelette with mushrooms and grated cheese is popular. I like mine poached with grilled mushrooms, tomato (1) and the occasional rasher of bacon.
Lunch is usually salad in summer, and home made soup in winter (made without potatoes). I do add haricot, cannellini or butter beans to my soup for their fibre. It does put up the carbs a bit but is more filling and the fibre helps your bowels.
You need to start looking for substitutes for rice and potato. I find cauliflower is good - you can have it with cheese sauce (cream cheese and topped with grated cheddar, or a lower fat variety by melting grated cheese into some of the cooking liquor), mashed, riced. I also have pureed carrots and swede, or squash wedges baked in the oven (with a little sprinkle of paprika) instead of chips or roasties.
You should be looking at 2/3 plate of veggies with 1/3 plate protein. This is squash wedges, carrots, cabbage, runner beans and home made beef stew as an example
I can't comment on real ale as my app only had once value and I don't know how accurate it was.
I expect you will be put on blood pressure tablets, although if you lose weight your BP will hopefully come down. You are aware that like me you are clinically obese. I was told a diabetic should aim to be less than 120/80 but my GP seems happy with mine at 129/80 on 3 medications. I am also on Sukkarto, the slow release Metformin, plus Canagliflozin, as I could not take the full dose of Sukkarto. They tend to suppress my appetite - not a bad thing.
The important thing to remember, is that you will soon adapt to a new way of living. It might be overwhelming now but it soon becomes 2nd nature. And actually as your diet improves and the weigh comes off you will feel much healthier and happy.
I've followed your conversation with Leadinglights so I'll try and stick to things you've not covered.
As your cholesterol was OK, you can quite happily have full fat in your diet. It will make you feel fuller for longer, and I think tastes better. I have a lot of full fat Greek yogurt with a few berries when I want something sweeter. A fruit portion is 80gm. It also makes a low carb breakfast when sprinkled with nuts and seeds (not granola as that is high carb). Another good breakfast is eggs. Omelette with mushrooms and grated cheese is popular. I like mine poached with grilled mushrooms, tomato (1) and the occasional rasher of bacon.
Lunch is usually salad in summer, and home made soup in winter (made without potatoes). I do add haricot, cannellini or butter beans to my soup for their fibre. It does put up the carbs a bit but is more filling and the fibre helps your bowels.
You need to start looking for substitutes for rice and potato. I find cauliflower is good - you can have it with cheese sauce (cream cheese and topped with grated cheddar, or a lower fat variety by melting grated cheese into some of the cooking liquor), mashed, riced. I also have pureed carrots and swede, or squash wedges baked in the oven (with a little sprinkle of paprika) instead of chips or roasties.
You should be looking at 2/3 plate of veggies with 1/3 plate protein. This is squash wedges, carrots, cabbage, runner beans and home made beef stew as an example
I can't comment on real ale as my app only had once value and I don't know how accurate it was.
I expect you will be put on blood pressure tablets, although if you lose weight your BP will hopefully come down. You are aware that like me you are clinically obese. I was told a diabetic should aim to be less than 120/80 but my GP seems happy with mine at 129/80 on 3 medications. I am also on Sukkarto, the slow release Metformin, plus Canagliflozin, as I could not take the full dose of Sukkarto. They tend to suppress my appetite - not a bad thing.
The important thing to remember, is that you will soon adapt to a new way of living. It might be overwhelming now but it soon becomes 2nd nature. And actually as your diet improves and the weigh comes off you will feel much healthier and happy.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I have not heard mention of anybody using this but there may be so I hope you get some feed back.
Jurasik
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Thanks for all of that. I really don't like cauliflower tbh, but thanks for the suggestion. The thing is I don't normally eat breakfast, I have to be out of the house for work at 7:15am, so it's a difficult one to make extra time for it.
I'm currently not on BP tablets, but that may change over time.
I really hope the weight does come down. It's something I've struggled with all my life.
Many thanks again for your detailed response.
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