Advice re low carb and weight loss

[SteveR]

Ok, so I was diagnosed as type 2 in August this year with an HbA1c of 112. At that time I weighed around 204 pounds and had a BMI of 28.9. Since then I have totally changed my diet and cut out all the bad stuff. Basically I don’t eat rice, potatoe, bread or sugary things. I have just had the results of my latest blood test which gave an HbA1c of 48 which is great in such a short period. My weight is now around 174 pounds and BMI is 24. The thing is, how do I stop the weight loss. My wife is worried I’m now starting to lose too much on my current diet. For those of you who have lost the weight and maintained a low carb diet what adjustment, if any, did you have to make once you had reached your desired weight. It seems every time I try to introduce a few carbs my sugars go too high. Now I’ve been reading on other posts that you should aim to keep any meal spikes to below 8.5 and within 2 to 3 of your pre meal reading. I struggle to do this even with a small amount of carbs, ie one slice of low carb bread or like last night a 1/4 packet of whole grain rice mixed with cauliflower rice.

Sorry for the long post, I was supposed to see the DN yesterday but it got cancelled again.

 

[Inka]

How high did you go after your slice of low carb bread @SteveR ? If you’ve been eating minimal carbs perhaps you have physiological insulin resistance? That often happens - a kind of starvation mode the body puts itself into.

Are you eating enough protein and fat? Could you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you?

 

[SteveR]

How high did you go after your slice of low carb bread @SteveR ? If you’ve been eating minimal carbs perhaps you have physiological insulin resistance? That often happens - a kind of starvation mode the body puts itself into.

Are you eating enough protein and fat? Could you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you?

with the bread I went from around 7 to 9.5, I understand it’s not too much over but my starting point is probably still a bit high at the moment. My wife has just informed me that the butternut squash soup she gave me last night was not her usual home made one which has no effect on me but a supermarket one. Just looked at the carbs, 60 something, that’ll be why I spiked so high with the meal with rice last night .

A typical day would be

Breakfast. - Berries and Greek Yoghurt ( just changed to full fat). Sometimes bacon, egg and low fat baked beans.
Lunch - Salad including a slice of cheese and some grated cheese or feta cheese. Sometimes with chorizo or ham. Occasionally have a boiled egg with the salad.
Evening Meal - Chicken or fish with veg. Other times it’s a low carb meal from a suggestion from someone on here.

any snacks are a handful of nuts or a small piece of 90% chocolate.

 

[Inka]

Yes, ideally you’d start your meal with a blood sugar below 7, but being 7 isn’t too bad. You only rose 2.5mmol so that’s positive.

With your meals, you could add some seeds and nuts to your breakfast (and do use full fat yoghurt, as you mentioned. Your lunch looks very minimal. Could you add an avocado, for example? There are low carb cakes and desserts you could add in at lunch or evening meal too. That might help. If you’re going to eat very low carb then you need to make the calories up somewhere.

You might find some ideas on this thread:
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/lets-learn-how-to-bake-cook-keto.90754/

.

 

[SteveR]

Yes, ideally you’d start your meal with a blood sugar below 7, but being 7 isn’t too bad. You only rose 2.5mmol so that’s positive.

With your meals, you could add some seeds and nuts to your breakfast (and do use full fat yoghurt, as you mentioned. Your lunch looks very minimal. Could you add an avocado, for example? There are low carb cakes and desserts you could add in at lunch or evening meal too. That might help. If you’re going to eat very low carb then you need to make the calories up somewhere.

You might find some ideas on this thread:
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/lets-learn-how-to-bake-cook-keto.90754/

.

Thanks Inca, that’s very useful. Will be attempting to make the bread and french fries this week. Will also try adding in nuts and seeds and see what that does.

 

[Eddy Edson]

For me: Nuts, seeds, avocado, soy milk.

 

[Windy]

Could you have omelette for breakfast? Eggs are non-carb, but have protein in. I have chopped up spring onion, mushrooms and a tiny bit of strong cheddar in my omelettes and they're lovely!
Also, what about a small bowl of soup with your salad? I bulk cook soup and put individual portions in tupperware boxes in the freezer so that I don't have to cook for every meal, and it's as easy to make a massive bucket of soup as a delicate pan of soup! Broccoli and Stilton soup is delicious, I put some lentils in mine, but that ups the carbs.

 

[SteveR]

Could you have omelette for breakfast? Eggs are non-carb, but have protein in. I have chopped up spring onion, mushrooms and a tiny bit of strong cheddar in my omelettes and they're lovely!
Also, what about a small bowl of soup with your salad? I bulk cook soup and put individual portions in tupperware boxes in the freezer so that I don't have to cook for every meal, and it's as easy to make a massive bucket of soup as a delicate pan of soup! Broccoli and Stilton soup is delicious, I put some lentils in mine, but that ups the carbs.

I will give the omelette a go as well as the soup. Thanks for your help.

 

[rebrascora]

How about cream in your morning coffee if you drink it. That is one of my little luxuries to make up for the treats that I left behind with my old carb rich diet. The cream provides extra calories and slow release energy and just tastes so good! Omelettes are great and I usually have a big plate of salad with mine and a large dollop of cheese coleslaw with the salad. In fact I have creamy/cheese coleslaw with pretty much every salad I have.
No need to restrict eggs to just one. A 2 or 3 egg omelette with cheese and whatever else you fancy will fill you up and keep you going most of the day.
Cheese and olives and the odd packet of pork scratching provide extra fat as well as full fat (Creamy) Greek style natural yogurt.
Incorporate more fats and oils into your meals too. So I really like ratatouille made with plenty of olive oil and a cauliflower and halloumi curry made with coconut oil and coconut milk. I think we have been so used to trying to follow the low fat advice all our lives that we automatically use the smallest amount of fat possible to cook things and it has become habit. Learning not to restrict fat is interesting and needs a bit of conscious effort at first. I eat fattier cuts of meat like lamb chops and belly pork and rib-eye steak. I don't eat a lot of meat and often go days without but when I do, I select for higher fat content. I am not a fish fan but oily fish is also very good. I cook veggies (cabbage, kale spinach, leeks etc) in a good knob of butter or add a dollop of cream cheese and stir in to serve them. You can also add some cream, cream cheese or creme fraiche to your soup to make it more satisfying. Always full fat varieties. These high fat foods will make your meals more filling and hopefully also more enjoyable as well as helping to stabilize your weight. You then learn to adjust the fat content to keep your body at a healthy maintenance weight. If I feel that I am starting to put on a little I cut back on my cheese and cream intake a bit and make a conscious effort to do more exercise. It is just about finding the balance.

For me, eating more fat was the key to making low carb eating enjoyable and sustainable for the rest of my life and I feel fitter and healthier and younger than I have for years eating this way.... and surprisingly my cholesterol levels are reducing despite eating all that saturated fat and my consultant is very happy. And I don't get the cravings and hunger that I used to feel when I was eating twice as much food in the form of carbs, pre diagnosis.

 

[SteveR]

Could you have omelette for breakfast? Eggs are non-carb, but have protein in. I have chopped up spring onion, mushrooms and a tiny bit of strong cheddar in my omelettes and they're lovely!
Also, what about a small bowl of soup with your salad? I bulk cook soup and put individual portions in tupperware boxes in the freezer so that I don't have to cook for every meal, and it's as easy to make a massive bucket of soup as a delicate pan of soup! Broccoli and Stilton soup is delicious, I put some lentils in mine, but that ups the carbs.

I will give the omelette a go as well as the soup. Thanks for your help.

How about cream in your morning coffee if you drink it. That is one of my little luxuries to make up for the treats that I left behind with my old carb rich diet. The cream provides extra calories and slow release energy and just tastes so good! Omelettes are great and I usually have a big plate of salad with mine and a large dollop of cheese coleslaw with the salad. In fact I have creamy/cheese coleslaw with pretty much every salad I have.
No need to restrict eggs to just one. A 2 or 3 egg omelette with cheese and whatever else you fancy will fill you up and keep you going most of the day.
Cheese and olives and the odd packet of pork scratching provide extra fat as well as full fat (Creamy) Greek style natural yogurt.
Incorporate more fats and oils into your meals too. So I really like ratatouille made with plenty of olive oil and a cauliflower and halloumi curry made with coconut oil and coconut milk. I think we have been so used to trying to follow the low fat advice all our lives that we automatically use the smallest amount of fat possible to cook things and it has become habit. Learning not to restrict fat is interesting and needs a bit of conscious effort at first. I eat fattier cuts of meat like lamb chops and belly pork and rib-eye steak. I don't eat a lot of meat and often go days without but when I do, I select for higher fat content. I am not a fish fan but oily fish is also very good. I cook veggies (cabbage, kale spinach, leeks etc) in a good knob of butter or add a dollop of cream cheese and stir in to serve them. You can also add some cream, cream cheese or creme fraiche to your soup to make it more satisfying. Always full fat varieties. These high fat foods will make your meals more filling and hopefully also more enjoyable as well as helping to stabilize your weight. You then learn to adjust the fat content to keep your body at a healthy maintenance weight. If I feel that I am starting to put on a little I cut back on my cheese and cream intake a bit and make a conscious effort to do more exercise. It is just about finding the balance.

For me, eating more fat was the key to making low carb eating enjoyable and sustainable for the rest of my life and I feel fitter and healthier and younger than I have for years eating this way.... and surprisingly my cholesterol levels are reducing despite eating all that saturated fat and my consultant is very happy. And I don't get the cravings and hunger that I used to feel when I was eating twice as much food in the form of carbs, pre diagnosis.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I will give them a go. Difficult getting used to having full fat this and that when so used to having low fat. Feels like I’m into a new stage whereby I’ve lost the weight but now need to stabilise things so diet needs to change slightly.

 

[Burylancs]

I will give the omelette a go as well as the soup. Thanks for your help.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I will give them a go. Difficult getting used to having full fat this and that when so used to having low fat. Feels like I’m into a new stage whereby I’ve lost the weight but now need to stabilise things so diet needs to change slightly.

Time to begin the walk up through the quantity and quality of the medication available ?

 

[Leadinglights]

Looking at your HbA1C result you posted up from Nov, you are still not quite there as you really want to be getting your HbA1C below 42mmol/mol. Your strategy has obviously been very successful in getting your level down so don't feel tempted to relax too much just yet. Brilliant work so far.