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Advise needed please PCOS

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Sarah09

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Good morning I have diabetes appointment Wednesday to discuss my high readings.
I have been newly diagoniosed with PCOS and diabetes nurse thinks I.might be insulin resistant. My morning reads are 13+. Currently on metformin and glucozide and been advised I can start trulicity or ozempic and see how I get on with them .otherwise jump straight to insulin.
I need to loose weight and she advised insulin can increase weight. I have started low carb diet but readings after breakie are my worse problem. Any advise on treatments or anything to discuss tomorrow would be greatly recieved.
 
I'm on a low carb site on Facebook and have often seen shrieks of excitement (written down somewhat erratically) from people who have found themselves suddenly expecting.
Do they know that you need insulin or are they just throwing medication at the problem without thought or reason?
 
Hi Sarah

The question that comes to mind is what are you eating for breakfast? Low carb can certainly help diabetes and PCOS I believe and weight loss so it is certainly worth giving it a good go and add in a bit of daily exercise (walking is ideal) and that should all help everything.
Is that 13+ your waking reading or post breakfast and if it is your waking reading, what do your levels go up to 2 hours after your low carb breakfast?
Also if it is a waking reading, when do you take it as that can make a big difference. Most of us test before we set foot out of bed because something called Dawn Phenomenon or it's sibling Foot on the Floor syndrome will often cause your levels to rise quite rapidly once you get out of bed. If you are taking that morning reading half an hour later whilst having a coffee then the glucose released by your liver during that time, may well have inflated your reading by several whole units. It can help to eat something as soon as you wake up switch off that glucose releasing function and stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin.
 
I've 4 children so literally not after anymore. Just as my readings are suddenly so high I guess there guessing. Porridgr and water this morning and had readings of 17. Grim
 
rebrascora said:
Hi Sarah

The question that comes to mind is what are you eating for breakfast? Low carb can certainly help diabetes and PCOS I believe and weight loss so it is certainly worth giving it a good go and add in a bit of daily exercise (walking is ideal) and that should all help everything.
Is that 13+ your waking reading or post breakfast and if it is your waking reading, what do your levels go up to 2 hours after your low carb breakfast?
Also if it is a waking reading, when do you take it as that can make a big difference. Most of us test before we set foot out of bed because something called Dawn Phenomenon or it's sibling Foot on the Floor syndrome will often cause your levels to rise quite rapidly once you get out of bed. If you are taking that morning reading half an hour later whilst having a coffee then the glucose released by your liver during that time, may well have inflated your reading by several whole units. It can help to eat something as soon as you wake up switch off that glucose releasing function and stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin.
Click to expand...
Aww thats interesting to know. I'm.testing usually about half hour after waking x
 
Porridge is not low carb (porridge oats are about 63% carbohydrate like most other grains) , so perhaps you are not understanding what low carb is.
 
Many of us have creamy (wholemilk) Greek natural yoghurt for breakfast with a few berries (which are the lowest carb fruits) and mixed seeds. This is much lower carb, tasty and surprisingly filling.
 
rebrascora said:
Porridge is not low carb (porridge oats are about 63% carbohydrate like most other grains) , so perhaps you are not understanding what low carb is.
Click to expand...
No it was some low sugar readybreak which was a total downfall of rushing out of door. Been trying to stick with eggs and tomatoes etc but did fail today....
 
Readybrek is one of the worst types of porridge because it is more finely processed and powdery and therefore releases it's glucose pretty quickly. If you do occasionally have porridge, jumbo oats are best and it is really important to weigh the dry oats because it is so easy to have too big a portion. If you need a "grab and go" breakfast some of the nut bars work well. Nature Valley protein bars are just about 10g carbs per bar and the salted caramel is very tasty or Aldi do Gluten Free dark chocolate and sea salt Nut bars in a 3 bar pack which are only 5.9gcarbs per bar.... it's a smaller bar but also very tasty.... assuming you aren't allergic to nuts of course!
 
Your post meal reading today shows that your body can't really tolerate porridge.
 
Sarah09 said:
I've 4 children so literally not after anymore. Just as my readings are suddenly so high I guess there guessing. Porridgr and water this morning and had readings of 17. Grim
Click to expand...
Ah - in that case - if you decide to eat low carb to lower your Glucose levels you'll need to be careful.
For a swift breakfast I make scrambled eggs with cheese grated in just as it finishes cooking - takes less time than boiling a kettle.
 
Its such a learning curve and the readybrek was rank. I'm hoping that the trulicity or ozempic will help curb my hunger
 
Sarah09 said:
Its such a learning curve and the readybrek was rank. I'm hoping that the trulicity or ozempic will help curb my hunger
Click to expand...
On my low carb diet I am never hungry - so not hungry that I eat twice a day, usually at 12 your intervals. It is carbs which cause the rollercoaster ride of high and low blood glucose, and the down slope triggers hunger.
 
I agree with @Drummer. I recently bought my first loaf of bread in over 2 years and just one slice triggered horrendous cravings for me yesterday. I have been very satisfied with the amount of food I have been eating, even when like Drummer I only eat twice a day but that bread yesterday had me climbing the walls! I could have eaten the whole loaf and not felt full despite it being wholemeal, whereas my normal diet leaves me feeling satisfied even when I don't eat much at all. A chunk of cheese can keep me going all day.
The important thing with cutting the carbs is to eat more fat. Fat will help to keep you feeling full without affecting your BG levels. Feeling sated is really important especially initially until you are fat adapted, so finding low carb foods which you enjoy and can eat whenever you feel hungry will help initially. I buy sour cream and chive dip (fresh not the Doritos stuff in a jar) and have veggie sticks with it. I buy pots of olives with cheese. I eat boiled eggs with full fat mayonnaise, I enjoy a packet of pork scratchings occasionally and I don't ration cheese but I don't have biscuits or fruit with it.... at least not unless it is fermented grape juice! 😉 My morning coffee has double cream in it instead of milk. These things all help to keep me from feeling hungry and I really enjoy them.
 
I also do low carb approx 70g per day and I am never hungry, even a day when I wasn't allowed to eat I haven't been hungry.
I find there is plenty of variety of tasty meals that keep me within the my self imposed carb limit.
Brought down my HbA1C from 50mol/mol to 36 with no meds, That is not to say it would work for everybody.
 
Sorry to hear about your sudden increase in BG levels, and your difficulties with post-breakfast spikes.

Hope your appointment went well yesterday. What did they recommend going forwards?

I wouldn’t worry about insulin and weight gain - it does have that reputation, but we have many members, myself included, who have been injecting insulin for decades without seeing any significant increase in weight. Of course, if you increase insulin doses in order to be able to eat more carbs/food, then weight may be affected. But for me weight gain is tied to my food intake, not my insulin use 🙂

Do be cautious with low carb suggestions. While a little carb moderation can be really helpful, remember that you are on medications which are actively seeking to lower your glucose levels, and if the doses are based around a diet with carbs in, then dramatically ditching carbs may risk hypos.

IMO the better option is to focus on low spike, rather than low carb. Checking before and 2hrs after eating and aiming for a rise of 2-3mmol/L or less. If the rise is bigger than that, try a smaller portion, or if that becomes impractical, an alternative meal with a proportional reduction in total carbs (so estimate the earlier meal, and then aim for an alternative with perhaps 20-25% fewer total carbs).

That way you can gradually tweak and taper your carb intake to match the meds that you are on, and retain maximum flexibility in your menu 🙂
 
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