Diagnosed in June, told to cut back on carbs and sugary foods. Was told not to do blood tests as they are only a moment in time! I cut back on everything. So after 4.1/2 months my hb1ac dropped from 79 to 69 so metformin doubled to 2x1000 per day, also on thyroxine for underactive thyroid and on steroids. Joined the gym, go 3 to 4 times per week. In 6 months lost 6lb only, feel I am toning up but my tummy is getting bigger, feel so disillusioned with it all. Bought myself a blood testing kit. What readings should I be aiming for? The docs have put me forward for a living with diabetes course, dont know when that will be. I feel I have wasted 6 months with little to show for my efforts. I find everything so tiring, was even crying during my exercise class last week, just felt I couldnt cope with it all. Any tips, help or resources would be appreciated. Thank you for your help.
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Feeling pretty low with it all!
- Thread starter HullAngel
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Leadinglights
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It is very difficult when you don't feel you are making progress. You blood glucose testing kit should help you identify if there are any foods with you are still having which are causing a problem.
Testing before you eat and again after 2 hours aiming at no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase and no more than 8.5mmol/l, if so then your meal was too carb heavy.
By keeping a food diary alongside your reading will allow to to build up a selection of meals you can tolerate.
Steroids are well known to raise blood glucose and underactive thyroid can slow down weight loss so keeping a good watch on your carbohydrate intake is going to be important.
If you want to share the details of the sort of meals you are having people may be able to make some suggestion where you can make some savings.
You sound to be doing all you can exercise wise so carry on with the good work I'm sure it will pay off.
Testing before you eat and again after 2 hours aiming at no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase and no more than 8.5mmol/l, if so then your meal was too carb heavy.
By keeping a food diary alongside your reading will allow to to build up a selection of meals you can tolerate.
Steroids are well known to raise blood glucose and underactive thyroid can slow down weight loss so keeping a good watch on your carbohydrate intake is going to be important.
If you want to share the details of the sort of meals you are having people may be able to make some suggestion where you can make some savings.
You sound to be doing all you can exercise wise so carry on with the good work I'm sure it will pay off.
SueEK
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Ah sorry to hear that you are feeling so low, I totally get it, most of us here will. It can be a real shock to the system when you have to change so much. As @Leadinglights says above you need to try and keep within the 2-3 mmol limit if possible after your meals. This will really help you make decisions as to what foods spike you as it is not always the same for everyone. Great that you have a monitor as it will really help. If you have any specific questions just ask as someone will always know the answer and the forum has a really friendly and supportive bunch of people on it and we are all in the same boat - trying our best. Good luck and keep posting.
Pumper_Sue
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Hello and welcome.
Steroids do raise blood sugars so to drop down like you have is a very big well done.
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Welcome to the forum @HullAngel
Sorry to hear you have been having such a frustrating time.
As @Pumper_Sue says, taking steroids is known to raise blood glucose levels, so to have reduced your HbA1c as you have is a really impressive achievement.
Good to hear that you’ve been told to cut back on carbs, amd that you’ve got yourself a BG meter. There are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will most likely have cut out straight away, but you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use your BG meter, taking a reading immediately before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the rises are and see which meals seem to be spiking your BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you’d want to keep the ‘meal rise’ down to 2-3mmol/L or less.
Eventually you will want to be aiming to keep your BG between 4 and 8.5 for as much of the time as you can manage, but initially, trying to keep the meal rises as low as you can will allow your overall levels to come down gradually, which is gentler on the body and fine blood vessels.
Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing amounts of carbs and trying different types (sometimes just having things at a different time of day makes a difference). Gradually tweaking and tailoring your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline and your BG levels 🙂
If you are interested in this approach you may find test-review-adjust by Alan S a helpful framework.
Try not to be disheartened by what you see as a lack of progress, you've managed to bet things moving in the right direction, and even small improvements are worthwhile when it comes to your diabetes management. 🙂
Sorry to hear you have been having such a frustrating time.
As @Pumper_Sue says, taking steroids is known to raise blood glucose levels, so to have reduced your HbA1c as you have is a really impressive achievement.
Good to hear that you’ve been told to cut back on carbs, amd that you’ve got yourself a BG meter. There are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will most likely have cut out straight away, but you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use your BG meter, taking a reading immediately before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the rises are and see which meals seem to be spiking your BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you’d want to keep the ‘meal rise’ down to 2-3mmol/L or less.
Eventually you will want to be aiming to keep your BG between 4 and 8.5 for as much of the time as you can manage, but initially, trying to keep the meal rises as low as you can will allow your overall levels to come down gradually, which is gentler on the body and fine blood vessels.
Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing amounts of carbs and trying different types (sometimes just having things at a different time of day makes a difference). Gradually tweaking and tailoring your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline and your BG levels 🙂
If you are interested in this approach you may find test-review-adjust by Alan S a helpful framework.
Try not to be disheartened by what you see as a lack of progress, you've managed to bet things moving in the right direction, and even small improvements are worthwhile when it comes to your diabetes management. 🙂
rebrascora
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Hi and welcome from me too
As others have said, you are almost certainly being handicapped in your endeavours by the steroids, so be proud that you have made the progress you have. Well done. If you want to post the sort of things you typically eat for breakfast, lunch and evening meal we might be able to suggest some swaps which could help you strip a few more carbs but provide tasty alternatives. I know when I first started trying to low carb, I found it pretty mind boggling how you could manage without bread and potatoes particularly. Bread is a carrier for so many foods, the logisitics of eating without it seemed almost impossible, but 2+ years later and I don't even miss it.... and I loved bread. I have a few potatoes or sweet potatoes about once every couple of weeks but plenty of other interesting and tasty food to keep me happy and not hungry and I feel so much fitter and healthier without all that stodge.
Anyway, just wanted to say that you are doing really well in difficult circumstances so do acknowledge that to yourself. It isn't easy and I don't think you have necessarily been well advised by your health care professionals regarding not using a BG monitor. Now that you have one and the suggested testing strategy above and a diary or app to log your food and readings I think you will see more progress. To me you have been trying to drive your diabetes blind and the BG meter will shine a light for you and help you to make better food decisions for you.
The other thing I would say is don't be afraid of fat. NHS advice is still low fat, but low carb and low fat is incredibly hard work for no good reason. Once you introduce a bit more fat, it helps to keep you feeling full, it provides good slow release energy and mostly it makes food taste good. I resisted increasing my fat intake because the nurse had stressed low fat and no alcohol at diagnosis and I am usually pretty good at doing what I am told. This is for life though and it has to be sustainable and low carb without fat was not sustainable long term. There has to be pleasure in food. So pleased that I stepped beyond that advice because my diabetes management is so much better and despite eating a lot more cheese and cream and full fat yoghurt and milk, my cholesterol levels are reducing and my consultant is very happy and I feel fitter and healthier than I have for many years and I enjoy my food.
As others have said, you are almost certainly being handicapped in your endeavours by the steroids, so be proud that you have made the progress you have. Well done. If you want to post the sort of things you typically eat for breakfast, lunch and evening meal we might be able to suggest some swaps which could help you strip a few more carbs but provide tasty alternatives. I know when I first started trying to low carb, I found it pretty mind boggling how you could manage without bread and potatoes particularly. Bread is a carrier for so many foods, the logisitics of eating without it seemed almost impossible, but 2+ years later and I don't even miss it.... and I loved bread. I have a few potatoes or sweet potatoes about once every couple of weeks but plenty of other interesting and tasty food to keep me happy and not hungry and I feel so much fitter and healthier without all that stodge.
Anyway, just wanted to say that you are doing really well in difficult circumstances so do acknowledge that to yourself. It isn't easy and I don't think you have necessarily been well advised by your health care professionals regarding not using a BG monitor. Now that you have one and the suggested testing strategy above and a diary or app to log your food and readings I think you will see more progress. To me you have been trying to drive your diabetes blind and the BG meter will shine a light for you and help you to make better food decisions for you.
The other thing I would say is don't be afraid of fat. NHS advice is still low fat, but low carb and low fat is incredibly hard work for no good reason. Once you introduce a bit more fat, it helps to keep you feeling full, it provides good slow release energy and mostly it makes food taste good. I resisted increasing my fat intake because the nurse had stressed low fat and no alcohol at diagnosis and I am usually pretty good at doing what I am told. This is for life though and it has to be sustainable and low carb without fat was not sustainable long term. There has to be pleasure in food. So pleased that I stepped beyond that advice because my diabetes management is so much better and despite eating a lot more cheese and cream and full fat yoghurt and milk, my cholesterol levels are reducing and my consultant is very happy and I feel fitter and healthier than I have for many years and I enjoy my food.
Thank you all for the positive words of encouragement, I will start to keep a food diary, can you recommend a good food and blood monitoring app. It was mentioned to me to follow a low G.I. diet, even that can be a minefield. One of my issues is that I dont like salad foods, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber especially. I think my diet was quite carb heavy but I am gradually reducing the carbs. I have found some of the Joe wickes recipes nice and not so carb heavy.
Breakfasts consist of any of the following:
1)Fruit and kefir yoghurt
2.)20gms oats with 100ml of skimmed milk
3) 2 boiled or scrambled eggs
4)1 Weetabix, 100ml of milk
5) Ommelette
Lunch
Mainly homemade soups
Red pepper, carrot and coriander, mushroom, curried butternut squash
Occasional sandwich, 2 small slices of Wholemeal with various fillings
Evening meal (usually with chicken)
1)Meat and veg including potaoes
2)curries, chillie with mixed veg occasionally will have bulgar wheat 3)stir-fry
Can you suggest a good site for meals?
Thank you all once again
Breakfasts consist of any of the following:
1)Fruit and kefir yoghurt
2.)20gms oats with 100ml of skimmed milk
3) 2 boiled or scrambled eggs
4)1 Weetabix, 100ml of milk
5) Ommelette
Lunch
Mainly homemade soups
Red pepper, carrot and coriander, mushroom, curried butternut squash
Occasional sandwich, 2 small slices of Wholemeal with various fillings
Evening meal (usually with chicken)
1)Meat and veg including potaoes
2)curries, chillie with mixed veg occasionally will have bulgar wheat 3)stir-fry
Can you suggest a good site for meals?
Thank you all once again
Hi @HullAngel and welcome to the forum . I assume you are from Hull - I'm from Brough originally).
Your breakfast is the biggest problem because most T2's are at their most carb sensitive in the mornings. Eggs (any style without bread( is OK, but Fruit isn't unless its just a few berries with some nice full fat greek-style yogurt. problem Other choices are hard cheese, bacon, high meat content sausages, or fish.
Only some of us are OK with carrot - most of us have to avoid below ground veg, and of course all grains have carbs - so wholemeal is just as bad as white bread for most of us.
Obviously potatoes need to be minimised. Cauliflower rice or green rice (actually ground broccoli) is a decent alternative to rice for a curry.
Your breakfast is the biggest problem because most T2's are at their most carb sensitive in the mornings. Eggs (any style without bread( is OK, but Fruit isn't unless its just a few berries with some nice full fat greek-style yogurt. problem Other choices are hard cheese, bacon, high meat content sausages, or fish.
Only some of us are OK with carrot - most of us have to avoid below ground veg, and of course all grains have carbs - so wholemeal is just as bad as white bread for most of us.
Obviously potatoes need to be minimised. Cauliflower rice or green rice (actually ground broccoli) is a decent alternative to rice for a curry.
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