Hi all, apps?

[Midgie]

Hi, newly diagnosed type 2 :-( feeling a bit sorry for myself.
I’m only a few pounds overweight, shouldn’t be difficult to lose, but I have a strong family history so I doubt that this is reversible. I’m on a steep learning curve now, I have an appointment with my practice nurse but I’d like to be prepared. My a1c is 51, I know she’s going to tell me I need to reduce my intake of sugar and carbs.

Is there a favourite app people are using to monitor this?
Thanks

 

[42istheanswer]

I have a Samsung phone so it comes with Samsung Health already installed, so I'm using that and ignoring its recommended nutrient division (it's set up assuming higher carbs). It has a lot of foods already in, and I add some from packets if not there, or work them out for my homemade meals, but some meals e.g. when I had a takeaway the other week I just look for something that seems similar.

It gives me carbs (and fat and protein) for each meal and overall for the day.

 

[42istheanswer]

If you can manage to lose some weight, you may find that and lowering carbs brings it under control - and if you can keep it under control long enough it is classed as remission. Though there is no guarantee that remission is for life, so you would need to maintain that diet pretty much or the insulin resistance that led to diabetes would be likely to come back. My nurse has advised that assuming my next HbA1c shows what is expected from finger prick tests, I will need to probably keep up low carb on at least 5 days of the week.

If diet alone doesn't work for you (bodies are individual after all) then there's no shame in needing medication. I just preferred to try without first, and see if my body could cope with lower carbs.

 

[42istheanswer]

Family history wise, my maternal grandfather and my father have both being diagnosed with Type 2, and I may have had gestational diabetes (I had large babies, and shed glucose in urine during last few weeks of second pregnancy, though I passed Glucose Tolerance Test). My twin was also previously pre-diabetic but reversed with diet and cutting carbs and sugar. So although family history means that insulin resistance and therefore diabetes is more likely, it doesn't necessarily mean you won't be able to reverse it (at least initially, as I said they don't know yet how many people will be able to indefinitely maintain remission).

 

[notmez]

Carbs and cals app (or book if you want to buy that) is handy for knowing carbs for portion of things if you didn't weight it. It has pictures and you pick the closest in size. There's a free version with limited pics. Which I find enough for me. The paid version is subscription based and I hate that but I'll probably just buy the book.


MySugr. I put my food and carb values in that. The free version is more than enough. The paid let's you export the data in multiple formats instead of just one. This is also good for tracking things like exercise and weight, some data syncs with services like Google fit for steps (if you care about that sort of thing). Also blood sugar readings if you need to take measurements. Even if you don't it's a handy app.


Google fit / Samsung health / Strava etc. Good if you want to try and only make changes with diet and exercise. I'm going out for a walk everyday and seeing the distance and time recorded in the app is really helping me stay motivated to continue and "just walk to the next set of traffic lights before turning around" every so often.

Same as you, I have a family history of type 2. My ac1 was much higher than yours when I was diagnosed, food diet and exercise have helped me loose several KG in 2 months and at my last visit I was told they are considering taking me off medication soon to see how I continue to get on.


everyone is different but the biggest thing to help me is portion control. I still eat the same amount of food but now my plate just looks different. I have less pasta/potatoes/bread/mash/chapatti/roti/naan/pitta etc and instead have more of the other stuff on my plate. I still have treats cakes crisps biscuits etc but much less than I did before.

Hopefully carb control might help you too. Good luck this forum is great.

Make sure to check out the learning zone. Some really good info there.

 

[Drummer]

Hi, newly diagnosed type 2 :-( feeling a bit sorry for myself.
I’m only a few pounds overweight, shouldn’t be difficult to lose, but I have a strong family history so I doubt that this is reversible. I’m on a steep learning curve now, I have an appointment with my practice nurse but I’d like to be prepared. My a1c is 51, I know she’s going to tell me I need to reduce my intake of sugar and carbs.

Is there a favourite app people are using to monitor this?
Thanks

No need to be despondent.
You are only slightly over the diabetes threshold and even with a tendency for diabetes in the family I got back from a Hba1c of 91 to the top end of normal and seem able to stay there by diet alone, and I am considerably overweight still - all the decades of the 'healthy carb' diets being touted as the reason for all my problems takes its toll in the end.
Carbs are sugars and starches, once digested there is no difference, it is all in the blood and having to be dealt with, so the easiest option is to look at the amount of carb in your diet and aim to reduce it. Some changes might be obvious if you have lots of bread and potatoes for instance. If you bake or buy cakes or eat crisps on a regular basis then making your own low carb versions might be the way to go.
Eating low carb is really simple, I find, and very effective.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hopefully with an HbA1c of 51, which is just over the diagnostic dividing line, you’ll find that a few fairly modest tweaks to your menu might really help.

While there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits. That’s not to say that you have to avoid those things entirely - which isn’t particularly practical or sustainable for most people - but tweaking the portion sizes, and the sources of carbs in your meals to suit your body and individual tolerances can be a very powerful strategy.

In terms of apps, for food information Carbs and Cals, Nutracheck, and MyFitnessPal seem popular, though some options are a bit pricey. Carbs and Cals is also available as a printed book (remember them?!).

For monitoring/tracking there are lots of options, but mySugr (which has a pretty well featured free version) allows you to track and record lots of different aspects of your diabetes management, including carbohydrate intake, and show them in graph form.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on with things 🙂