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Hi from fat guy in the US

@pjgtech I think the US uses the measurement system for HbA1C that the U.K. used to use (and seems to still do sometimes!). That would make the 10.2 equal to 88 in our new units.
 
Welcome tony

You will find this place to be an invaluable source of info and support

Its also nice to see the US measuring in mg/dl. Welcome to the modern world of the metric system 😉 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
Trenton Tony said:
Thank you for that, I will check-it out. Carbs has always been my weakness. I'd regularly eat half an Italian loaf a night with half a pound of potatoe's under the assumption its all good because vegan!
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Something being vegan just tells us what is't being eaten, and in and of itself does not confer health. What would you generally eat with the bread and potatoes?
 
Hi @Trenton Tony and welcome to the forum. Your A1c translates to 85 mmol/l., the units we are familiar with in the UK. That is high and here in the UK would be ringing warning bells in your doctors surgery. You are in territory where the chances of it resulting in consequences you could well do without are at a level where you would be wise to take action to reduce it. Your height/weigh gives you a BMI (the crude measure of obesity commonly used in the UK) of 38 which puts you well into the obese bracket. It is a fair assumption that your diabetes and your weight are related.

My thought for you is a simple one. Stop and take stock. If you want to cut down the risk of being a physical wreck in 20 years time, then now is the time to do something. That something is to figure out how to get your weight down to something less than 200lb. That would almost certainly knock a big dent in your A1c and would also do your cardiovascular system a big favour.

Quite how you get the weight down does not matter - there are many ways of going about it but it needs to be done.

Apologies for being a bit direct, but I thought you would appreciate it.

EDIT - just seen your posts in your "Newcastle in the USA thread". That is one way of going about things!
 
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beating_my_betes said:
Something being vegan just tells us what is't being eaten, and in and of itself does not confer health. What would you generally eat with the bread and potatoes?
Click to expand...

Generally something meaty and saucy (tomato based or cheese based).

Like meatballs, veal. Maybe a chicken parm. Pork loin chop.

Fish maybe once a week.

Looking back on it both the vegan and non-vegan stuff was all unhealthy.
 
Docb said:
Hi @Trenton Tony and welcome to the forum. Your A1c translates to 85 mmol/l., the units we are familiar with in the UK. That is high and here in the UK would be ringing warning bells in your doctors surgery. You are in territory where the chances of it resulting in consequences you could well do without are at a level where you would be wise to take action to reduce it. Your height/weigh gives you a BMI (the crude measure of obesity commonly used in the UK) of 38 which puts you well into the obese bracket. It is a fair assumption that your diabetes and your weight are related.

My thought for you is a simple one. Stop and take stock. If you want to cut down the risk of being a physical wreck in 20 years time, then now is the time to do something. That something is to figure out how to get your weight down to something less than 200lb. That would almost certainly knock a big dent in your A1c and would also do your cardiovascular system a big favour.

Quite how you get the weight down does not matter - there are many ways of going about it but it needs to be done.

Apologies for being a bit direct, but I thought you would appreciate it.

EDIT - just seen your posts in your "Newcastle in the USA thread". That is one way of going about things!
Click to expand...

Hey thank you. No worries on directness. We're used to that over here! Anyway, I had about 3 docs be VERY direct with me over the last few days so more than learning to live with this in my new life 🙂
 
Trenton Tony said:
Generally something meaty and saucy (tomato based or cheese based).

Like meatballs, veal. Maybe a chicken parm. Pork loin chop.

Fish maybe once a week.

Looking back on it both the vegan and non-vegan stuff was all unhealthy.
Click to expand...
From what you had said I assumed you were vegan but if not that can make things easier as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy are all pretty low carb and can for the base of meals with the addition on non starchy veg, salads but with small portions of any high carb foods.
Have a look at this link for a low carb approach which many have found successful. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
It is based on the suggested no more than 130g carbs per day.
It is all very well going cold turkey but some caution is needed as sometimes people can get problems with their eyes and nerves when they reduce carb intake quickly.
 
@Trenton Tony i see in your first post you've referred to your carby snack being vegan - I'm not sure if comment is ironic or if you are by choice vegetarian or vegan. The NHS site i posted if you go to websites on bottom left have a look at the caldesis. He is an Italian chef who has put his diabetes in remission. Their diet plans are pretty low carb. They use fish and meat but there are lots of vegetarian options. If you like Italian bread you would probably like their style.
 
Trenton Tony said:
Generally something meaty and saucy (tomato based or cheese based).

Like meatballs, veal. Maybe a chicken parm. Pork loin chop.

Fish maybe once a week.

Looking back on it both the vegan and non-vegan stuff was all unhealthy.
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Whether or not any of what you've listed is unhealthy would be part of a very nuanced conversation. In combination, and to energy excess, it would absolutely be problematic over the long term. However, isolating any of it (Yes, that includes all the carbs) to shoulder the blame is reductionist at best. That's not your fault, however, it's just the way most of the nutritional and health movement operates and therefore how we've been conditioned to think.
 
Trenton Tony said:
Hey thank you. No worries on directness. We're used to that over here! Anyway, I had about 3 docs be VERY direct with me over the last few days so more than learning to live with this in my new life 🙂
Click to expand...

Glad I was reinforcing what your docs were saying and if you have taken on board that you have got to think long term, not short term, then you probably have made the first big move in turning things round.

I would suggest you begin to think about a 2 year plan to get to where you want to be which I guess would be healthy weight, diabetes under control, a "normal" eating pattern and medication free. You are starting with the "Newcastle" approach but it seems sensible to me to be thinking of the next stage now. My reading of that approach is that it can be very effective in the short term if it is maintained but all is lost if you return to your old ways when the course comes to an end.

Have you given any thoughts to this?
 
Hello and welcome. As others have said, your A1c is high - in fact identical to my highest reading!! I have been slowly chipping away, with a combination diet of shakes and low carb meals, as I find that sustainable. It might be something you wish to consider when you've finished the Newcastle approach. I make a lot of vegetable soups - something I used to take to work in a thermos flask. I try and avoid processed foods, as you never know what has been added to them.
I don't know if it's available in the USA but there is a slow release version of Metformin, which is kinder on the tummy. As a working man you won't want to be running to the restroom constantly! In the UK diabetics are tested annually for retinopathy and neuropathy, as well as having the A1c test at least annually. One thing that might also help you is to get an app which records carbs and cals. I believe one called MyFitnessPal covers USA food stores.
Best wishes
 
Docb said:
Glad I was reinforcing what your docs were saying and if you have taken on board that you have got to think long term, not short term, then you probably have made the first big move in turning things round.

I would suggest you begin to think about a 2 year plan to get to where you want to be which I guess would be healthy weight, diabetes under control, a "normal" eating pattern and medication free. You are starting with the "Newcastle" approach but it seems sensible to me to be thinking of the next stage now. My reading of that approach is that it can be very effective in the short term if it is maintained but all is lost if you return to your old ways when the course comes to an end.

Have you given any thoughts to this?
Click to expand...

Right now I'm still getting through the shock of diagnosis and the new diet. I guess like a ship hit by a wave I'm trying right now to just focus on the Newcastle diet and see if I can stabilize before it sinks. Hopefully and once I get this stable and I have room to think I can look a bit further out where I'm heading. Its a good point about thinking 2 years out and I'll definitely take that on board.
 
Felinia said:
Hello and welcome. As others have said, your A1c is high - in fact identical to my highest reading!! I have been slowly chipping away, with a combination diet of shakes and low carb meals, as I find that sustainable. It might be something you wish to consider when you've finished the Newcastle approach. I make a lot of vegetable soups - something I used to take to work in a thermos flask. I try and avoid processed foods, as you never know what has been added to them.
I don't know if it's available in the USA but there is a slow release version of Metformin, which is kinder on the tummy. As a working man you won't want to be running to the restroom constantly! In the UK diabetics are tested annually for retinopathy and neuropathy, as well as having the A1c test at least annually. One thing that might also help you is to get an app which records carbs and cals. I believe one called MyFitnessPal covers USA food stores.
Best wishes
Click to expand...
Thank you!

Fortunately I didn't get much hit from Metformin. And thats both the side effects or the blood sugar. My Doc talked to me about 5 mins about what would happen for the first few days and to work thru it. So I was "braced for impact" on Thursday morning last week. But everything sort of moved as it normally does! On the less positive side I was expecting this to help reduce my FBG but its actually gone up since my last test (just took my first finger prick test this morning).
 
Great to hear that the Metformin isn't having any adverse effect and I hope that continues. Presumably you have been started on a low dose to allow your body to become accustomed to it, so you would be unlikely to see any benefit until several weeks hence when you have built up to an effective dose.
I addressed the issue of your BG being slightly higher in your other post with an explanation which was probably far too long winded but sometimes it helps to have a bit of background as to why things happen.
 
Hi @Trenton Tony,

As @rebrascora said I sorted myself out with a real food version of the Newcastle diet (600-800 kcals/day, recorded on Cronometer).

Checked my FBG after 7 days. It had come down from over 17 mmol/l at diagnosis to 5.8 mmol/l - as Roy Taylor predicted for those of us lucky to be 'responders'. So I carried on and lost 50 lb.

Any questions - please ask.
 
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hi welcome to the forum a bit late i know. They are a good bunch of peeps heer Like you i have a good amount to loose. at my heavest i was 24 stone im now down to 17stone Am doing it by carb/cal counting im on insulin and this has been cut more than once due to weight lose
the weight section is very helpful
good luck and keep us posted
gail
 
@Trenton Tony welcome, the advice on here is pretty impressive and really helps you make the changes you need to bring blood glucose down to a more manageable, and healthier level. I think you are pretty brave going the Roy Taylor router without some of the support that people here get, but based on other posts I think the results are well worth the effort.

The one thing I would add to the above advice, is to start thinking now about what changes you can and need to make for the future that are sustainable with respect to your life. Even with the Roy Taylor methods, you will still be diabetic and will need to manage the consequences of that going forward. Things like the Freshwell site and others can provide you with food ideas that can become part of your regular menu of foods that will allow you to keep diabetes under control. Never met anyone yet who wants to live permanently on protein shakes and soup :D
 
JITR said:
Hi @Trenton Tony,

As @rebrascora said I sorted myself out with a real food version of the Newcastle diet (600-800 kcals/day, recorded on Cronometer).

Checked my FBG after 7 days. It had come down from over 100 mmol/l at diagnosis to 5.8 mmol/l - as Roy Taylor predicted for those of us lucky to be 'responders'. So I carried on and lost 50 lb.

Any questions - please ask.
Click to expand...
I think you may either have a typo in that highlighted sentence above or you are confusing HbA1c and BG. You would not be alive with a BG of 100mmol/l!!! BG meters only read up to 33mmols/l.
Either 100 was your HbA1c which would be in mmols/mol and cannot be compared with a finger prick reading, as they are measuring very different things, or perhaps you were meaning a finger prick of 10mmols/l and it was a typo error, which then came down to 5.8mols after 7 days. Even then it depends when those two readings were taken as to any inference you can draw from them. A non diabetic person could have a BG of 10mmols/l (180mg/dl) after a very carb rich meal and a BG of 5.8mmols/l (104mg/dl) 3 hours later in the same day. If they were both waking fasting readings then that would make sense, although waking/fasting readings usually take several weeks/months even to come down that much and are usually the last to respond to dietary changes.
 
Trenton Tony said:
Right now I'm still getting through the shock of diagnosis and the new diet. I guess like a ship hit by a wave I'm trying right now to just focus on the Newcastle diet and see if I can stabilize before it sinks. Hopefully and once I get this stable and I have room to think I can look a bit further out where I'm heading. Its a good point about thinking 2 years out and I'll definitely take that on board.
Click to expand...
Hi Tony, it is a lot to take in initially, and it is perfectly fine to give yourself some time to adjust to it all.
@Docb comment at post #31 is valid, as any changes you make need to be long term sustainable.

Although I have now finished the initial 12 week low cal diet, the course I am on, commonly referred to the "NHS T2D Pathway to Remission", yes, its is quite a mouthful! is actually a monitored one year course.
After the 12 week diet I had a six week food re-introduction phase, where the soups/shakes slowly reduced and "normal" meals slowly increased, and also my calorie intake also slowly increased. I have just finished that phase (today). So from tomorrow I am back onto "normal" food with no more shakes, with the aim being to maintain weight loss (or even lose more weight) and eat a healthier diet going forward. So less carbs (we still need some carbs) and more protein and fibre, meat and fish, eggs and diary, salads, etc.
All through the process I have regular phone consultations with the scheme providers, plus I have an app and via that app there is a forum, lots of online resources, educational material, an e-learning module every week and an e-consult option too. So its well supported, which obviously makes it easier.

Plus my Wife has been unnofficially doing the same diet with me, (She's lost a ton of weight too!) so that has been useful too.

If you are doing this on your own, then obviously it can be very hard.
Having a plan is really useful. For example thinking about....
How will you eat when at work, what about special occasions or eating out?
Will you eat and prepare meals individually or do larger batch cooks, and then freeze meals, etc.
What about exercise, do you/can you exercise? if so, can you increase it in any way, bearing in mind even small changes can have significant effects, eg: walking up stairs rather than taking the lift (elevator), stopping the car further away, so you walk a bit further, taking daily walks, or taking daily exercise, etc.
Have you maybe had a talk with family, friends, work colleagues, so they know what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve and so they can support you in any way they can?

Sorry for the long post, just thinking of stuff off the top of my head, ignore the bits that don't apply and take the bits that do.
Really wishing you well with this buddy, 🙂
 
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