Hi!

[Sheppy]

Hi All- I hope this finds you all well! I am desperate to reverse my Type 2 diabetes and appreciate I have some weight to lose to help me with this goal. may I ask what the consensus is about using meal replacement shakes to promote weight loss. I understand this has to be sustainable and I have managed to lose over a stone just by making some small tweaks to my diet and upping my activity but I would like to "speed" things along just a little if I could so any advice you could give would be really appreciated!
regards
Sheppy

 

[SB2015]

Hi All- I hope this finds you all well! I am desperate to reverse my Type 2 diabetes and appreciate I have some weight to lose to help me with this goal. may I ask what the consensus is about using meal replacement shakes to promote weight loss. I understand this has to be sustainable and I have managed to lose over a stone just by making some small tweaks to my diet and upping my activity but I would like to "speed" things along just a little if I could so any advice you could give would be really appreciated!
regards
Sheppy

Well done on losing the first stone. As you say it is the sustainable changes that are likely to be the most helpful in the longterm, with both diet and levels of exercise.
What changes did you choose to make?
As you will no doubt have discovered the increase in glucose levels is due to any form of carbohydrates that we eat. The speed at which the levels rise after a meal will depend a number of factors such as the foods that you choose and also the non carb foods that are eaten alongside them. By knowing how much carbs you are eating at each meal (from the back of packets and weighing what you cook) you can then make adjustments

Are you testing your glucose levels to help with choices?
Different foods impact on different people in different ways. I was happily eating porridge until I saw what it did to my BG. Others have no problem with that. The only way of knowing what is going on is to test you glucose levels. If you do this before and after eating, and use this information alongside a food diary you can then make informed decisions about what to eat and portion sizes. We have many T2 on here who are told by GPS not to test but that is often because the Practice will not fund the test strips. However waiting until the nextHbA1c test and going it blind in between does not seem to make sense. These articles might help you Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S Also, because if you have to self-fund you want to make those test strips count:Testing on a budget

I am sorry but I cannot comment on the shakes used for weight loss, but hope that someone will come along with some experience.

 

[CathyB]

Hi Sheppy, welcome 🙂 I chose to follow a low carb diet, I cut out pasta, rice, potatoes and bread although I am ok with a couple of slices of Burgen bread, it’s a lower carb linseed and soy loaf that many of us can tolerate. The only exercise I do is walking the dog most nights but the weight dropped quickly without really trying, I was so focused on learning what foods I could eat that I didn’t think about weight until suddenly my jeans were falling down 😱 Now I am a year in, my diabetes is under control, metformin halved with a view to coming off completely next month and I’m just under 4 stone lighter 😎 I feel better than I have for a long time and would never go back to eating carbs no matter what!

 

[Drummer]

You seem to have two problems and are only really addressing one - well done on the weightloss, but if you can cut out dense carbohydrate foods then you should find that your blood glucose reduces, so removing any symptoms - one of which is being overweight.
I used to wear size XXL - mostly due to my waist size, now I can wear Ms.
I have had to throw out and remake or buy new clothes about every 6 months since I was diagnosed.
Some shakes are quite high carb, which is not what you need.
Far easier, in the long term to eat real food for ever - to my way of thinking.
I did use a meter to see how various types of food affect me - so I knew that the advice to have potatoes and beans as lunch was just not going to help in the slightest. After about 4 months I did not really need to test, as I had it sorted.
These days I have two meals a day, eating early and late and am doing fine.

 

[Madeline]

I’ve tried the shakes. They are very effective, but you do need to be really dedicated. Unfortunately I found even they contained too many carbs for me to cope with, so I would strongly suggest that if you do go down that route you definitely buy a meter and test.