High Carb low fat diet

[Vinophile]

Hi I am new here and not sure if this is the appropriate place for my posting

I have type 2 diabetes diagnosed 13 years ago

Anyway I saw lots of information re Dr McDougall and also other proponents of High Carb low fat plant based diet so I decided to try it.

In my first week I felt better blood circulation in my feet and at night my feet became hot
I could feel an a definite improvement in my feet . I also felt generally better with all the fruit I was eating

My A1C went from about 7 to 6.3 after one week

However the next week it went to 7.4 so I was a bit puzzled

Has any tried this High Carb low fat diet successfully , I am now having doubts albeit its been just 3 weeks now

 

[Martin Canty]

No direct experience but.... I have been involved in discussions relating to this diet & I believe that a few people on this forum are following this WoE (Way of Eating)

Are you reporting BG levels rather than A1c? That's quite a swing as A1c is the average over 3 months so a week shouldn't change the number much. If it is BG levels then I can absolutely see why it should change so much in a week.

I would give it a little longer, it takes a while for the body to adapt to changes in diet.

 

[Vinophile]

Thanks Martin
The readings are from my meter at home , not sure what BG stands for. I will check out WoE

 

[karloc]

Thanks Martin
The readings are from my meter at home, not sure what BG stands for. I will check out WoE

BG is short for Blood Glucose. The finger prick tester measures your level of Blood Glucose (BG) at that specific moment of time.

 

[karloc]

Diets are complex and we all react differently to types of food plus we all have different issues that we are trying to deal with. Plus we all cope differently with our ability to stick to a diet / lifestyle that we decide to try.

I for example need to loose quite a lot of weight as well as dealing with having a high blood glucose level.
For diabetics carbs = blood glucose (healthier high fibre carbs are digested slower and can help reduce the bodies insulin resistance - but for some people, probably because of the way diabetes is currently effecting them even healthy carbs might as well just be sugar in so far as the effect on there blood glucose).
As I need to loose weight also I have gone very low carbs. This has the multiple effects of lowering my BG so my morning reading are mostly in the 4s and by keeping my BG down it will keep my insulin levels low (insulin blocks the ability to use stored fats) allowing me to loose weight and by keeping my BG low it should help my body become less insulin resistance.

I do think the more information you are able to provide on here the more likely that others can give more specific advice or any similar issues they may of had.
Good luck 🙂.

 

[Docb]

Hi Vinophile. Interpreting finger prick blood test results is not straightforward and single readings don't mean very much. They have to be looked at in context because they are affected by what you eat and when you measure. They are also affected by other processes going on in your body. To my way of thinking you have got to get some sort of picture of what is going on in your version of diabetes. The normal way of doing this is not to change much with regard to your meals and test before meals and two hours afterwards. If you want to see the peak then try one hour afterwards as well. Throw in a waking reading and maybe a bedtime reading and after a couple of weeks a picture will emerge. Once you have that picture then you can make changes in your lifestyle and be sure that any changes are having a real effect.

The numbers you reported are perfectly normal and non-diabetics would see them routinely. The difference between 6.3 and 7 and 7.4 is not significant and you cannot read anything into it.

Two other points...

First, the HBA1c reading is NOT the same as a finger prick reading. They are related but tell you different things.

Second, finger prick testing is a powerful tool helping to manage diabetes but you have got to understand it to use it well.

Finally, I personally would not go anywhere near a high carb low fat diet. My HBA1c would be heading for 100, finger prick readings would be in the 20's and chances are I would end up in A&E.

 

[Ljc]

For me as an insulin dependent T2 the more carbs I eat the more insulin I need to inject, plus if I eat more carbs I will start to put on weight which could make me more insulin resistant.

TBH I have never heard of the HCLF (high carb low fat ) regime being any good fir diabetes, quite the opposite in fact, so please let us know how you get on.

You might be interest in this thread, it explains how to use your glucose meter so you can make informed food choices
test-test-test by Alan S then only thing I would add to this is, to test directly before eating as well ,as it’s the difference between them that tells the truth, I mean if at the two hour test you were 11.0 you would think that meal was a No no however you could have been 9.5 just before eating, so that meal was fine it was just that your starting level was too high.

My view in dietary changes for diabetes is,Eat to your meter, if the HCLF works for you, fine, if it doesn’t then try the other options their are plenty of them.
Personally I go for the MCNF ( moderate carbs normal fats) but I am on insulin, so it’s a bit different for me

 

[Martin Canty]

TBH I have never heard of the HCLF (high carb low fat ) regime being any good fir diabetes, quite the opposite in fact, so please let us know how you get on.

I think the HCLF diet being referred to would be something like https://www.forksoverknives.com/ a plant based vegan diet... The only way I think it would work is that (as I understand) it would be eating unrefined foods with a low GI (Glycemic Index).... Myself I decided to go for LCHF, same kind of approach, namely made from scratch unrefined or minimally refined foods.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Good luck with your experiments @Vinophile

Keep us posted, and hope you find a system that works for you.

 

[Vinophile]

Thanks everyone
I will monitor how things go

Looks like this HCLF diet is not very common

I had Gliclazide but got off it thank god so now its Metformin and Dapagliflozin

 

[Drummer]

With diabetes being an inability to cope with carbohydrate, a diet high in them is somewhat problematic right from the start - and for me as a type two, more carbs than I know I can cope with show up straight away as a weight increase, which is a secondary but significant factor in my choice of diet menu.

 

[Martin Canty]

With diabetes being an inability to cope with carbohydrate, a diet high in them is somewhat problematic right from the start

That was precisely the argument I had with a rabid vegan when I first heard of "Forks over Knives".... He had the audacity to blame eating meat caused my T2. ..

Whatever direction someone chooses to go with their diet, IMHO, should be monitored by taking BG readings; only then is it possible to determine how effective the diet is.

 

[Ljc]

I think the HCLF diet being referred to would be something like https://www.forksoverknives.com/ a plant based vegan diet... The only way I think it would work is that (as I understand) it would be eating unrefined foods with a low GI (Glycemic Index).... Myself I decided to go for LCHF, same kind of approach, namely made from scratch unrefined or minimally refined foods.

It’s not for me, I like meat and dairy too much to give it up.

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome to the forum. 🙂 Never heard of hclf diet but sounds bonkers to me.