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Just diagnosed

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A

Azpie

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I've just been diagnosed by my GP, I'm not surprised but also quite upset as I feel it could have been avoided. Long story short I was put on Metformin for polycystic ovary syndrome at my old surgery, when we moved to a different area 4 (almost 5) years ago my new GP decided I shouldn't have been on it and stopped the prescription.

My weight ballooned (3 stone in the first year) and my acne returned, I tried and failed to shift the weight I ended up in that yo-yo cycle of trying a diet for a few months with little to no results and would give up (and gain more weight). At one point I was severely restricting my diet by having 1 x 600 calorie meal a day and nothing else and still no weight loss.

I saw my GP back in November as I was having the most horrendous leg cramps when waking up in the morning (the pain for me was on par with childbirth!) and my left ankle kept swelling up. The cramps were also accompanied by what I can only describe as a bubble travelling up my leg and occasionally popping. I was terrified as I had an uncle who died from a blood clot that started in his leg and travelled to his brain. GP said it was probably just how I was sleeping and to try different positions and lose weight as that won't have been helping. I wonder after reading about leg cramps if this is possibly a symptom? I don't have any other symptoms at all apart from the past few months feeling a bit light-headed if it's been a while since eating (and I assumed that was just hunger/diet related). I haven't actually had the leg cramps since the beginning of the year but now and again my left ankle looks puffy, it doesn't hurt or anything, it just kind of has this bulge to it like I have a water-filled sack attached to my ankle but it appears/disappears randomly (it's not brought on by anything specific like exercise or sitting still too long it just happens)

When corona virus hit and there was a link with diabetes/being overweight it scared me as I am very obese now and I knew the link with PCOS and insulin. So in April I cut out all the junk food and then in May I calorie-restricted my diet (1500 a day) and started exercising again, the first week I lost 3lbs, by week 3 I'd lost another 2lbs and then nothing, I haven't lost any weight since. When it had been several weeks and despite restricting my calorie intake further (currently 1200) and upping my exercise I still didn't lose any more weight I decided to contact my surgery and ask for a different GP.

The new GP I spoke to couldn't understand why I had been taken off metformin if it seemingly worked (even if it was just for weight loss/acne) and said he would put me back on it and see how I got on with it again. I went for a routine blood test just to check everything before starting metformin and the results have come back that I have type 2 diabetes. I can't help but think if I had kept taking metformin the chances are I would have been a healthy weight by now and possibly not diabetic.

I know I have no-one to blame but myself for being so obese but when I have tried losing weight when not on metformin I lose either nothing or a very small amount (2-5lbs). It's hard to stay motivated when you spend several months watching your calorie intake/exercising every day and no real weight loss and you see others doing the same and the pounds fly off. I can't help feeling that if I'd just argued my case with my GP to stay on Metformin I would not be where I am now not just with diabetes but with so much excess weight.
 
Hello and welcome. 🙂

Do low carb, the weight will fall off slowly and healthily plus you won't be ravenous.
 
Hi Azpie and welcome to the forum.

Can I sort of correct you when you say you have no-one to blame for your being so obese? The problem is not with you, personally. You are a member of the human race and it is a problem associated with an awful lot of them.

You and many others are overweight because you are bombarded with invitations to eat more with promises of great satisfaction. Nowhere do those manipulating us point out that if you eat a particular burger, snack on bags of crisps or anything else without care, you will not get the wonderful lifestyle, you will just get overweight. It is not helped when you then get bombarded by people who then tell you they will get your weight down provided you will pay them and government advice which is tempered so that they don't upset the junk food industry.

I, and a lot of others round here (including @Ditto) ignore the "healthy eating" advice most of which is designed to make you eat more, and think about reducing carbs in the diet. I think it helps with calorie control because carbs tend to be high-calorie components of the diet.

Read around the forum and see what others say and come back with any questions you might have. There are loads of experienced people on here who will help you to think things through and get you on track.
 
Hello @Azpie and welcome to the forum.
I understand that is is upsetting getting diagnosed as diabetic, but in the long term it may be good that you now know that it is a contributor to your health issues and you can look at solutions that could help.

For many years I struggled with my weight and tried many low calorie stop-start diets.
I now count carbs rather than calories, and as @Ditto says the weight falls off slowly, but it stays off.
It wasn't until I moved to low carb eating that I found a solution that has worked for me for the long term. We are all different though, and you need to find a solution that is right for you.

The metformin will help to keep your blood sugar levels down, but you need to find an eating plan that will help you as well.
If you have a look at Maggie Davey's letter, this will give you some ideas about how this lady found a solution.

There is also a lot of information on the forum and the tab 'Learning Zone' is also a good source of ideas.
Please keep posting and let us know how it goes, and we are always here to share thoughts and answer questions.
 
Docb said:
I, and a lot of others round here (including @Ditto) ignore the "healthy eating" advice
Click to expand...

I hold my hands up! I'm the worst. If you saw what I've eaten just today, I sit in the recliner watching fat progs and eating! Good grief. Plus I'm very pot / kettle, wanting peoples to eat low carb and healthy and then not doing it myself.

Don't panic Azpie, you'll soon get the hang of it and be effortlessly slim and your bg will go down. No worries. Knowledge is everything. I've put myself down for the two latest type 2 books at the library, they phoned and I've to pick them up on Saturday. Too late for me really but never say die.
 
Thank you all for the welcomes, still trying to get my head around what I can change in my diet to try and help. I know low carb would be beneficial (it's one of the things that is supposed to help with PCOS as well) but I love my carbs and will struggle with things to eat without them (most of my meals contain wholemeal bread, pasta, rice or potatoes as well as veggies).

I'm going to spend the next few days trying to figure out some kind of diet where I can still have pasta/bread etc but try and have less of them so will be having a good read around the site to get ideas.
 
I think your approach of adjusting portion sizes and proportions is a good one. I still eat potatoes/pasta but my portion size is a third to a quarter of what it used to be. This means for example, I cook a sauce with some pasta rather than pasta with some sauce. I also eat french fries rather than chips (looks the same amount but actually a lot less weight) and cut potatoes up into smaller pieces before cooking, again it looks more than there is. Must admit I have eliminated anything made from white flour and for bread currently use a "low GI" bread from the local supermarket. At 10g carbs a slice that works for me.
 
Starting with cutting portions sounds like a good p,ce to start. I found out for me, making drastic changes were not sustainable for me in the long term. I have found over many years I have had to reevaluate what works and change things.
 
I would really advise avoiding carbs. I was pushed to eat 'healthy carbs' for so long - it started when I was in my early 20s with a 24 inch waist. I was muscular and curvaceous when Twiggy was the ideal.
These days I have such things as a mozzarella cheese 'blob' and a tomato for breakfast, or scrambled egg, or a salad with tuna or cheese or boiled eggs. I make 10gm of carbs the maximum for my first meal, and 40 gm the max for the day. I don't try to find things I can eat which are wholemeal or brown etc. as I know that I just digest them in the same way as the white sort, and spike high in the teens afterwards.
 
Oh wow so much to think about, thank you all for your advice and suggestions! I had a look at my nutrition facts on my fitbit and carbs are definitely way too high, they are making up about 45% of my intake!! It's going to be hard but I'm just going to have to try and cut them out altogether, dreading it as like I said I love carbs and so far they have made up a significant portion of my diet.

I picked up a glucozen machine from Tesco yesterday as I was curious about my levels. As soon as I got home I tested (about 3 hours after I'd had lunch) it was 8.3, tested this morning when I woke up and it was 7.3. I'm only having 500mg of metformin at the moment as my GP wants me to build it up slowly, due to up it to 1000 mg next week (I use to be on 1500mg when it was prescribed for PCOS) he's going to review in 3 months.
 
I should have added - eating a low carb diet right from a child, I have had perfect skin all through my life - no bother with spots etc, but when put onto those dreadful diets I had half oily and half dry skin on my face, and dandruff.
For cramp, I found that I needed water - I thought it was electrolytes at first, until I forgot to put the sachet into my water bottle and had the fastest relief ever.
On low carb just watching my BG levels, I lost weight easily - my waist shrank 12 inches without calorie restriction, just keeping low carb. My levels went down to 8 after eating, so I stuck to the same meals, but the numbers gradually sank lower. I believe my metabolism has mended to some extent, but all the low calorie high carb diets broke something.
 
My experience is mainly with Blood Glucose control by Low Carb High(er) traditional Fat 'way Of eating' - not a diet.

If you already have history in not getting anywhere with a calorie restricted diet why don't you try just cutting the carbs right down like Drummer (and me and thousands of others)?
I was only a BMI of 26 to start with yet with eating more calories (because of the additional fats) I lost between 1 and 2lbs every week for over 3 months. My BMI is now 22.
For many people it is easy to cut carbs when eating double cream, full fat yogurt, bacon, cheese, eggs, fatty cuts of meat and fish, avocado, and nuts instead!
 
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