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LCHF - Benefits and Drawbacks

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WillyWonka

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At risk of diabetes
Hi all. I am new to the forum and have been adopting a lower carb, higher fat approach to my Prediabetes condition.

Do we know of drawbacks associated with low carbing or ultra low carbing?
 
I think that the first thing is to define low carbing and ultra low carbing, ie what percentage of the calorie intake is from carbohydrates.
There are people way more expert than me on the subject, that are following ketogenic diets and so on.
I have seen and interesting video about an experiment on blood type diet: they got a group of people to follow one of the four diets without associating them to the actual blood type. All the people following the diet got benefits independently from the actual blood type. https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abstract/148/4/518/4965915

I follow a low carb diet, and track anyway the calorie intake. HBa1C 33 on last exams, so somewhat the food awareness is working. I eat fruits and sometimes rye bread ad whole wheat pasta but I check myself.
LAtely I have had some problems in red cell blood count, and I can't donate blood until june.
 
I understand your point about definition. I personally see several tiers of carb management whereby any one tier might be suitable for some but not necessarily for others.

I actually wondered about the negative sides of reducing carbs to extreme levels whilst acknowledging the benefits.

I shall look at the article very soon.

Do you feel that low carbing has had an impact on your blood cell count?
 
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I'm in the medium /low carb category, target of 60-80 g carbohydrate a day. Yes it has a profound affect on blood glucose which is obviously a very good thing and I think I am getting to the point where I can look at carbohydrate content of a meal and make a pretty good guess about what effect it will have on BG. I think your other friend, the first being your meter, is the bathroom scales.

If you are overweight and using the low carb approach to loose a pound or two as well as get the BG down then using the scales to show how you are doing is obviously sensible.

If, like me, you are not overweight then the scales will tell you if your low carbing is in danger of sending you underweight because you are not keeping up the calorie intake by other means.

If you are already underweight they will tell you if you are getting into the seriously underweight category which is a whole new kettle of fish and somewhere you do not want to be..
 
Docb said:
I'm in the medium /low carb category, target of 60-80 g carbohydrate a day. Yes it has a profound affect on blood glucose which is obviously a very good thing and I think I am getting to the point where I can look at carbohydrate content of a meal and make a pretty good guess about what effect it will have on BG. I think your other friend, the first being your meter, is the bathroom scales.

If you are overweight and using the low carb approach to loose a pound or two as well as get the BG down then using the scales to show how you are doing is obviously sensible.

If, like me, you are not overweight then the scales will tell you if your low carbing is in danger of sending you underweight because you are not keeping up the calorie intake by other means.

If you are already underweight they will tell you if you are getting into the seriously underweight category which is a whole new kettle of fish and somewhere you do not want to be..
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Okay so you know from experience just by looking at a meal, what kind of an impact that meal will have on your blood glucose levels? This was something I was asking in another thread.
 
WillyWonka said:
Okay so you know from experience just by looking at a meal, what kind of an impact that meal will have on your blood glucose levels? This was something I was asking in another thread.
Click to expand...

It's a personal thing, based on experience.
Eventually you can have a rough idea, yes.
You need to test what your BG is before and after a meal, as different carbs have different effects.
Eventually you'll see some sort of pattern.
 
I came about things from a slightly different angle. I have not purchased or used a meter. I have just gone by the figures on the back of food packs and figures for natural products like fruit and vedge on the internet.

It might be that I had leeway to do that being Prediabetic and not full Type 2. I also have observed changes in my body over the course of time.
 
WillyWonka said:
Do you feel that low carbing has had an impact on your blood cell count?
Click to expand...
I don't know, the doctor said to me to eat more liver, beef steak, yeast, spinaches, mackerels, anchovies and oranges, when I explained what normally I eat.
 
MikeTurin said:
I don't know, the doctor said to me to eat more liver, beef steak, yeast, spinaches, mackerels, anchovies and oranges, when I explained what normally I eat.
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I will be speaking to my doc next week after my latest HbA1c and will see what he advises. :D
 
WillyWonka said:
Okay so you know from experience just by looking at a meal, what kind of an impact that meal will have on your blood glucose levels? This was something I was asking in another thread.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a long way from an exact science, but good enough to help me to keep things in bounds. For example, had a virtually zero carb lunch today - my own made vegetable bhaji with some ham and coleslaw - expecting post lunch reading to be low (for me). And at 5.3 it was, so I treated myself to a biscuit (17g carbohydrate) with a cup of tea to make sure I do not drop below 5.0 before my tea which again will be very low carb. I'm thinking that I will be in the low 5's a couple of hours after tea ( biscuit will have worn off and tea will be adding very little) so I will check to find out. All jolly good fun, but seriously, if I can get a decent picture of what is going on and develop decent hypo and hyper awareness then I hope I can get this thing under control without having to think about it too much.

Also when things have gone to **** then I have been able to trace it back to a meal where my carb estimate was probably in error.
 
Docb said:
Yes, it's a long way from an exact science, but good enough to help me to keep things in bounds. For example, had a virtually zero carb lunch today - my own made vegetable bhaji with some ham and coleslaw - expecting post lunch reading to be low (for me). And at 5.3 it was, so I treated myself to a biscuit (17g carbohydrate) with a cup of tea to make sure I do not drop below 5.0 before my tea which again will be very low carb. I'm thinking that I will be in the low 5's a couple of hours after tea ( biscuit will have worn off and tea will be adding very little) so I will check to find out. All jolly good fun, but seriously, if I can get a decent picture of what is going on and develop decent hypo and hyper awareness then I hope I can get this thing under control without having to think about it too much.

Also when things have gone to **** then I have been able to trace it back to a meal where my carb estimate was probably in error.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I appreciate it would vary from one individual to the next and not an exact science. But I do see n alternative approach. And for some not so much ditching the meter but using less often.
 
WillyWonka said:
Hi all. I am new to the forum and have been adopting a lower carb, higher fat approach to my Prediabetes condition.

Do we know of drawbacks associated with low carbing or ultra low carbing?
Click to expand...
Well done, If I was T2 that's what I would do. "Carbs do the damage" Two of my good mates are off there T2 meds inc insulin. ? Good luck & welcome 😎 ww
 
WillyWonka said:
Interesting. I appreciate it would vary from one individual to the next and not an exact science. But I do see n alternative approach. And for some not so much ditching the meter but using less often.
Click to expand...

Follow up on post above.... just tested 2 hrs after tea and I'm down to 4.2. So overcooked it, to coin a phrase, with my very low carb tea. Don't think I am in a position to ditch the meter just yet. A couple of jelly babies and a nice biscuit with a brew in an hour or so and check to see where I am at at bedtime. Fingers are starting to go tingly so suspect the JB's have not kicked in yet and I am still on the way down. Good job I like doing experiments!
 
Docb said:
Follow up on post above.... just tested 2 hrs after tea and I'm down to 4.2. So overcooked it, to coin a phrase, with my very low carb tea. Don't think I am in a position to ditch the meter just yet. A couple of jelly babies and a nice biscuit with a brew in an hour or so and check to see where I am at at bedtime. Fingers are starting to go tingly so suspect the JB's have not kicked in yet and I am still on the way down. Good job I like doing experiments!
Click to expand...

I feel really bad below 5.
Fortunately, I'm fairly normal now, so it's not usually an event anymore, my liver looks after me.
 
Docb said:
Follow up on post above.... just tested 2 hrs after tea and I'm down to 4.2. So overcooked it, to coin a phrase, with my very low carb tea. Don't think I am in a position to ditch the meter just yet. A couple of jelly babies and a nice biscuit with a brew in an hour or so and check to see where I am at at bedtime. Fingers are starting to go tingly so suspect the JB's have not kicked in yet and I am still on the way down. Good job I like doing experiments!
Click to expand...
Sorry to put you through that. Do you think if you hadn’t used the meter then you would have known to take the jelly baby anyway, or do you not trust yourself on that?

I was in London the other week yomping about up and down stairs in tube stations and from one site to another and whilst low carbing I did feel a bit sick and light headed. I then ate something sweet and my condition returned to normal. I had no meter.
 
Back up to a 5.6 for bed time so 2JB's and a biscuit (27g total carbohydrate) seems to have been about right.. No, don't think I would have hit the JB's without the meter but may well have done if it had dropped much lower because I assume the fingers would have got more and more tingly. Never had a proper hypo so don't know what it would be like for me but have had the tingly fingers on the two or three occasions I have got close to 4 so in future I will take that as a warning.
 
Docb said:
Back up to a 5.6 for bed time so 2JB's and a biscuit (27g total carbohydrate) seems to have been about right.. No, don't think I would have hit the JB's without the meter but may well have done if it had dropped much lower because I assume the fingers would have got more and more tingly. Never had a proper hypo so don't know what it would be like for me but have had the tingly fingers on the two or three occasions I have got close to 4 so in future I will take that as a warning.
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What is your insulin regime?
 
Not on insulin but taking gliclazide.
 
Do yourself a big favour & cut down on the carbs 😉. If you are running a marathon every day its different. T1s have to deal with this every minute of the day. 🙂
 
Doing that HOBIE, but it takes time to get things balanced out. Still learning.
 
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