New Type 2

[Bob Mankin]

Hi Newly diagnosed by a nurse practitioner with Type 2
. thought I would be advised by my doctor however i think these days at my surgery you need to be god or higher to see a doctor. the nurse told me a had Type 2 diabetes needed to make a choice regarding medication or lifestyle change. Once we agreed on lifestyle change. I started to ask questions she gave me three websites and said all the information I need I can find on these websites. so here i am feeling lost and looking for help and guidance........................

 

[harbottle]

If you want to go ‘low carb’ I highly recommend this book:

The 30 Minute Diabetes Cookbook: Eat to Beat Diabetes with 100 Easy Low-carb Recipes – THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (Diabetes Series) : Caldesi, Katie Caldesi & Giancarlo: Amazon.co.uk: Books

The 30 Minute Diabetes Cookbook: Eat to Beat Diabetes with 100 Easy Low-carb Recipes – THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (Diabetes Series) : Caldesi, Katie Caldesi & Giancarlo: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

I used this to get my blood sugar back into normal range. Delicious, easy to make recipes. I lost 3 stone very quickly as well.

I still use it but make other meals these days - home made curries with chicken and cauliflower are a favourite!

What was your hba1c?

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Bob Mankin and welcome to the forum.
In many GP practices it is a nurse (a Diabetic Nurse DN) who has the most experience of 'treating' Diabetic patients. Most doctors during their training have been told that Type 2 is progressive and irreversible. so most of us are better seeing DN.

Since you have decided to initially try the lifestyle you have 2 main choices (regardless of whether you are overweight or not):
Either a Low carbohydrate way of eating either without or alongside some calorie reduction (since all carbohydrates turn into sugars when digested - even brown ones).
Or an 800 calorie per day crash diet for 8 to 12 weeks. The idea here is to lose approx 10 to 15 % of body weight (whether overweight or not). This is because even slim Type 2 diabetics tend to have some visceral fat around the liver and pancreas which affect both insulin production and also how sensitive the body is to insulin. Of course a diet that low in calories is also low in carbohydrates.

Most people tend to lose weight on either/both approaches, since insulin is the fat storage hormone and also makes you feel hungrier. So cutting carbs reduces the insulin your body makes which reduces both hunger and fat accumlulation.

If you decide to try Low Carb, be aware that it includes all starches and sugars so includes breakfast cereals, fruit juices and things like potatoes and flour/baked goods. But most find that there is no need to actively cut calories.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

Don't worry about being diagnosed by the nurse practitioner. They often have a bit of extra training, so can sometimes be more knowledgeable than a GP about diabetes. It is great to hear that she gave you the opportunity of making lifestyle changes over medication as a first line of treatment. To me that shows she is enlightened and modern thinking. Many just reach for the prescription pad and have quite a pessimistic attitude about it being progressive, which is certainly not what people here on the forum find.

I imagine you will be wanting to know what you can and can't eat as that is obviously an important issue.
The thing to understand is that diabetes isn't just about sugar as many of us thought pre diagnosis..... it is all carbohydrates which cause our Blood Glucose (BG) to rise, so that is both sugary and starchy foods, some of which are considered quite healthy like fruit and porridge and wholemeal bread and pasta, but not so much when you are trying to control Type 2 diabetes through diet. The idea is to eat less of the high carb foods and eat more lower carb alternatives. So, less bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals and exotic fruits like bananas and pineapples and mango as well as obviously cutting right back on the cakes and biscuits and sweets etc and eat more low carb veggies and a bit more protein(meat/fish/eggs/cheese/tofu and surprisingly a bit more fat. One of the great things about fat is that it slows down your digestion and it provides slow release energy which doesn't raise your BG levels. In essence it stops you from feeling hungry. In fact the low fat dietary advice we have been following pretty much all our lives together with increasing carbs may well have led us to the obesity and diabetes epidemic that we are currently part of. Eating carbs without enough fat means that the glucose from them hits the blood stream faster, which spikes our BG levels and then it is gone by 2 hours afterwards and we start to feel hungry and want a snack mid morning and mid afternoon. Increasing the fat intake and reducing the carbs gives less of a sugar rush but keeps on releasing for a much longer period meaning you don't feel hungry in between meals and indeed I am quite happy on 2 meals a day now.... Creamy Greek natural yoghurt for breakfast with mixed seeds and a few berries and double cream in my coffee. Cream has less carbs (lactose) than milk. Full fat milk has slightly less carbs that skimmed milk.... because the lactose is water soluble to stays mostly in the watery part of the milk. Meat or fish with veggies on a night.... or steak and salad and cheese coleslaw, or maybe celeriac chips with the steak instead of potato chips. Cheese features pretty heavily in my diet. Nice cheeses, not cheap fabricated cheese and I often end the day with little glass of red stuff and a nice chunk of cheese or maybe some olives and feta/manchego with a Gin and slimline tonic... So it doesn't all have to be sackcloth and ashes. Plenty of nice tasty food but just go steady on the carb rich stuff.

The other option to tackle your diabetes is through weight loss (easier said than done we know). Many people find they lose weight on a low carb diet as discussed above but some people go for a radical low CALORIE (as oppose to low CARBOHYDRATE) short term diet to burn the fat (pasticularly visceral fat around the liver and pancreas which inhibs those organs from balancing your BG levels effectively. This is usually the Newcastle or Fast 800 diet and involves 800cals a day, often in the form of meal replacement shakes. About 50% of people who lose a good chunk of weight via this means have success in "reversing" their diabetes but it is dependent upon maintaining the weight loss.

As someone who has YoYo dieted several times in my lifetime, I find a complete change in my approach to food by eating low carb is both enjoyable and sustainable and stops the hunger cravings which were causing me to eat too much. Contrary to what many people expect, my cholesterol is also reducing despite eating quite a lot of fat these days since I am at a healthy weight, so I get most of my calories from fat instead of carbs. I feel ypounger and fitter and healthier than I have for years. I have been doing this for 3.5 years and whilst the first few months were difficult, it is just my new normal now.

As regards exercise, a brisk daily walk is pretty much ideal if you can manage it or swimming or cycling. It certainly doesn't have to be sweating and pounding at a gym... unless you want to.... and in fact that will actually increase your Blood Glucose levels short term because it puts the body under stress, but longer term it will lower them as muscle building enables more storage of glucose. More steady exercise like walking has the effect of lowering levels slowly and gently and the longer you walk they continue to drop. Being active after meals particularly can be really helpful rather than sitting and watching TV after your evening meal. Even if it is just a bit of housework, but walking is really great (give me a choice of walking over housework any day 😉 🙄 )

Anyway, that is kind of the gist of it. Apologies if it is a bit lengthy. I am not good at summarizing things 🙄. Hope some of it is some use to you. Do feel free to ask any questions you have or anything you don't understand.

 

[Bob Mankin]

Hi @Bob Mankin and welcome to the forum.
In many GP practices it is a nurse (a Diabetic Nurse DN) who has the most experience of 'treating' Diabetic patients. Most doctors during their training have been told that Type 2 is progressive and irreversible. so most of us are better seeing DN.

Since you have decided to initially try the lifestyle you have 2 main choices (regardless of whether you are overweight or not):
Either a Low carbohydrate way of eating either without or alongside some calorie reduction (since all carbohydrates turn into sugars when digested - even brown ones).
Or an 800 calorie per day crash diet for 8 to 12 weeks. The idea here is to lose approx 10 to 15 % of body weight (whether overweight or not). This is because even slim Type 2 diabetics tend to have some visceral fat around the liver and pancreas which affect both insulin production and also how sensitive the body is to insulin. Of course a diet that low in calories is also low in carbohydrates.

Most people tend to lose weight on either/both approaches, since insulin is the fat storage hormone and also makes you feel hungrier. So cutting carbs reduces the insulin your body makes which reduces both hunger and fat accumlulation.

If you decide to try Low Carb, be aware that it includes all starches and sugars so includes breakfast cereals, fruit juices and things like potatoes and flour/baked goods. But most find that there is no need to actively cut calories.

Hi Thanks for that Im active every day walking two dogs Ive already cut out the good stuff Chocolate and biscuits white bread etc and my weight is coming down steadily so hopefully I'm on the right track. I know the nurse is probably the best bet. but after nearly 70 years of seeing doctors when I'm ill my expectations are different( i did try to get an appointment a couple of weeks ago with an ankle issue and was told I could have an appointment in 8 weeks ). so i have given up on them( or rather they have given up on me ) I'm gaining info from the websites slowly but this is just not my thing. Ill get there of that I'm sure. as the beatles said"with a little help from my friends"

 

[Bob Mankin]

Hi and welcome.

Don't worry about being diagnosed by the nurse practitioner. They often have a bit of extra training, so can sometimes be more knowledgeable than a GP about diabetes. It is great to hear that she gave you the opportunity of making lifestyle changes over medication as a first line of treatment. To me that shows she is enlightened and modern thinking. Many just reach for the prescription pad and have quite a pessimistic attitude about it being progressive, which is certainly not what people here on the forum find.

I imagine you will be wanting to know what you can and can't eat as that is obviously an important issue.
The thing to understand is that diabetes isn't just about sugar as many of us thought pre diagnosis..... it is all carbohydrates which cause our Blood Glucose (BG) to rise, so that is both sugary and starchy foods, some of which are considered quite healthy like fruit and porridge and wholemeal bread and pasta, but not so much when you are trying to control Type 2 diabetes through diet. The idea is to eat less of the high carb foods and eat more lower carb alternatives. So, less bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals and exotic fruits like bananas and pineapples and mango as well as obviously cutting right back on the cakes and biscuits and sweets etc and eat more low carb veggies and a bit more protein(meat/fish/eggs/cheese/tofu and surprisingly a bit more fat. One of the great things about fat is that it slows down your digestion and it provides slow release energy which doesn't raise your BG levels. In essence it stops you from feeling hungry. In fact the low fat dietary advice we have been following pretty much all our lives together with increasing carbs may well have led us to the obesity and diabetes epidemic that we are currently part of. Eating carbs without enough fat means that the glucose from them hits the blood stream faster, which spikes our BG levels and then it is gone by 2 hours afterwards and we start to feel hungry and want a snack mid morning and mid afternoon. Increasing the fat intake and reducing the carbs gives less of a sugar rush but keeps on releasing for a much longer period meaning you don't feel hungry in between meals and indeed I am quite happy on 2 meals a day now.... Creamy Greek natural yoghurt for breakfast with mixed seeds and a few berries and double cream in my coffee. Cream has less carbs (lactose) than milk. Full fat milk has slightly less carbs that skimmed milk.... because the lactose is water soluble to stays mostly in the watery part of the milk. Meat or fish with veggies on a night.... or steak and salad and cheese coleslaw, or maybe celeriac chips with the steak instead of potato chips. Cheese features pretty heavily in my diet. Nice cheeses, not cheap fabricated cheese and I often end the day with little glass of red stuff and a nice chunk of cheese or maybe some olives and feta/manchego with a Gin and slimline tonic... So it doesn't all have to be sackcloth and ashes. Plenty of nice tasty food but just go steady on the carb rich stuff.

The other option to tackle your diabetes is through weight loss (easier said than done we know). Many people find they lose weight on a low carb diet as discussed above but some people go for a radical low CALORIE (as oppose to low CARBOHYDRATE) short term diet to burn the fat (pasticularly visceral fat around the liver and pancreas which inhibs those organs from balancing your BG levels effectively. This is usually the Newcastle or Fast 800 diet and involves 800cals a day, often in the form of meal replacement shakes. About 50% of people who lose a good chunk of weight via this means have success in "reversing" their diabetes but it is dependent upon maintaining the weight loss.

As someone who has YoYo dieted several times in my lifetime, I find a complete change in my approach to food by eating low carb is both enjoyable and sustainable and stops the hunger cravings which were causing me to eat too much. Contrary to what many people expect, my cholesterol is also reducing despite eating quite a lot of fat these days since I am at a healthy weight, so I get most of my calories from fat instead of carbs. I feel ypounger and fitter and healthier than I have for years. I have been doing this for 3.5 years and whilst the first few months were difficult, it is just my new normal now.

As regards exercise, a brisk daily walk is pretty much ideal if you can manage it or swimming or cycling. It certainly doesn't have to be sweating and pounding at a gym... unless you want to.... and in fact that will actually increase your Blood Glucose levels short term because it puts the body under stress, but longer term it will lower them as muscle building enables more storage of glucose. More steady exercise like walking has the effect of lowering levels slowly and gently and the longer you walk they continue to drop. Being active after meals particularly can be really helpful rather than sitting and watching TV after your evening meal. Even if it is just a bit of housework, but walking is really great (give me a choice of walking over housework any day 😉 🙄 )

Anyway, that is kind of the gist of it. Apologies if it is a bit lengthy. I am not good at summarizing things 🙄. Hope some of it is some use to you. Do feel free to ask any questions you have or anything you don't understand.

Good info and insight thanks for taking the time

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Thanks for that Im active every day walking two dogs Ive already cut out the good stuff Chocolate and biscuits white bread etc and my weight is coming down steadily so hopefully I'm on the right track.

Sounds like you are off to a good start, and good to hear that your weight is reducing steadily. It’s usually best to make changes gradually and steadily, partly because they need to be sustainable, and also because more gradual changes in your overall BG levels are gentler on the fine blood vessels in your eyes and your nerve endings

I'm gaining info from the websites slowly but this is just not my thing. Ill get there of that I'm sure. as the beatles said"with a little help from my friends"

Yes it‘s so helpful to have a bunch of friendly folks who are facing the same struggles, frustrations, confusions, and hilarity every day whose brains you can pick on absolutely any subject 🙂

If you’d like a source of information broken into bite-sized chunks, you might like to register with the Learning Zone, which is packed through of useful content, and keeps having new stuff added 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

I don't wish to bombard you too much but it is something you can come back to when you are ready. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
How much work you need to do will depend on what your HbA1C is, 47mmol/mol and above gives you a diabetic diagnosis so if you have been given the opportunity to make some lifestyle changes then hopefully it is not too far into the zone.