Newbie - diabetes type 2 it's finally got me

[Kestrel521]

Hi everyone,
I have for most of my adult life been obese so I have up to my 60th birthday dodged the proverbial diabetes bullet. I am very aware that if you eat more than you can burn then you get fat but unfortunately I still did it and now I will pay the concequences.

As I have been diagnosed with diabetes type 2, I have been prescribed metformin 500mg 3 times a day but I should build up taking them over 3 weeks as they will probably give me tummy upset which I cannot wait for. (not).
I understand the basics of my body having too much sugar which it is unable to get rid of but I don't understand yet why I will probably have to be on a low carb diet. As I don't particularly like salad type food and a lot of foods will be banned. I am not sure what I will have left to eat. I guess I will need to do a lot of reading on low carb diets.
My first meeting with the diabetes nurse is next Friday which hopefully will give me a better understanding of what my daily routine will be apart from taking tablets, exercising and eating more healthy.

 

[grovesy]

Hi everyone,
I have for most of my adult life been obese so I have up to my 60th birthday dodged the proverbial diabetes bullet. I am very aware that if you eat more than you can burn then you get fat but unfortunately I still did it and now I will pay the concequences.

As I have been diagnosed with diabetes type 2, I have been prescribed metformin 500mg 3 times a day but I should build up taking them over 3 weeks as they will probably give me tummy upset which I cannot wait for. (not).
I understand the basics of my body having too much sugar which it is unable to get rid of but I don't understand yet why I will probably have to be on a low carb diet. As I don't particularly like salad type food and a lot of foods will be banned. I am not sure what I will have left to eat. I guess I will need to do a lot of reading on low carb diets.
My first meeting with the diabetes nurse is next Friday which hopefully will give me a better understanding of what my daily routine will be apart from taking tablets, exercising and eating more healthy.

If you can't face cutting out carbs , why not start by cutting back on them and see how you go. It is a marathon not a sprint.

 

[Kestrel521]

If you can't face cutting out carbs , why not start by cutting back on them and see how you go. It is a marathon not a sprint.

Thanks, it's all new to me and I must admit a bit daunting

 

[grovesy]

Low Carb is quite a broad bar and there is no set definition of constitutes low carb. Some here eat around 130 grams a day and at the other end of the spectrum some go as low as 20 grams a day.

 

[Kestrel521]

Wow, that is a big range I think I will have to work out what will best for me as I travel down this long road

 

[grovesy]

Wow, that is a big range I think I will have to work out what will best for me as I travel down this long road

May be a place to start would be to see how many you typical have, and take from there to see how you could reduce.

 

[Kestrel521]

The plan is get myfitnesspal up to date which will point me in the right direction and help me with the weight loss

 

[Docb]

Hi @Kestrel521 and welcome to the forum. Glad to see you have got a handle on the basics and appreciate that getting your weight down might well the key to getting your diabetes sorted. Do it by going the low carb route and you can also tackle your high blood glucose levels at the same time.

Like @grovesy I think a good start is to get a food diary going. You have to be brutally honest with it, recording everything. I like the idea of using a notebook and pencil rather than an app. Easier to flip through and easier to scribble notes on. You can also start estimating carbs in meals and begin to get a handle of where your high carb intakes are. That gives you the clues to how to get the carbs down. Some things you might have to get rid of altogether but mostly it's a question of adjustment of portions and swapping the high carb things you eat for the low carb things you eat.

Lots on here have gone that route and made it work so there is usually somebody around to offer thoughts and answer questions. Keep them coming.

 

[grovesy]

The plan is get myfitnesspal up to date which will point me in the right direction and help me with the weight loss

You have to use what ever works for you never used Fitness Pal, but many do.

 

[ianf0ster]

I found that a Low Carb Way Of Eating - not a diet, was not particularly restrictive since it frees you form worrying about calories. Though it is harder for vegans and strict vegetarians.

It important to focus on using it to control the Blood Glucose, because if you really have T2D and not a more exotic form of diabetes, then low carb never fails to bring the HbA1C down substantially although there are people who don't /can't stick to it, although some fail to stick to it, don't go low enough or let the carbs creep back in.

Get yourself a Blood Glucose Meter ( a Spirit TEE2 or an SD Gluco Navii are the most affordable with relatively cheap test strips) and test before each meal and then 2hrs after first bite in order to see how much that meal spiked your BG. Aim for less than a 2.00 mmol increase and also for a maximum reading of 8.0mmol or less.

 

[Kestrel521]

I found that a Low Carb Way Of Eating - not a diet, was not particularly restrictive since it frees you form worrying about calories. Though it is harder for vegans and strict vegetarians.

It important to focus on using it to control the Blood Glucose, because if you really have T2D and not a more exotic form of diabetes, then low carb never fails to bring the HbA1C down substantially although there are people who don't /can't stick to it, although some fail to stick to it, don't go low enough or let the carbs creep back in.

Get yourself a Blood Glucose Meter ( a Spirit TEE2 or an SD Gluco Navii are the most affordable with relatively cheap test strips) and test before each meal and then 2hrs after first bite in order to see how much that meal spiked your BG. Aim for less than a 2.00 mmol increase and also for a maximum reading of 8.0mmol or less.

Thanks for the info, I was wondering about getting a meter but after reading a previous post about choosing one it mentions that members should confirm with the DB nurse to find out if they recommend/pay some or all of the costs involved. Having recently moved from England to Scotland and not had this before I don't really know what I need to get and if I have to pay all the costs involved or not since Scotland has free prescriptions.

 

[grovesy]

Thanks for the info, I was wondering about getting a meter but after reading a previous post about choosing one it mentions that members should confirm with the DB nurse to find out if they recommend/pay some or all of the costs involved. Having recently moved from England to Scotland and not had this before I don't really know what I need to get and if I have to pay all the costs involved or not since Scotland has free prescriptions.

I believe Scotland have free prescriptions but not sure if they give all Type 2 meters.
You can only ask.

 

[Kestrel521]

You can try but your DN will most likely to tell you that as you're T2 and only on Metformin you don't need to test, and is thus unlikely to offer you anything on prescription. This is the position that most HCPs take, but it's short-sighted. Testing on waking (fasting test) and before and after meals (pre- and post-prandial tests) are invaluable for checking that what you're doing to manage your diabetes is actually working.

Martin

Thanks for the input, even though I don't know very much about living with DB yet, it seems logical to me that I should be checking my glucose even if it's not all of the time. If they don't provide me with a meter then I will go and purchase one so that I am aware of what my body is doing (good or bad)

 

[trophywench]

@Kestrel521 The two mentioned are only available to purchase Online - they have been found by members here to be pretty reliable and have the cheapest strips to buy - some of the prescription only meters cost over £25 a pot of 50 if you need to pay for them over the counter of a pharmacy.

When you come to the bit where you need to pay, you are exempt from VAT on them, so click the appropriate box. The other thing is, in the UK the measurement used is mmol/L and at least one of the websites asks if you want that, or mg/dL which is commonly used in some other countries.

@Kaylz - do you know if a T2 would get a meter prescribed from the doc in Scotland?

 

[Kaylz]

Hi there 🙂

Unfortunately you won't qualify automatically to get a meter and test strips prescribed but you may be lucky enough that you have a nice understanding GP/Nurse that may prescribe the equipment, my mother in law had her test strips stopped on prescription a couple of years ago unfortunately

Good luck!
xx

 

[Kestrel521]

Hi there 🙂

Unfortunately you won't qualify automatically to get a meter and test strips prescribed but you may be lucky enough that you have a nice understanding GP/Nurse that may prescribe the equipment, my mother in law had her test strips stopped on prescription a couple of years ago unfortunately

Good luck!
xx

Thanks, must admit that I am not expecting any freebies but you never know. usually my philosophy is if you don't ask you don't get although I paid for the flu jab on Thursday not realising that you can get for free with diabetes. Oh well I will try to remember for next year.

 

[Kaylz]

Thanks, must admit that I am not expecting any freebies but you never know. usually my philosophy is if you don't ask you don't get although I paid for the flu jab on Thursday not realising that you can get for free with diabetes. Oh well I will try to remember for next year.

As I say you may be lucky in your area and have an understanding and willing nurse but as you aren't on hypo causing medications they don't have to prescribe them unfortunately, my MIL was so angry when she had them removed from her prescription as she'd been getting them for years xx

 

[grovesy]

When I was on hypo causing meds I only got 50 a month.

 

[Kaylz]

@grovesy I think it's the same here unless on insulin, if Type 2 and on insulin anticipated usage is up to 100 per month, I've been cut to 250 on my new serial prescription thing to last 8 weeks so I'll just have to hope I don't have too many duff strips/highs or lows, really don't think this serial presciption thing is going to work though xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Kestrel521 and to the club that no one wants to join!

Try not to be too hard on yourself - you can’t change what happened in the past, but you can try to be compassionate to yourself, and find a positive way forward from now on. Even making small positive changes can have a huge lasting effect, so no change you make and no little decision here or there is wasted. The important thing is not to be hard on yourself if you slip up (as we all do from time to time).

When I was newly diagnosed as a T1 I was given ‘carb counts’ for each meal and snack. It meant that I could eat whatever I liked up to that count, and quite quickly I recognised that some things were just a ‘waste’ of my allocation and if I chose x and y instead I had a much more satisfying meal. Plus it led me to look for ‘free’ items that I could add for bulk or flavour to increase the enjoyment of the meal, but not its count.

Not sure if that sounds like an approach that would work for you, but as others have said it can be really helpful to take a good look at what you are actually eating at the moment with a food diary, and where the ‘big hitters’ are carb-wise. Especially if you’ve got any habits that are high carb, but relatively easy to swap or skip. Those are the early ‘big wins’ that are easy to drop 🙂

It’s often best to make changes gradually rather than going for a ‘cold turkey’ hard stop. Partly because this needs to be sustainable for you in the long term - it’s not a temporary ‘diet’ but more of a permanent change in your general approach to food - but also because it gives your body time to adapt to the changes. Rapid changes in average BG levels can be quite hard on the nerves endings and fine blood vessels.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on 🙂