Wanderer2510
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi
Just to say hello I’m sure this site will be really helpful going forward
Just to say hello I’m sure this site will be really helpful going forward
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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
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Leadinglights
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Welcome to the forum, would you like to say a bit about your diagnosis, what your HbA1C is, if you need to lose weight, and any medication you have been prescribed as that really helps people to make suggestions.
How are you planning to go about reducing your blood glucose level, I hope you have been advised that dietary changes are an important part of managing Type 2 diabetes. How much work you need to do depends on where you are in the diabetic zone, that will be anything over 47mmol/mol which is the diagnostic threshold.
Wanderer2510
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi
I’m 67 I was diagnosed about 10yrs ago type 2 diet control but gradually got worse as time goes on my reading was 68 3 months ago and was prescribed metformin 500m twice a day I now have a reading of 57 weight wise I’m 83k 5ft 10 , I love walking and have a part time job which is physical lifting dieting I find really difficult but I have cut out biscuits and chocolate I was wondering if metformin will take my readings below 57 and if I will always have to take it
I’m 67 I was diagnosed about 10yrs ago type 2 diet control but gradually got worse as time goes on my reading was 68 3 months ago and was prescribed metformin 500m twice a day I now have a reading of 57 weight wise I’m 83k 5ft 10 , I love walking and have a part time job which is physical lifting dieting I find really difficult but I have cut out biscuits and chocolate I was wondering if metformin will take my readings below 57 and if I will always have to take it
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
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Metformin will only help your body use the insulin it produces more effectively but it is dietary changes which are equally as important and I'm afraid it involves a bit more than cutting out biscuits and chocolate. It is a mistaken belief that it is just sugar that need s to be reduced but it is all carbohydrates that convert to glucose so reducing those in your diet is what matters. The high carb foods to be careful of are potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, pastry and tropical fruits and sugary drinks including fruit juice. Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, vegetables, salads and fruit such as berries with only small portions of any high carb foods still gives options for tasty filling meals.
Have a look at this link as it is a low carb approach based on REAL food, there are some do's and don'ts and some meal ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Your HbA1C is high enough to take seriously and make those dietary changes.
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Welcome to the forum @Wanderer2510
Sorry to hear that your HbA1c has been rising recently
Hopefully the addition of the metformin will help as part of the changes to your menu you’ve been making.
The NHS calculator suggests it might help you to lose around 4 kilos, which can particularly help people with diabetes if you can lose it from your abdomen, if that reflects losing visceral fat around your organs.
As @Leadinglights has suggested, Metformin doesn't specifically work on the next meal you are eating, it works more in the background, building up in your system over the days and weeks to help lower insulin resistance, and reduce the amount of glucose trickled out by the liver. So adjustments to your diet are still really important, and can have a major effect.
One of the most significant ways of addressing rising glucose levels can be to reduce portion sizes of your total carbohydrate intake (not just ‘of which sugars’).
Some members find it really helpful to keep a food diary for a few weeks, along with an estimation of the total carbohydrate content of meals and snacks. The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark. Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on 🙂
Sorry to hear that your HbA1c has been rising recently
Hopefully the addition of the metformin will help as part of the changes to your menu you’ve been making.The NHS calculator suggests it might help you to lose around 4 kilos, which can particularly help people with diabetes if you can lose it from your abdomen, if that reflects losing visceral fat around your organs.
As @Leadinglights has suggested, Metformin doesn't specifically work on the next meal you are eating, it works more in the background, building up in your system over the days and weeks to help lower insulin resistance, and reduce the amount of glucose trickled out by the liver. So adjustments to your diet are still really important, and can have a major effect.
One of the most significant ways of addressing rising glucose levels can be to reduce portion sizes of your total carbohydrate intake (not just ‘of which sugars’).
Some members find it really helpful to keep a food diary for a few weeks, along with an estimation of the total carbohydrate content of meals and snacks. The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark. Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on 🙂
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