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- Thread starter Sambaza
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
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Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
That would be 53 mmol/mol so is at the bottom end of the diabetes zone, 47mmol/mol is the threshold for diagnosis, so is not desperately high, but high enough to take seriously and with some dietary changes it will be very possible to get it down.
Have a look at this link for some good explanation and some ideas for modifying your diet https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/, it is a low carb approach.
The Learning Zone is also useful to look at and there are some menu plans for a number of other way people choose to tackle their condition.
Hi Martin, tablets were mentioned or I would be given 3 months to turn it round with lifetime changes, this is what I opted for, not sure if I chose right, would taking tablets worked better I don’t know , my nurse didn’t really explain very much, to be honest everything she said was all negative, and scared me to death and she then asked me if I was okay you look terrified , but lm really struggling with what do I eat to lose weight, at the moment I’m eating like a rabbit salad but it’s getting a bit boring
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Even if you were given medication you would still need to make dietary changes so worth giving that a shot for the 3 months. You will see if you look at the link I posted that there is still plenty you can eat, meat, fish, cheese. eggs, plenty of veg and salads and fruit like berries but just watch your portion size of any high carb foods like potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals and cut out cakes, biscuits, pastry and sugary drinks including fruit juice.
Perhaps you would like to post some typical meals and people could see if there are any problem foods.
Having a set of scales on your worktop so you can weigh portions as it is easy to underestimate the amount. The book or app, Carbs and Cals is a useful resource as it gives carb values of various portion sizes of a whole range of foods.
For example tonight I am making a stir fry from the residual pork from yesterday with courgette, peppers, green beans, onions with a satay sauce made with peanut butter, chilli and soy sauce, followed by some stewed rhubarb and cream.
Hi my meals yesterday consisted of
Breakfast - a plate of porridge with 6 blueberries, 3 strawberries and plain yogurt ( no sugar )
Lunch - a pink grapefruit and a handful of pecan nuts
Evening meal - mushroom omelette with a salad, lettuce, 5 cherry tomato, celery, cucumber,
feta cheese ( 6 dice sized pieces), grated carrot a quarter red pepper
and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
What kind of numbers am I looking at not going above with regards to Fats Carbs Sugar Fibre
and salt content in packet foods ?
Cheers
Breakfast - a plate of porridge with 6 blueberries, 3 strawberries and plain yogurt ( no sugar )
Lunch - a pink grapefruit and a handful of pecan nuts
Evening meal - mushroom omelette with a salad, lettuce, 5 cherry tomato, celery, cucumber,
feta cheese ( 6 dice sized pieces), grated carrot a quarter red pepper
and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
What kind of numbers am I looking at not going above with regards to Fats Carbs Sugar Fibre
and salt content in packet foods ?
Cheers
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Those all look pretty good choices but you are not having very much protein or healthy fats in your breakfast and lunch so you may find that you will be hungry.
Are you vegetarian, if not adding meat and fish into your menu would give you the protein and still be low carb.
A low carb regime is not NO carbs.
Have a look at the link I posted and you may find some other ideas, there are a variety of meal plans to suit different budgets and tastes.
Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Agree with @Leadinglights - that all looks OK bar the lack of protein and healthy fats
I track my carbs, Kcals, fats, protein, fibre & salt intake using a spreadsheet, so:-
Low carb is less than 130g per day. Most people's diets contain more than double that.
The RDA for Saturated fat (the 'bad' fat) is 30g for the average male, 20g for the average female. I haven't come across an RDA for unsaturated fats (the 'good' fats) but I have read that it should always be much higher than your saturated fat intake.
For salt it's 6g per day
For fibre at least 30g per day is often recommended
Ignore the 'of which sugars' on nutrition labels. All carbs turn to glucose so it's the carbs that matter. Having said that, anything sugary (cakes, sweets etc) is best avoided.
Hope this helps.
Hi, it’s been 1 month since I was diagnosed with type two, over the past month I have lost 9lb in weight, I have found it hard I struggle with what I can and can’t eat, I have totally cut out bread, potatoes, pastries, sugar, pasta, rice, over the course of the month I have basically lived like a rabbit lots of salads combined with chicken, fish, lamb now and again, I have been trying to follow the Keto diet but I don’t understand how you can eat a low carb diet but everything seems to be cheese based, surely it is all fat ? If I was to sum up the past month on how I feel, in a nut shell fed up and miserable ☹️
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Well ! Why on earth have you gone immediately keto? I'm sure nobody told you that you had to. In any case - if you don't eat ANY carbs your body will survive by just making glucose from the protein and fat you eat; it just uses a different process to do it is all. However yes it will also use up internal fat, as well as the subcutaneous sort, neither of which ain't brill for anyone's health.
Suggest while you're here you also sign up to the DUK Learning Zone and learn more about your diabetes generally.
Suggest while you're here you also sign up to the DUK Learning Zone and learn more about your diabetes generally.
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Well done on losing the weight. Its a nice steady sensible weight loss. Have you been testing your blood glucose immediately before and 2 hours after eating? That's one way of working out what foods affect your blood glucose.
I found that by having small portions of carbs and testing, I worked out that I can have a medium slice of wholemeal bread from a 400gm loaf, or 80-100gm boiled new potatoes, without spiking my blood glucose. However I can't take pasta or rice, and ironically apples. We are all different so what works for me might not work for you, but without trying or testing, you won't know.
What I am saying basically, that in order to be sustainable, you might like to consider moderation, not abstinence, particularly as you are only just into the diabetic zone. The Forum Food carbs/queries and recipes might give you ideas, if you look for the type 2 posters. I make a lot of home made veggie soups, particularly in the winter. I'm going to post a few pictures here to give you some ideas of a typical day's food. Mushroom omelette with baked tomatoes. The minestrone soup is "chickestrone" as I substitute chicken for pasta. As you can see, I had 2 small new potatoes with my beef dinner, a drizzle of gravy and some peas along with carrots, broccoli and cabbage.
I found that by having small portions of carbs and testing, I worked out that I can have a medium slice of wholemeal bread from a 400gm loaf, or 80-100gm boiled new potatoes, without spiking my blood glucose. However I can't take pasta or rice, and ironically apples. We are all different so what works for me might not work for you, but without trying or testing, you won't know.
What I am saying basically, that in order to be sustainable, you might like to consider moderation, not abstinence, particularly as you are only just into the diabetic zone. The Forum Food carbs/queries and recipes might give you ideas, if you look for the type 2 posters. I make a lot of home made veggie soups, particularly in the winter. I'm going to post a few pictures here to give you some ideas of a typical day's food. Mushroom omelette with baked tomatoes. The minestrone soup is "chickestrone" as I substitute chicken for pasta. As you can see, I had 2 small new potatoes with my beef dinner, a drizzle of gravy and some peas along with carrots, broccoli and cabbage.
Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Sorry to hear you're finding it hard going. It doesn't have to be all salads. I had a Bolognese at the weekend but with 40g of red lentil pasta instead of spaghetti. Likewise if we have a Tuna Pasta Bake. There are some other swaps you could make - riced cauliflower for rice, mashed cauli or mashed celeriac for potato, chips made from celeriac. There are even some other non-grain pastas that are even lower carb than my red lentil pasta.
Like @trophywench I'm curious as to why you've gone Keto. I got down from an HbA1c of 114 without going Keto and you're starting from 53.
Like @trophywench I'm curious as to why you've gone Keto. I got down from an HbA1c of 114 without going Keto and you're starting from 53.
Hi Martin, yes I’m starting from 53 , I went keto just because I wasn’t sure how to diet and I was told by my nurse to go on a low carb, but everything seems to be replaced with cream cheese now I suffer with migraines and to much cheese is a cause, can I check my number without having a blood test?
Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Only if you get yourself a test kit where you can take a reading from a finger prick. Although there's only a rough correlation between a finger prick test and HbA1c it can give an indication of whether your BG level is coming down, provided you test at appropriate times and not randomly. The usual regime is on waking (fasting test), just before a meal (pre-prandial) and 2 hours after a meal (post-prandial). You'd need several days' readings to pick up any meaningful trend.
As regards Keto for weight loss, at a recent presentation I attended on managing T2 a GP said that in trials they found that patients on a low carb diet tended to lose more weight than those on a traditional low calorie diet.
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Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Is there any reason you can't eat meat, fish or eggs?
Your HbA1c was not very high, so just reducing the highest carb foods in your normal diet would have made a significant difference.
I have swede rather than potato, cauliflower rather than rice - and I feel so much better without grains.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I adopted the low carb approach but just normal fat rather than low fat, but I don't have a problem with cheese but if you do you could try the vegan 'cheese'
I do have lots salads and veg but with meat, fish and eggs.
I don't know if you have seen this link but there are lots of menu options to suit different tastes and budgets. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
You are only at the bottom end of the diabetic zone so modest changes will probably be sufficient.
I do have lots salads and veg but with meat, fish and eggs.
I don't know if you have seen this link but there are lots of menu options to suit different tastes and budgets. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
You are only at the bottom end of the diabetic zone so modest changes will probably be sufficient.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sorry to hear you‘ve been feeling miserable @Sambaza 
Some people refer to ‘keto flu’ - do you think the headaches you have been having might be the result of making such big changes to your menu all at once?
Perhaps it would feel more sustainable, enjoyable, and manageable to eat a lower but not ultra-low-carb menu? There aren’t really any official classifications, but fewer than 130g of carbohydrates (not just ‘of which sugars’) a day is often classified as low carbohydrate. And it’s perfectly possible to achieve that while still having some carbohydrates as part of each meal.
There are a few ideas here which might help?
www.diabetes.org.uk
Some people refer to ‘keto flu’ - do you think the headaches you have been having might be the result of making such big changes to your menu all at once?
Perhaps it would feel more sustainable, enjoyable, and manageable to eat a lower but not ultra-low-carb menu? There aren’t really any official classifications, but fewer than 130g of carbohydrates (not just ‘of which sugars’) a day is often classified as low carbohydrate. And it’s perfectly possible to achieve that while still having some carbohydrates as part of each meal.
There are a few ideas here which might help?
Low-carb diet and meal plan
Eating a low-carb diet means cutting down on the amount of carbohydrates (carbs) you eat to less than 130g a day. But low-carb eating shouldn’t be no-carb eating. Some carbohydrate foods contain essential vitamins, minerals and fibre, which form an important part of a healthy diet.
Hi, can anyone answer this question for me please, I have just had my first eye screening I asked if I was to get my numbers down below diabetic level would I still need the screening done her answer was yes coz I would still be classified as a diabetic although it would be in remission, my question is if I’m in remission do I still need to declare that I’m diabetic when I want travel insurance?
Cheers
Cheers
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