• 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.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Newbie

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.

Leemalcolm

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi
I’m lee 52 year old male diagnosed type 2 march 2019.
Prescribed metformin 4 500 tablets per day astorvastatin 1 tablet per day and recently ramipril 2.5 one tablet per day. Also on lansoprozole 15mg per day. I havent been on here since diagnosis but am struggling with overeating and the wrong things.
I need to really get sorted and any help would be great and hopefully by being part of a group long term might help me.
I weigh 16 1/2 stone and am a delivery driver for a living and would like some tips on keeping moderately fit.
currently furloughed off work due to my diabetes.
thanks
Lee
 
Hello and welcome to the forum Lee. 🙂 The only advice I can give is ignore anything I do/post. :D

If you do low carb the weight should come off slow but sure, or so I keep telling myself.
 
Hi Lee and welcome

My experience is that the more carbs you eat the more you want. Once you cut out the carbs.... which takes a bit of willpower in the first few weeks, but helps if you have plenty of low carb snacks available..... you stop craving them and don't feel hungry anymore. Part of the process is to eat more fat and protein. This helps to keep you full for longer and lets face it, tastes good, so you don't feel deprived and provides steady, slow release energy rather than the rocket fuel rush we get from carbs. Part of the reason we overeat is that we get a sugar rush from carbs. Best of all, eating low carb higher fat should help to push your diabetes into remission and may even enable you to reduce or even stop taking the Metformin eventually although this needs to be done in consultation with your doctor.

Learning to eat low carb takes a bit of practice and there is an element of trial and error in finding alternative foods which you enjoy, but I found that having plenty of low carb treats available, particularly in the early days helped me to get there. Things like chunks of my favourite cheese, nuts, boiled eggs with full fat mayonnaise, chicken legs, high meat content sausages, veggie sticks with sour cream and chive dip, olives, 70%cocoa or higher dark chocolate with a spoonful of peanut butter, even the occasional packet of pork scratchings instead of crisps.

Not sure how much you know about nutrition but carbs are not just sweet sugary stuff like cakes, biscuits, sweets and chocolate but fruit is also high in sugar and then all the starchy foods from grains like bread, pasta, rice, couscous, noodles etc and potatoes (in all their forms). Breakfast cereals are often the worst way to start the day as they are high in both sugars and starches and we are often more insulin resistant in the morning so any carbs have an even worse effect on our levels. The good news is that eggs or a full English, minus any toast or hash browns or baked beans is a much better option. This morning I had a mushroom, onion, aubergine, pepper and cheese 2 egg omelette with a large side salad and a good dollop of cheese coleslaw. Set me up for the day and I don't feel the need to eat anything more until tea time.

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas and inspiration as to how to tackle the problem. Good luck.
 
Try swapping to meals with a lot of protein and fat for a few days to see if that reduces the tendency to overeat - it is the carbs which cause the feeling of hunger soon after having eaten as they cause a release of insulin, which when it acts can result in a swift reduction in blood glucose. The foods which are high in protein and fat do not have the same effect.
After a few days - it was just three for me but I had done low carb before, adding in salad, stir fry or roasted veges did not cause problems.
 
Welcome to the forum @Leemalcolm

You have had a lot of advice from others above, but I just wanted to encourage you to ask any questions that you have. There is plenty of help available on here, and it can be very overwhelming at the start, even when you have easy access to HCPs.
 
Hello @Leemalcolm and welcome from me as well.
I can't add much to the good information already given by other members, so here are a few links where you can follow up some of the ideas mentioned, if you wish.

Firstly there is the Diabetes UK Learning Zone, and there is a link to this at the top of the page.
If you want to know more about the Low-Carb way of eating then Maggie Davey's letter, shows how this lady approached the problem.
Many of us find that using a glucose meter to monitor progress and see what foods affect blood sugars most. SD Gluco Navii is one that many people use, and test-review-adjust gives information on how to go about testing.
For ideas on exercise have a look at some of the threads in Exercise/Sport

Please keep posting and ask any questions, and let us know how goes for you.
 
Welcome to the forum @Leemalcolm

Well done on your new determination to make some positive changes, and improve your fitness. Hope your furloughed time gives you an opportunity to experiment with new ways of eating freed from the time-pressures of working life.

Make sure you take your ‘once a day’ outdoor activity, and maybe try some of those online video exercise/stretching/core strength routines to see of there are any that suit you? Lots of things you can do on yoir living room carpet, with no equipment 🙂
 
Hello and welcome to the forum Lee. 🙂 The only advice I can give is ignore anything I do/post. :D

If you do low carb the weight should come off slow but sure, or so I keep telling myself.
Thanks
Vey much appreciated
 
Hi Lee and welcome

My experience is that the more carbs you eat the more you want. Once you cut out the carbs.... which takes a bit of willpower in the first few weeks, but helps if you have plenty of low carb snacks available..... you stop craving them and don't feel hungry anymore. Part of the process is to eat more fat and protein. This helps to keep you full for longer and lets face it, tastes good, so you don't feel deprived and provides steady, slow release energy rather than the rocket fuel rush we get from carbs. Part of the reason we overeat is that we get a sugar rush from carbs. Best of all, eating low carb higher fat should help to push your diabetes into remission and may even enable you to reduce or even stop taking the Metformin eventually although this needs to be done in consultation with your doctor.

Learning to eat low carb takes a bit of practice and there is an element of trial and error in finding alternative foods which you enjoy, but I found that having plenty of low carb treats available, particularly in the early days helped me to get there. Things like chunks of my favourite cheese, nuts, boiled eggs with full fat mayonnaise, chicken legs, high meat content sausages, veggie sticks with sour cream and chive dip, olives, 70%cocoa or higher dark chocolate with a spoonful of peanut butter, even the occasional packet of pork scratchings instead of crisps.

Not sure how much you know about nutrition but carbs are not just sweet sugary stuff like cakes, biscuits, sweets and chocolate but fruit is also high in sugar and then all the starchy foods from grains like bread, pasta, rice, couscous, noodles etc and potatoes (in all their forms). Breakfast cereals are often the worst way to start the day as they are high in both sugars and starches and we are often more insulin resistant in the morning so any carbs have an even worse effect on our levels. The good news is that eggs or a full English, minus any toast or hash browns or baked beans is a much better option. This morning I had a mushroom, onion, aubergine, pepper and cheese 2 egg omelette with a large side salad and a good dollop of cheese coleslaw. Set me up for the day and I don't feel the need to eat anything more until tea time.

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas and inspiration as to how to tackle the problem. Good luck.
Thanks for the reply
I will take your advice and hopefully will turn this around
Lee
 
Welcome to the forum @Leemalcolm

Well done on your new determination to make some positive changes, and improve your fitness. Hope your furloughed time gives you an opportunity to experiment with new ways of eating freed from the time-pressures of working life.

Make sure you take your ‘once a day’ outdoor activity, and maybe try some of those online video exercise/stretching/core strength routines to see of there are any that suit you? Lots of things you can do on yoir living room carpet, with no equipment 🙂
Thanks
 
Th
Hello @Leemalcolm and welcome from me as well.
I can't add much to the good information already given by other members, so here are a few links where you can follow up some of the ideas mentioned, if you wish.

Firstly there is the Diabetes UK Learning Zone, and there is a link to this at the top of the page.
If you want to know more about the Low-Carb way of eating then Maggie Davey's letter, shows how this lady approached the problem.
Many of us find that using a glucose meter to monitor progress and see what foods affect blood sugars most. SD Gluco Navii is one that many people use, and test-review-adjust gives information on how to go about testing.
For ideas on exercise have a look at some of the threads in Exercise/Sport

Please keep posting and ask any questions, and let us know how goes for you.
ank you
Will do
 
Try swapping to meals with a lot of protein and fat for a few days to see if that reduces the tendency to overeat - it is the carbs which cause the feeling of hunger soon after having eaten as they cause a release of insulin, which when it acts can result in a swift reduction in blood glucose. The foods which are high in protein and fat do not have the same effect.
After a few days - it was just three for me but I had done low carb before, adding in salad, stir fry or roasted veges did not cause problems.
Thank you
 
Has anyone read the diabetes code by Jason Fung
Just started the book and am amazed how he explains in real terms what this disease is and how it works
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top