Not new to Diabetes. May be a blind eye has been turned

[East Riding Adventurer]

I am a new member here but not new to Diabetes. I was diagnosed several years ago and had been keeping things under control with diet and exercise so was plodding along happily. I last had a check up 3 years ago but thanks to Covid things keep getting cancelled. My tests this week have shown a result of 75 for my Hba1c. I am guessing that it has been this high for a while as I have also been diagnosed with kidney damage. I have now been put on Metformin and Ramipril. I must admit i had a cry. Still the fight goes on! My be a pipe-dream but I plan to be off the metformin

 

[richardmillar11]

I am a new member here but not new to Diabetes. I was diagnosed several years ago and had been keeping things under control with diet and exercise so was plodding along happily. I last had a check up 3 years ago but thanks to Covid things keep getting cancelled. My tests this week have shown a result of 75 for my Hba1c. I am guessing that it has been this high for a while as I have also been diagnosed with kidney damage. I have now been put on Metformin and Ramipril. I must admit i had a cry. Still the fight goes on! My be a pipe-dream but I plan to be off the metformin

Hi and welcome. U r not alone there is plenty of help here and if you’ve managed with meds before am sure u can do it again give it time u may still be able to turn this around. I also was very emotional when diagnosed

 

[Docb]

Hi @East Riding Adventurer and welcome to the forum. I see from your other posts that you are an outdoor activity instructor. I therefore assume that you are not overweight, is that a fair assumption?

 

[East Riding Adventurer]

Hi @East Riding Adventurer and welcome to the forum. I see from your other posts that you are an outdoor activity instructor. I therefore assume that you are not overweight, is that a fair assumption?

Whatsup Doc? I only wish it were a fair assumption. I work for a local authority delivering very low level (I don't refer to altitude) sessions. And have done very little of that over the last few years. We haven't been able to get in to schools or deliver face to face sessions recently. 170cm 90kg and bmi a shade over 30!

 

[Docb]

That proves the point that it's a good idea to check out an assumption when you make one!

If you have read around the forum you will have worked out that getting your weight down into a "normal" range is the best bet when it comes down to getting your HbA1c down. I was checking, in a roundabout way, if you were one of the slim T2's where that obviously does not apply.

So, work out a plan to get your weight down and if you incorporate cutting your carb intake as part of it, you can begin to hit the diabetes from two directions and get on the road to getting rid of the metformin. That's my suggestion. And yes I'm perfectly aware that it is easier said than done but check round the forum and you will find lots of members who have made it by one means or other to give you some encouragement.

 

[Windy]

Hi East Riding, I'm trying to lose weight and eating a lower carb diet to try and get my HbA1c down, and can recommend looking at the books in the suggested book thread, the weight loss thread and the Learning Zone, if you're wanting to get help losing weight.
Or ask questions here. I followed an 800 calorie a day diet for the last three months, and now moved onto 1500 calories, but I appreciate it's not for everyone. There's intermittent fasting, and lots of other diets etc which you might consider.
Hope you find something that works for you, kind regards, Sarah

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @East Riding Adventurer

Sorry to hear your diabetes has got a bit uppity while the pandemic has prevented you from getting the regular checks. You aren’t aline in that. Many people have found the lockdowns and the difficulty in accessing checks and appointments tough.

Do you know what stage your kidneys are at? I think there are varying shades from ‘a bit of protein in the urine’ through 4 stages of defined kidney disease.

Hopefully with meds to help keep your BP down, a little work on your BG levels and some weight loss you can slow any progression of impending nasties. You may possibly even see some rollback - the body is an amazing thing.

One common tactic is to begin with a food diary for a couple of weeks. Note down everything you eat and drink, and do some packet squinting, weighing, and measuring to calculate (or make a decent estimate of) the total carbohydrate content of your meals and snacks. Total carb content is far more helpful than ‘of which sugars’ because all carbohydrate will be broken down to glucose in the bloodstream fairly rapidly.

This might sound like a bit of a faff, but it will be the carbs in your diet that have the biggest impact on your blood glucose levels, so it’s really worthwhile getting to know where they are lurking in your menu, which meals are the ‘big hitters’, and which little snacks and nibbles are adding up to a whole meal’s worth of extra carbs.

You might decide to make some tweaks, changes and swaps based on what you find. Perhaps aiming to reduce your carb intake by 25% to begin with and see how that goes. Then maybe another 25% after you’ve got used to it. It’s not about avoiding all carbs entirely (which is pretty much impossible - there is trace carbohydrate in lettuce!) it’s about getting your menu to a place where your body can process it properly, keep your BG levels in range, meet your weight loss aspirations, and give you a sustainable and enjoyable way of eating long-term.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[East Riding Adventurer]

Thank you all for the advice and support. I have done the food diary and now aim to go for a 1500 max cal and 150 max carbs per day and see how I feel on that for a week or so (So far though I have kept it to below 1000 and 120 and feeling ok). And then see if I can reduce it further. Counting my carbs for tonight's dinner took longer than cooking it. At work today I was sat at a table full of plates of cake and biscuits, and neighbour this afternoon brought round some home made cake for us. Twas torture! SAS would have been proud of my fortitude. While there is life in this old dog, I will fight on.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

(So far though I have kept it to below 1000 and 120 and feeling ok)

I think that’s really interesting! I don’t think you are the first to find that either. Isn’t that a thing about quantum physics - you can’t measure something without affecting it.

I think the act of diarising your food intake makes it much more front-of-mind and intentional.