Please help I'm struggling!

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Lindarose

Lindarose

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Hi Everyone I'm a forum newby and having read lots of boards recently I decided to take the plunge and say hi on here and hopefully get some much needed guidance. I'm type 2 diabetic diagnosed a couple of years ago I'm currently on 500mg metformin SR and whilst my bg readings are acceptable at my gp surgery I'm not happy and decided to try to lower my levels. I've never read so much or tested so much as in the past few weeks The problem is I'm wondering why with low carb eating the reduced levels just arnt happening for me I'm not overweight but have tried the reversal diet and lost more It's made little if any difference to my readings I've been low carb eating and just don't seem to be getting the results everyone else does For example this morning my fasting blood was 7.3 After soya yogurt and strawberries for breakfast down to 6.3 after 1 hour and 6.2 after 2 hours Pre lunch up to 8.7! How did that happen when I'd only had a cup of coffee with a dash if cream? After 4 crackers and cheese up to 8.7 after an hour 9.4 after 2 hours! This is how my day goes I'm walking lots daily Can I do more? My gp just says no need to test as my hb1ac was under 50 People on these forums seem to have so much better control Can anyone shed light on this for me please? Feeling desperate Any help appreciated Thanks Linda xx
 
Hi Linda, welcome to the forum 🙂 How did you come to be diagnosed? It does sound as though you are doing everything right and your levels are not particularly high, but quite understand that they are higher than you hope for and, indeed, expect from all your efforts. I think you are doing the right thing in monitoring your levels, despite your GP's aversion to it. The HbA1c can tell you some things, but is not the whole story. You do need to be aware, however, that testing is not a fine art - there are many factors that can affect your blood sugar levels, and whilst carbs are an important factor, others may be coming into play to explain the readings.

How soon after waking are you taking your fasting reading? With many people levels start to increase as soon as you get up as your liver starts to release extra energy for you at the start of the day, so a reading taken half an hour after rising can be greater than what you originally woke up with. The liver may also become more active if it feels you are not providing sufficient energy from food - a sort of 'starvation mode' response, and could give you higher than expected levels. Also, exercise can cause a temporary rise in levels, but this should be eventually countered by increased sensitivity. Finally, if you are eating higher fat or protein in your diet, this can also raise your levels but over a longer period than carbs would, so you may get a slight increase that was unexpected.

How long have you been testing for? It may take a few weeks before you can start seeing patterns and becoming familiar with how your body reacts to different food, and at different times of the day.

Don't be misled by how well (or otherwise) others are able to control their levels. Diabetes is a very individual thing so how things go can be quite different for different people.
 
Welcome to the forum Lindarose 🙂

Although it looks like you are not doing too bad, I'd personally wonder if swapping some of the carbs around might be worth trying.

Crackers are not so bad but they are still white flour. I found swapping to a seeded bread for lunch helpful. You don't have to have two slices if you want - you can do an open sandwich.

At the beginning I was religiously weighing what I ate. Yoghurt can be more carbs per weight then you might expect. I have about 4 spoon fulls for breakfast which gives me about 10g/carbohydrate.

Eventually you will find the patterns and find what works for you.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum
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Hi again and Thankyou so much for the welcome, fast reply and information. I would have responded sooner but had family round so was a bit hectic here. I will take on board your comments Think there could well be an element of truth as regards my liver reacting to lack of energy To be honest I'm hardly eating as am afraid of the consequences But tonight I ate a 'healthy' bread roll and am totally shocked to read 12.9 on my meter just over an hour later! I will retest soon to see if things have settled. My sister was diagnosed following a test at her local chemist so as there is type 2 diabetes in our family I decided to get checked too I wasn't totally surprised by the results. I will continue to read threads on here as there is so much information and hopefully ile learn lots more too xx
 
Hey Lindarose
Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Thanks Mark T for your help I'm using iPhone which isn't always the easiest way to follow the forum I didn't see your reply until after I wrote last post but read with interest soon as I saw it Will try seeded bread in place of crackers Got to be worth a shot Everything I look at seems to have so many carbs and know it sounds pathetic but I'm half afraid to try much new incase it affects me too much Strangely every now and then I have a binge and it doesn't do as much to my bg as expected! A medical mystery ha ha
 
Linda, I'd suggest trying Burgen Soya and Linseed bread. You can find it in most supermarkets and it is lower carb than most other breads as some of the flour is replaced with soya flour - it's also very tasty and keeps well! The seed content also helps to lower the GI (Glycaemic Index), so it has a slower impact on your levels 🙂
 
Hello and good morning! Im 6.8 this morning Fairly usual for me but not low enough I'm going to have a small bowl of alpro plain soya yoghurt with a clementine for breakfast as that worked for me yesterday Thanks for tip Northerner re burgen bread Will buy this morning and try for lunch with plain chicken Will let you know results later today By the way should I move onto general forum now? Have a good day everyone xx
 
Lindarose said:
Hello and good morning! Im 6.8 this morning Fairly usual for me but not low enough I'm going to have a small bowl of alpro plain soya yoghurt with a clementine for breakfast as that worked for me yesterday Thanks for tip Northerner re burgen bread Will buy this morning and try for lunch with plain chicken Will let you know results later today By the way should I move onto general forum now? Have a good day everyone xx
Click to expand...

Yes, you can move onto the General forum now, Newbies is really only for introductions 🙂

Hope you have a great day Linda, and that you like the Burgen! :D
 
Lindarose - wow! Id be happy with 6.8 in the morning! Today, I was 8.8 and that's my lowest reading in 2 weeks, despite trying extra hard with my diet etc. What treatment plan are you following? i.e. tabs, insulin? x x x
 
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