Problems, confused now

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MoT2

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Type 2
Hi guys, I was diagnosed over 10 years ago with T2, started on diet & exercise, then went on metformin one a day, became seriously unwell (not diabetes related) was increased to 3 a day. After a while started to get tummy problems with metformin so I was taken off it completely and went back to just diet and exercise, hba1c was 42 then rose to 48 during lockdown. Diet became a bit haphazard, I have a blood glucose monitor and check my bloods occasionally about a year ago they started climbing and my last hba1c was 68 so I was put on a slow release metformin 2 months ago. I have changed my diet significantly have lost some weight and continuing to lose gradually, but my bg isn’t coming down much, in old money my readings were 8.7 and this morning 7.9, I’m very confused why they aren’t coming down, I walk a fair bit, dr has suggested before putting me on meds that I try gylerlzide (not sure how to spell) but neither of us were keen on that. Sorry for long ramble….any suggestions? Thanks
 
Welcome @MoT2 🙂 Do you also test 2hrs after meals so you can see the affect the meal has on your blood sugar? Can you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you?
 
Thank you Inka, I usually test first thing in the morning before eating, I’m a veggie so eg
B: oats, fruit, plant milk/yoghurt or protein smoothie
L: protein & salad or veggies, soup home made etc
D: protein & veggies, sometimes with rice, potatoes or pasta.
I have metformin after dinner as biggest meal
S: fruit or yoghurt or rice cake with peanut butter, humous or soft cheese, or 1 square of dark chocolate

I am trying very hard and not eating anything sugary like cakes, biscuits, watching portion sizes too, I struggle with protein so am very conscious of trying to have as much as possible.

Not normally as saintly as this just trying really hard and occasionally I do have an odd treat and an odd coconut latte, apart from that drink lots of peppermint tea and water.
 
Also I have another hba1c a week after next, not hopeful that’s it’s gone down much at all
 
Have you tried cutting the carbs? (Oats, rice, potatoes and pasta) These will get turned into glucose and raise blood sugar.

I replace ‘white’ with green veg.

Fruit tends to be berries and apples.
 
Hi Harbottle, because I don’t t eat meat, fish eggs etc I find that although I minimise the carbs as much as possible, it’s very difficult to cut them out completely and I do eat a lot of veg, salad, fruit
 
MoT2 said:
Thank you Inka, I usually test first thing in the morning before eating, I’m a veggie so eg
B: oats, fruit, plant milk/yoghurt or protein smoothie
L: protein & salad or veggies, soup home made etc
D: protein & veggies, sometimes with rice, potatoes or pasta.
I have metformin after dinner as biggest meal
S: fruit or yoghurt or rice cake with peanut butter, humous or soft cheese, or 1 square of dark chocolate

I am trying very hard and not eating anything sugary like cakes, biscuits, watching portion sizes too, I struggle with protein so am very conscious of trying to have as much as possible.

Not normally as saintly as this just trying really hard and occasionally I do have an odd treat and an odd coconut latte, apart from that drink lots of peppermint tea and water.
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Do try testing after meals too. You don’t have to test after every single meal but, for example, you could test 2hrs after your oat breakfast to see if your blood sugar is in range (ie if you start breakfast at 7am test at 9am, 2hrs after the start of your meal).

It’s all carbs that raise glucose not just sweet ones, so you might find you have to limit or omit things like pasta, potatoes, rice, etc Your post-meal blood test results will guide you.
 
Non-carby veggie proteins are things like eggs, cheese, tofu and some of the fake meat items, but do check the nutritional info. You might want to also check your protein shakes, and your plant milk. Some plant milks are higher in carbs than others.
 
Thanks I’ll try that tomorrow & see what happens, will let you know. Will also look more at carb values I usually check for sugar and fat.

Thanks both of you
 
Sorry being stupid, yes I do check the carb values, mainly the of which sugars and keep them to below 5g per 100, just checked protein powder and plant milk/yoghurt the highest is 2.5 total carbs?
 
MoT2 said:
Sorry being stupid, yes I do check the carb values, mainly the of which sugars and keep them to below 5g per 100, just checked protein powder and plant milk/yoghurt the highest is 2.5 total carbs?
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Yes, do check the total carbs. My usual example is puffed wheat which is 0.5g sugar per 100g but a whopping 69g carb per 100g so you would be seriously misled that they would be fine if you just looked at the sugar.
 
How much fruit are you eating and are you considering the sugar content of that fruit? Many of us limit our fruit intake to a small portion of berries daily (berries like rasps, strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants being the lowest carb fruits) and just have half a portion of higher carb fruits like apples, oranges or bananas as a rare treat. So I might have a banana once every couple of months and I have half one day and the other half the next.

As regards veggie milk, I am pretty sure oat milk is higher than cow's milk, but some others are lower. Obviously it depends on how much you drink in a day, but in the scheme of things, providing you are not drinking the sweetened varieties then it is not a big issue. Same with veggie yoghurts... You would need to check the carb content as I suspect some may have thickener added (which will usually be starchy carbs) as well as sugar. Oats whilst having a reputation for being "healthy" are 60+% carbohydrate so your portion size will be quite relevant and weighing your portion will help you to understand where your carbs are coming from. Also, we are usually more insulin resistant in the morning so having a food high in carbs like oats for breakfast can cause us more problems than at other times of day like in the evening. Many of us have yoghurt with mixed seeds/chopped nuts and a handful of berries for breakfast, rather than a high carb cereal.
 
Leadinglights said:
Yes, do check the total carbs. My usual example is puffed wheat which is 0.5g sugar per 100g but a whopping 69g carb per 100g so you would be seriously misled that they would be fine if you just looked at the sugar.
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Didn’t realise that, thanks for the heads up
 
rebrascora said:
How much fruit are you eating and are you considering the sugar content of that fruit? Many of us limit our fruit intake to a small portion of berries daily (berries like rasps, strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants being the lowest carb fruits) and just have half a portion of higher carb fruits like apples, oranges or bananas as a rare treat. So I might have a banana once every couple of months and I have half one day and the other half the next.

As regards veggie milk, I am pretty sure oat milk is higher than cow's milk, but some others are lower. Obviously it depends on how much you drink in a day, but in the scheme of things, providing you are not drinking the sweetened varieties then it is not a big issue. Same with veggie yoghurts... You would need to check the carb content as I suspect some may have thickener added (which will usually be starchy carbs) as well as sugar. Oats whilst having a reputation for being "healthy" are 60+% carbohydrate so your portion size will be quite relevant and weighing your portion will help you to understand where your carbs are coming from. Also, we are usually more insulin resistant in the morning so having a food high in carbs like oats for breakfast can cause us more problems than at other times of day like in the evening. Many of us have yoghurt with mixed seeds/chopped nuts and a handful of berries for breakfast, rather than a high carb cereal.
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Ok I do have quite a bit of fruit so maybe cut down on that. I usually have unsweetened almond or coconut milk and I do watch the yoghurts, also will revisit oats at breakfast, thanks for the info.
 
MoT2 said:
Ok I do have quite a bit of fruit so maybe cut down on that. I usually have unsweetened almond or coconut milk and I do watch the yoghurts, also will revisit oats at breakfast, thanks for the info.
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The milks will be pretty low in carbs so they’re good choices. As well as testing after your oat breakfast, you can also look at the type of oats (traditional jumbo oats are best) and your portion size. See what your blood tests tell you.
 
Inka said:
The milks will be pretty low in carbs so they’re good choices. As well as testing after your oat breakfast, you can also look at the type of oats (traditional jumbo oats are best) and your portion size. See what your blood tests tell you.
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Thanks, I have jumbo oats and typically 30-40g
Will report on bloods tomorrow
 
There was a short piece in New Scientist saying plant milks with the exception of pea milk was lower in micronutrients than cow's milk.
 
MoT2 said:
On waking. 7.6
2hrs after b/f. 6.2
Lunch 6.5
Dinner. 7.8
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Great result for breakfast!

Ideally you’d want a rise of less than 2-3mmol/L.

Using a meter and before/after pairs of checks allows you to adjust and tailor your menu based on your actual response, rather than relying on somethings reputation (it can be worth double-checking before abandoning a particular food / portion size to ensure the result is repeated). You might get some happy surprises, as well as possibly finding that some supposedly ‘safe’ choices give a big bump in BG for you as an individual 🙂
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Using a meter and before/after pairs of checks allows you to adjust and tailor your menu based on your actual response, rather than relying on somethings reputation
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Such a sensible approach. It's the reason I switched from porridge to an off brand Weetabix (x1).

The amount of porridge I was having was keeping me full but the 2 hour reading was higher and instead of working out how much I can have I just switched which is working great but I think as winter approaches by late Oct Nov I'll maybe go back and try it again with half the portion of oats as a hot breakfast in winter is kinda nice.
 
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