Results and Advice

[Stan78]

Been a long year....Previously posted so won’t bore with details.
Was diagnosed with a reading of 54 May 2019. Since then have worked hard on diet change and more exercise resulting in almost losing 2 stones. Weight down to 67kg.
Had blood test yesterday and results came back with reading of 43 which is positive.
Question... will it ever realistically go below 41 and back to normal range and what would I need to do to do this??
Hope my positive results can inspire others. It can be done with hard work and dedication. Don’t give up.
This group is great support and advice. Thank you all.

Stan

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and a big well done with your progress!

What dietary changes have you made? It is possible that you may not have made enough change or the right changes to push your levels right back into the normal range or it may equally be that you will have done as much as can be done and have to be satisfied with the great progress you have made and accept that is the level that you have settled at.

Telling us the sort of things you eat in a typical day might help figure that out and perhaps we could make suggestions for alternative lower carb foods if there is possible room for manoeuvre still with your diet. Many people assume it is just about sugar and sweet stuff and alcohol when it is about carbs in general, so even some of the normally healthy foods like fruit, be it fresh, dried or juiced or porridge oats or wholemeal bread and pasta or brown rice and potatoes can still cause us considerable problems with our BG levels. You may be aware of this but you might have the more common view that it is just sugar and assume you are doing the right thing by eating wholemeal bread and porridge and fruit etc when often these foods also need to be restricted. Unfortunately the NHS advice is less than clear on this issue which causes confusion.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome back @Stan78

Sounds like you have done amazingly well so far. Keep going!

We have had several members over the years who have managed to get their HbA1c back into the normal range - bit it isn‘t possible for everyone no matter how hard they try, so don’t be disheartened if it doesn‘t happen for you - you are already going a very long way toward reducing risks your future health by what you are doing.

 

[Stan78]

Thank you for the responses.
My main diet changes have involved cutting out fried foods and fizzy drinks.
You could be right though about stuff like fresh fruit, whole meal bread etc as they are something I do have.
I agree the guidance is not clear as sometimes you feel there’s not much you can actually eat. Can be very frustrating.
Will continue and make further subtle changes where possible.

 

[rebrascora]

I am guessing you were told to eat low fat. Unfortunately this is not really helpful. Carbohydrates are what your body is struggling to deal with and causing you problems. Most people get the majority of calories (ie their fuel) from carbs but if you need to cut right back on carbs because you are diabetic then you need to get calories from another food group. There are only 3 main food groups:- carbohydrates, protein and fat. Eating more protein is possible but if you are reducing your carbs then it essentially needs to come from meat, fish and eggs because things like beans and lentils also contain carbs (makes diabetes much more difficult for vegetarians). Of course meat is more expensive and all that extra protein can cause other problems....constipation etc. That leaves fat which we have been told all our lives is bad for us.... it supposedly causes cardio vascular disease and makes us fat..... but what if the research which that advice was based on 70 years ago was flawed and in fact not only is fat not bad for us but the reduction of it in our diet has in part lead to the diabetes and obesity epidemic we are now seeing. This theory is being considered by scientists at quite a high level.
The great thing about fat is that it is slow to digest, so it keeps you feeling full for longer and it slows down the digestion of any carbs you do eat.... and it tastes good. Many of the low fat foods you buy these days have added sugar and starch to improve the flavour and texture because fat has been removed, so by eating low fat we have not just robbed our bodies of that food which keeps us feeling full, so that we don't over eat, but also added extra carbs into our diet to make up for it. Hence 2-3 hours after a meal we need a snack because we have had a spike in glucose from the carbs we have eaten which are broken down quickly but then there is a low afterwards and our body senses that sudden drop and sends a signal that fuel is running low and we need to eat again.... so we eat more carbs because they are cheap, quick and easy ( a biscuit or a packet of crisps) and get another spike in our BG. Fat releases energy slowly for many hours. Following a low carb higher fat way of eating, I now often go from breakfast until dinner time without lunch and don't feel hungry, whereas before I was eating all the time. Eating more fat, I eat far less food than I did before and I don't suffer the cravings that I did when I ate carbs..... and I really enjoy the food I eat!

So for instance, this morning I had a cup of coffee with double cream instead of milk.... cream contains less carbs than milk but more fat and it tastes gorgeous) with a small 30g portion of porridge oats cooked with water and a little sweetener, a large dollop or two of creamy Greek Yoghurt (not low fat) (I actually used cream cheese this morning as I had run out of yoghurt), a dessert spoon of mixed seeds and some chopped nuts and about 10 blueberries, followed by a chunk of cheese.... cheese is my new chocolate!
Better than that for a low carb breakfast would be bacon eggs mushrooms and high meat content sausages (cheap sausages contain rusk which is carbs)... but no baked beans, hash browns or bread/toast though.
Or .... one of my favourites... a 2 egg omelette with whatever filling I fancy but usually including mushrooms and cheese, with a big plate of salad and a good dollop of creamy coleslaw or cheese coleslaw (again not the reduced fat variety). Probably best not to have bacon every morning because of the salt and other preservatives but works well once or twice a week.

Lots more suggestions if you want some. Many of us find that eating more fat (along with less carbs) changes the goal posts diet wise and makes things altogether easier and more enjoyable and helps us to push our BG levels down more effectively.... and interestingly, we have more energy, don't put on weight (many people lose weight by cutting carbs dramatically and moderate fat intake.... I now eat a lot of fat and very few carbs to keep my weight steady at a normal BMI) and many of us find that our cholesterol levels are reducing slightly rather than increasing despite eating a lot of fat which is totally contrary to what we have been told would happen.

Increasing your activity levels is another important part of the regime but it doesn't have to be anything strenuous.

I can entirely understand being apprehensive about going against the NHS advice and eating more fat, because I was, but the results I am seeing indicate that it is the right route for me and I am not the only one. I am not advocating a fry up every day, but things like cooking your cabbage or leeks in a good knob of butter, enjoying cauliflower cheese regularly having creamy coleslaw on a salad and be generous with the oil when you do a stir fry and always buying the full fat version of whatever items you buy, be it milk or cheese or yoghurt or mayonnaise or coleslaw etc.... but this has to be in conjunction with cutting back on the carbs to be effective.

 

[Drummer]

As a type two diabetic you can't cope with the amount of starch and sugar in the modern diet.
It is as simple as that.
If you can test your blood glucose levels after eating and use that information to fine tune the foods you can and can't eat, then you should see normal numbers.
I can't promise that your Hba1c will drop down well into the normal range. My levels after eating would seem to indicate a Hba1c in the 30s, but it remains stubbornly and consistently higher. I think that I was pushed into eating carbs far higher than I could manage and something is broken. My GPs have always demanded that I try to lower my weight on a high carb diet, which was just impossible. If your metabolism remains intact then all should be well - with any luck.

 

[Stan78]

A lot to digest (no pun intended).

Will continue to do what I can and make changes. Good to know I’m not the only one who has felt confused with all the different guidance.

thank you again for the support and advice.

 

[Pine Marten]

Great news re your results, @Stan78, well done on your progress so far.

As others have said it is possible to get down to lower figures (I did - see my sig for the last few HbA1c results, and my reading was about 70 in 2013 - I found my old DESMOND course notes while tidying up! - and I *think* much higher at initial diagnosis in 2007) but it takes some doing and some willpower. If you take rebrascora's good advice and cut down more on carbs then I'm pretty sure your levels will start to drop some more.

A meter will help you track what effects different foods have, so if you want to consider getting one we can help with recommendations.

Good luck!

 

[Stan78]

Can anybody recommend any good meters??

thanks

 

[rebrascora]

If you are self funding then it makes financial sense to get a basic meter like the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2. These meters are approx. £15 for the test kit/meter and additional test strips are £8 for a pot of 50. You get through quite a lot of test strips in the first couple of months so I would order at least 100 with your meter. The test strips for some other meters are double or even triple that which really makes things a lot more expensive. Members of the forum who self fund mostly go for the two I have mentioned for this reason. All meters have to be within the same accuracy limits, but other more expensive meters have all sorts of other functions, like blue tooth to send your reading to your phone or calculate your bolus insulin which as a Type 2 you would not need. If you test before and 2 hours after each meal that is 6 test strips a day plus the odd failure due to not getting enough blood on the strip or getting timed out etc, so a pot of 50 will probably only last you about a week. It takes a couple of months to really start to sort your diet and learn how individual foods affect you and what portion size you can get away with. After that, testing can be more relaxed and is just about testing new foods or keeping a check maybe once or twice a day or every other day to be sure that things are not going astray.

 

[Stan78]

Brill! Thank you Barbara for taking the time and advising.

Stan