Iam at a quandry, i just dont know what to do . I am on the low-carb diet, but this is pretty drastic low carbing to keep my BG numbers in a good range. I dont count my carbs, and maybe i should, but when people say they are low-carbing with 50 grammes of carbs per day, Iam pretty positive iam not even eating half that target.
I like to keep my numbers close to normal as possible . My pre-meal BG numbers are 3.8 to 5.5 mol - Always in the 5 range in the mornings and gradually by home time Iam in the 3-4 mol range . To combat the high 5 in the morning i tend to eat a protien breakfast, sometimes cheese and eggs, or sometimes lean meat or fish . OK - problem solved - No carbs
I have found i cannot eat any carbs till lunchtime. So lunchtime is always a salad with raw veg, seeds and a little protien. We are not talking alot of carbs here though, maybe 3 spring onions, 1 tiny cherry tomatoe and a handful of spinach/mixed leaves i add a piece of fish (palm sized) - my post meal reading is around 5.8 mol usually. Mid afternoon, i usually eat a little more veg - its a handful of salad and a little nuts and seeds - Post meal levels usually in the 5.0 mol range . When it comes to around 6 oclock in the evening - I can eat a little more carbs - about a cup full altogether. they are usually low carb veggies like broccoli and aparagus, i try to make something palatable out of that but it is a struggle. Cooking veg seems to raise my BG numbers into the 7.0 range . I usually end the evening with cheeze, a few nuts or seeds .
Overall i just iam struggling, I see type 2 diabetics at the help sessions and they all seem to be still eating normal foods but with less portion sizes. I lost alot of weight prior to diagnoses. I was never a huge person, but i was a bit fat . I cannot eat half a slice of bread without my BG number going to 9 mol . Cows Milk - in the 7.0 range, Apple - in the 9.0 mol range . I am at a loss, and iam losing alot of weight, so if anyone out there can reply to me, please do. I know we all respond differntly to certain foods, but iam sure my body is losing the insulin battle to accept carbs . Please help
Do you take any medication (oral or Insulin)? Because it sounds like you really need it. Your Diabetes is not diet controlled if your BG shoots up no matter what you eat.
So I am confused. Do you want to eat more? Are you looking for good low carb foods? It does not sound like you need to be limiting your portion sizes. Why are you limiting your portions? Are you hungry? Why don’t you eat more?
You need to set reasonable goals. You’ve only need diagnosed since last October. It took me literally a year to get my blood sugars do to target. You are eating fine, but just work towards meeting the goal of getting below 7.5 (140 mg/dl) at 2 hours after a meal. You are still very carb intolerant, but as the medication works and your body recovers you should respond a bit better to carbs.
In the meantime, eat lots of meat, seafood and dairy. Green veggies are great. If you have a meal that takes you up to 7 at 2 hours, then that is fine. Don’t worry about your levels at 1 hour, just focu on 2 hours.
And in case you are wondering, not tolerating carbs is what this whole type 2 diabetes thing is all about, we all deal with it.
Paul,
Congrats on the fabulous A1c!
I’ve found that nurses & doctors have a different view than we do about what’s normal eating. Normal eating to me is what keeps my BG in line. If I ate the types of foods they dictated, I’d be ill.
I’m T1 & extremely carb sensitive, even with injected insulin. I can’t eat carbs in the morning either. I stick to basically protein.
I can relate! I can’t eat even the “good” carbs that I see a lot of diabetics eating. As far as starches, I can eat sourdough bread and that’s it (which, by the way, lowers blood sugar for up to six hours after eating). I can’t eat any fruit without a spike. Forget even a small bite of sweet potatoes (oh and I dearly love them too but not for the past year). I haven’t had “regular” bread or potatoes of any kind since DX a year ago.
Some people just can’t tolerate carbs. I’m one of those. I take 1000 metformin 2xday. Plus salsalate (for arthritis but it also lowers blood sugar) and sourdough bread (1 slice at breakfast and dinner) and a whole lemon every day (one slice at a time in tea or water – I use true lemon crystals). The sourdough and lemon juice and salsalate help with the blood sugar.
I’m working on scaling back the metformin over the next 6 months as it’s causing some serious GI issues. I’m just used to not eating carbs and yeah it’s frustrating sometimes that I can’t eat what some other folks can eat in moderation.
The first (and my last) visit to the DB education center, they told me what all I could eat. Good lord my blood sugar went up so high I couldn’t believe it. So I quit going there, did my own research and testing, and figured out for myself what I could eat and not eat.
So far, so good, and it’s been about a year now. A1C down from 11.7 to high 5’s.
Have you had any tests looking for autoantibodies? Going high with so few carbs in your diet makes me wonder if you might not be LADA rather than T2 - it’s a common misdiagnosis - or possibly developed autoimmune diabetes along with/after your metabolic diabetes. Losing a lot of weight prior to diagnosis is a symptom more common to autoimmune diabetes than metabolic diabetes, and a lot of what you say sounds to me like something’s going on other than insulin resistance. You might ask to get your insulin levels checked and also look for autoantibodies, to see if your diabetes is really solely a metabolic issue. It may be that the problem isn’t so much insulin resistance as low insulin levels, and if it is, then you’ll need insulin. It would explain why you can’t tolerate carbs in your diet to that extreme.
Hi, Paul,
Have you tried exercising after eating? I find that with 15-20 minutes vigorous exercise I can get my BG down into the normal range, even after eating a few more carbs. And I agree with the other posters who said you might have LADA. Most Type 2s don’t react so to carbs with such high numbers.
Paul,
I agree with others on the possible need of medication such as Metformin, to assist with glucose control. As a RN Certified Diabetes Educator who has Type 1 diabetes I help many with Type 2 diabetes. I teach them low-carb meal plan but stress the need to have protein (3oz) and 30 grams of carbs either vegetables (no corn or white potatoes) and/or raw fruit at each meal. The nuts and seeds are great as protein, I use them as my snacks. I’ve followed low-carb meal plan for over 2 years and finally lost weight that everyone told me I couldn’t loose since I was on insulin. You need to eat more carbs but the healthy ones raw fruits and vegetables and occasional cooked vegetables such as yams, or sweet potatoes in half-cup serving. I think your glucose rises are due more to insulin resistance which the Metformin would help.
The program I’ve been following is at marksdailyapple.com
I would agree with Elizabeth on this one. I was diagnosed as T2 3 years ago only to find out that I wasn’t T2 I was LADA. I was able to manage my BG with diet and exercise then all of a sudden I couldn’t manage anymore. I was to the point of eating less than 1200 calories a day and basically starving myself to death (some call it the 1920’s diet). I had the antibody panel ran and was positive but that only confirmed my case. Without the antibody panel done if you just have your insulin levels tested that will tell the most about what is going on. If your insulin levels are higher than normal with an elevated BG… well T2 might be the call… but if within normal range with elevated BG than something else is going on. I went on insulin and finally am getting my life back and feeling good again. Good luck
There is a simple piece to the puzzle people tend to ignore - exercise a lot, and you should be able to eat more carbs. What do you consider rigorous? I’d consider working up to 60 minutes or more with heartrate at 130 or above. And If you’re unsure of your capabilities, find a Dr. or CDE that can advise in this regard.
It is common that a type 2 who has had high blood sugars to be carb intolerant, you are just struggle to get you fasting levels down. Until you get you fasting levels down to near normal, you often will have a terrible phase 1 insulin response and hence you are pretty carb intolerant. For many type 2 diabetics, they can be very successful with diet, exercise and medication getting back to a relatively normal state with near normal fasting and some ability to handle carbs (after their phase 1 response recovers).
If you have had a GAD autoantibodies test, then that “mostly” rules out LADA. The GAD test picks up perhaps 80-90% of autoimmune conditions (LADA). Many diabetics get a blood sugar rise from exercise. I am often over 11 (200 mg/dl) an hour after going to the gym. In my view, good targets for right now should be to get your fasting levels down below 6 (110/ mg/dl) and to be below 8 (140 mg/dl) 2 hours after eating. And yes, getting your HbA1c below 6 is a good target. But it can take some time to achieve these. In my case, it took me a year.
Understand that we have often gone through life, not knowing what our blood sugars are and when we are diagnosed, we see them for the first time and we naively believe that there must be this simple process going on that cause our blood sugar levels. But realize, it is all very complicated, blood sugar goes up and down for a variety of reasons governed by more than just diet and insulin and often even the most experienced diabetic is surprised by blood sugar behavior that defies explanation.
Hey Paul,
I have been reading this thread with interest. I have problems too with eating any type of carbs. This morning for instance I ate hardly (cheese and meat) anything and I spiked to 144 BG from 116 fasting 2 hours after I ate. I am getting my C-Peptide tested as I suspect I am low. That is one test you can ask your GP to do. In the states here it takes a few days at my lab. If my insulin production comes in low I am going to get the GAD tests to find out where I am at. See if you can get reffferd to an Endo.
Your diabetic nurse I wonder about. Walking around at the 7mol range ( 126 BG average our conversion) is well outside a normal blood sugar range and is doing damage to you and increases your risk for heart or stroke problems. Ask her if she would want a BGof 9 mmmol/L? Thats twice a normal blood sugar I bet she wouldnt. Some in the health field just drive me crazy.
As to your exercise some do get higher readings because the body is producing adrenaline which raises sugars. I agree with Joe. exercise no mater what type you are is one of the best medicines for this condition.
I would push for more tests on your insulin production
everyone has a different diet. have you consulted a dietician?
All the exercise you’re doing is great!
Increasing muscle mass is one of the best things you can do to increase insulin sensitivity. Weight training really helps.
Would be helpful to have the GAD. C-peptide is the other test typically done.
Paul, check out and explore this website in detail it talks about all the various tests given.
I find it helpful
Good for you for standing your ground!
I’m also someone who just can’t tolerate carbs. I have type 1 and carbs (especially of course breads) send my blood sugar soaring and even when I balance it out with insulin, I feel quite lethargic so I’ve had to adjust to a low carb lifestyle like yourself. But I’m glad you’re going to see the nurse though, I would hate for you to get frustrated and give up the eating routine entirely.
you want testing for your C-peptide levels, which gives an idea of how much insulin secretion is going on - in autoimmune diabetes, they’re usually low to moderate, in T2 they’re generally high. You also want a diabetes mellitus autoantibody panel, or a glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody panel (GAD antibodies are typical of T1 diabetes)
Do you have an endo? If so, get an appt and ask him/her for these tests. If not, go to your GP. If you were diagnosed by a GP, s/he might not be aware of LADA and may want to know why you feel the need for these tests, at which point depending on how you relate to your doc you can either explain it or ask for a referral to an endo, preferably one who treats T1/LADA all the time.
Your experience doesn’t sound typical of recently Dx’d T2 - it does sound typical of LADA.So it’s worth checking.