And by low-carb I mean loosely following the Atkins model.
I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in January. My sugar was 230 that day and my a1c came back 8.5. My cholesterol was in the 250 range. My triglycerides were over 400. I weighed 210.
My diet comprises of lots of sausages, eggs, roasted chicked legs and thighs, a variety of cheeses, lunch meats, salads with bleu cheese, steak, salmon, tuna, non-starchy veggies, etc. and lots of water.
I have been running, doing the Wii Fit, and lifting weights.
I did a new blood panel and here are the results:
blood glucose 86
a1c 5.6
Total cholesterol 147
Triglycerides 150
HDL 30
Ratio 4.9
Today I weigh 183.
Kidney and liver function are good, nothing irregular in the urine.
So that’s it, my completely anecdotal story of beating back diabetes with low-carb eating and exercise. I am also taking 500mg metformin.
Wow! Those are great numbers! Almost 3 points on the A1c, that’s nothing to scoff at, not to mention the great cholesterol numbers and 50 pounds weight loss. Good job!
I looked at the ADA diet, and I just don’t think I could be happy on it. The portion control is too much for me. At least with Atkins I can eat until I am satisfied.
If carbs affect blood sugar so much, why are more people not instructed to go low carb when diagnosed with diabetes?
I have known a lot of people who did Atkins. There are a lot of success stories. It is a diet an eater can do.
A weight loss will affect diabetes. However you dump the weight, it helps. I was borderline diabetic . I dumped 40 lbs and my numbers are low normal now.
I did the same thing, only without metformin. (I had to use glipizide at the time–been off it for over a year now, though.) My blood glucose was over 430.
I won’t list my A1C and weight loss numbers; they’d only make you jealous. My blood glucose hovers between 90 and 100.
I’ve added wrist weights and ankle weights to my running.
I still put some pounds back on over the winter. They’ll be gone by the end of this month if the weather is reasonable.
But, damn it, I love pistachio ice cream. I can’t find it anywhere just to get a single scoop, and I know better than to buy a whole container of it.
Status quo. Lobbyists for carb-producing companies. Fear. Ignorance. Who knows? All I know is like you, my blood sugar and blood pressure numbers were horrific until I went low carb, and now they’ve been completely normal for the last two years.
Whenever I get tempted to go off it, because it really can get boring, and I miss so much food (especially Mexican and Indian food), I just remind myself of my numbers and that keeps me going.
Btw, if you find yourself craving chocolate, try this stuff. It’s expensive but man oh man oh man is it good. You can find it cheaper at Netrition, which is a great place to find all sorts of low carb foods (plus, it doesn’t matter how much you buy, shipping is only $4.95, even if you buy 10 bottles of DaVinci Sugar Free Syrups, which is really good stuff too). If you’re a cook, here’s a good place for lots of tips and recipes.
I have Type 2 diabetes. Several years ago I put myself on Atkins. My blood sugar dropped immediately, along with my cholesterol, triglycerides, and a 30 pound weight loss.
My doctor was very pleased until on one visit he informed me that my kidneys were functioning very poorly . . . and the problem was all the protein I was consuming. So now I’m on a diet that is low protein, low carbs, low fat, low sodium. It’s geting so that whatever I eay, I’m cheating on my diet.
In my experience, they are, but not necessarily all the way to Atkins. Some people do very well on Atkins, but others have problems staying on that low of a carb diet long-term. South Beach is similar but allows a bit more carbs.
Did they stress cutting out sugar at all? I thought the whole sugar=diabetes myth was on its way out, at least in the health care professional world. Sugar is just yet another carb.
My Mom was recently diagnosed as borderline type II, and she was told to restrict carbs. She says that Dad either wasn’t told this, or didn’t tell her (Dad has passed so we can’t ask him if he was told.)
I popped in because I misread your typo “eay” to be “hay” and thought “Hmmm. Hay. That might be something allowable for you”. (but seriously, I guess you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t :().
The metformin is secondary. Studies on metformin versus placebo show that it has the ability to take down the A1c about 1-1.5%. The OP is on a very small dose of metformin and has brought his A1c down almost 3%. I don’t think there’s a way to report just what part of that is metformin versus diet/exercise, but given that the most that Metformin does in studies is 1.5%, he’s on a very low dose, and he’s made massive changes to his diet & exercise, my vote is on the diet/exercise doing most of the work.
There’s no such thing as “yet another carb,” because not all carbs are equal. The most accurate way of measuring carbs is with the Glycemic Index . . . carbs that are metabolized gradually are good, while those that cause a “spike” in blood sugar are bad. In general, starches are bad, and sugar is the worst.
The Perricone meal plans also help one to lower blood sugars and triglycerides. I found them very effective. The afternoon and bedtime snacks of fruit or veggies and protein really help.
The Glycemic Index has not at all predicted what spikes my blood sugar. I had a long talk with a dietitian about this once. There’s a lot of problems with it, primarily that it doesn’t take into account typical servings sizes - it uses a set carb number (50, if I remember correctly) and analyzes how that amount spikes some people’s blood sugars. If you’ve ever seen the number of, say, carrots that make up 50 grams of carbs versus bread (or sugar or potatoes) you’ll see where the problem comes. Nobody eats enough carrots in one sitting to make up 50 carbs. The Glycemic Load is a more accurate version of the Glycemic Index that does take into account typical serving sizes.
But neither take into account how the food is prepared or what it’s served with. Adding fat or protein to a carb is a good way to slow down how fast it’s digested.
So in short, that’s why you don’t see a lot of diabetics (or doctors of diabetics) jumping on the Glycemic Index bandwagon - most people try the GI to see if it’s useful in predicting their blood sugar spikes and pretty quickly realize that it doesn’t. In my short time as a diabetic I’ve learned that there’s really no way to predict what is going to spike me and what isn’t - there are so many factors that you just can’t figure them out. Exercise, stress, time of day, phase of the moon, who knows what’s going to cause a spike? That’s why I say “a carb is a carb is a carb” - it’s the best measurement we have for watching our sugars, and there’s no reliable measure to say that a certain kind of carb spikes everyone quicker or slower than any other kind of carb.
Case in point - I eat the same breakfast about 5 days a week, the same brand of cereal weighed out to the gram on a kitchen scale. I take the same amount of insulin to cover it. Most days, it gives me a very predictable and manageable 30 or 40 point spike 2 hours after eating. Then every once in a while, I see only a 10 or 20 point spike. Yesterday, at the 2 hour point, I was 80 points up. Sheesh! If something like Glycemic Index could accurately predict how things spike blood sugar, I think every diabetic in the world would be singing its praises. But our bodies, unfortunately, are not that manageable, and the best we can do is just keep poking our fingers and checking the ol’ sugars and doing what we can to manage them.
My blood glucose hovers between 90 and 100.
(but seriously, I guess you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t :().