Newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I have questions.

[DireBetes]

My GP rang me with the news a couple of days ago. I can’t see the nurse until new year, and I wonder if anyone can answer my (probably stupid) questions?

My GP has advised that a low carb diet can manage, and maybe reverse, the diabetes, so I’m reading up about this and feel tentatively positive that I could follow this sort of diet.

I’ve been started on metformin, currently on 1 tablet a day, but to build up to four over a month.

If I mainly manage to stick to a low carb diet and occasionally have a treat, like bread sauce on Christmas Day, or a birthday takeaway, will this be a big set back, or ok as long as most of the time I’m sticking to low carb? Would it be dangerous?

Can I drink alcohol?

The biggest eating and drinking time of year is one week away, I’d love to know how careful I need to be - 100%, or if I would survive 90% careful!

If there’s anything else I really should know I’d be very grateful for advice. 🙂

For instance I'm overweight too and this is what I ate yesterday

Coffee, tea
Handful of Crisps, 4 cheese breadsticks, 2 glasses mulled wine
Ramen - Boullion soup with noodles and left over chicken from last nights oven chicken and roast veg dinner
Turkey and stuffing flavour crisps
Lots of alcohol in the pub later on

Not the best and we can all see where I went wrong but it was a Friday and Christmas season at work etc

The day before I had

Coffee and tea
Ham and cheese sandwich x 2
Apple
Oven cooked chicken breast and vegetables and a few chips
Yogurt
Piece of toblerone possibly

Oh that's good news about Sweden. I wish more countries would follow the strong research about low carb. I saw a dietician who follows the low carb method but it took some looking to find one.

I'm still PMSL at loublou. If it were that easy, we would all be doing it wouldn't we and diabetes would not be a chronic disease.

I’ve had a very poor diet for years.
I am quite picky, and find comfort in carbs and binge eating.
At the same time I am very knowledgeable about what I should be doing - there’s an annoying brain divide between what I know and what I do!
I hope that having regular appointments with the nurse will help me to not go back to stupid habits.

Portion size is an issue - I don’t really feel full, so I don’t get that content “I’ve eaten enough” feeling, I don’t really know when to stop. This has always been an issue for me, so it’s probably autism related.

I was going to add possibly some of the Turkey stuffing crisps - I had a huge bag which I was having a handful of everyday throughout the week.

I'd recommend you get the kit so you can test regularly and judge the effects of you dietary changes together with those of your occasional treats

I think now you've been diagnosed you might enjoy focusing more on getting yourself on track diet and portion size wise

I have faith in you you can do this

Direbetes you might want to consider ozempic given your never feeling full issue. Ozempic seems to help with binge eating and with satiety. There's an ozempic thread running in the weightloss forum.

metformin is a wonderdrug that saves thousends if not millions of lives a year.

diet & lifestyle can reduce the need for it but it would be unwise to rely on diet and lifestyle alone.

wrt to diet: imagine a toddler plate with 3 compartments. the 2 small ones are for complex carbs (e.g. wholemeal, sweet potato) and protein each. the big one for veg or salad.

eat 3 substantial meals a day and try not yo snack in between.

I think you are awsome putting good thoughts into this.

Dangerous advice. You know nothing about this person.

The nhs low calorie diet pilot that is going on now is showing reversal of type 2 in 40%+ of participants that lose significant weight.

I’m not sure I’d dare write down what I could eat in a day!

Since the diagnosis though I’ve been much more in control and have had…
Breakfast - yoghurt with apple, blueberries and almonds.
Lunch - bit of cheese and salami or ham.
Tea - some sort of meat with roast veg or a salad.

I’m aware I’m very much in the zone though, and I need to work out how to maintain this for longer than a few weeks!

Thank you!

Sorry if my post offended anyone, I myself test regularly with a home glucose test and my levels did get up to the pre diabetic range so I’m not coming to this thread with a holier then thou attitude. For me it was a bad diet, too much biscuits and chocolate and wine, I had to change and it was hard. Still not great all the time and my levels could be lower tbh. Just feel that drugs aren’t always the answer and metformin does carry some serious side effects and I understand alcohol should be avoided which is concerning as some pp have advised alcohol should be ok. Hope op can work through this and only wanted to offer an alternative view to just taking a drug and hoping it will solve the diabetes.

I’ll talk to my GP about this when I get to see her! Thank you.

thing is, until the weight is lost and the healthy weight is stable the metformin is needed to help control the blood sugar.

Nobody has ever said that metformin in isolation will fix diabetes. It's diet, meds and regular exercise. My GP, endo and dietician are all fine with alcohol in moderation--I have tested my blood glucose before and after a glass of wine and there's no spike.

Thank you, I did take that from your post.

I know I’m here because of a monumentally bad diet, but also with disordered eating that makes it difficult to sort this on my own.

Eating carbs means you feel hungry , a rush of energy then a slump .
you will feel fuller having protein and veg

Michael Mosley 'The Blood Sugar Diet' was recommended to me by my GP. I did skip a fair bit of the case studies but read the rest. I lost weight and felt much better.
You need a glucose monitor, if diagnosed you used to get one on the NHS, not sure if you still can.
You can find out anything you need to know here, and they are friendly and helpful. www.diabetes.co.uk/

Also, have you had your thyroid levels checked? There can be a connection.

Hi, everyone. We're just dropping in to remind you that Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you have medical concerns, please seek medical attention. We would strongly advice against changing any prescribed treatment without first consulting a doctor.
Even qualified doctors can't diagnose over the internet, so do bear that in mind when seeking or giving advice.

If you are overweight then the focus should be on weight loss, rather than limiting specific food groups. Weight loss alone could stop your diabetes progressing.

For low carb recipes Diabetes UK is a great source, plus it's very easy to then get the hang of reducing carbs in things you already cook.

I did their Christmas recipes last year and they were v good, except for the Christmas pudding which was only good for the bin.

Cutting out or cutting down on alcohol is a quick way of losing weight and lowering blood sugars.

Until you can speak to the nurse there are some simple things that will help.

Eat a savoury breakfast rather than sweet. I have usually have egg on rye bread.

Eat whole fruits if you eat fruit. Not juice or smoothies. Fibre is your friend!

Go for a walk after a meal - or just move around rather than sitting down.

You don't need to go hungry - eat plenty of green veg and protein.

If you can order a LibreLink, 2 week free trial, blood glucose monitor you will see the effect of sugar/carbs on your body and it might motivate you. It certainly did me.

Libre glucose monitor link

I was diagnosed prediabetic, and hope when I get my blood tested in the new year I won't be. I have lost about half a stone. and have started exercising 3 times a week. And also try to walk where I would normally just get in the car. Even tiny changes will help. Good luck OP!

my DH has reversed type 2 diabetes he was diagnosed in May with Hb1ac of 57,
he immediately wanted to do diet control ( his diet was rubbish he had a hard manual job and thought he could eat what he liked as he burned most of the calories) they gave him 4 weeks to show an improvement
he stopped almost all carbs ( he would have 2 chocolate bard sweets and 3 packets of crisps plus maybe chips and very little fruit or veg)
he stopped all snacks just 3 meals a day and nothing after 7pm or before 8.30am
he was still doing manual job so couldn't do the 800 calorie diet
breakfast mackeral followed by cereal
lunch vegetable based soup anda large salad with plenty of protein boiled egg lean ham or chicken
dinner normal but with only small amount of carbs and very large portions of veg
within a month he lost 16 lbs and got Hb1ac down to 48 and within 3 months 41 altogether he lost 3.5 stone in 4 months and his BMI is now 24.1
he has not lost more weight since the end of august but has remained steady his Hb1ac is now 37 which is completely normal and he is eating more so he doesn't lose more weight
so yes it can be reversed the evidence suggests you needs to lose 15kg ( or 15% body weight is your body weight is close to normal range) and eat a healthy low not no carb diet with no snacking so insulin can reset

DH just didn't realise despite me saying that what your calories consist of actually matters for health; 800 calories of chocolate is not the same as 800 calories of chicken salad etc it might be the same for weight loss but for long term health especially if pre-diabetic or diabetic too much instant glucose is bad for you as is snacking as every snakc requires insulin and no time for it to recover

it is however a permanent lifestyle change regarding food that is required
a healthy diet 90-95% of the time with occasional not daily treats

michael moseley has quite a lot of good info; for foodies Giancarlo Caldesi has a good book