Insulin Resistance Diet

[ElbowPrincess]

Is there anyone else doing this? I didnt know where to put this thread, as even though its lower carb, its not ketogenic. Hope it's ok to have here! Ive tried really low carb (less than 30g a day) and I just couldnt sustain it :( even though I love all the science behind it. So I am giving this a go instead.

Here's the book

Basically, its a diet for those who have insulin resistance. If you can answer yes to 3 or more of the following, you probably have it ....

If you are in the obese BMI catagory or above
If you store weigth mainly around the tummy area
You have PCOS
Your tummy measures 35 inches or more (40 inches for men)
Depression
Hypoglycemia
Brain fog
Skin tags in the neck area, underarms & chest
Dark skin patches in the arm pits, between thighs, neck etc
Carb, especially sugar, cravings
Sleepiness after a meal
Poor sleep at night

So, how the diet works - you balance your carbs with protein. No more than 30g of carbs per meal (15g for snacks) paired with at LEAST 15g of protein. You can eat as much protein as you like though, thats just the minimum to balance the carbs. 3 meals a day, 2 snacks (plus extra veg/proetin snacks whenever, if you are hungry). Carbs must be 2 hours apart. A typical day would probably look like this ...

Breakfast - 30g Carbs, 15g (or more) protein, as much veg as you like.

Snack - 15g carbs, 7g protein, as much veg as you like.

Lunch - 30 g C, 15g P, veg

Snack - 15g C, 7g P, veg

Dinner - 30g C, 15g P, unlimited veg.

So a max of 120g of carbs in any day, spaced 2 hours apart.

Now, this is where it differs from the usual low carb diet .... dairy, pulses, legumes and nuts count as protein not carbs. So a glass of milk will balance out a slice of wholegrain toast. Beans (no added sugar) would balance out a small baked potato. Fruit are carbs (apart from apples, pears, cherries, grapefruit, those ase classed as already balanced), potato & corn are carbs plus all your pasta, rice, bread etc.

Still with me? Ive no idea if this diet will work, this thread is just to document my progress and see what happens. Would love others to join in too!

Thank you miffy. Actually with regard to the balancing, I just eyeball my carb portions and make sure I'm eating an appropriate amount of protein in a similar way. If I'd had to weigh and measure everything I'd have gone mad and surely failed on it! Because the book's written by American authors a lot of the carb serving sizes are measured in cups. I used them at first for the carbs, but after a week or two I knew what a 30g amount of rice or pasta etc looked like.

I should also have added in my post that I did have issues with Insulin Resistance when I started this. It may not work as well for someone who doesn't.

Yes, me too. Theres only been low carb that has brought my BG down. I do light weights too. Can't go too mad on the exercise front as I have FMS.

I assume its the more complex carbs that they favour? I'm not sure how I would really increase my carbs much as I don't much like the gluten free carbs and the ingredients always read like a chemical formula! I'm trying carb re-feeding once a week at the moment to break a stall but I struggle to find something I like to add back. I cant eat potatoes due to my arthritis so they are out too. Might invest in the full book after pay day!

I'm still keen to do this properly - but as usual, struggle with planning my meals!
I work full time and have a 4 year old, so quick and easy is the order of the day. I've been eating those 9 seed bar things for breakfast, and trying to snack on fruit with nuts, but I've not quite cracked main meals yet. Doesn't help that I'm not a big meat eater, so carbs are my go-to choice.

I definitely don't feel as hungry and 'out of control' when I've eaten a balanced meal though.

Not sure if anyone is still interested in this thread, but I thought I'd give another update as it's been quite some time, and I've now been following this eating plan for 11 months.

I'm having no issues at all with binge eating. I can't remember when I last binged, but it was many months ago.
Very rarely, I get the urge to binge but the urge passes within about 5 seconds. It's a bit like my desire to smoke raises its head every so often. I gave up smoking 10 years ago and every so often I still get the urge for a cigarette, but it's fleeting. Same with the desire to binge.
I think the reason this helped me was that I tried to NOT focus on weight loss as my main goal this time. I focused as much as I could on improving my health, with weight loss being a welcome 'side effect'.

On the subject of weight, I'm at my goal weight. I eat pretty much whatever I want to, just keeping in mind portion sizes when I'm eating simple carbs. I've followed the plan when eating out, on holiday, even on two cruises, a work trip to Italy etc. I can follow it for the rest of my life.

Other benefits are much more even moods, seriously reduced menopause symptoms, loads of energy. My skin is clearer and even the wrinkles seem to have reduced a bit - I think sugar was wreaking havoc with my skin fo ryears.
My bloods are normal. I now have normal BP and have come off my medication.

Best of luck to anyone who decides to give this a try, especially those with insulin resistance.

Thanks to everyone that has posted on this thread, especially Herdy that has popped back a couple of times to give some long term updates.

I am very much interested in this WOE. I have been feeling ill for quite some time (rundown - weakened immune system etc). Earlier this week I decided to try and cut down on sugar, as I read that it can inhibit your immune system, meaning it takes you longer to get over colds etc. Even after one day of reducing my sugar intake (mainly by cutting our sugary beverages such as hot chocolate) I felt much better. Now I just need to reduce my sugar intake long-term, and re-train my brain (I have been living on sugar / carbs).

Going to order the book / do so more online research and start planning some meals! I have had more than 300g of carbs today alone - it can't be doing me any good at all!!

BTW - I have PCOS with suspected insulin resistance (I have done my own tests at home, but GP's wouldn't test me except for basic fasting blood sugars) and I have a few more of the symptoms listed on OP's opening thread. From all that I have read so far, I should be eating low GI or low carb etc.

Hi ladies are any of you still doing this? I'm not over weight however have pcos and I'm pretty sure insulin resistance to some degree( hypo type symptoms, dark skin under arms and massive sugar cravings). I have a toddler and so eating is often on the go and not well thought out. I've been eating really badly recently and as a result feeling tired and sluggish all the time so it's time to sort myself out! I've just ordered the book and looking forward to trying it! Would be good to hear how you've all been getting on!

I bought the book and had a go at this last year but fell by the wayside. I have decided to have another go! I started on Tuesday and feel as if it's going ok. Last weeks shop didn't take into account this WOE so I'm running out of suitable food until my shopping comes tonight but should be fine then. I would like to lose 5 stone but just feeling better would be a good start.

I've lost 8lbs since 10th Feb, 1st 8lb altogether. It seems quite slow but a haven't been hungry at all.

I've lost 18lb since January doing a combination of Cambridge and low carb. The problem is I have seriously fallen out of love with Cambridge so need some structure for low carbing. I came across this thread and having had gest diabetes in my last pregnancy I've downloaded the book. I've still got my glucose monitor from pregnancy so will get some new test strips and keep an eye on my blood sugars out of interest. I have a total of 5 stone 3lbs to lose in total. Hopefully we can support each other through this. Herdy's post is really inspirational and I would be more than happy with results like that.

GERTI this was on another thread. I haven't tried it yet but it looks good. I normally have a couple of oatcakes.

www.thelondoner.me/2014/03/mums-low-carb-bread.html

I can't believe I've been away from the thread for so many months!
Not much to update, weight is stable, eating is stable, health is vastly improved.

Gerti, I'm not sure I understand your dilemma with your soup. Does your soup contain enough protein to balance one slice of bread or a small roll? Or is it potato soup or minestrone (pasta) ? Non starchy veg isn't counted on this plan, so if it doesn't contain potato/pasta/rice the carb content doesn't count towards your carb allowance for your meal. But you definitely need protein to balance if you're having bread. Does that make sense? It doesn't sound very clear when I read back!

GERTI, pulses, or legumes if we want to be American , don't count as carbs on this WOE. So your soup doesn't count, assuming it didn't contain potatoes or pasta.

If you have at least15g of protein in your meal, you can have 30g of COUNTABLE carbs plus unilimited of the ones that aren't counted.
So, I'd check that the soup contains at least 15g of protein. If it does, throw away a tiny bit of the bread roll. Then scoff.

If the serving of soup that you'll be eating contains less than 15g of protein (must be more than 7g per serving if you're eating carbs) then the carbs allowed in the bread roll are less, 15g, so you'd have to just have half of it. Or you could have some additional protein to increase your protein count.

This plan is actually very easy, although it sounds complicated at first. It's especially difficult to grasp initially if you've done LC diets in the past. That's because not all carbs count like they do on LC, it's just about balancing certain carbs with protein.

The initial post on the thread explains it well, but I'll try to add more information later today when I'm not at work I've got a bit more time to clarify a few things.

assuming it didn't contain potatoes or pasta.

should have also added, or rice