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!

This gives an outline of it.

lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/CarbsInGrains/a/Carbs-In-lentils.htm

Sid to be perfectly honest, diabetic consultants are hopeless. How in gods name can eating a constant stream of carbs help a diabetic?? (NHS suggest very carby meals for diabetics). Yes your blood levels will be constant - constantly HIGH! It is shocking advice.

You have to watch with foods that are 'good' GI or GL because although they might not 'spike' you (at your normal high time), they might keep your bloods high over a long period or spike you much later than you would normally spike.

All very interesting though... just off for a look at your link.

elbow I was thinking of doing something starting tomorrow. I always feel terrible on the low carb. Do you want a companion? I have ordered the book and until it comes I am going to copy what you have eaten

Yes please!

Oh, I know that, Chipping. What I meant was that it wasn't carby enough for the carb pushing consultant!

Elbow, can you really eat Twix on this WOE?

probably not the best choice, I had wanted to avoid sugar, but it called my name and is allowed according to the book, as long as you balance it with protein and it fits your carb allowance. Will find out Thursday wether it was a good idea though haha..

Chippingdoesn't the New Atkins have a section for vegetarians? As long as you don't eat any "plastic" food like bars and shakes.

Vegetarians have trouble with strict low carb so if you want to keep this up for life you are best to change it up a bit.

Elbow another one watching with interest here.

Im so worried that its not working... only time will tell. Willing to give it 2 weeks I think. I am getting benefits from it though, I can tell my blood sugars are much more stable, Ive had no hypo feelings at all since starting. Im also sleeping better, and my hunger is starting to decrease a little bit, like it does on low-carb.

B-egg & bacon sandwich
L - mug of veg soup, roast beef salad
S - 4 wholegrain crackerbreads & philly
D - will be a portion of thiswith extra butternut squash added.

Sid - sorry, I see what you meant I see RED when I see NHS Diabetic Consultant!

MillyMillyMe - 'changing it up' with a Twix bar sounds good TBH I can't think of anything New Atkins could say that would be something you can eat that's vegetarian and low carb but not permitted by Briffa? Still, I'll have a read :)

EP - Depends how you are going to define working doesn't it! Blood sugars stable, no hypo feelings, sleeping better, less hunger... sounds like winning to me - and without the sugar it might be weight loss as well

www.atkins.com/Program/Overview/Ways-to-Customize-Atkins,-Your-Diet-Plan/Atkins-for-Vegetarian.aspx

Chipping
though I wouldn't advise Quorn as it has been found to be absolute rubbish and detrimental to health.

www.atkins.com/Program/Overview/Ways-to-Customize-Atkins,-Your-Diet-Plan/Atkins-for-Vegetarian.aspx

Chipping Briffa is following in the footsteps of what Atkins devised isn't he?

Just wanted to post about my wonderful sleep last night! Im still not convinced this is helping weight wise, but usually I wake 3/4 times a night minimum, check the clock or rearrange my pillows etc. Last night I feel asleep, then woke when the alarm went off this morning - I was all confused because I couldnt understand why my alarm was going off at 1am (my usual wake time). Was so chuffed to realise id slept all night soundly

Yay!!!! weigh in in two days

That's brilliant.

Chipping, I thought of you while cooking dinner tonight. Sainsburys do a 'stew mix' of lentils, split peas, pearl barley and dried onions and tomatoes (can't remember exactly) which we use frequently. I noticed that it has just 10g of carbs per 100g, and we rarely use more than 150g for 3/4 of us. Not sure if you're eating anything like this already but this in vegetable stock with extra veg makes a yummy dinner.

www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Rice_Pulses_And_Grain/Sainsburys_Stew_Mix_500g.html

elbow princess thanks for posting this information, glad you are feeling some positive resuls. I am going to consider this for times when I go off plan with Briffa/ primal so I don't end up with hypo feelings.

I have an underarm skin tag how weird that it might be connected to insulin.

Can I ask a couple of other questions please , what's the verdict on caffeine and can you eat fewer than 5 meals a day?

Is barley a grain or a pulse?

giraffe- I sometimes eat less than 5 times, but wouldnt if I was still getting hypo feelings.

One of my underarm skin tags fell off it went black then just fell off in my fingers. Wonder if it is because of the diet?

I cant remember what it said about caffeine, will get back to you.

Thanks Elbow. Barley is def a grain, i'm not totally sure what pulses are - I think that is another term for legumes and covers beans and lentils . Ewww but yay to skin tag falling off

Just wondering if I need to balance barley as a carb, or wether its counted in with legumes & pulese - confused.com!

hmmmm I was wondering about that with nuts as they have some protein and some carbs. barley 1 cup of cooked barley would count as almost 1 and a half portions of carbs because it has 44g of carbs and only 4 g of protein.

Barley is protein and carb