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!

I agree that cider's soup sounds lovely.

Elbow no snacks! I think that's proof that this is sorting out your insulin, do you ?

I've had some beef stew, with a small dumpling and some mashed potato, loads of carrots and cabbage, all linked and balanced, for my supper. Just what I wanted on such a cold day.
I also had a small glass of red wine.
I've had no cravings as I said, and I noticed that today I had more energy than I've had for ages.
Feeling good!

Ah, thanks all, really need to read this book some nuts are higher in carbs than protein though ... not sure I would loose weight this way but haven't had any blood sugar crashes which is the goal at the mo anyway.

Deviated and had a bit of a weird dinner, 2 and a half sausages, roasted butternut squash and tomatoes with rosemarry balsamic reduction, pak choy with ginger err and a handful of oven chips ...

I would be happy to be the same after christmas. Not weighing but one of my jeans are a bit tight so so long as they fit I will be happy!

Really happy to hear you are feeling good and cracking cravings herdy

Glad it's going well for people!

I've been doing generally low carb eating with uncounted carbs and low counted carbs. I've had some meals off (birthday meal for example) but in general it's been easy enough as it's nice, warm and filling food.

Breakfast is either porridge with linseed or homemade Bircher muesli, neither of which I think are balanced enough. Lunch is either soup or sandwich on wholemeal multigrain or leftovers. Snacks are oatcakes with cheese. Dinner is mostly meat or fish with pulses and veg, with a small amount of countable carbs. Sometimes I have no countable carbs in my main meal and then a bit of ice cream for pudding. Otherwise my treat is a small amount of 85% chocolate (about 1.5g carbs!) after dinner. How does it all sound? I've lost about 2lbs in two weeks but like you lot, am not embracing the low fat element!

Sounds like a great start Sid! Your breakfast sounds balanced enough if you are having milk with it? I have either porridge or linseed bread toast & peanut butter - lovely on cold mornings. I sometimes have a cup of cosy milk with it

Hows everyone doing?

4 lbs down this week that's 7lbs in 3 weeks, I am amazed actually. Definitely sticking with this woe, I am feeling soooo much better, healthy, normal! :)

That's fantastic! I keep losing and gaining my 2lbs so am tinkering to see what will help.

Well done on your 7lbs!

I'm doing well, I feel more energetic and my moods are more even. Not thinking about food all the time.

After only a few days, and eating such things - but balanced - as beef stew and dumplings, chicken and pasta salad, ham sandwich etc, I'm pleased to report that my trousers are feeling a bit looser around the waist.

I've eaten out several times this week and this plan works well as long as I remember to balance. It's definitely something I can do long term.

Are you following this woe Sid? How long for?

I've been low-GI-ing for about a month and doing this for about two weeks. I think I might see a loss suddenly, which has happened to me before.

I seem to tick most of the boxes for this but perhaps due to brain fog and lack of sleep seems quite complicated. Does the book make it simpler? Not read the whole thread though.

Fab Herdy :) Ohhh dumplings sound good! I have stew planned this weekend, I might have dumplings instead of potatoes!

I love how easy it is to eat out, at the work canteen or at a restauraunt, as its easy to balance. I had tasty potato skins in the canteen yesterday, which had cheese & red onion on them - yum! Lots of salad with it too :)

Delgirl, it does sound complicated on paper, but within a week I found it easy :) I would recommend reading the book though, for the sciencey bit & to see how it works, they explain it better than I can :) The basic bit is though, you link & balance carbs with protein.

My brain fog disappeared within about 3 days of eating this way!

ok will definitely have a look thanks

Yummy chicken stir-fry for dinner :)

I have an all day conference tomorrow, with lunch provided, so just going to relax, eat what I fancy, balance & link if possible, and if not, just eat, be merry & then carry on :)

Today was a nightmare! Breakfast fine - bacon and scrambled eggs with a slice of rye sourdough toast. But then it all went a bit mad and over the course of the day I have had a bit of ciabatta with melted cheese and three bites of a blueberry muffin (daughter's leftovers), an oatcake with primula cheese on, and two mini pork pies! Dinner though will be five spice braised pork belly with vegetables

Only the muffin and pork pies were unbalanced, which is a start :) Dinner sounds lovely, I love pork belly.

The pork pies are OK I think because they are filled with protein (and fat!).I know when I was GD they were OK for my BG readings. Obviously the muffin was dreadful.

Elbow hope all goes well at your conference today.

I was out for a slightly boozy lunch yesterday. I decided to have lemon sole served with risotto for my main, so I passed on the bread that was served at the beginning of the meal and for a starter I had smoked duck salad which was gorgeous and no starchy carbs in it. Probably had a bit too much wine but I didn't feel hungry until several hours afterwards, and had no cravings.
When I followed this plan last time I always knew if I'd gone slightly over on my carbs because I'd get cravings about an hour later, or fee hungry. Apologies if I've mentioned that in a previous post, I'm at an age where I do keep repeating myself !

Elbow you are doing amazingly, well done

Herdy - thats really interesting what you say about starchy carbs, I have been winging it a bit and eaten too much bread, was ok at first but after a bit has resulted in weight gain and bloating, ibs etc so next week (hopefuly the library will have the book by then) I think i will see if I can have a very little bit without swelling up like a balloon. Maybe I will
just have to accept I can't eat wheat if I want to fit in my jeans! Once I have the book I will give it a strict try and see what happens. Either way I have felt mostly better for balancing protein with carbs and its something I can learn from hopefuly.

Hi Sid and Del too

Herdy, I love your advice and help :)

Conference was brilliant, and I wasnt horrendous at lunch either, though not perfect link & balance. I ate 4 quarters of sandwiches, with plenty of protein as a filling, and then some lovely omlette chunks so that was ok. But I also had some crispy prawns, and then a bit of cake! Havent felt hungry since though, so I am lucky it didnt trigger cravings. Going to share a takeaway with DH later, I cant manage a whole meal to myself anymore. One chinese dish (linked & balanced!) is plenty for both of us.

Searching for some tasty soup recipes, I plan to spend the day in the kitchen tomorrow to fill up my freezer with plenty of soup :)

My tummy is definitely deflating! Thats where I store most of my excess weight, so I am very glad :)