Please can somebody tell me where I'm going wrong?

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I'm doing low carb because I'm pre diabetic and sugar and refined carbs spike my blood sugar. I've lost half a stone over the past 6 weeks, but it's a struggle and I'm feeling very weak. Today I almost fainted whilst out, and dh took me for a scone and a glass of milk after which I felt a lot better.

My meals are as follows:

Breakfast: cup of redbush tea and then a cup of chicory (can't drink coffee).

Lunch: cheese omelette (one egg) and selection of vegetables done in the air fryer. Small cup of full fat milk.

Teatime: four rice crackers - two with butter and cheese and two with peanut butter. Salad. Frozen raspberries and full fat Greek yoghurt (about one tablespoon).

Nothing after 6pm apart from redbush tea. I don't drink alcohol or fruit juices. I usually have some fizzy water during the day.

I know it's not a lot, but I don't do much exercise although I'm always busy and don't sit down for long periods.

If I don't keep my calories low I don't lose weight. I can lose at around 1200, but anything much over and I just plateau.

Please can anyone give me any advice? I can't eat bread, wheat, oats, pasta or potatoes as they spike my blood sugars.

You're not eating proper food so not getting enough nutrition is where you're going wrong!
Not to worry, at easily rectified. Like so many others, I've got my insulin under control following the fast 800 way of eating (the theories at least, I rarely follow the recipes though many do and have great rates of success too). There are umpteen threads on here about it, take a look, but in a nutshell, you need more protein and green vegetables to fill you and give you energy - rice cakes for example are simple carbs and will be spiking your glucose levels without any nutritional benefit.

There’s no energy in what you’re eating, you need fats to replace the sugar spikes from the carbs - cheese, cream, butter, oils, eggs. Your body adapts from burning sugar for energy to burning fat; but you’re not taking any in.

You’re not eating enough. Make a two egg omelette and have a proper dinner. Rice cakes are not low glycaemic, swap for something protein based and filling.
Eat more yoghurt, and maybe add some nuts?
For a mid afternoon snack half an apple with peanut butter. Stop worrying about calories and focus on eating more protein.

Milk and rice cakes are carbs in themselves, replace those with a glass of flavoured water and some apple slices with peanut butter; or as pp said - proteins - tuna with mayonnaise or a chicken breast, you need the energy,

Haha @Worldgonecrazy cross with the apple and peanut butter! Best snack ever!

You're not eating enough. At least get more protien in there. Lots more protien.

Apples are sugary though?

I agree with pp - you need more fat and protein if you are low-carbing. If you eat meat, I would recommend having a meat-based evening meal and also something more substantial for breakfast - food rather than just the hot drinks.

Have you looked at the 'low carb bootcamp' threads - not to do the bootcamp, but for meal and recipe ideas (including vegan/vegetarian).

I used to eat salmon fillets and some meat.

You’re literally living on fresh air, that’s why you feel so weak.

I'm not very good at getting a variety of things, I tend to eat the same things day after day. I can see where I'm going wrong. I stopped buying cream a couple of weeks ago in a bid to reduce my calories.

You’d be better going -
breakfast - scrambled egg with some spring onion and feta, maybe a couple of tomatoes. Plus the tea.

lunch - salmon salad, lettuce, spinach, olives, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, a teaspoon of a dressing

dinner - meal of choice? Roasted vegetables, with some garlic roule type cheese crumbed over, ratatouille, aubergine and chickpea stew?

snacks - hard boiled egg, 80% dark chocolate, apple and nut butter, berries, nuts

OP, you've had some very good advice here.

But I'm shocked at your lack of nutritional knowledge. Please consider seeing a dietician or discussing with your GP.

The idea that starving yourself is a good idea is shocking; as is your generalised statement about 'spiking' your blood sugar. You're not incorrect, but that doesn't mean never eating such food or balancing it with protein-rich food.

Saying 'apples are sugary' is another such statement - sure, they have naturally occurring sugars but eating fruit is important for other reasons.

Eating such a restrictive diet is really problematic.

I'm sorry, but I've tested my blood sugar levels following eating the foods I've listed and they spike. I simply can't eat those foods. Even a small bowl of healthy porridge will put my blood sugars up to 13mmols. I can't keep doing that or I'll progress to full type 2 diabetes.

The same goes for apples. The most I can manage is a stewed cooking apple with some erythritol added. I eat this with Greek yoghurt sometimes.

Low carb/keto is restrictive, it's designed to stop insulin spikes, burn fat and curb hunger. I'm aware that my diet is restrictive, but I'm struggling to lose weight. I'm not one of these people who's in denial and secretly stuffing chocolate or takeaways and then wondering why they're fat.

I think you are getting conflicted between low carb and low calorie. Firstly, forget everything you have ever been told about low calorie = weight loss. It doesn’t, at least not in any sustainable way.

When following a low carb diet, our bodies stay in a state of ketosis. This state can also be achieved by fasting for a minimum of 16 hours each day. In ketosis our bodies use fat for energy so will deplete our fat stores. If you ate a spoon of cream, yes it has lots of calories, but is is also mostly made of fat. Your body will see it as fat, not calories, and stay in ketosis. If you ate a rice cracker your body would turn the carbs to glucose and lay the glucose down as fat stores and your body would come out of ketosis . That’s a very simplistic explanation but covers the gist of it.

Reducing calories will trigger some weight loss but affect the body’s base metabolism so over time your body requires fewer calories, hence the dreaded weight loss plateau. Low carb and ketogenic diets don’t have or need calorie restrictions because of the way our bodies treat different foods differently, and keep out metabolism functioning healthily.

I understand, yes. I know you're right, I'm 52 though and still stuck in the 80s calorie counting mindset. I can't get round the mental block of eating things like cream and cheese 😦 my natural instinct is to restrict calories, but obviously the result is what happened yesterday 🤦‍♀️

I'm going shopping this afternoon and I'm determined to do it properly though. I will get the ingredients people have advised.

I was just having a quick look at the glucose goddess instagram. It might be an interesting experiment to see what your blood sugar does differently when eating half an apple, and half an apple with peanut butter. Her research seems to suggest the latter reduces the spike significantly.

Interesting. I can certainly experiment with that 👍🏻

I did low carb about four years ago and lost two stone. I was quite strict and exercising as well. Put it all back on over lockdown 🤦‍♀️

Theres a low carb bootcamp just started might help you with this 😁

There are diet book for Keto diets, and online resources - there'll be some Keto food plan days with things you can eat, that should give you a guide as to what a days food should look like :)
There's also no shame at all in finding a weeks meal plan for Keto and saying "I'm not sure what I'm doing with this yet, I'm just going to exactly follow this plan for a week or two, or four", they should be generally balanced in terms of nutrition.

Combine things like fruit with protein. Apple and cheese for example. Also walking after eating and plenty of water keep numbers down.

Sounds like a well timed intervention I can take advantage of 😃

I think if you want to go down the keto route you have to try to forget about calories and ensure you’re having fat and enough protein eg 2 or 3 egg omelette not 1. Otherwise you’ve taken away the carbs/glucose for your body to run on and not replaced it with anything (fat). I know it feels counterintuitive but crack open the double cream and butter! Try it for a few weeks

And great idea to join bootcamp 👍

I would swap the rice crackers for a piece of fish or chicken. Other than that it sounds ok