Newbie here just getting ready

(Stephen Howell) #1

Hey Everyone! I am 36 yo, 236lbs and married with 2 kids. Within the past year I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. My A1C was 12.6 the first time I checked it. Over the past year I have gotten it down to 5.4 but with Metformin and Glipizide. I have been noticing that if I dont eat a good bit of carbs or sugar that I go Hypo fairly quick which got me to doing research. The Doctors around me here around still prescribing the traditional diet which didnt seem right to me so I started looking into things and found Keto. I want to start Keto next week if possible. Wanted to come in and introduce myself and any further advice you all can give someone with T2D would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all

(Doug) #2

Hi Stephen. Glipizide is a ā€œbig gunā€ - often prescribed after Metformin is thought not to be working well enough. Metformin alone rarely brings any low blood sugar problems. Iā€™m not a doctor, but still am surprised you got on Glipizide so fast. From what you said, you sound like a great candidate for ketogenic eating, and for hopefully getting off the medications.

Eating very low-carb will definitely change things for you. Your doctor should change your dosage if itā€™s warranted - and I would think it will be. Good luck.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #3

No need to wait unless you need to eat some bad stuff first to get it out of your system and say goodbye to it! I have had great improvement on this way of eating and itā€™s way better than indulging in stuff thatā€™s harmful but tasty. In fact after a few days I didnā€™t miss the crappy carb laden foods that I was used to because of the immediate improvement in the way I felt. It took me about 4 days to start feeling much better and have good energy flowing through my body. If you start feeling bad search ā€œketo fluā€ for advice. I felt kind of sick for a couple of days till I stumbled on to that through Google. Salt, magnesium, potassium and a lot more water is the cure. Good luck, I hope that you find a great success and realize that this is the missing key to being well and healthy like I have. It was quite an epiphany for me.

(Stephen Howell) #4

Yes the Glipizide is a big gun. I really hate that drug as well because my BG will quickly bottom out so quickly if I donā€™t take in a decent amount of carbs with it. Started out taking 10mg daily but have gone down to 5mg 2x daily. Still have to watch what I eat closely in order to not go hypo though. Unfortunately I am currently in between doctors as my Doctor just left for a Womenā€™s Clinic.

(Stephen Howell) #5

Yea just working out things with me eating Keto and my kids and wife not it seems. I do want to go into this educated so I can work with my meds some as well. I do think it will be difficult for a few days just because of me being used to eating all these carb rich foods.

#6

Definitely listen to ā€˜2 Keto Dudesā€™ Podcast from start to finish DURING your journey or mix it up but listen to the intro Podcast for sure.
Welcome, youā€™ll do great!
I used to get hypoglycemic blood sugar lows and I donā€™t anymore since I do Keto.
I will have a carb and sugar day or meal now and then (please note, I am not diabetic)ā€¦and yesterday when I was on my walk I had a hypoglycemic drop like that weird low spell. And thatā€™s because I had been eating carbs and sugar the nite before.
I brought a small bag of cheese, ham and turkey on the walk.
Yep, a hypo low shaky spell started upā€¦ate the fat protine snack, and the hypoglycemic spell went away.
I guess what Iā€™m saying is that if you experiment a little bit and eat some fats when you start feeling a little bit hypoglycemic it might be helpful. Like I said Iā€™m not a diabetic and Iā€™ve only been doing this since October. Anybody else out there experience this kind of remedy?

(Doug) #7

Eating ketogenically should make your blood sugar rise a good bit less, decreasing the need for drugs. I hope you get to the place where youā€™re thinking about whether you need Metformin or not, rather than if you need to eat things to counteract the Glipizide - that would be a good first step, and likely achievable reasonably fast. Again, not a doctor and would not presume to prescribe for you. If you test your own blood sugar, you can see whatā€™s going on.

In the grand scheme of things, youā€™re not very old, and not all that much overweight (compared to many of us). Lots of people in worse shape than you have gotten off injected insulin, if they were taking it, and even off of oral medications - to the point where some of their doctors say they have reversed their diabetes. Itā€™s not truly like starting over with an untouched metabolic system, but great improvement and healthy A1C and blood sugar readings are often possible.

It was a huge change for me to realize that Type 2 diabetes isnā€™t just a one-way street, necessarily, going from bad to worse and worseā€¦

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

I totally understand about the family. Thatā€™s one aspect that I have not had to deal with. My autistic adult son is gluten free so when heā€™s with me no issues. Just cook a sweet potato with whatever I am having. But youā€™re going to be living in a house with breads and grain foods and all the other stuff that you are trying for eliminate. But itā€™s not too hard if you can avoid temptation. I waited abou 3 weeks before I purged the pantry of foods that I decided to never eat again. 7 large boxes of food for the local church food bank! Beans, pasta, canned goods, baking supplies, frozen foods, and more. I felt good giving it to the needy and getting it out of my kitchen (although I did feel a little bad about giving bad food to hungry folksā€¦:confused:). However my sonā€™s mom and her husband are starting keto after they have seen what itā€™s doing for me at 6 months. And Iā€™m pushing her to start feeding my son the same way to see if it helps with mental clarity for him! Your family might view this as extreme now, but who knows down the line? If you have some cooking skills you can do keto cooking on a day off or evening and have something to work with throughout the week. For instance a batch of pulled pork in the crock pot can be used to make all kinds of quick variable dishes. Humans are great at adapting and you will change for the better. Good luck with your new lifestyle choice.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

The Magic Pill is available on Netflix. Take a look, if you havenā€™t already. Your ex and her husband might enjoy it, too. Lots of hope for autism on keto!

(Stephen Howell) #10

One thing I still am confused about though is the amount of Fat I need to eat. I have seen it a couple different ways now. Do I actually need to eat the 65-70% of my meals in Fat or just hit my carb and Protein goals and my body fills in the remaining fat?

#11

At first it can help to eat lots of fat and not care about calories, in order to help with training your body to use fat as a fuel instead of glucose. Gradually when you get fat adapted (which can take a while but be patient) you can taper off some of the dietary fat and let your body use some of your body fat instead.

It comes down to your own needs, body, etc, and youā€™ll work it out with time. Fat is not a target you have to hit, especially if you have a lot of body fat already, but good to kickstart this way of eating by taking in lots of fat at first.

#12

And of course, itā€™s nice now being able to use fat to boost the flavor of what you do eat. So many options. Even things that arenā€™t fatty in the slightest can be amped up, e.g. cooking vegetables in bacon fat. Yum.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

The latter. Our standard advice is carbohydrate under 20 g/day, a reasonable amount of protein, and fat to satiety. Donā€™t aim for a specific target, simply replace all the calories youā€™re not eating as carbohydrate with calories from fat, since fat stimulates insulin production the absolute least of the three macronutrients. Remember, too, that a gram of fat contains over twice the calories of a gram of carbohydrate or a gram of protein, so you wonā€™t need as much. In fact, if you eat a gram of protein and a gram of fat together, you are getting 30% protein and 70% fat (approximately).

But again, itā€™s fat to satiety, not fat till itā€™s coming out your ears. Eat when youā€™re hungry, and when you stop being hungry, stop eating. Donā€™t eat again until youā€™re hungry again.

#14

Hey Stephen, Wish you the best of luck. About a year ago I was diagnosed the same, type 2 diabetes, similar numbers as yours. Thankfully I wasnā€™t put on anything as my doc said lose some weight first and lets see where you are. Iā€™m 38, so a bit older. Iā€™ve been doing Keto for 7 months, and I am no longer type 2, donā€™t even register as close to diabetic anymore. That said, listen to your doctors first of course, but this is what worked for me. Also down 64 pounds in 7 months, and close to my normal body weight according to doctors.

(Stephen Howell) #15

I am loving these forums already. So many helpful people minus alot of the drama you see on other forums. This forum is going to help my journey so much. Thank you all for your replies

(Jennibc) #16

I totally agree about the collegiality of this particular forum. Itā€™s why I come back just about daily and read the latest posts. My hypothesis with regard to it being drama free is that just about everyone on here is on an anti-inflammatory diet and inflammation is what causes people to become bat-shit crazy. I had a mood disorder from the time I was a very small child to the time I was in my early 40s. It resolved itself when I cut grain out of my diet. I have been free of it for over 8 years now and donā€™t need medication. I quit sugar last spring (effectively putting me on Keto diet without my knowing what a Keto diet was!) and my life long ADD disappeared. I am pretty sure most if not all ā€˜mental healthā€™ difficulties are diet related.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

Drama-free? What are you, NUTS? Does this place really seem drama-free to you? Iā€™d like to see what your house is like, everyone there must be crazy. OMG, how . . . .

[serious announcer voice]We now return you to our regularly scheduled posting, already in progress.[/serious announcer voice] :grin::grin::grin::grin:

(Jennibc) #18

Okay, let me modify the statement to ā€œRELATIVELY drama free for an internet boardā€. Hereā€™s the thing, there are disagreements here for sure, but disagreeing does not equal drama. In my not so humble opinion, ā€˜dramaā€™ is name calling and openly disparaging other posters and people making grand announcements about their intentions to leave an internet community. Iā€™ve only been on here for maybe six months (after a friend told me it sounded like I was on a keto diet and I googled keto and found the forums) so perhaps the moderators have just been kick ass in keeping the peace the past six months and I have missed some things. I did witness the silliness of someone who was trolling a few weeks back but thatā€™s the only thing approaching drama Iā€™ve witnessed here.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

Well, thatā€™s good to know. I must lead a sheltered Internet life (it probably helps that I donā€™t read the comments on YouTube), because this is enough excitement for me. But I love the fact that you consider this a low-drama venue. We must be doing something right! :bacon:

Sorry for letting my sense of humor run away with me. (Well, not really, lol!) :grinning::grinning::grinning:

(Scott) #20

So far I have only seen one thread get shut down by the mods here. On MFP it was a two or three times a week event on any tread that had the word keto in the title. If you brought up any possibility of health benefits it was like touching the third rail becauseā€¦wait for itā€¦all the benefits are because you lost weight and you donā€™t need keto to do that.