As the title says, I’m not accepting my recent Type 2 diagnosis that doc gave me back in September. Sure, it’s taken me a few weeks to figure out that I don’t have to live this way, and that I need to get my rear in gear to bear this. But today is a new day, and I’m feeling very motivated!
The doc wanted to prescribe me some new drugs that contained metformin and something else, something that can cause all kinds of side effects with the male genitalia. I said “No, thanks!” I ate my way into this condition, I can eat my way out of it.
So, here we are, brainstorming ways to start kicking the disease in the rear! My wife and I started working out again mid last week, mostly been easing into weights. I ultimately will transition into a program that combines weight lifting, cardio, and the sauna.
As to diet, I’m literally drinking some coffee with butter and collagen in it… very tasty. I’ll mostly be sticking to keto carnivore 75% of the time, and will probably just embrace keto on the weekends as my girls like all kinds of foods that are still keto worthy, like kraut and pickles, etc.
I conducted a scan at my gym on Nov. 19, says pretty much I’d expect for being so out of shape and sedentary for the better part of the pandemic: 29.5% bodyfat, 62 lbs of fat, 142.8 lbs of lean muscle. At 41 years of age, this puts me at high risk factors across the board.
Starting weight today is 215.6 lbs.
What’s worse, is that I woke up yesterday morning with a blood sugar reading of 295 after stuffing my face in despair the night prior.
Yes! here goes! Many (most?) of us started out in similar despair. You are in for the ride of your life… or more accurately, the ride FOR your life. Welcome. There is a large cheering section rooting for you.
You got this.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#3
First off, welcome to the Ketogenic Forums!
Be aware that a number of studies have shown that exercise has a minimal effect on weight loss. It has many other beneficial effects, however, so don’t let that stop you.
The key to a ketogenic diet is what we eat, not how much. In fact, it tends to work better if we don’t restrict calories. So don’t cut your food intake, cut your carb intake, and the fat loss will take care of itself.
How much you will need to cut your carb intake will depend on how insulin resistant you are. The more resistant, the less carbohydrate you can safely eat, since it is the carbohydrate we eat that is the primary driver of our insulin level. You want to keep your insulin below 25 μU/mL, because above that level, insulin puts the body in fat-storage mode. Below that level, the liver is free to manufacture ketone bodies, and cells are free to metabolise fatty acids instead of glucose.
We recommend a carb limit of 20 g/day, because that works for most people, though those who are exceptionally insulin-resistant may need to eat even less. We also recommend getting a goodly amount of protein, somewhere in the range of 1.0-2.0 g of protein per kg of lean body mass per day. The rest of your food should be enough fat to satisfy your hunger (and we also find that saturated and mono-unsaturated fats are healthier than polyunsaturates, so we advise staying away from the industrial seed oils—cottonseed, soy, corn, safflower, and so forth).
You will enter ketosis as soon as your serum glucose drops, but there is a period of fat-adaptation or keto-adaptation, lasting generally from six to eight weeks, during which your skeletal muscles will be limping along on ketone bodies until they reactivate the metabolic pathways that deal with fatty-acid metabolism. During that adaptation period, your performance will suffer, so we recommend gentle exercise until the muscles re-adapt to metabolising fatty acids as their primary fuel. Endurance is the first to return; explosive power takes a bit longer. As your muscles adapt, you will find yourself gradually returning to your previous level of performance, or perhaps a bit better.
Remember that it took years to damage yourself, so healing won’t happen overnight. However, many people have reversed Type II diabetes on a well-formulated ketogenic diet, so your chances are good.
We do advise eating real food as much as possible, and avoiding all processed foods, even those labelled “keto.” If you need to use artificial sweeteners to help you cut out sugar and carbs, then do so, but you will be better off in the long run by eliminating the artificial sweeteners eventually. A well-formulated diet should provide all necessary nutrients without supplementation, but some people may still need certain vitamins and/or minerals. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#4
I forgot to mention that if you have blood work done, numbers will usually look wonky until you’ve been eating a ketogenic diet for at least six months. At that point, if certain numbers still don’t look good, we can help you put them in proper perspective.
My husband keeps his BS under control by eating low carb and walking for 20-30 mins. an hr. and a half after each meal (he does some yoga and aerobic exercise when it is too nasty to walk outside)… He didn’t want anything to do with the meds either. But he does realize this is his new way of living.
Welcome and good luck on your journey. There are many success stories here of folks who reversed their T2 diabetes with diet alone… to the astonishment of their doctors.
I was boarderline pre-diabetic before starting keto 5 years ago - now my a1c is well into the normal range. I came for the weight loss, but stayed for the health benefits.
You can absolutely eat your way out of it, but there’s nothing wrong with Metformin, it’s actually pretty beneficially to many, including speeding up you eating yourself out, and has show enough promise otherwise that it’s being attempted for a few years now to cross market it as a longevity/anti-aging drug. I’m pretty up on a lot of things as an anti-aging and biohacker, but “all kinds of side effects with the male genitalia”? What the hell was that “something else”? Not many things could do that! Can’t drop a cliffhanger like that and not finish the story!
It’s literally as simply as working out and keeping the sugars down. Don’t give too much credit to the BF% numbers, assuming that was an InBody scan, they’re horribly wrong most of the time and almost always go high. The weight lifting will be your best friend, nothing sucks up glucose better than muscle!
I assume you already have a blood glucose monitor. Also get a blood ketone monitor. Consistent production of ketones tells you exactly how well you are converting your metabolism. I also recommend Dr. Annette Bosworth’s book “KetoContinuum”. I have yet to find her to be wrong as I pursue lower glucose numbers and lower weight. Down fifty pounds, and glucose most days is in the “non-pre-diabetic” range. Just had blood work done and waiting for results. Particularly interested in seeing how A1C has changed.
Just wanted to provide an update as I lost track of time for a bit! So, I lollygagged for most of December and didn’t start actually getting down to business mid January, which is when I finally said “Enough is enough!” and signed up for a 5k trail run two days before the event. The trail run was on January 15, and it sucked, I hit the first mile “hard” at a 10 minute per male pace, and then walked the remainder of the course. I finished in a time of 39 minutes and some change, and was immediately in love with running again!
Since then, I have been following a keto diet and running several times a week. Now, I had to reduce my running volume after the race for a week as I was completely untrained, but now I’m back up to 3 mile runs and it feels great.
And the results are speaking for themselves as my fasting levels are ranging between 110 – 130, which is way better than 230+ a few months ago. And post prandial are even better, ranging from 105 – 125. And did I mention I’d down 8.5 lbs???
All in all, I feel great and can’t wait to see how this impacts my next physical in March. Thanks for the encouragement y’all!
Dr. Jason Fung has written a number of great books, including The Diabetes Code. His program uses Keto and fasting protocols. From 16:8 to 3-day fasts. The main reason for fasting is so the body burns through its glucose and then the body starts/learns to burn fat as a fuel source. His views on exercise are interesting. Take walking as an example, for some their blood lactate level is above 2 even with a low heart rate. This means that even at low intensity their bodies are burning sugar not fat. He does not recommend high intensity for this reason until blood sugars have normalized. IF helps with this. If the amounts of weight are large he recommends longer fasts. Once blood sugars have normalized IF 2-3 per week. He personally does not IF but regularly skips eating breakfast as he is very busy and often forgets to eat.
You cannot do keto/carnivore 75% of the time and expect great results. If weight loss is the goal, coffee does break the fast. Even black coffee can for some individuals.
Exercise and sauna after work is great and will help you sleep exponentially (IMHO).
