Am I An Alien ?

[Cam]

The general consensus of opinion seems to be that, after a couple of weeks of low carbing, ones various numbers should start to improve.

Before being told officially on 23/12/09 that I was diabetic, I started low carbing.

At first my ketostix registered 4mmol and have slowly reduced to 0 mmol.

I started at no more than 20g carbs per day.
Generally it's been, Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sardines/Tuna and small green salad for lunch. 6-8oz pork/chicken/steak in some sort of cream sauce, broccoli and cauliflower for dinner. Chunk of cheese with lunch and dinner.

Over the last four days have been virtually 0 carbs. Except for 1 handful of brazil nuts on Tuesday and yesterday 1 tablespoon of cauliflower mash, everything else has meat, eggs, dairy and fried in Ghee or butter.

Over the last 10 days, my average BG has been 7.7. (5.6 (once) - 10.4 [pity, I liked that butchers sausage]) High 8s in the morning tending to mid 6s at 6pm.

Not only have I not lost weight, I seem to have put on 1 lbs.

Recent 24 hours urine test was OK.

In view of the lack of positive results thus far, I ask you, is it likely that I'm an alien?


Actually, I'm wondering whether it might be the Amlodipine I'm taking for the BP (as well as Lisinopril) that might be masking/delaying what might otherwise have been the anticipated improvements.

Now to the question. I'm to see my doctor in a couple of days.

She didn't seem all that enthusiastic about me either going low carb or doing any BG testing. She refused to prescribe strips for me.

I can easily ask her to swap the Amlodipine for something else in the hope that it may help the weight issue.

The other thing I thought might help overall, was to suggest being prescribed Metformin. Is this a reasonable idea and if so, how would you suggest I go about making the suggestion? Or should I just wait another three months until another HgBA1c test is done and see if she makes the suggestion herself (or indeed, with the above figures, is she likely to).

[Mitch]

Hi Cam

I am surprised that on such a small amount of carbs your getting 0 mmol on the keto stixs.I run a very low carb diet for the first few months of low carbing and was showing plus 1 or more most of the time. You BG numbers are pretty good at this stage, so I would stick with what you are doing. What's your weight situation? how much do you need to lose, and what was your HbA1c at diagnosis and do you have any other health issues that could effect BG numbers? I don't think the BP drugs will make a big difference to BG numbers. Metformin is a well proven and safe drug. It can reduce an HbA1c by 1.5% and has proven heart and other benefits. Some people have a bit of gut trouble in the early days and if this is a persistent problem a slow release and more gentle option is available. Stick with it mate, you will get there, this ain't no race.

All the best, Mitch

[Cam]

My Dr forgot to do an initial HgBA1c originally so the bloods were only taken at the last visit.

The GTT test come in at fasting/+2 hours of 7.8/12.0. So, despite cutting back to 0 carbs, I have not noticed an improvement which is why I'm so curious.

Weight. At diagnosis, I was 15st 3lbs, although I had lost 1st in the preceeding 3 or 4 months. The current target is 12st 5lbs (Loss of 41lbs - top of the range for 5' 9"). Here again I'm curious because I tried Atkins a few years ago and the weight just dropped off. Now I did make a mistake last time round I took "20g of carbs" to be "by weight". Even a rabbit couldn't live on half a floret of broccoli It was remembering this that made me go 0 carbs these last few days. Sadly, I put all the weight back on again when I quit smoking 5 years ago.

I'm not aware of any others issues although I'm awaiting results of a few ultrasound scans.

Oh well, I'll leave any discussions with the Dr this time around and see how things pan out. I would hate to have to change. She always has a smile on her face.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Mitch]

Hi Cam

Let me give this some thought and I will come back to you soon.

Mitch

[Lilacarmadillo]

Hi Cam

I know when I was prescribed Amlodipine a year ago that it made my legs swell to uncomfortable proportions and I felt like I was truly on the way out. Maybe your weight gain is fluid rather than anything else as this is definitely a side effect of this drug. Mine went straight back to the chemist!

Lynn

[Dillinger]

Hi Cam,

Could you be eating/drinking carbs without knowing about it? They are persistent little buggers; and 'carb creep' is very common. Are you having milk in your tea/coffee for instance? Are you drinking beer/lager? Are there any other areas where they could be coming into your diet without you thinking about it?

All the best

Dillinger

[Cam]

Hi Cam,
Could you be eating/drinking carbs without knowing about it? They are persistent little buggers; and 'carb creep' is very common. Are you having milk in your tea/coffee for instance? Are you drinking beer/lager? Are there any other areas where they could be coming into your diet without you thinking about it?

No, I'm a right paragon of bl**dy virtue at the moment.

To update,

My weight went up to 217lbs.

I then put together the spreadsheet and found a set of nutritional figures to give a 1lbs loss per week. I design my daily intake using the spreadsheet.

Since the start of February, my target calories have been 2100 calories per day, but I've been averaging circa 1850 from 8.8 nett grams of carbs, 140g of fat and 130g of protein.

As of this morning the weight was 211.4. A small but welcome change.

The BG figures are slowly getting better averaging about 6.5mmol per day which seems to put me on track for an HbA1c in the mid high 5's. If that proves to be correct, I'll be more than happy. I'm just a little surprised that its taking such a low level of carbs. to achieve it, but hey, that's still an awful lot of Curly Kale. Oh, and the brain seems to be functioning better than ever.

It is going to make for some interesting conversation when I see the medical team a couple of weeks from now. (I wonder if they've found the lost hba1c test results by now?)

[Dillinger]

Ah, in that case I think it's because you are an alien.

[Cam]

Update.

Bloods taken 23rd March.

As from 1st Feb, with the aid of the spreadsheet and testing, things have been changing slowly.

Firstly... oy, you lot on the sofa, shove up a bit... hba1c... 5.8.

Trigs down from 3.5 to 2.0
LDL up from 2.0 to 4.1 - but I'm going to assume its mainly big fluffy LDL.
HDL 1.0 no change.

That said, it's come at the expense of sticking to a regime averaging less than nett 10g of carbs per day. Much more than that and I wouldn't be able to keep the postprandial BG values below 7.7. The carbs that I do eat come from very low carb vegetables and, just through sheer volume, what I can get on my plate keep the total count very low.
Also, limiting myself to 2100 calories per day has seen the weight start dropping at the rate of 1lb per week.

I saw the DN and Dr today. I was somewhat surprised.

The DN asked how the diet was going and what I had had for breakfast.
"You don't want to know" I replied.
DN. "Oh that's right, you're on a high protein diet. Well what did you have?".
Me "Three scrambled eggs"
DN "Hmph. Oil, Butter or what?"
Me "Butter".

Wait for it here comes the lecture.....

... Hardly a word. Merely a "Keep up the good work. We'll just keep an eye on the Cholesterol and Liver function".

Surprised, I asked "What, no Metformin, no statins", to which she replied "Not with those figures".

Dr. says that with an hba1c of 5.8, I either am or soon will be non-diabetic. Oh dear

So, either they've already washed their hands of this low-carb nutter or they are slightly more progressive than others. Probably the former, but time will tell.

[Marmot]

Fantastic news Cam! So pleased for you, good news on the cholesterol front too! I had the same reaction re. cholesterol too.
Marmot