MyWeightLossForLife.com

Archive for the ‘diabetes’ Category

I enjoy reading other people’s weight loss stories, tips and challenges. I thought you might enjoy some of these people’s blogs as well.

I think that it can be helpful to watch someone else’s weight loss struggles and successes. Often, I feel that I’m the only person who’s ever gone through it, even though I know that’s ridiculous. It helps to “watch” others work on it too. I hope that some of these blogs are inspirational for you as well.

John is Fit

Losing it, Getting fit 

Fitness for Busy Moms

Plus Size Model Loses Weight

Loving Life with Diabetes

Good for You

Maybe you’re trying to lose weight or even manage your blood sugar. For whatever reason, you’ve decided to go low carb. Where do you begin?

Get rid of the high carb foods.

Some foods are much higher in carbs, and much harder on your blood sugar, than others. These foods will need to go, and you’ll replace them with lower carb versions.

• Sugar, honey, syrup, etc. These are absolute no-no’s on a low carb diet. You’ll need to substitute sweeteners like splenda, sugar alcohols, sugar free syrups, etc.
• White flour and foods made with it. Think those sugar-free cookies are okay? Think again. They are still probably loaded in carbs because they’re made with white flour. Same goes for cake mixes, breads, etc. Substitute foods made with whole grain flours.
• White flour pasta. This one deserves its own category. Whole grain pasta has less impact on your blood sugar and tastes good too.
• Potatoes. The starch in potatoes is bad for your blood sugar. Same goes for sweet potatoes. Try using other vegetables instead of potatoes.

After replacing the major culprits, you still have some work to do. Some foods that are perfectly acceptable will impact your blood sugar more than others. You’ll need to read labels and experiment, and track what you eat and what effect it has.

Reading Labels

1. Check the serving size first. A food may look low carb because the nutrition information is calculated for an absurdly small serving size.
2. Calculate the net carbs. Total carbs MINUS fiber content MINUS sugar alcohol content. For example, let’s say a slice of bread has 15 grams carbs and 5 grams fiber. Net carbs would be 10 grams.
3. Know the glycemic impact of the food. Equal amounts of carbs from different kinds of foods can have different effects on your blood sugar. Use a site like this to choose foods lower on the glycemic scale.

Track and Test

Keep track of what you eat and when. I know it can be inconvenient, but it’s not something you’ll have to do forever. Your goal is to learn what foods you tolerate well and which ones have too much of a negative impact on your blood sugar. Often it’s not even the individual foods but the blood sugar impact of the entire meal that you have to be concerned about.

1. Test your blood sugar before each meal and two hours after.
2. Note what you ate, how much, and how your blood sugar did after the meal.
3. Over time, you’ll learn which foods you tolerate best.

Mix high carb foods into your low carb meals

If you want something relatively high carb, you may be better off eating it with a meal than alone. The protein and fat of the meal can mitigate the effect of carbs.

Here’s an example, my husband is able to tolerate potato salad pretty well, even though he’s diabetic. That’s probably because the potatoes (high carb) are mixed with eggs and mayonnaise. The protein and fat slows his digestion, and slows the effects the carbs have on his blood sugar. If he ate the same amount of potatoes as french fries or as a baked potato, he’d likely see a different effect.

Do your research

Read about nutrition and low carb diets. Talk to your doctor about the diet you’re following. Take your food journal to a nutritionist. Changing to a low carb lifestyle isn’t going to happen overnight, but you can make changes that will benefit your health.

For more information on low carb diets, see this site.

You may have heard that bariatric surgery is being touted as a cure for type 2 diabetes. If you’re diabetic, or know someone who is, you may be taking a harder look at the surgery and whether you should have it.

As many of you already know, my husband is a type 2 diabetic. We’re not considering surgery for him. His doctor hasn’t brought it up as a possibility, but we’re both against surgery unless it’s a last resort. Neither of us are health professionals, but we do have some specific reasons for our decision.

First, I think you have to be careful of the media. Stories tend to get exaggerated, and this may be no exception. Anyway, we all know not to get our health advice from the media (including blogs!) anyway, right?

Second, remember that the REAL benefit isn’t the surgery, it’s the side effect of weight loss. So, it stands to reason that if you can lose weight without the surgery, you get the benefits without the surgery risk. I know… sometimes that’s a lot easier said than done.

I have a prejudice against jumping to surgery. My preference is to try the least invasive, drastic approach first. Surgery is risky (obviously), so it’s something to be considered carefully. Even more of a concern is the fact that doctors still aren’t sure of the long term risks of bariatric surgery.

If you’re considering it, I’d suggest you talk to more than one doctor. Find out what ALL your options are and what the risks are. Nothing is a silver bullet, and decisions like this have to be made carefully. You’ll be asked to make huge lifestyle changes before and after the surgery, so ask yourself if you should try to make those types of changes in order to AVOID the surgery first.

Finally, be sure you find a doctor who is experienced in the surgery. Ask how many your doctor has done and his track record. This isn’t a time to be shy about asking questions.

Here are some links for further reading.

Surgery may cure Diabetes

Bariatric Surgery Risks

and more Bariatric Surgery Risks

Preparation for Weight Loss Surgery 

What to Expect from Bariatric Surgery

Long Term Success Tips

If you’re diabetic, then your A1C is one of the most important tests you can take, and it’s one you’ll need to pass.

This article from WebMD talks about how diabetes care has improved in the last years. If you’re diabetic, then your goal should be to get (and keep) your A1C below 7.

What is an A1C?

The A1C is a measure of your blood sugar over the last two or three months. It’s beneficial because it reflects your overall blood sugar control while your daily blood sugar tests reflect your immediate control. So, while your daily tests may vary a bit due to diet, exercise, illness, etc., your A1C is a better indicator of your blood sugar control in general.

What’s “normal”?

For a diabetic, an A1C of under 7 percent is considered good control. However, that isn’t really normal. A normal blood sugar is between 70 and 120, and that translates to an A1C of roughly 5-6 percent.

Estimate your A1C

If you’re diabetic, you should be testing your blood sugar daily (several times a day) anyway. Most meters will keep at least a couple week’s worth of readings, if not more. An easy way to “guesstimate” your A1C is to look at your average blood sugar and use a conversion tool to see what the A1C would be. This chart will help.

So, a 7 on the A1C would equate to something around a 170 blood sugar. That’s well above normal, as you can see.

For example, I’m not diabetic, and my blood sugar varies from about 80 to about 110. So, my A1C would vary somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5.

What you should do?

Talk to your doctor and find out what your goal A1C should be. The closer you can get your blood sugar to normal, the less the risk of diabetes complications.

I’m amazed at how much sugar is in a “normal” diet.

Since my husband was diagnosed with diabetes last summer, we’ve paid a lot more attention to our sugar consumption. Of course, we pay attention to sweets because candies, cookies, etc. are pretty much off limits for a diabetic. However, milk is relatively high in sugar (lactose) and therefore high in carbs. We’ve switched to a brand of milk called Calorie Countdown, which is lower in carbs but higher in price!

Cereals are also tough to buy; it’s not just the carbs (though most cereals are VERY high in carbs), but many also have quite a lot of sugar. One that we’ve had success with is the Special K Protein cereal. It tastes like a cross between regular special K and bran flakes, and it’s the cereal with the lowest carb count that we’ve been able to find.

Splenda is an obvious substitution for sugar, and it’s easy to buy sugar-free syrups for pancakes and flavorings. If your store doesn’t have a good variety, then try an online store like netrition. You can also buy sugar free honey (well… fake honey), and it’s available at our Wal-Mart.

Unfortunately, a lot of packaged foods have added sugar, so we’ve learned to read our nutrition labels before buying anything new. Also, there are often significant carb count differences between brands for similar foods. If you’re diabetic, pre-diabetic, or just interested in cutting your sugar consumption, then reading your food labels is a MUST.

We use the approach advocated by the Atkins and South Beach diets. First, you’ll look at your total carb count. Then, you can subtract any fiber in the food AND subtract any sugar alcohols. Whatever is left is your “real” carb count, the number of carbs that are likely to impact your blood sugar. So… sugar free candies often have very few carbs per serving because they’re primarily sugar alcohols. High fiber foods are also lower in carbs because they’re harder to digest, so carbs take longer to get into your system.

Finally, we’ve had to pay close attention to serving sizes. A serving with 10g of carbs is completely doable, unless you inadvertently eat three servings worth! Cereal is a big one on this list; often we just pour a bowl of cereal, which can amount to twice the normal serving size. Snack foods are another one to pay close attention to.

What do you do to reduce sugars (and carbs) in your diet? Any tips or tricks you’d like to share?

My husband had an appointment with an eye specialist because of his diabetes. Many diabetics have something called Diabetic Retinopathy. After you’ve had high blood sugar for some time, you can experience eye changes, including leaking blood vessels and new blood vessel growth, that can be big trouble for your eyes.

Fortunately, doctors can now do surgery and prevent vision loss, but without it, diabetes can still lead to blindness. We’re lucky; my husband doesn’t need surgery because his diabetes was caught before his eyes progressed to that point.

When we were talking with his doctor, we learned something interesting. After being diagnosed with diabetes and (presumably) getting your blood sugar near normal ranges, you can expect your eyes to worsen for the next nine months.

Yes, that’s what his retinal specialist told us. For nine months after the blood sugar starts coming down, the eyes tend to get worse. After that, you see drastic improvements in the eye with continued blood sugar control. I wish we had known that up front; it would have saved a week of worry while waiting for the appointment with the specialist. He told us that it’s not really known why that’s so, but that it does tend to work that way.

He also emphasized that it’s very important to get blood sugar down into a normal range and keep it consistently there. That’s the only thing that will help your eyes over the long term.

We learned some other good bits of information.

1. You don’t have to have any vision changes to have diabetic retinopathy.
2. You can have diabetes and have none of the usual symptoms.
3. Routine blood work can miss diabetes. Diabetes is often undiagnosed for years, and that’s years that the disease can damage your eyes, kidneys and other organs!

Talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested, even if you have no symptoms or family history. If you DO have symptoms or a family history, you need to get tested sooner rather than later!
If you have a real aversion to drinking the glucose for the fasting test, ask your doctor to do an A1C instead. You just give some blood, and you don’t even have to fast or drink anything! You can’t tell me that’s not easy enough to do.

If you’re diabetic, then your doctor has probably done an A1C test (or a few of them) and discusses those with you. The A1C can measure your blood glucose over the last 120 days (approximately).

While taking your blood sugar several times a day gives you a good idea of your daily control, the A1C gives you a picture of your overall blood glucose control. Both are important in being able to tell if you’re making the progress that you should.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this summer. We’re learning another benefit of the A1C: proof that you’re doing what your doctor recommends! I suppose doctors get a bit jaded; they’re accustomed to people saying they’re doing the right things and then learning that they’re not. Often, I imagine many people just don’t know what the right things are! My husband gets “lectured” often by his doctors, even though he’s made drastic changes. I know it’s frustrating for him to do the right things and still be treated as if he isn’t. His A1C was MUCH better this time, and his doctor is thrilled!

So, what’s a good A1C?  First off, a normal A1C is around 5 or so. Diabetic Technologies I cite below says that a 4.3 to 5.5 is a normal A1C for a non-diabetic.

The ADA recommends that diabetics stay under 7. However, you can see that 7 is still much higher than the normal range. In fact, a 7 A1C means your average blood sugar has been around 145-150. That’s not good! Some doctors, my husband’s included, work to get blood sugar, and the A1C back to the normal range. So, the ultimate goal is an A1c of 5-6.

Remember, the better your blood sugar control, the fewer diabetes complications you’re likely to have. If you haven’t had an A1C in a while, go ahead and schedule one. It’s a simple blood test, and you’ll have your results in a couple days.

Read More

ADA has a good explanation of what it is, but not much discussion about what constitutes a “good” score.

Wikipedia shows a chart that correlates A1C to average blood sugar. They also give a good explanation of what the A1C is.

Diabetes Technologies discusses what constitutes “normal” A1C levels.

The Washington Post has an interesting article on diabetes and weight loss.

The gist of the article is that aerobic and resistance training combined is better than doing either aerobic or resistance training alone. In the article, participants did one or the other for 45 minutes, three times a week OR… they did both, each for 45 minutes, three days a week.

Yes, you read that right. The participants who got better results did twice the exercise as the others. It’s not surprising that they got better blood sugar reductions!

What I’d still like to know is whether it’s the combination of aerobic and resistance training that worked, or simply the doubling of exercise time. If they had simply walked twice as long, would that have had the same result?

What is clear, for diabetics and those who might be pre-diabetic is this: Exercise improves blood sugar. So, if you’re diabetic or pre-diabetic, talk to your doctor about what exercise is right for you. Start small, and work your way up gradually.

We’ve been having trouble find a lot of low-carb foods locally, so we’ve started ordering online. If you haven’t already found them, Netrition is a great place to find unusual foods that may be tough to find where you live. Although we buy low-carb foods, they offer a wide range of products.

Even better, they ship quickly and charge only 4.95, regardless of your order size.

I’ve made these twice, with great success. I can’t even tell they’re low-carb.

Beat two eggs in a mixing bowl with three tablespoons of oil and 1 1/2 cups cream thinned with water. I like to do mine about half cream and half water, until it’s the consistency of whole milk. Add carb quick to that until it’s the thickness of pancake batter. If you want to add flavoring (vanilla or almond would be good), now is the time.

Fry pancakes in a hot, greased skillet. I wouldn’t recommend skipping the oil; these tend to stick a bit. When they’re golden brown, poke the center to make sure they’re done. Serve with butter and syrup. We like Walden Farms.

These pancakes come out nice and fluffy, just like my regular ones. Enjoy!