Newly diagnosed type 2

[Smerdon74]

Hi I have recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I am overweight and very unfit due to Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis. The nurse wants to treat it with diet but the truth is as much as I know I need to lose weight and get fit for so many reasons to help myself; I can't get passed 2 days I just need to feel unrestricted! any guidance is appreciated.

[Gambit62]

is it the thought of exercise that is the problem - or diet or both?

have you spoken to a physiotherapist who might be able to suggest some exercises that are appropriate to your condition.

unfortunately you do need some will power and the treatment with diet is about potentially reversing the diabetes - which can happen with type 2 - this would be the best thing to aim for as diabetes itself has a lot of very unpleasant outcomes - it affects the cardio-vascular system, causes blindness, reduces kidney function, causes neuropathy and can lead to amputations.

[Smerdon74 in reply to Gambit62]

Thank you

[Jay66]

I have also recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I turned down the Metformin and devised my own variation of the Blood Sugar Diet. After 3 months my diabetes was in remission and my bloods are normal. I also have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) which causes constant joint pain and means I am also very unfit.

I am assuming your past diets have been either low calorie or Atkins style extreme no carb? I have never succeeded before with either type. My answer is to 1. get your family and friends on board and 2. make your own diet based on low (not no) carb, highish fat, food that you like. Replace all bread with Burgen Soya and Linseed (burgenbread.com/breads/soya... not the Gluten free ones) - available in most supermarkets, and with Josephs pita bread josephsbakery.com/shop/flax... - I buy it in bulk online and freeze it. Replace potato with home made cauliflower cheese (or leeks and cheese or other veg and cheese). Replace rice and pasta with piles of stir fried veg (buy frozen packs of ready prepped) and a Josephs wrap. Double the amount of meat and fish that you eat. Don't worry too much about dairy - choose low fat cream or spreadable cheese options and keep hard cheese to no more than 4 oz per day. The protein and fat will keep your appetite fooled and prevent body resistance.

I have lots of recipes and meals which are incredibly filling (my OH, a big steak and chips man, loves them) but I lost weight and have fixed my diabetes on it: you just need to commit to the diet by not dining out for a couple of weeks until you get used to it and stock up the fridge and freezer with snacks for when you are peckish. Use the free My Fitness Pal initially to monitor your daily carb/sugar intake - start at under 40g a day and then you can look at a lifetime maintenance diet of under 60g per day. The average carb intake for a non-diabetic my size is 120g per day. You can drink small amounts of wine (yay!): 100ml of wine is only 2g of carbs.

The problem with most diets is that restricting calories is something the body fights. Very few people have the kind of iron will-power to achieve permanent weight loss through low calorie dieting, plus what happens when the dieting hits a snag such as a medical health crisis - you need the calories to keep fighting. Low carb, on the other hand, is more filling and satisfying due to the amounts you can eat, and the body doesn't feel it is being deprived so feels a lot less mutinous about it. PS gluten-free is usually still high in carbs.

[Smerdon74 in reply to Jay66]

I have coeliac disease hence the GF bit but I can live without bread 😉

[Jay66 in reply to Smerdon74]

I didn't spot that bit. There is a big crossover between coeliacs and hEDS - see paper ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/273... so I may be joining you!

My unscientific feeling is that some people (me) are just not suited to a starch or grain-based lifestyle, and it is 'poisoning' our bodies. It would not be that surprising given that agriculture has only been around 12 thousand years.

My family's favourite meal is masses of shredded iceberg lettuce, cucumber, a few grapes, grated parmesan or other strong cheese, a chopped pepperami each, Caesar salad dressing or mayo and 2 breasts per person of cubed chicken fried in oil and Nandos peri peri hot sauce. It is delicious - you can heap it up on a large dinner plate and still lose weight.

[Jay66 in reply to Jay66]

PS exercise will not lose your weight or do anything about the diabetes in the short term. If the thought of both is the problem, ditch the exercise for now and focus on diet - as you lose weight you will naturally become more mobile.

[happydodderer]

Hi Smerdon 74. I think the reason for your problems with rheumatoid and osteoarthritis as well as your recently diagnosed diabetes could well be that you have moved away from the way our bodies were designed to be nourished and onto an unnatural diet. You are giving your body difficult things to assimilate which it was never designed to encounter.

For a little while at least, try as much natural food as possible i.e. fresh live food such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Vary them as much as you can. You could well be amazed at how well you feel after just a few weeks.

Forget "wonder diets" of this, that and the other. Your body is the result of natural evolution. Simply feed it in the way it evolved to be nourished - and that is certainly not by items in tins, pre-packed meals, bottles or sachets etc.

The closer you can stick to nature the healthier you will be.