Hi,
I'm new here. I'm pretty discouraged, so I hope someone here can help me. I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in August 2003. My mom and grandma both have T2 and I had gestational diabetes 3 years ago. So I know I have to make changes if I'm going to have a shot at avoiding T2. Hopefully, it's not already too late. I know some people still get it even if they make the recommended changes.

Schwarzbein:
My PA recommended The Schwarzbein Principle back in August. I followed that for a couple months and it helped control my blood sugars, although it only helped a little with my fasting glucose numbers. It didn't help me lose weight though (have about 40-45 lbs to lose).

Bernstein:
So then I read Dr. Bernstein's book and he convinced me that low carbing was the way to go for long term health and weight loss. I followed his advice for a few weeks with no results and decided that maybe I needed to lower my carbs more. So I read and followed Atkins.

Atkins:
On induction, I lost a couple of pounds right away, water weight I'm sure, and then didn't lose anything for several weeks (on the scale or in my measurements). I got so desparate that I tried the Fat Fast that Dr. Akins mentioned in his book. That finally did something. I lost 4 lbs in 4 days and it showed in my clothes, so I believe it was fat loss. Plus, the ketostix finally showed that something was happening. But that was it and after about a week, I was sick of the foods (very limited selection) and I stopped losing, so I went back to induction. Ketostix still showed ketones, but I haven't lost since then and that was about a month ago. I know the ketostix can show ketones from the food your eating and not necessarily from burning existing fat stores. So ketostix are not very helpful to me now.

Am I so IR that I can't lose even on induction? Many days I was eating as low as 13 or 15 grams of carbs. My fasting numbers are usually in the 90s. I noticed when I did the Fat Fast, that my fasting BG dropped to the 70s. So I'm wondering if I'm only going to lose weight when I get my fasting blood sugars down from the 90s to the 70s. ??

I've been trying to exercise for a while, but haven't been able to get with it until this week. I've heard of a lot of people who lose without exercising, but I'm wondering if, because of my IR, maybe I don't have a choice. I don't mind making exercise more of a priority if that's what I need to do.

I'm also wondering if the irratic sleep I've had over the last month has kept me from losing. ?? I'm going to try to get regular sleep for the next few weeks and see if it makes a difference. I've noticed that my fasting blood sugars are higher when I don't get regular sleep. Anyone notice that not enough sleep keeps them from losing?

I also don't mind how slow the fat loss is, because I'm on this way of eating for life and I enjoy the food. So I'm not in a hurry, but I do need to see SOME progress even if it's very slow.

Any ideas? I'm feeling pretty discouraged right now.

Thanks,
Mindy