Wow! I hit the jack pot with you guys (& girls). I'm just receiving a wealth of information. I'm encouraged by what I am hearing. I'm know that I can beat this thing.
Can anybody here tell me about peanuts. I know they are low GI, but I notice my BG goes up when I eat them. I love peanuts, especially when I don't have time to cook. I ate maybe 30 peanuts and saw 15 mg spike.

Hi Rob,

I know that you have been doing a lot of intense exercise. I'm wondering do you recall whether the contined deterioration of your control happened to coincide with the increasing intensity of your Escalating Density Training?

I'm also curious, what reason did your doctor give you for his opposition to glucose monitoring?

Larry

Hi,

I agree with the thrust of Cajunboy's response regarding improved metabolism, and disagree with nonegiven if he is referring to someone who is overweight. However, I'd like to add just one qualifier to Cajunboy's response. Carb tolerance can improve with larger body size if the increase in body weight is due to an increase in lean body mass, not an increase in adipose tissue. In other words, if a person gains total body weight while maintaining or reducing Body Fat percentage, this can improve glucose control and carb tolerance.

I realize that most folks here are trying to lose weight. However, for thin diabetics gaining weight while maintaining or lowering Body Fat percentage can be a good strategy as long as the increase in net caloric intake is just slightly above maintenance level.

I should also point out that ideally it should also be the goal of overweight folks, especially diabetics, to increase their lean body weight while decreasing Body Fat percentage, even if their primary goal is to "lose weight".

Larry

Thanks for clearing that up. I had been wondering if developing my muscles would help me in my goal to improve my blood sugar level. I am sure my muscle to fat ratio is pretty poor.

Hi,

Your welcome.

The reason for this gets back to the basis of Cajunboy's response. Muscle tissue is metabolically more active than fat. Muscle tissue therefore burns more incoming calories, including carbs, than fat tissue. In addition, the presence of fat tissue adversely effects insulin sensitivity.

Ideally you should try to do some safe exercise to minimize the loss of existing muscle while you are on a net negative caloric intake. We need to take a lesson from the bodybuilders. They are always on diets to first to gain weight then to lose weight. They know that whenever you gain weight you gain both muscle and fat, and conversely whenever you lose weight you lose muscle and fat. The "art and science" of bodybuilding, which we need to apply to our situation, lies in devising programs with proper nuitrition, exercise and rest. This permits us, like the bodybuilders, to minimize how much muscle we lose, and maximize how much fat we lose when losing overall body weight.

Larry

Ifchanin - even with my intense exercise I am not going that high. Yesterday, for example after HIIT I got home and it was 120, higher than I like, but lower than my FBG that morning of 125. This morning I was back under a hundred.

My internist is very much of a 'by the book' guy. He is always up to date on standards. This is a good thing. You gotta remember that they are still working on getting MDs to wash their hands between patients in hospitals. The current standards do not recommend metering for pre-diabetes. I think the standards are wrong, but recognize that they exist.

Hi, I am new here and my dr put me on the low glycemic index diet due to my fasting blood work showing me as being a pre diabetic, I have been following this diet for 3 weeks, I don't go back for bloodwork for a couple of more weeks, however, I know that I am losing weight due to the diet and have had to buy 2 different size pants. Sooooo I am hoping that it is working for me. I also have hypothyroidism...wich always mad losing weight a challenge until now.

I just got around to reading the link you posted. Lots of good information. Explained some things happening to me. I can still eat bran cereal and 100% whole grain bread without seeing a significant spike, but pastas and rice (brown or white) are out. I didn't understand what was going on and it really scared me, but now I do. Thaks for sharing.

Ironmaiden- I'm glad that you are getting lots of information from this site and others. Educating ourselves is so important. I have seen significant improvements in BG from LC eating. I am probably not eating as low as most here are, but my BG remains in a normal range most of the time. I find as I lose weight, I am able to tolerate more carbs. That doesn't mean that I should as it isn't too conducive to weight loss, but it has given me greater freedom in planning menus. I wish you great success. It is all an experiment. You have to just keep testing yourself and see what your particular tolerances are.

Thanks for the encouragement. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of the support I have received from everyone on this forum. It has really helped calm a lot of my fears about my future and my health. Buying a monitor is the best thing I could have done to get control of my condition. Joining this forum is the second.
Congratulations on your weight loss. How long have you been at it? Are you diabetic or pre-diabetic? Did you have any difficulty at first losing weight? Are you combining your efforts with exercise and diet? Are you on meds and/or supplements, and if so, do you mind telling me what you are taking?

Ironmaiden...I have been a Type 2 diabetic for the last 11 years. At first I started out on the Canadian Diabetic Association Diet that all newly diagnosed diabetics seem to get education in. I quickly found out though that it wasn't working for me. They had put me on medication, but no matter what I did, it didn't seem to make any difference in my numbers. I then started taking matters into my own hands. I started reading alot, researching, talking on these forums and soon found out about LC eating and it's effect on BG. My weight loss journey hasn't been a fast or typical one. I did well for years, then got pregnant and because of having to be on insulin during that time gained alot of weight. I would estimate around the 270 pound mark. Presently, I am only on a very low dose of Lispinopril for kidney protection mainly. I control my diabetes through diet and exercise. Although I do take alot of vitamins and minerals and have tried just about all of the supplements that are supposedly good for diabetes, I find that the diet and exercise seem to be the best option for me. I still do though take things like Multi-vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Calcium, Magnesium, B-complex, Vitamin D, etc.

Having Diabetes can be a very scary thing, especially when first diagnosed and reading all the literature. It can seem very over-whelming at times. Ask questions whenever you want to. There is a wealth of information here.

I did say '_may_ decrease.' Using yourself as an example, are you comparing your carb tolerance, not only at your peak weight, but just beginning to low carb and still running high BGs with high insulin levels? Both of those add to insulin resistance, possibly more than the weight does. My Triglyceride/HDL ratio went from 138/48 = 2.875 to 77/54 = 1.426 in about six weeks after low carbing (and not even all that low) for only about 2 weeks, I had only lost 9 lbs. Even after losing more weight that ratio has not changed significantly.

Dang, could you have written that question with a little more complication to it? I had to read the question 4 times to begin to comprehend it. In one question, you doubled it up with "and", followed by a "but.... You're either a lawyer or you work for one...

If you're low carbing for 90 days or longer, you're not going to have previous high level BG with high insulin levels. Bloods cells replenish themselves every 90 day, right? So, to answer your question as best as I understand it...

My carb tolerance at 4 months into low carb dieting and at a higher weight than I am now was not as good as my carb tolerance is now at a lower weight.

Now, I will answer your original statement again as plain as I can:

Comparing myself to myself, I have a higher carb tolerance as I lose weight, get more fit and continue to eat L/C and take supplements. Your statement of a person with a larger body being able to handle more carbs than a person with a smaller body is absurd!

I was diagnosed with type II diabetes in February of 2005. Although I suspected I had blood sugar issues for years a period of high stress in the fall of 2004 put me over the edge.

My initial blood work showed my fasting BG way up. It went much higher 2 hours post some meals. The first thing I did was reduce my carbs. I didn't go on a low carb diet, I just reduced carbs. I also took some nutritional supplements including magnesium. Within 6 weeks my fasting BG dropped to almost normal for non-diabetics. Within 6 months all my tests were normal as was my BP. My triglycerides almost went off the low end of the scale.

Then I started on a low GI diet; more carbs, but low GI carbs. I quickly started to deteriorate. So I cut back on carbs and my BG improved again. After that experience I lost faith in the low GI concept. To me a carb is a carb. What the GI proponents don't tell you is that a gram of carb has a fixed amount of sugar that requires a fixed amount of insulin. In other words the same quantity of low GI and high GI carbs require the same amount of insulin. This was confirmed by a study that seems to be ignored.

While lowering carbs can often have huge benefits in bringing BG under control my experience has been that eliminating as much as possible the bad fats (i.e. trans fats and oxidized PUFAs whose main source is commercial vegetable oils) and replacing them with good fats (i.e. omega 3 and omega 6 EFAs in a balanced supplement) and good quality, organic saturated fats like butter and coconut oil and even some saturated fat from meat (preferably grass fed) is essential to restoring insulin sensitivity. The EFAs are particularly important because they directly influence cell membrane permeability.

When I say EFAs or omega PUFAs many of you are probably thinking lots of fish oil or lots of flax oil. Fish oil caused me huge problems. My BG and BP both went up on fish oil. I know of at least one study that showed fish oil can reduce insulin sensitivity. To me, getting the right fats is far more difficult than bringing carbs under control.

Within a few months after starting on a correctly formulated omega 3/6 supplement my craving for carbs vanished and my appetite dropped to next to nothing. I now eat only 1 to 2 meals a day and am seldom hungry.

Very interesting davidcoast, and BTW, welcome to the boards.

Will you please tell what blend of oils is in your omega supplement?