# Help & advice requested



## Champlanet (Feb 20, 2022)

Hi all, 

Firstly sorry about the user name my daughter thought it up 

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year with a figure of around 56 

I am not taking any medication I am going to give it a good go dieting for a period of three months before giving in & taking daily medication. 

I have been dieting for the past couple of weeks with minimal results, frustratingly! 

So going to try & lower the calories throughout the day & increase the exercise, my meals: 

Breakfast 
1 x wholewheat toast 
2 x poached egg 

Lunch 
Homemade butternut squash soup 
Carrot / pepper crudités 

Then calorie controlled evening meal with no snacks 

What do I do moving forward, any tips / advices, to get the weight off - I’m relatively clueless & starting to panic! 

Also, is their a way I can track my blood sugar levels from home without a blood test through my gp surgery?


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## Lucyr (Feb 20, 2022)

I’ve found calorie counting important to lose weight. I use the nutracheck app. It does cost about £24 a year but it has a 7 day free trial. There are free alternatives like myfitnesspal but I find this too American based. 

You can buy a blood glucose monitor to test your blood sugar at home. I can’t remember the names of the cheapest ones but someone will tell you soon I’m sure.


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## Lily123 (Feb 20, 2022)

Welcome to the forum  

For monitoring your blood sugar you can get yourself a blood sugar meter which uses a finger prick of block and tells you what your blood sugar level is at that time. It’s in different units to the test you had at the doctors which was 56 would have been a HbA1C and is in mmol/mol and a finger prick is in mmol/l. The two blood sugar meters that are recommend on this forum are the Spirit Tee2 and I can’t remember the name of the other one sorry


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## Lily123 (Feb 20, 2022)

We were typing at the same time @Lucyr


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## Leadinglights (Feb 20, 2022)

The other one is the GlucoNavil, as it also has cheapest test strips.
I should not worry too much about Calories it is Carbohydrates that are important.
Many people find a low carbohydrate dietary regime successful when managing blood glucose levels by diet . The 2 meals you mentioned look pretty good options.
This link has a good explanation and idea which encompass the principals of low carb. 








						Freshwell Low Carb Project
					

Real Food, Low Carb, Good Health




					lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk
				



Also the Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) for information and some other links.


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## Drummer (Feb 20, 2022)

I found losing weight effortless eating low carb - I was concentrating on lowering blood glucose levels and never even thought of weightloss until my clothes started slithering South.


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## nonethewiser (Feb 20, 2022)

Champlanet said:


> What do I do moving forward, any tips / advices, to get the weight off - I’m relatively clueless & starting to panic!



Stick with it, it will shift eventually provided your calorie intake causes a deficit to your body's daily needs.

Just after new year decided to lose weight by consuming less calories & exercising more, so cut down on cheese consumption fried foods less red meat more fish, this with doing min 12000 steps daily, in 6 weeks lost 12lbs so somethings working, determined to get to 2st to get back to where I was in my 30's.


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## Champlanet (Feb 20, 2022)

Thank you for all your replies, very much appreciated! 

Im debating the saxenda weight loss pen after my GP recommend it but pointed out it wasn’t licensed in my area! 

How about fruit, I’ve been avoiding it & concentrating on vegetables. I know fruit is higher sugar


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## nonethewiser (Feb 20, 2022)

Well I eat fruit everyday, some more than others, type 1 mind not type 2 like you.


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## Lucyr (Feb 20, 2022)

I eat fruit most days, I’ve had a banana and 2 satsumas today. For the lowest calorie and carbs options try blueberries and raspberries.


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## Leadinglights (Feb 20, 2022)

Champlanet said:


> Thank you for all your replies, very much appreciated!
> 
> Im debating the saxenda weight loss pen after my GP recommend it but pointed out it wasn’t licensed in my area!
> 
> How about fruit, I’ve been avoiding it & concentrating on vegetables. I know fruit is higher sugar


Berries are the lowest carb fruits, so strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, with tropical fruits being high carb and something many people try to avoid or have only occasionally, apples, pears, oranges are somewhere in the middle.


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## Leadinglights (Feb 20, 2022)

Champlanet said:


> Thank you for all your replies, very much appreciated!
> 
> Im debating the saxenda weight loss pen after my GP recommend it but pointed out it wasn’t licensed in my area!
> 
> How about fruit, I’ve been avoiding it & concentrating on vegetables. I know fruit is higher sugar


It does look like a medication that you could buy over the counter but would be similar to medications that are available on prescription I would imagine and if your doctor thinks you would benefit from something like that then they should prescribe it rather than you having to buy it at £50. 
I should try modifying your diet in the first instance.


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