# Most stubborn body ever



## Sol51 (Aug 21, 2020)

Please help me. I have a strong familial gene for T2 diabetes everyone in my family has it. My medical history is complicated & huge contributor to my weigh loss problems. I am 52, has had severe fibromyalgia and ME for 16 years. From very active to not much activity at all. Had gastric band fitted 10 years ago, unsuccessful & taken out 15 July 2020. My metabolism is whacked out. I had total hysterectomy 2019. 
Right now BMI =30 hb1ac=50. I have been on 16/8 IMF for 3 weeks still not in ketosis. ( urin stick check). Not lost a gram despite cutting all proceses sugar & carbs . Have yogurt & berries 3 pm. Chicken breast and green beans for dinner 8 pm. I have listened to dr mindy & prof Fung . It doesn’t make sense that I can shift a kg. I am desperate for help & advise


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## Drummer (Aug 21, 2020)

I got better results for my BG levels eating early and late rather than two meals close together.
In the mornings I have 10 gm of carb at the most, in the hot weather I've been having a tomato and a blob of mozzarella cheese, other options are salad with eggs and cheese or tuna. I have coffee with a tiny pinch of salt, a larger pinch of cinnamon, and cream.
I then go all day and eat in the evening - meat or fish and a stir fry - I avoid beans as all legumes seem to give a larger than expected spike. I would never eat chicken breast as it is too lean - we need to keep ourselves fuelled with fat so as to keep burning it. I sometimes have berries and cream with sugar free jelly as a dessert, or full fat greek yoghurt and a few berries.
It is not just processed carbs which can be a problem, they all count - and I did find that I needed to get below 8 mmol/l after eating for changes to really start.


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## rebrascora (Aug 21, 2020)

Like @Drummer I prefer to eat morning and evening, sometimes only morning (brunch) with a chunk of cheese or a square of dark chocolate and a spoon of peanut butter to keep me going the rest of that day. What sort of yoghurt are you using and what are you drinking? 
Do you know how many calories you are getting a day and are you counting carbs? I don't normally think/worry/consider calories but when your body is stubbornly refusing to lose weight you need to know in order to figure out why.  What sort of portion sizes are you using? Something isn't adding up if you have been eating like that for 3 weeks and no weight is shifting unless you are very sedentary or sleeping most of the time.

Are you able to walk? Getting out for a daily walk will really help to kick start the metabolism, even if you just start with 10mins round the block initially and build it up or walking up the stairs twice every hour through the day. It may be painful at first but it really is important to get your limbs working and your heart pumping a bit and it will get better the more you do. If you are not able to walk then start incorporating some sitting exercises like those pedal machines that you can use whilst you watch the TV and do some arm exercises. I am sure there will be You tube tutorials for such things to give you an idea of what to do.... I sometimes do arm exercises whilst I walk.... looks a bit whacky but who cares when it does me good!


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## Docb (Aug 21, 2020)

Take the basic numbers.  BMI =30 just, and only just, gets you into the obese category so you have a better point to start from than many.  HbA1c=50 puts you just, and only just, into the diabetic category so again you are starting from a better place than many.  You are a long, long way from being a hopeless case.

Can I suggest you take a deep breath and think about simplifying things rather than looking for more complicated answers?  

I would suggest starting an honest diary of everything you consume for a few days. It has to be everything including drinks and snacks.  My simple mind says you cannot be existing on a diet of yoghourt, berries, chicken breast and green beans and it may be that you are consuming things you don't think important but which are.

When you have done that, start to put calories/carbohydrate contents against the things in your diary  This information you can find on packets and in online tables.  When you have got that information you can begin to make plans about what to change to reduce your carb intake - to help with the HbA1c reduction - and the calories - to help with the weight reduction. It might be that simple changes to your diet might help with both in one go.  

I like this approach for a couple of reasons.  First, there is none of the magic promised by people selling books or television programmes. There is no one size fits all, you have to work out what suits you.  Second, you might not need big changes in what you eat and drink and you can ease yourself into an eating/drinking regime that simply becomes normal for you. That is something far easier to sustain.

Hope that makes sense and gives you something to mull over.


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## Sol51 (Aug 21, 2020)

rebrascora said:


> Like @Drummer I prefer to eat morning and evening, sometimes only morning (brunch) with a chunk of cheese or a square of dark chocolate and a spoon of peanut butter to keep me going the rest of that day. What sort of yoghurt are you using and what are you drinking?
> Do you know how many calories you are getting a day and are you counting carbs? I don't normally think/worry/consider calories but when your body is stubbornly refusing to lose weight you need to know in order to figure out why.  What sort of portion sizes are you using? Something isn't adding up if you have been eating like that for 3 weeks and no weight is shifting unless you are very sedentary or sleeping most of the time.
> 
> Are you able to walk? Getting out for a daily walk will really help to kick start the metabolism, even if you just start with 10mins round the block initially and build it up or walking up the stairs twice every hour through the day. It may be painful at first but it really is important to get your limbs working and your heart pumping a bit and it will get better the more you do. If you are not able to walk then start incorporating some sitting exercises like those pedal machines that you can use whilst you watch the TV and do some arm exercises. I am sure there will be You tube tutorials for such things to give you an idea of what to do.... I sometimes do arm exercises whilst I walk.... looks a bit whacky but who cares when it does me good!


I eat Greek yogurt and drink coffee in the morning / some tea ( no milk ) and water. I am walking 10 min a day ( before Covid used to do hydrotherapy daily for pain & mobility ) vigorous exercise not possible but I do stretches yoga type. I guess like you suggested I have to calorie count. It is hard but I have to do it ( don’t want to end up like my parents with kidney /eye/ cardiovascular problems due to diabetes


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## rebrascora (Aug 21, 2020)

As @Docb says, keep an honest and detailed food diary and weighing/measuring portions so that you know how many carbs you are getting is really important. Also reading nutritional information labels (the tiny info on the back of packets) even on similar items because they can vary significantly.... For instance peanut butter can vary from 8g carbs to 14g carbs per 100g depending upon the brand, 
Is it natural Greek yoghurt or flavoured and is it low fat or full milk? Full fat, creamy yoghurt usually has less carbs than low fat. The one I get from Lidl is 3.6g carbs per 100g
How much are you eating and how many berries are you having with it. A portion for me is about 100mls of Creamy Greek natural yoghurt which contains 3.6g carbs with half a dozen rasps and half a dozen blueberries which is maybe about 5g carbs together. Then I add a dessert spoon of mixed seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and chia and another spoon of chopped or ground nuts. The total is probably about 10g carbs for that portion, maybe slightly less. Unlikely to be much more. 

It is a pain getting to grips with weighing and measuring and counting and calculating and reading labels but after a while it becomes second nature and you quickly learn to figure out what to buy and roughly how many carbs are in each product. You may need to do the same for calories if counting carbs is not working for you but it sounds like you may not have been counting carbs very accurately. 

Just so you are aware, even lettuce and cucumber contain carbs although you would need to eat huge portions to make it worth counting them but the likes of garden peas and green beans and carrots and sweetcorn and parsnips can certainly add up if you are filling your plate with those sorts of veg.


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