The FastDay Forum

£15 or less will get you a blood glucose meter from the pharmacy with a finger stabbing device and probably 10 test strips. The strips can be had from Ebay and the like for maybe £10 for 50 (depends on type of meter to some extent).

If you can miss out pasta, potatoes, rice or bread from a meal then you can do low carb sustainably. See http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf etc.

Low carb is high fat, with moderate protein. maybe 10/65/35 respectively % of calories.

[carorees]

I found that low carb was a) expensive b) hard to find anything I liked for breakfast (eggs make me feel queasy...of course if I had known then what I know now I would have just skipped breakfast!) and c) I missed fruit, pasta, potatoes, bread and of course cake and biscuits!!!

Thanks for the info I was thinking about testing this myself. I agree with Carorees, I found low carb expensive and hard work finding things to eat (think that's why I lost the little weight I did because I didn't feel like eating anything I was allowed to eat or if I did fancy it, I couldn't afford to buy enough of it!

fry cheese to make cheese crisps

Hi
The montignac method is basically a good carb diet. No to bread, cereals, potatoes, rice or pasta. Yes to pulses in all their varied forms. I have to admit after 5 weeks I fell off the wagon this week and have had both cake and biscuits. If I had used sweet chestnut flour all would have been well, but I'd run out.
Here is a link to his list of foods with carbs under 35 (low)

http://www.montignac.com/en/search-for- ... x/#tab_low

Now I'm off to buy chestnut flour for my next slip up.

Hi Izzy

I got mine done at Lloyds chemist for free, no need to buy anything, they said I could have it done on a regular basis if I wanted, but I was just curious.

Chris x

oops !! I must look at the dates of these threads

I have though of buying my own glucometer. As has been said they are fairly cheap and easy to use. I work in a hospital so do them at work and often wish I could do it at home too. It can be interesting to watch what happens after a meal. Sometimes I come home looking like a pin cushion. The scary day was when I did it fasting and discovered I am at the limits of normal. Have since been to my doctor. I think he thought I was crazy when I told what I had been doing but he kindly sent me off for a glucose tolerance test. Am getting the results today.

BTW. I recommend buying the single use lancets for the finger prick. Much easier than using a needle.

Hi PhilT,

What are your thoughts on the low-carb vs. low glycemic index (GI) vs. low gylcemic load (GL) debate? My (very limited) understanding is that GL is the important thing when it comes to insulin spikes / resistance stuff. Thus otherwise low-carb forbidden foods ?e.g. apples, rice? are okay on low-GL eating plans...

Indeed, my diabetic* cookbook is full of pasta recipes (pasta being middle-ish GL) - it seems to balance the pasta with other much lower GL ingredients.

Oh what a muddle...

*I'm not diabetic (yet!) - the recipes were just yumtious!

Edit: sorry Izzy - I have just realised that this is a bit off-topic for the thread: dear Mods, please remove if you think so too! Ta. FatDog.

Mebe more on-topic: don't the Atkins folks use sticks to see if they're in ketosis? Might these serve your purpose Izzy, if you're just looking for low-carb maintenance confirmation? Methinks (sensible) low-carb is perhaps a good idea - hence the diabetic cookbook!

Great news. My glucose tolerance test was good. Doc didn't seem to mind my fasting at 5.7. Guess I should just be a bit careful. Cholesterol was 4.1. That's down from 4.5 18 months ago. Have been on 5:2 for six weeks so will be interesting to see the levels again in a few months. I am lucky I can check sugars when I'm at work just to make sure.

[carorees]

You should test first thing in the morning and also at other times of the day (but not too soon after eating). Many people have the "dawn phenomenon" whereby they have raised blood glucose early in the morning due to the liver making too much glucose overnight. So it's useful to know what pattern your blood sugar follows.

Not sure who was asking about ketostix but general opinion amongst regular low carbers seems to be that they are a waste of money. I think the type of ketone measured is only present in the early days of low carb. This seemed to be the case for me as I had to have a urine test at the docs this week and was expecting trouble as I knew I was back in ketosis for the odd metalic taste it brings. She never batted an eyelid so I'm pretty sure there was nothing on the testing strip!

I have dawn phenomenon and its a nuisance. My bg is fine during the day but has previously hit diabetic levels in the mornings. The low carb got it well down but I was advised by the diabetic forum to eat a tiny snack at bedtime. Some do well with a cube of cheese but others manage better with something carby like an oatcake. I find a mini Babybel does the trick.

I finally got my fasting bg into best ever levels using cinnamon tea twice a day. It wont work miracles but it seems that on average it knocks it down by about 0.5 to 1mmol.

[Betsysgr8]

My OH was diagnosed as diabetic, then pre-diabetic. These are american measures but first his bg measured 209, then I got him down in pre-diabetic and normal ranges without medications (he was given metformin but never had to take it). His A1c was above 7 and now 5 and lower. I put him on a lower-carb diet. No potatoes, white rice or white flour products and anything with sugar had to be low in sugar and higher in fiber. It was recommended that he test prior to a meal then 2 hours after. We discovered that changing his diet and a brisk walk after eating will lower his bg back down to normal ranges. It still will spike a bit (he's always sneaking something, lol) but rarely over 140 bg and a walk always brings it back down.