Hello everyone. I'm new to all this (including this forum...I'm not even sure I'm posting in the right place), but here goes:

I just got diagnosed with type-2 diabetes (pre-/early-stage). I was placed on mild medication for it, and I was put on a restricted-carb diet which, as I understand it, is a "corrupted" form of a paleo diet (ironically, my wife and I were looking into the paleo-diet several months prior, but I thought it would be too difficult to follow).

I've been capped at 60 carbs per meal, 180 per day (I typically divide this into four sittings, because I like a pre-/post-dinner snack, depending on my schedule). This is my second week, and so far I've been doing great at staying well within these numerical limits. But I've been feeling like garbage. I've had low energy levels since I started--I feel like resting/sleeping a lot--and I've been pretty depressed: at this point I'm not sure if that's physiological because of my diet or if I'm mentally struggling with the reality of my new situation. I read somewhere that at least some of this is to be expected when switching to a low-/no-carb diet...is this true? (There's also an adjustment period with the medicine where your stomach is unsettled for several days, so that hasn't helped my mood, either!)

Another question I have relates to calories. I've been told that losing weight will help, and with the carb-monitoring, I've been watching what I eat more. A diet calculator I've been using to keep track of my carbs has been telling me that I need to be taking in 2,200 calories for my target weight. But I've been finding that I'm feeling full after each meal, and I'm only reaching around 1,400-1,500 daily...is this normal? I ask that because my diet tracker keeps warning that I am missing more than 800 projected calories daily. However, on the flip side of this, I would classify myself as sedentary--even more so now because of my energy levels! In general, I don't feel like I'm starving myself...but I do find myself missing certain things deeply (I'll try to avoid mentioning those; I don't want to start anyone else's cravings!).

I know what I'm doing is a "corrupted" paleo-diet compared to what some of you all may be doing, but you'll have to trust me when I say it's a lot less than my normal intake! I would appreciate any helpful feedback/answers, because I'm really in unfamiliar waters. Thanks in advance.

Hi Terran! I'm sorry you have a diabetes diagnosis - welcome to the club nobody wants to join.

My advice is to start eating to your glucose meter. Do you have one yet? If not, ask your doctor for a prescription for a meter and test strips for it. If that won't be covered by your insurance then make the investment out of pocket - it will be your very best tool in the fight to reclaim your health.

The diet typically given the newly diagnosed is almost always too high in carbohydrates to make the improvements you need to make. I'm an Atkins advocate because those are the guidelines that have helped me bring my blood sugar under control, but my meter is what really tells me what I should be eating - and what I should not.

Here's the testing schedule I use:

FBG - I take my BG as soon as I wake up in the morning. This is my Fasting Blood Glucose. It's a good baseline number and the one my doctor likes to see.

When I eat a food or meal that is new to me or untested, I test:
Right before the first bite - This tells me where I started
One hour after the first bite - This (generally) tells me the "peak"
Two hours after the first bite - This should be back to the number I had right before I started eating

I write down all of those numbers. If my peak number is too high or the two-hour number is not back to the starting point, then I know that's a food I either need to avoid or reduce in quantity and test again.

You won't have to do this forever - I still always get my FBG, I test any new foods and I test around exercise (but that can be a topic for another day). Some days I only test once, some days it's five times or more. That's really rare though

As for your energy levels, it could be any number of things.
1. It can be depression - situational or biochemical. Keep an eye on it. It's not uncommon for us to struggle with depression.
2. It could be the reduction in carbs - the "carb flu". If you search this forum you'll find some remedies for this, including upping salt intake.
3. It could be your blood sugar is coming down and making you feel "low" even though you aren't truly low. When your BG runs high for a long time, you get used to it. When it starts coming down, or if it's swinging high/low more or more often than it used to, you may have symptoms of a blood sugar low. Depending on what medication you're taking your doctor should have given you some guidelines about what is truly low and what to do if it is; if not, please say so. Also double check with your doctor.

There is a ton of information on this forum and others. You'll be overloaded. It's going to suck - many parts of this suck. But you can do this. You CAN, and you WILL feel better. You will get a hang of this! And we will be here for you along the way. Please, ask questions, read all you can and reach out if you need help.

Oh! As for the calories, I say don't worry about that right now. Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full. There will be plenty of time later to make adjustments - start with the big stuff and work your way down.

As someone who is newly diagnosed, you should know that you have a unique opportunity to reverse this diagnosis.

I suggest you read Dr. Bernstein's book, Diabetes Solution. Also Atkins Diabetes Revolution. There are several other books that use very low carb eating to turn all your numbers around.

Many people here have been diabetic for years, and are able to get off all their medication and have normal A1C, just using the diet. My husband was an insulin-dependent T2D for over 20 years, and is now completely off insulin, and takes no other medication. Some stay on a very small dose of metformin or other drugs, but are working toward getting off those drugs as well. In our household, we shoot for around 20 carbs total per day.

It is important to understand that most endocrinologists, and the American Diabetes Association, do not believe you can do this and recommend a high number of carbs (45-60 carbs per meal is high) because they don't think people will eat less than that. They will tell you that diabetes is a progressive disease, but it is not -- it is a lifestyle disease caused by excessive carbohydrate consumption and insulin resistance (there are some rare other causes, and this doesn't apply to T1).

First thing: lower your carbs and use your meter.

You have a great opportunity now, so do as much research as possible. Don't take my word for it, but know that there are options beyond what your doctor will tell you.

Good luck and welcome!

JuliaR, Katmeyster: thank you so much for your responses and encouragement!

JuliaR: I do have a meter. Although my doctor said that I only needed to test a couple of times a week, I've been looking daily until recently (waiting for insurance to kick in for additional strips/supplies). Testing as frequently as you advise with new foods sounds like a great idea, but may be difficult for me: I'm a private person and I do not intend to discuss this with anyone in my family other than my wife.

I'm following your advice on the full/hungry. I know some people on diets are irritable because of the hunger, but generally, that hasn't been the case with me. One weird thing: I know I've always liked meat, but I'm starting to have some cravings for them...is that supposed to happen too?

Katmeyster: Just 20 carbs a day seems REALLY difficult! Although to your credit, I have to say I've been amazed that I'm regularly able to beat my daily limit (180) now. Maybe what I can aim for is stepping down: I know from experience I can beat 180. I still struggle with certain foods...and I'm surprised at what they are! Candy, cereal, and milk were easy to give up (although I still crave a class of milk every now and then, and I miss ice cream dearly)...but rice and bread are real monsters for me!

I've never tried "stepping down" so I don't know personally how hard it would be. I know that hunger and cravings will be with you unless you get into ketosis (not to be confused with ketoacidosis). The beauty of this WOE (way of eating) is that when carbs are cut way back, there is never hunger.

I'm a veteran, having been on Atkins for weight control since 1972. It also works for good health, getting rid of arthritis and T2D among other things.

We have been lied to by our medical practitioners for over 50 years about eating for health. This forum is a wealth of information, not just shared links, but personal experience with various LC diets. People here are willing to share their wisdom.

Welcome, and good luck to you.

I hear you on the rice and bread, particularly the latter. I used to go through 3-4 loaves of bread a week easy. Sandwiches were my go-to snack food, which seemed fine at the time since, you know, bread is right there at the bottom of the healthy food pyramid so it *has* to be good, right? Yeah, nah.

Two things really helped me kick those habits. The first thing that really helped me was just to surround myself with enough good options to the point where I had enough of a variety to just not really miss it anymore. That took me a while as I'm never been much for kitchening... anything really, but I have enough meat+veg options to keep me going now.

The second thing kinda builds on the first, in that once you're eating LC long enough, you should find that your appetite will naturally start to ease back a bit, so you won't feel the urge to snack as much between meals and eventually the portion sizes at mealtimes themselves may start to shrink as you start to feel fuller for longer.

Finally, if you're looking for something cold and sweet(ish) to replace the ice cream, I drink watered down cranberry juice that's been sweetened with stevia, and sometimes I'll fill an ice tray with it so I have some bite-sized flavoured ice cubes I can just suck on during hot days.

Welcome Terran,
You have had good advice already, but also please read in the Diabetes forum to learn more about your diagnosis and how you can reverse it now.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=45

Many good threads there to help you learn how to take control of your health, best summarized by Dr Hallberg in a short 17 minute TedTalk: "Reversing T2 Diabetes Starts with IGNORING the Guidelines" (those guidelines being to eat 60 g per meal) https://youtu.be/da1vvigy5tQ
And Dr Fung's Two Biggest Lies about Diabetes,
https://youtu.be/FcLoaVNQ3rc (there are better copies of this talk on DietDoctor, another good site to learn about diabetes, http://www.dietdoctor.com/diabetes )

And one more website (it even has a free diabetes diet ebook), the first post photo here compares the amount of sugar in your blood to the amount of sugar allowed by the ADA, best visual to understand why many are suggesting 60 g carbs/meal is too high. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=466291

All the best,
Ps: a paleo or primal diet is much lower in carbs than the standard American Diet (SAD) since it removes all grains, processed foods, dairy, and seed oils, but allows some starchy root vegetables and fruits. Those foods would not be optimal choices for someone with diabetes, but you can easily combine the two styles of diet if you eat on the lower end of the carbs while eating real food (no artificial sweeteners, limited dairy, no soybean/seed oils, etc).

No one needs to know anything. Go to the bathroom, wash your hands and test. Done! Eventually you might feel differently; I'm a super private person, too, and I never wanted anyone to know either, but now maintaining my good health is more important to me than hiding it. Everyone's journey is different.

Testing as seldom as your doctor advises right now will eventually kill you. I'm sorry if that sounds dramatic, but that's the truth. The point of all this low carb eating isn't to torture us, it's to bring down our blood sugar and keep it down so we don't develop permanent, debilitating side effects and die young. If you don't know what your blood sugar is or how the foods you eat affect it, then you're missing the most important part of the picture - it's the key to the whole map.

Your meter is the ultimate feedback tool and it will inform your dietary choices at every meal. Like others here I stay under around 20g of carbs per day because if I don't then my blood sugar goes too high. If it's high enough I have immediate symptoms (I feel drunk, my eyeballs feel too big, it's weird). If it's not too high but still out of the normal range I might not feel instant symptoms, but the damage will still be happening. I want to know when that damage is happening so I can take every possible step to prevent it next time -- so I test test test.

Your meter will also tell you that not all low carb foods are equal. There are a few foods that a book will say won't impact my BG, and other people can eat them just fine, but for whatever reason I can't. Nobody can tell you what your body is going to do, but your meter will.

I miss bread and cake. I really miss chocolate. I miss potatoes. But if I eat those things they act like poison to my body and I'll eventually die because of the damage they do. My meter gives me the information I need to avoid the foods that cause the problems so I test, as often as I need to get that information. It isn't fun, there's no shortcut (and I tried a lot of meds trying to find one, believe me). I feel lucky that there ARE meters now so I CAN test at home, and I'm grateful to all the people who helped me figure out what to do to take control of my health when my own doctor was telling me to eat over 100g of carbs a day and only to test once in a while.

JuliaR, what an amazing, helpful post. If it isn't already, it ought to be a sticky somewhere. Brilliant example of n=1 and how we can take control away from the medications and false information.

If you don't want to wait for your doctor/insurance, you can get a Relion meter at Walmart for about $8 and the strips are about the cheapest you can find. It isn't any more or less accurate than most meters out there.

Interesting. My grandma is diabetic and I remember her telling me that one day she felt terrible and felt like her eyeballs were going to pop out. She went to the doctor and found out she was diabetic.

That's what I thought, too, tho now under 20 isn't a problem. I sort of did it in steps - not on purpose, but because I didn't know what I was doing. I kind of wish I'd figured it out from the beginning - my blood sugars would have been controlled earlier & I likely would be at a lower weight now.

You'll want to get the proportions of carbs/protein/fat more or less correct - it will be easier for you if you do. A good protein calculator is at http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/keto-calculator/.
I love meat & was eating too much for too long - that's what kept my blood sugars from coming down even when eating very low carb.

I had the eyeball thing for a years - just the right one, tho. I hadn't thought about it but I haven't had that horrible feeling for a long time now. I wonder if that's what causes damage to the eyes, or if it's just one of the symptoms.

Lots of good advice here. Julia's post is excellent, you need to shift your mind to thinking that getting your blood sugar lower is crucial to your life. In a way, I was lucky in that at my diagnosis, I had a very high a1C (12) and very high fasting blood sugar (238). I couldn't kid myself that this wasn't serious. I started Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution that day after shedding a few tears for the foods I couldn't eat. I won't lie, the first 2 weeks eating 20g of carbs/day were difficult. I was hungry and craved carbs. BUT, and this is key, by sticking to that faithfully, the hunger and cravings subsided even before my blood sugars came down. I ate as much protein and fat as I wanted until I got over the hump. Only then did I start to worry about calories or protein portions.

One thing about being tired, low carb during the first 2 weeks can certainly do that, escpecially if you are not getting enough salt, but high blood sugar can also do that. At 180g of carbs per day, high blood sugar might be the culprit. You might try to think back if the lack of energy started with the new diet or before when your blood sugar was on the rise.

Good luck, you can do this!