Just Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

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  • Cerakoala
    Cerakoala Posts: 2,547 Member
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    Hi Chris!!! I was diagnosed at age 27 with type 2 and sleep apnea. Which is what lead me here. 3 years later I am down over 200lbs no longer have sleep apnea and off all diabetes medication. I control it strictly with diet and exercise. As other posters have said above it is not easy but it is very possible! Start by logging all food that goes into your body, no matter what and weigh everything :) When I look at macros I focus on carbs and sugar. While I try to meet the other ones those are the ones that are most important to me due to my diabetes. Best of luck on your journey, I would love to support you and will send you a friend request :)
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
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    Read up on low-carb diets. Atkins, South Beach...while you may not follow those diets exactly, knowing about them can help you make better food choices.

    You absolutely must exercise though. The primary problem in type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance in your muscles.

    Normally insulin signals muscles to uptake sugar from the blood. Type 2 happens when you've been putting so much sugar into your blood via your diet, and your muscles have been getting the 'insulin! uptake sugar!" signal for so long, that your muscles have basically said "enough of this noise!" and down-regulated their insulin receptors.

    The only way to get your muscles to up-regulate those receptors is to exercise and work off their stored glycogen repeatedly, so that they actually "want" to respond to the insulin again.

    Then you have to hope that you succeed in this before your pancreas burns out from secreting too much insulin for a prolonged period, at which point the diabetes becomes irreversible and you wind up on insulin because your pancreas can no longer produce it.

    (gross oversimplification but good enough for dieter use).
  • Peloton73
    Peloton73 Posts: 148 Member
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    There's a lot of amazing inspiration in this thread. It makes me smile. ;)
    I can say, with no hesitation, that getting T2 diabetes has actually been the best thing that could have ever happened to me, because it forced me to WAKE UP and start changing my life for the better. Kind of an unorthodox attitude, I know, but it's how I truly feel about it.

    But it's hard when you're first diagnosed. I know. I felt like my world had crashed all around me.

    I am right with you! I had mentioned the same thing my profile. Lol.

    With regards to the dawn effect/phenomenon, this is something that is not one size fits all. Definitely experiment and see what works for you. I used to eat dinner at 5pm and then have a protein (string cheese) before bedtime and still had a high bg in the morning. I ended up finding my "sweet spot" by eating dinner later at 7:30pm and nothing but water for the rest of the night. Test often in the beginning to see what works for you.

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