Insulin Resistant?

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fornamn
fornamn Posts: 20 Member
in Food and Nutrition

Hi, I was recently told I am moderately IR and I am struggling with the idea that the bulk of the advice states lose weight and restrict carbs.

I'm 5'7" and 125lb/57kg I have worked my *kitten* off for over a year to get my weight up from around 114lb/52kg. I am gluten intolerant and have IBS so I do not eat Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Legumes, onions, garlic, and a myriad of other things in the Amines category. There isn't a whole lot more I can cut out. What on earth am I meant to change in my diet to improve this?

Thanks

Replies

  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
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    You need a registered dietitian. You have no weight to lose and you probably already eat low carb.
  • fornamn
    fornamn Posts: 20 Member
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    meritage4 wrote: »
    You need a registered dietitian. You have no weight to lose and you probably already eat low carb.

    Thanks!
  • norie92
    norie92 Posts: 115 Member
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    fornamn wrote: »
    I am struggling with the idea that the bulk of the advice states lose weight and restrict carbs.

    I'm not familiar with your condition, what I can tell you is restricting carbs is a mistake. Carbs are essential for energy, you will go into ketosis if you cut out too many carbs.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    Insulin resistance is related to diabetes (and can be a precursor to Type 2). So, yes, you have to watch carbs - especially simple carbs. In particular, you have to spread them out over the course of the day to allow your body to respond properly and try to get most of your carbs from whole food sources.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    Gluten is easy to skip on a low carb diet (I'm a celiac). Dairy and eggs are often common foods but you can get by without out them.

    The main foods on a low carb high fat diet are often meats, veggies (not roots like potatoes, yams, carrot, onions or garlic, but rather green leafy veggies, peppers, celery, mushrooms, cucs, celery, green beans, etc), low GI fruits like berries and some apples, oranges, plums, and necatrines (tropical fruits have more sugars), nuts, coconut (flakes, cream, oil), olives (including oil) and seafood. And bacon. ;)

    We generally skip foods with sugar added like granola, candy/protein bars, or soda. Food from refined grains (baked goods, noodles, etc) are skipped or limited, and whole grains (corn, quinoa, rice, oats) are skipped or limited. Legumes are fairly high in carbs too.

    How you eat depends on how low you go with carbs. Low carb is often considered below 100-150g of carbs per day. That's actually a fair bit of veggies, some fruit and maybe some grains or legumes. I eat very low carb to handle my insulin resistance (around 20g of carbs per day) but you may be able to eat 5 to 8 times as many carbs and improve your blood markers. Experiment and see what works for you.

    And consider joining the Low Carber Daily MFP group. They're a helpful bunch.
    norie92 wrote: »
    fornamn wrote: »
    I am struggling with the idea that the bulk of the advice states lose weight and restrict carbs.

    I'm not familiar with your condition, what I can tell you is restricting carbs is a mistake. Carbs are essential for energy, you will go into ketosis if you cut out too many carbs.

    Carbs are not essential for energy. They are the only non-essential macro.

    And I've been in ketosis for about 14 months. That's actually helpful when dealing with insulin resistance.
  • gspieker1973
    gspieker1973 Posts: 4 Member
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    http://www.buttermakesyourpantsfalloff.com/
    This website gave me the answer, low carb & intermittent fasting off & on. That's what work for me with insulin resistance, Ibs.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
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    Sometimes it's just genetic and not weight. I'd ask for a referral to a registered dietitian in your situation.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
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    First...were you tested for celiac disease? And if you were, was it when you WERE eating gluten regularly? (so that the test was valid, rather than testing while gluten free, which will automatically give a false negative, you know?)
    Or, have you ever tried a celiac level gluten free diet (as opposed to a gluten intolerance level diet?)?

    I ask that because first, if you happen to be celiac, or have become celiac since you started going gluten free, it could be that mild contamination is causing your body to have trouble with gut damage and absorption still. Which would contribute to a difficulty in gaining weight. And also because sometimes celiac disease, or refractory celiac disease, are misdiagnosed as IBS. In part because some celiacs are more sensitive to gluten than normal, so they pretty much have to drop processed foods, period, and sometimes quinoa and/or gluten free oats too (some very small % of celiacs will react to them, too, it seems). So these celiacs can still react even while eating gluten free foods.

    Also I ask because sometimes, active celiac disease and diabetes or hypothyroid issues are more commonly found together than the norm, and sometimes, one of them can slightly mask the symptoms of the other. And celiac disease can cause gut damage and leaky gut, increasing the likelihood of reacting to all these things, you know?

    Next - have you ever looked at a mild corn allergy (I would check out corn allergy forums, because it's insanely hard to figure out if the allergy is milder). It's so prevalent in processing, including coatings and sprays used on produce, that it's very hard to avoid. tomatoes would be an issue, if that was the problem.

    Ever looked at sulfites? They are used to process a lot of corn products (like corn syrup, corn based, citric acid, corn based glucose) but NOT corn flour or corn meal. Wine would be a huge issue if this is a problem. Also, some folks with this react to not just sulfites, but high sulfur foods as well, like eggs, pork, onions, garlic, etc...

    Or checked out forums for mast cell activation disorders (not medical sites, but forums. Medical sites are literally at least a decade behind the times, that I've seen, and focus on the most serious cases. But miss the cases where the disorder focuses more on one area, like the gut, or where the reactions are NOT life threatening or involving rashes or hives as much. But the forums - like ones on Facebook - have folks that can talk more knowledgeably about milder reactions).

    Mast cell disorders make the body react to far more things that it usually would. And also, foods with higher amines often cause reactions with mast cell disorders.

    I mention the above because, well, as my allergist says: what is more likely, that a person somehow has dozens of different allergies, or that there is an underlying problem or two CAUSING the body to react to all these things or develop all these allergies?

    For me...I turned out to have celiac disease AND problems with sulfites, AND a mast cell disorder. And I can't have any of the foods you mentioned, either, without a problem of some kind. I started having thyroid issues as well, until I figured it all out and thyroid started improving once I solved the OTHER problems, you know? Which doesn't help a lot, only so much as I can say that I've met a few others with one or more of these problems, and once they got them resolved, low level problems that occurred with diabetes or thyroid improved as well. So...might be worth exploring, at least.

    hoping that you find a solution!

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