Four months Totally Insulin Free

Congrats!

Awesome! It's so fun to shock the docs!

That is great! Congratulations!

What an inspiration you are! Take it on the road....just kidding. I hope your inner circle is in shock and awe too. Well done!

rheddmobile wrote: »

Bravo! Type 2 diabetic here, A1c down from 11 to 4.7. MFP is a wonderful tracking tool for diabetics!

What did you do? Exercise how much? Carbs how many?

Great story and awesome results, congratulations

goldengirl111 wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

Bravo! Type 2 diabetic here, A1c down from 11 to 4.7. MFP is a wonderful tracking tool for diabetics!

What did you do? Exercise how much? Carbs how many?

My big trick was what is called "eating to the meter." You need a blood glucose meter which has strips inexpensive enough that you aren't afraid to use it several times a day - I recommend the Bayer Contour Next, which has strips about 20 dollars per hundred on Amazon, and also tested as one of the most accurate. Then you test after every meal, and learn how many carbs of different foods you can handle, and modify your diet accordingly.

Tolerance for different foods is very individual, and when you eat and exercise has a huge impact as well, so there really is no substitute for testing. For example, I can eat tons of fruit without spikes, but a friend of mine has trouble with fruit, while I can't eat even one flour tortilla without a spike. The fruit and the tortilla are both quick acting carbs and the same number of net carbs, but they affect me very differently. Also, I can tolerate many more carbs the day after heavy lifting. And if I'm sick or stressed even slightly my tolerance goes way down.

When I first started I needed to test six or more times a day. Now I typically test two or three, one when I wake up to see how I'm doing in general, one after my first meal to see if there's anything up (for example if I have a cold coming on, I will notice it from my blood glucose before I feel sick), and then if I eat anything I haven't eaten before.

Here's the second part: you should be trying to eat foods that don't spike you over normal post prandial readings, which top out about 140. But when you miscalculate your diet and find your blood glucose is elevated after a meal, go and work out right then. Fifteen minutes of hard cycling will bring my blood down from a dangerous 170 to about 77. Eighty bodyweight squats done in sets of twenty will also bring it down - and you can do bodyweight squats in a bathroom stall if you have to, in just a few minutes, with no one knowing about it.

It also doesn't hurt that I am normal weight now, having lost 112 lbs.

I try to exercise at least fifteen minutes of intense exercise per day, by which I mean I am sweaty enough to need to change clothes afterwards. Or thirty minutes of moderate activity such as Zumba, or an hour of casual activity such as walking. I run three times a week and lift weights at least two times a week, with two days of "rest" which really means light exercise such as dancing or yoga.