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I have lost weight in the past counting calories and starving. I have lost weight on Atkins but missed the carbs so badly I couldn't stay on it. Now I am following the advice of a blogger named Chris Kresser at chriskresser.com telling how to prevent diabetes and heart disease for $16.
Have had high blood sugar and been told that I am insulin-resistant. I have tons of belly fat and most carbs shoot my blood sugar above 140, some shoot it above 160 and hour after a meal. I decided to see how and when and how much of the carbs I love I can eat.
Kresser says to buy a glucometer and test strips (walmart is least expensive).
1.Test your blood sugar first thing in the morning after fasting for at least 12 hours. Drink a little bit of water just after rising, but don't eat anything or exercise before the test. This is your fasting blood sugar level.
2. Test your blood sugar again before lunch.
3. Eat your typical lunch. Do not eat anything for the next 3 hours. Test your blood sugar 1 hour after lunch.
4.Test your blood sugar 2 hours after lunch.
%. Test your blood sugar 3 hours after lunch.
record the results, along with what you ate for lunch. Do this for 2 days. This will tell you how the foods you normally eat affect your blood sugar levels.
On the third day, you do it differently. On step 3, instead of eating your typical lunch, you're going to eat 60-70 grams of fast acting carbs. A large (8 oz) boiled potato or a cup of cooked white rice will do. For the purposes of this test only, avoid eating any fat with the potato or rice because it will show down the absorption of glucose. Then follow steps 4-6 above and record your readings.
I have not done the final test yet, because I know that I am insulin- insensitive. Instead, I am experimenting with the foods I eat and checking my blood sugar at the prescribed intervals. Also, Kresser says that when you are accustomed to eating few carbs your body has little tolerance for them. I had been on Atkins for a year before I came off, and still don't eat too many. He says before the final test the doctor will tell you to eat at least 150g carbs for 3 days before it. There is no way I can eat that many carbs!! The most I have had in one day is 57 grams and that was misery.
When I keep the blood sugar below 140 at the hour testing, below 120 at the two hour testing, and back to normal at the 3 hour, I lose a pound a day effortlessly IF I have gotten at least 8 hours of good sleep the night before and do relaxation exercises periodically.
Am tweaking the portion sizes and adding fiber, fat, and protein to find the portions of carbs I can have and when.
I have found that breakfast is very important to control for me....anything more than 2 TBS of steel cut oats cooked in 6TBS of water spikes my sugar even when eaten with turkey sausage, raw broccoli, and vinegar and oil. (the oil, vinegar and broccoli, as well as the protein in the sausage are foods that control the speed of the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream).
Exercise helps the body to use sugar and dehydration causes the A1c test (3 month average of blood sugar) to be different.
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197.0 lb
Lost so far: 0 lb.
Still to go: 25.0 lb.
Diet followed N/A.
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