The reason blood glucose levels, and exergy levels are all over the place is predominantly due to the food people eat these days. Processed cereal grains, food that has little nutritional value.

The concept of eating carbs for breakfast every day of your life is lunacy. Blood sugar spike, insulin release to manage plasma glucose levels, blood sugar drops, you feel tired and grumpy, eat something carby mid-morning ,and the cycle continues.

If people were to eat more of a protein and fat based breakfast, this rollercoaster would end after a few days. No-one mentions that er?

I agree with Micheal wholeheartedly, we are creating this problem for ourselves, but no-one knows how to eat any more, so no end is in sight 🙁

I am a believer in protein for breakfast. I slice a scallion shallot (the big one) and then fry it in a little oil. At the same time I beat two eggs and add a little soy sauce before pouring it on the partly fried shallots. It is delicious and keeps me going for hours.

Can anyone help me? I am type 2 diabetic and take 2 metformin per day. Dr. Michael’s book says don’t do it if you are type 1 but as far as I can see, he doesn’t mention type 2. I discussed it with my GP who said that he thought it was not a good idea to do 5:2 which is a pity because I have purchased both books, read them and are raring to go.

I am not a Type 2 diabetic, but there are folks managing type 2 diabetes just fine. Eventually, you may need to reduce your metformin.

It seems your GP would be in favor of you losing weight.

I will agree with what Michaelis sayIing as true to my experience not only for intermittent fasting but most calorie restictio. Diets ive tried.

At first I struggle and have even get the shakes on otger diets. But after a month feel as im conditioned to missing meals, and struggle less.

agree with drummerchen too.

David, do you check your blood sugar levels? If not ask the diabetic nurse tomorrow for a glucose meter and test strips and then you can check how your blood sugars are. Check with the nurse when and how to reduce your medication based on your blood sugars.

Without knowing your diabetes it is impossible to give individual advice, I’m afraid.

David
I urge you to join a diabetes forum. There you may find not just alot of info , but some life long friends. Hopefully some long life friends.

im not expert enough to point to anything, but the group im with keepeachother on the straight a narrow.
Very little room for denial. And denial of diabetes and care there of can make a major difference in the quality of life. Rule of thumb. Get with a group as knowelgble as your doctor. Might as well make the best of it eh?

start walking fitness if possible

best wishes

Diabetes UK do not support or promote IF. Instead they continue to promote a low fat, starch based diet – after all, us diabetics cannot metabolise carbohydrates well, therefore we need to base our diet on plenty of carbohydrates.

“Dietary management of diabetes depends more on eating regularly and including starchy carbohydrate foods like pasta at meals,…”
Six small, starch based meals, the opposite of IF and no longer in line with newer research.

A while back I looked into Bariatric surgery, not for myself but because it seemed an interesting field to work in. The claim is regularly made by those in favour of gastrectomy that patients with Type II Diabetes frequently leave the hospital with normal and stable blood sugar levels – and this is LONG before significant weight is lost.

So my conclusion is, if you can normalise your blood sugar and lose weight without having to undergo this terrible, irreversible procedure, then surely this is the better way to go. Bariatric will condemn you to a lifetime of meal planning and food obsession…you’ll lose weight all right but at what cost??

Yet pro-bariatric doctors don’t tell people that their Type II Diabetes is a reason to avoid Bariatric surgery, quite the reverse.

I am about to embark on the 5:2 but have mild hypoglycemia. I am concerned that on the fast days my sugars will drop and i will feel very tired and shaky. Anyone ?

Sometime ago I did some research on metformin, and was surprised to find a study that found that type 2 diabetics that take metformin have a lower chance of contracting cancer, normally diabetics have a greater chance of contracting cancer than non diabetics, but those on metformin had a slightly lower cancer rate than even non-diabetics.
So for that reason alone I would not be in a hurry to stop taking it.
Google “metformin reduced cancer risk”

Regards Stuart

Those of you who are type 2 diabetic and worried about fasting – have a look at this website . A Canadian nephrologist who got fed up being sent type 2 diabetics with kidney problems because he couldn’t do anything for them – unless he could reduce their blood sugar levels. So he started looking and concluded that type 2 diabetes is a hormonal problem that needs a dietary cure so devised his dietary regime. His method also includes fasting (up to 36 hours). He has recorded several lectures which are worth watching but the information is also there in his blog. Lots of scientific evidence quoted and also lots of case studies of people he has treated (put on his dietary regime!). For those who don’t have T2D the calories and exercise blog entries are really worth reading as well.

http://intensivedietarymanagement.com/category/lectures/type-2-diabetes-lecture-series/

thanks jimitech for thus link. i will checked out

Davidalf “Can anyone help me? I am type 2 diabetic and take 2 metformin per day. Dr. Michael’s book says don’t do it if you are type 1 but as far as I can see, he doesn’t mention type 2. I discussed it with my GP who said that he thought it was not a good idea to do 5:2 which is a pity because I have purchased both books, read them and are raring to go.”

David I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about ten years ago…I no longer take metformin and currently control my blood sugar level entirely with my food choices.

I had to step past the advice given by diqabetes organizations and dieticians, because it was looking like making my problem a lot worse.

I am not a very healthy woman but I don’t need to take diabetes medications anymore thankfully…this allows me to start working through the layers that underlay the problem.

Of course, reducing the waist measurement is a major move in the right direction, anything that supports that is a help.

Good luck.

I would definitely see a doctor as this seems unusual regardless of which diet your on.
Not advice as I’m not a professional and may not give advice… Try going on probiotics for six weeks so it will help to break down what foods you do consume. And plenty of water or green tea with lemon.

Avoid other foods with caffiene in them ie diet soda. To see if if that’s lending to the shaky feelings.
Best wishes.

My 2c on this topic. I have posted in the Type 1 Diabetes thread a few times, and am perusing other threads today. I fainted for the first time in 20 years during a fluorescein retinal scan on my second consecutive fasting day. As a Type 1 diabetic I am very familiar and comfortable with venipuncture, but on this occasion the inexperienced tech failed twice to get an elbow vein and then blew a vein in the back of my hand. At this point, although consciously not panicked – in fact I was reassuring her, I managed to have a deep syncope with minor convulsions. I believe the main cause of the severity was the staff keeping me in a seated position (idiots!) rather than getting me flat. This was on my second fasting day, but my blood sugar was NOT at all low (6.something mmol/l, measured immediately after the event). I can see that various elements of physiology are changed by fasting (why else do it?), and it is POSSIBLE that on the second (consecutive) fasting day, with things farthest from normal, that I am more prone to vasovagal syncope (simplistically I think of this as fainting caused by the brain). It is possible that this can be somewhat generalised to others, and unless you have a reason to have a medical procedure on a second consecutive fasting day, there is a small incentive not to do so.

Simon