I quit smoking 11 years ago, gained 25 lbs, castrated 10 years ago gained 100 lbs. I finally got to 290lbs and last year I started kinda watching my diet and I am back to 260-265 range.

Last week my doctor told me I was diabetic because of my weight. My A1C I think that's what they call it was 6.6 and 6.5 is over the line, my blood sugar has always been around 110 - 118.

So I get home and my son the good son he is asked what happened and I told him and he informed me that we, yes both of us were now on a diet.

Now I have been on a diet my whole life, I see it I eat it, its called the see food diet however he now has me on this eating 5 meals a day 400 calories a meal or less diet, if you go over a little in one meal you cut back the next and try to stay under 2000 calories a day.

We have been on this diet a week, I have not lost any weight yet but its going to happen I can tell. Tonight we had hamburgers with cheese and bacon that is one hamburger, water to drink because its about 500 calories, but for my 3pm snack meal I had an apple and some carrots so I had some to give. I have also started drinking water, god I hate water but I am drinking several glasses a day. I have for the most part cut soda altogether, cut tea to a couple cups in the morning, but every 3 hours all day long we eat.

Tonight I noticed something, I was full after eating my one little hamburger. There could be something to this.

I have also started working out with 3 lb weights, just simple little routine, squats, curls, etc. 3 reps of 10 every other day.

I hope others join in this thread and I will try to post my results over the weeks and months to come.

Counting calories, wow never did this before.

River

Congratulations and hope you stay with it.

I think we all have to change as we get older. Evolve or die. It absolutely astounds me now - having reached an age where all the sins of youth (and middle age) are now rearing up and biting me in the ass - how a lot of those can be brought under control by a change of habits. Habit change is horrible. I keep thinking it is my American right to continue with my bad habits and that modern medicine should save me. Unfortunately, my only actual right is to die from myself or to change myself and delay the end.

Please keep us informed.

I quit smoking 7 years ago and gained over 50 lbs. I was also on the see food diet with soda to drink always. I was up from 178 to 230. My doctor told me that I had Type 2 diabetes 1 year after I quit smoking and my A1C was 6.8 and my blood sugar was running in the 140 to 160 range when I first started checking it, so I quit drinking the soda, mainly coke, and started drinking water along with diet control of calorie intake and I lost back down to 175 by 2009 and I had my A1C down to 5.3 and had my blood sugar between 80 and 100. I then had my orchectomy after doing the chemical castration route along with the alcohol injections. I only noticed a few pound gain and it has stayed at 181 for a while now. I did notice that while I was doing the chemical castration that I could not control my blood sugar very well and my A1C went back up, but I did not have any weight gain, so I attributed the A1C and blood sugar spikes to the meds I was taking. My A1C is now back to 5.3 and my blood sugar stays between 80 and 100 unless I have to take a strong round of prednisone for lung congestion. I now have idiapathic pulmonary fibrosis, so I have to bve extremely cautious about any lung problems. The only cure is a lung transplant and since I am 63, I have opted not to go that route and have been given a couple of years at most to live. Just couldn't bring myself to take a pair of lungs that a young person could get to live a nice long life. I have enjoyed my life and hope that someone younger than I will get the same opportunity. Thanks for reading my health rant.

Yosam

Screw counting calories... if you're looking to lose weight AND you're having problems with blood sugar levels, the solution is simple: go with a diet called the "slow carb" diet. It will fix both of those problems very quickly. Basically all you have to do is quit eating grains of all kinds (breads, grains, corn, rice, and pasta,) cut out corn, potatoes, things with added sugar of any kind, and especially avoid refined sugar. It's simple enough. Insulin is what causes the body to store fat. So if you eat foods that don't spike your blood sugar, necessitating the release of insulin to control it, you will NEVER put on weight, not matter how much you eat.

And yes, I swear by this diet. My girlfriend went on it, and lost 70 lbs in 8 months. The first time I went on it, (and I cheated a LOT during this first try,) I went from 286 lbs down to 246 lbs over the course of a single summer. And now that I'm on it again, and being VERY strict about it (since my HRT has hypothetically made my metabolism crash,) I have gone down from 270 lbs at the beginning of January, to 248 lbs as of yesterday morning. This diet WORKS. And it requires pretty much no sacrifice whatsoever... no counting calories, no exercise required, and you can eat as much bacon, eggs, steak, meat, and cheese as you want, plus smother your vegetables in butter, and you'll still lose a ton of weight. Plus, you're even allowed a "cheat meal" once a week, where you can eat absolutely anything you want. And again, I still lost all of that weight following these extremely non-strict rules.

As for me, right now I am following this diet like a complete maniac. I've spent my entire adult life dealing with gender issues, and as such just kind of quit caring about my body after high school, because I gave up hope of EVER liking the person that I see in the mirror. Well, now that I'm in the middle of gender-transitioning, suddenly I do care. I REALLY care. So I'm with all of you dieters. I'm at 248 lbs right now, and I also feel like a blimp, and I want a feminine figure damn it! So I'm going to be working my ass off to try and get my weight down and my muscle tone up. (Or, in my case, I guess I'm working my ass ON, since one of my goals is to actually give myself a nice "girl butt.")

When I make my iced tea pitcher for the day, I make the tea in 46 ounces of water, one teabag and one packet of sugar.

Then I add a full tray of ice cubes. I learned a long time ago not to use more sugar than that.

I just want the tea to flavor the water.

If I eat more than a cupcake with icing from the supermarket, my stomach goes on a rampage and does nasty things with the sugar.

You can learn to live without it.

cheetaking243 (imported) wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:56 pm Screw counting calories... if you're looking to lose weight AND you're having problems with blood sugar levels, the solution is simple: go with a diet called the "slow carb" diet. It will fix both of those problems very quickly. Basically all you have to do is quit eating grains of all kinds (breads, grains, corn, rice, and pasta,) cut out corn, potatoes, things with added sugar of any kind, and especially avoid refined sugar. It's simple enough. Insulin is what causes the body to store fat. So if you eat foods that don't spike your blood sugar, necessitating the release of insulin to control it, you will NEVER put on weight, not matter how much you eat.

Worked for me; has since 2006. I just quit talking about it because no one wants to listen to me.

No one will eat steak with me, either, but for Jesus A. here.

Other then cutting out the pancakes and biscuits and Gravy I don't need to change much, I have already been cutting back on all the things that are bad and I am already feeling the effects, as for counting calories, yes I need to do this otherwise I can down 3 to 4 thousand a day, counting is a good thing for me, but eating 5 times a day is really helping a lot, in that I am starting to not feel hungry all day. This is a good thing.

I will keep everybody posted on my progress, on how to eat a well balanced meals and loose weight. I don't know if I could go to the extreme that Paolo does, however I have made what I think is a good start, everything in moderation.

River

I wish to thank all who have made suggestions as to diet.

I know that what ever diet I pick and there seem to be many it must be one I can live with, it will do any good to have a diet that I can't or wont keep up. One of the things the VA who monitors my health has said is change 5 things. I have actually been doing this sense last summer and I have lost 25 lbs. Now is time to kick it up so until I decide its not working or something else comes along its down to this.

1. work out, exercise.

2. NO pop, coke, soda.

3. Water, I hate water and I am on my 8th glass today.

4. Salt, I love salt, I put it away, No salt.

5. White bread, flour, sweet rolls, pie crust, etc. This will be the hardest as I have never met a flour I didn't like. But if its white is out.

Things I already don't do,

Eat out,

packaged foods,

New diet, 5 meals a day, which is working out.

I will try to post each week how its working.

River

I've found that after my adventure a few weeks ago in the woods, I need to lighten my workout a bit.

When you are falling, and in midair, have enough time to think "this is gonna really hurt when I land," you know you're overdoing it.

I am thinking workout in my living room, its safer.

River