Whoever invented carbs should be shot

Do you know if IR can be cured?  I did not have my fasting insulin tested pre op (because I didn't know anything about this condition), but at 6 months post op the level was 9 and at 1 year it was 3.  Just curious if you know anything about that as I have eaten the way liveinphx does even through my losing phase.  Of course, I have been an exerciser for many, many years so that may factor in..dunno.

Laura

I don't know how anyone can eat completely carb free. They are everywhere! I don't eat bread, peas, carrots, tomatoes, pasta or rice. But there are carbs in my salad dressing, ketchup, etc.

I try to eat low carb but I am amazed at howany things have a higher carb count than I expected.  Also,  I get sick of my Greek Yogurt with Davinci SF syrup in it   Some of the brands that are flavored are pretty high carb, but I have to have a treat some days!

BTW, I don't get how living in PHX has such a tiny font.

Hiya Sassy... I don't eat no carb but I do eat low carb.  I manage to keep my carbs very low because I make all of my own foods.  Even if I eat ketchup, I make my own ketchup without all the corn syrup. 

To make it easy on myself I cook once a day enough for the whole day long, then eat that all day.  So I might make chicken salad and eat that for all meals, or soup, etc.

Damn I never knew my font came across small. It looked OK on my end. Is this better?  Thanks for the heads up.

No cure right now but it can be improved with low carb diets, exercise, etc.  I was pre-diabetic at one point with higher blood fasting numbers and a1c, but I reversed all of that to normal levels with lifestyle changes. 

Not easy and I have to keep it up for life, so I had to really come to terms with that emotionally.  Losing weight and exercising will improve your IR but it might not last forever, and you may find yourself having to go lower later.. time will tell.

Keep it up for life.  That's what just struck me in your post.  I had an adventure in Fruitville last week.  No white stuff or refined carbs, just some berries and a piece of fruit each day for a week.  This week I feel like I'm detoxing from a huge sugar binge.  I'm exhausted, want to sleep, lethargic and YUCK!   You're so right, I think this is for life for me.  Last week was an experiment and I'm not liking the results at all.  Even with hours of exercise it still hit me like a ton of bricks.  This week I'm eyeing everyone's carbs and craving them, but not partaking.  I hope the fructose leaves my body soon!!

Yep, I'm like that with fruit too... and people make you think fruit should be OK because the sugars are "natural".  They did an experiment comparing pure glucose and pure fructose, and the fructose was higher glycemic that pure glucose! 

Of course fruits have fiber that will slow down the impact so you can't directly compare to distilled fructose, but many fruits tend to be very high glycemic.  If you do ever end up going to fruits again, try choosing berries like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.  Those tend to have less of an impact.

But I've never had to go low carb in order to lose weight.  I can just count calories and my weight goes down.  I've always had normal blood sugar and normal a1c levels.  If I had IR, I don't think I would have gotten down to a 21 BMI eating carbs on a regular basis...so my guess is that I do not have it and that's why I can eat them.  I mean I eat oatmeal, fiber one, grape nuts and whole wheat tortillas on a daily basis among other things.  There really is nothing I don't eat, but my VSG has really killed my desire for eating in general. 

My whole issue is that I have developed terrible GI issues...bad gas and constipation and I just can't eat enough volume of veggies and fruits to move things along.  So I use flax meal and the above cereals and high fiber tortillas to help.  Don't really know what else to do.  I already use Miralax and stool softeners regularly.

Laura

P.S.  Thanks for all you contribute to this board.  I for one, really appreciate you!

Hi Laura.. thank you for your kind words.. they are much appreciated!  You may well not be insulin resistant. Not everyone who ends up overweight is.. just a large percentage but there always exceptions and we have to be aware of those. Losing weight tends to be a matter of calories in and calories out for some, and for some the quality of calories are really important as well.

What is also important is that even if you lose weight at higher carb levels, carbs don't really do much for your body in terms of building cells, lubricating joints.. they can only be used for energy.  You might not have to workout so frequently if you lowered your carb level, or if you were ever to be in a situation with injury where you couldn't do as much physically, you might find that what you eat has to change to maintain.

I don't personally recommend higher amounts of carbs for moving things along digestion wise.  There are a few things I recommend that are much better than fiber, which some theories say actually slows things down and doesn't help at all.  I recommend increased fluid intake, digestive enzymes, magnesium supplementation, increased fat intake and probiotic supplementation.  These things tend to be VERY helpful.

I also would say that if you are going to eat carbs, you'd be much better off with veggies and fruits than all of those grains, which tend to contribute to feeding intestinal bacteria and will increase gas and decrease intestinal motility. :(  The way of eating I recommend for weight loss and for general health really isn't all that different.. mostly I would just say to maintain your weight add more calories in the form of fats, since that tends to slow things down but with good quality calories (assuming you are always getting plenty of protein). Hope that helps and hugs...

Thanks for the recommendations!  I do use Primal Defense Ultra and recently began a broad spectrum digestive enzyme taken with meals.  But I do tend to eat low fat...not really trying to but it just happens.  Maybe lack of fat is the issue.  Fluid intake is very high, so that's not it either.  But the fat thing may well be the issue.  Curiously, I never had these GI issues before surgery, ever.  And I always ate a well rounded diet...just too much of it, ya know.  So I'm guessing this problem is a by product of the VSG.

Laura