Diet for metabolic syndrome?

[Drama Llama]

DH has been diagnosed with this.  It's a medication side effect, and since the medication is pretty high priority, I think he's likely not going to be able to reverse it, but managing it and slowing it down seems worth trying.  

I read the other thread about Type 2, but I think some of the advice there would overwhelm him.  I don't think we've got the organizational capacity, for example, to keep a journal of everything he eats and test is blood sugar and compare it.  On the other hand, he doesn't eat much outside the house, so a strategy of meals that fall within some kind of parameters, and only having healthy snacks might be manageable.    

Anyway, what would dietary intervention look like? What foods to increase?  Avoid?  Are there ideas for scheduling (e.g. eat carbs earlier in the day or something?)

[kbutton]

16 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I don't think we've got the organizational capacity, for example, to keep a journal of everything he eats and test is blood sugar and compare it.  On the other hand, he doesn't eat much outside the house, so a strategy of meals that fall within some kind of parameters, and only having healthy snacks might be manageable.    

Anyway, what would dietary intervention look like? What foods to increase?  Avoid?  Are there ideas for scheduling (e.g. eat carbs earlier in the day or something?)

If you're good at pattern recognition, it doesn't require journaling to see how different foods influence blood sugar. 

I would add more non-starchy veggies.

Carbs early in the day are really bad for me. Later in the day works better.

I read an article about eating non-starchy veggies before eating carbs, and the idea is that the rise from baseline after such a meal is less drastic than without eating non-starchy veggies first (and holds true for non-diabetic people too).

[deBij]

Dr. Fuhrman has a plan based on nutrient dense food, and you just eat freely the list.  No need to track.   

Granted, it is a challenge to adjust to the food choices, but it works and less choices simplify life.   It could provide you with the parameters (little meat, no processed food)

It is also an easier diet to do in the summer as there are a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables (I live where there is a long winter).

[Drama Llama]

3 minutes ago, kbutton said:

If you're good at pattern recognition, it doesn't require journaling to see how different foods influence blood sugar. 

I'm not sure how this would work without lots of blood testing?  

3 minutes ago, kbutton said:

I would add more non-starchy veggies.

Carbs early in the day are really bad for me. Later in the day works better.

I read an article about eating non-starchy veggies before eating carbs, and the idea is that the rise from baseline after such a meal is less drastic than without eating non-starchy veggies first (and holds true for non-diabetic people too).

Do you mean like non-starchy vegetables for breakfast and then carbs for lunch?  Or do you mean like eat your salad before you eat your brown rice at the same meal?  

[Shoeless]

14 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I'm not sure how this would work without lots of blood testing?  

Do you mean like non-starchy vegetables for breakfast and then carbs for lunch?  Or do you mean like eat your salad before you eat your brown rice at the same meal?  

Eat the salad before the rice. You want the fiber in the veggies to blunt the effects of the carbs in the rice. 

[Drama Llama]

4 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Eat the salad before the rice. You want the fiber in the veggies to blunt the effects of the carbs in the rice. 

Are you saying that if he's got a plate of say broccoli, salmon, and some brown rice, that eating the broccoli first would be better than eating a bite of this and then a bite of that, assuming the quantities are the same?  

[Drama Llama]

Sorry, I know I'm asking a lot of questions. 

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

Are you saying that if he's got a plate of say broccoli, salmon, and some brown rice, that eating the broccoli first would be better than eating a bite of this and then a bite of that, assuming the quantities are the same?  

Yes, that's what I am saying, although with a meal like that, it probably doesn't matter much.  Salmon won't spike blood sugar, and brown rice has fiber.  If he was eating ham, mac and cheese, and a spinach salad, I would say eat the salad first, then everything else.

It's not your job to micromanage which bites he takes first.I 'm just putting that out there because. There's only so much you can do.

[Drama Llama]

7 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Yes, that's what I am saying, although with a meal like that, it probably doesn't matter much.  Salmon won't spike blood sugar, and brown rice has fiber.  If he was eating ham, mac and cheese, and a spinach salad, I would say eat the salad first, then everything else.

It's not your job to micromanage which bites he takes first.I 'm just putting that out there because. There's only so much you can do.

Thanks!

That is an interesting thought.  

I don't eat most meals with him so I couldn't micromanage his bites even if I wanted to.

[prairiewindmomma]

30 min of exercise (even walking) after a lower carb meal is probably the easiest advice…. 

 

 

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, prairiewindmomma said:

30 min of exercise (even walking) after a lower carb meal is probably the easiest advice…. 

 

 

He was pretty committed to exercise before he got sick, and he's hoping to go back to work in a pretty active job, so I think for him exercise will be easier than diet.  

Although his diet wasn't bad before.  

[mathnerd]

Someone once said to me that there is no diabetes if there are no carbs in the diet. I use this philosophy as a guide for myself as I come from a long line of people prone to severe diabetes. In simpler terms, stick to a diet that is as close to a keto-ish diet as possible with very minimal carbs (shoot for less than 50 g of carbs, even lesser if the person can deal with it), eat all the foods for the day within a shorter time window (Intermittent Fasting), avoid simple carbs and liquid calories, eat vegetables and salads as often as you can, avoid fruit that are very sugary, walk for 10 minutes after a meal.

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I'm not sure how this would work without lots of blood testing?  

Do you mean like non-starchy vegetables for breakfast and then carbs for lunch?  Or do you mean like eat your salad before you eat your brown rice at the same meal?  

The way I read it was the structure of checking blood and then journaling was too much. It doesn't take a lot of time to check the blood sugar. It does help if you know how much of a serving you are eating so that you know what 16 grams of carbs vs. 32 grams of carbs does. I tried to eat similar amounts of carbs per serving, and then just compared my body's response to each food (I think of them like various sizes of Legos, lol!). Some things are really obvious for me--brown rice sends my blood sugar through the roof, but corn, not so much. I can do oat bran, steel cut oats, or my GF oat crackers (small serving), but I can't do quick oats or rolled oats--it's so bad that they are just off the table (all unsweetened). It didn't take weeks of investigation to figure that out. It was just obvious. Sometimes I can tell by how I feel, but not always. It did take some pattern recognition skills to figure out what times of day were the best for me to eat carbs. 

Yes, eat the salad first. Veggies blunting the effects of the blood sugar rise is meal-specific according to the article I read (which I don't think I'd be able to find again).

For me, I can't eat carbs at all in the morning because my fasting glucose is already high, but that isn't what I meant in regard to the article. I eat eggs for breakfast, but recently I've been trying to do intermittent fasting, so I am just waiting to eat until lunch. I am less hungry overall if I do that. I am sure there are individual differences with regard to timing carbs. 

Also, I have heard that you don't want to string out a meal; you want to eat in a fairly small window of time and not snack your way to the next meal to let your blood sugar go back down between meals. It doesn't mean zero snacks, especially if you do have a big gap between meals and/or eat things that don't bother your blood sugar, but when I hear advice to eat 6 small meals per day for weight loss, I just roll my eyes. That's the best way to yo-yo my blood sugar and make me crazy hungry, lol!

1 hour ago, MissLemon said:

Yes, that's what I am saying, although with a meal like that, it probably doesn't matter much.  Salmon won't spike blood sugar, and brown rice has fiber.  If he was eating ham, mac and cheese, and a spinach salad, I would say eat the salad first, then everything else.

It's not your job to micromanage which bites he takes first.I 'm just putting that out there because. There's only so much you can do.

I put the idea out there because she asked about scheduling. It seems like a similar level of effort, but yeah, he will only do what he's willing to. I hope he finds some things he can try from the list of suggestions!

I can't eat brown rice at all, though I do tolerate some GF products made with it. Fiber doesn't fix it all, at least in my case. It really varies a lot by what substance I am eating. Same number of carbs per serving with different forms of oatmeal, corn, rice, beans, etc. are all wildly different to my body (I have been gluten free for a long time--maybe ten years?). 

[Toocrazy!!]

As I said on the other post, I’ve been trying to learn about this and have been using a continuous glucose monitor for the last month or so.
Everyone is different, but I think MOST people do best with lower carb in the morning- concentrating on fats and protein. Walking after a meal almost always helps. If I eat low carb I can get away with 10 minutes. But anything else, I need to do 30 minutes or so. 
if you are on Instagram, there is someone called glucose goddess who talks about spikes and has some hacks that might be helpful. I haven’t read her book, but it seems more user friendly than some others that were recommended. 
im not sure how medicine would affect these ideas though, in contrast too regular metabolic struggles. 

[Shoeless]

12 minutes ago, kbutton said:

The way I read it was the structure of checking blood and then journaling was too much. It doesn't take a lot of time to check the blood sugar. It does help if you know how much of a serving you are eating so that you know what 16 grams of carbs vs. 32 grams of carbs does. I tried to eat similar amounts of carbs per serving, and then just compared my body's response to each food (I think of them like various sizes of Legos, lol!). Some things are really obvious for me--brown rice sends my blood sugar through the roof, but corn, not so much. I can do oat bran, steel cut oats, or my GF oat crackers (small serving), but I can't do quick oats or rolled oats--it's so bad that they are just off the table (all unsweetened). It didn't take weeks of investigation to figure that out. It was just obvious. Sometimes I can tell by how I feel, but not always. It did take some pattern recognition skills to figure out what times of day were the best for me to eat carbs. 

Yes, eat the salad first. Veggies blunting the effects of the blood sugar rise is meal-specific according to the article I read (which I don't think I'd be able to find again).

For me, I can't eat carbs at all in the morning because my fasting glucose is already high, but that isn't what I meant in regard to the article. I eat eggs for breakfast, but recently I've been trying to do intermittent fasting, so I am just waiting to eat until lunch. I am less hungry overall if I do that. I am sure there are individual differences with regard to timing carbs. 

Also, I have heard that you don't want to string out a meal; you want to eat in a fairly small window of time and not snack your way to the next meal to let your blood sugar go back down between meals. It doesn't mean zero snacks, especially if you do have a big gap between meals and/or eat things that don't bother your blood sugar, but when I hear advice to eat 6 small meals per day for weight loss, I just roll my eyes. That's the best way to yo-yo my blood sugar and make me crazy hungry, lol!

I put the idea out there because she asked about scheduling. It seems like a similar level of effort, but yeah, he will only do what he's willing to. I hope he finds some things he can try from the list of suggestions!

I can't eat brown rice at all, though I do tolerate some GF products made with it. Fiber doesn't fix it all, at least in my case. It really varies a lot by what substance I am eating. Same number of carbs per serving with different forms of oatmeal, corn, rice, beans, etc. are all wildly different to my body (I have been gluten free for a long time--maybe ten years?). 

We do brown rice, but not very much if it any more. Like, 1/4-1/3 cup cooked per person. Any more than that is too much. I am not super low -carb; I stay around 125-150 grams/day. I've become very sensitive to blood sugar spikes. If I go too heavy with the carbs, I get hangry from the glucose crash and will spend the entire day chasing that hunger. Most of my carbs come from dairy, fruit, and rolled oats. 

[Drama Llama]

I'm trying to think of what's realistic.

On one hand, the meds make him hungry, and brain fogged.  Anything that requires him to count, or notice patterns, or stop eating before he's satisfied isn't going to work.  He's got a lot of hard work to do on his mental health recovery, so this needs to be easy.  

On the other hand, he's not at all picky, and he's kind of lazy about food.  He'll eat whatever's in the house.  I couldn't say buy ice cream and say "that's not for you".  But on the other hand, if there was no ice cream in the house he'd just eat something else. And if I teach him a recipe, he's likely to make it over and over again as opposed to experimenting.  For example, I taught him how to make a smoothie, and I'm pretty sure he drinks that smothie every day.  So, if I was like "oh make this smoothie instead", he'd do that.  This is up to a point.  If I made the whole house vegan, i think he'd be miserable and really he needs all the help with self regulation he can get.  Or he'd go find food and it would be taco bell or 7 11 hot dogs or something.  

To make this more challenging, he lives with Pop who can't afford to lose weight, but Pop is over here for dinner like 5 nights a week so I can take advantage of that.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

Breakfast- scrambled eggs with veggies 

lunch- big salad with protein of his choice 

snack-  vegetables with lunch meat (or something along that line)

dinner-  vegetables with protein (stir fry, modular meals etc. ). 

[kbutton]

3 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

On one hand, the meds make him hungry, and brain fogged.  Anything that requires him to count, or notice patterns, or stop eating before he's satisfied isn't going to work.  He's got a lot of hard work to do on his mental health recovery, so this needs to be easy.  

On the other hand, he's not at all picky, and he's kind of lazy about food.  He'll eat whatever's in the house.  I couldn't say buy ice cream and say "that's not for you".  But on the other hand, if there was no ice cream in the house he'd just eat something else. And if I teach him a recipe, he's likely to make it over and over again as opposed to experimenting. 

I can say with confidence that keeping my blood sugar controlled means I am less hungry. I don't know how meds might change this equation, but being less hungry is a big motivation to be careful. (It can take a few days to get used to eating differently before the hunger leaves, but it really is remarkable.)

If he's too overloaded to see a pattern, making a pattern behaviorally from the get-go and observing responses might work just as well; it's just the same thing but backwards. (Starting the day with few to now carbs, eating a pretty standardized amount of carbs at particular meals, walking after meals, etc. are all patterns that could be established; maybe sticking to a consistent set of meal times would help too.) If he feels policed, that's not good, but if he thinks it's a good idea, it could feel freeing to have kind of a routine around eating (especially if there are ideas for exceptions to normal activities--some kind of backup plan for busy days and schedule disruptions).  Is the doctor willing to run an A1C more frequently if testing his blood is going to be too much? I would think every 2-3 months might be good feedback if he's wanting to see what works.

BTW, glucose monitors can keep track of a number of readings in a row (usually several days of them), and you can set the date/time so that you can look back and see what the readings are. It's not that he has to keep track on his own. 

[Drama Llama]

He hasn't seen his doctor yet.  They ran labs in the hospital, but he needs to see his local doctor next week.  

Would a glucose monitor be much use without data on what he eats?  

[wathe]

Dh has this.  He is not interested in complicated diets.  He follows a very simple rule:  For each meal, visually divide the plate into quarters.  Half of the plate should be vegetables, one quarter lean protein, one quarter complex carbohydrate.  It works for him.

[Laura Corin]

24 minutes ago, wathe said:

Dh has this.  He is not interested in complicated diets.  He follows a very simple rule:  For each meal, visually divide the plate into quarters.  Half of the plate should be vegetables, one quarter lean protein, one quarter complex carbohydrate.  It works for him.

That's pretty much what I aim for for the family anyway, without specific illness. It's much easier to have the visual hint.

[Drama Llama]

4 hours ago, wathe said:

Dh has this.  He is not interested in complicated diets.  He follows a very simple rule:  For each meal, visually divide the plate into quarters.  Half of the plate should be vegetables, one quarter lean protein, one quarter complex carbohydrate.  It works for him.

And have all the various numbers gotten better?  

 

[freesia]

8 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Breakfast- scrambled eggs with veggies 

lunch- big salad with protein of his choice 

snack-  vegetables with lunch meat (or something along that line)

dinner-  vegetables with protein (stir fry, modular meals etc. ). 

This would absolutely work. Since it’s grain free, you could have him add a set amount of grain each meal and see what happens. Light bread has fewer carbs. Stay away from any white rice or flour. 

[Drama Llama]

3 hours ago, freesia said:

This would absolutely work. Since it’s grain free, you could have him add a set amount of grain each meal and see what happens. Light bread has fewer carbs. Stay away from any white rice or flour. 

What grains would you pick? Are some better than others? 

[Carol in Cal.]

It is good to look at total carbs, but especially glycemic index.  That’s a measure of how fast the carbs hit your blood sugar, because if it’s fast, BS will spike and cause damage.

Rice generally has a horrible glycemic index, and although brown is healthier than white in other ways, it’s not much different in GI.  Oatmeal has a medium GI so it’s easier to control BS with it.

Generally if he goes for a 10 minute brisk walk after ever time he eats, that helps a lot.  It takes very little exercise to reduce insulin resistance and hence prevent large BS spikes.

You might read ‘Reversing Diabetes’ by Whitaker.  It’s got a lot of research based hints like that in it, and many of them are quite easy to implement.

[wathe]

4 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

And have all the various numbers gotten better?  

 

Yes.  

II should have added that he also cut down on fast food. - the quarter plate rule is pretty much impossible at McD's, LOL.

[Drama Llama]

Is he 10 minutes exercise after eating a specific thing or just a way to make it easy to get exercise?  DH is going to be workinv construction and he’s a pretty committed runner and weight lifter.  But he doesn’t do either of those tings right after eating, except maybe working after a lunch break.

[Drama Llama]

3 minutes ago, wathe said:

Yes.  

II should have added that he also cut down on fast food. - the quarter plate rule is pretty much impossible at McD's, LOL.

The thing is that’s kinda how he ate before.  Maybe an occasional fast food meal if he had unexpected overtime although not for a few years.  It’s part of why I feel like it’s the meds, since it’s a known side effect.

What does your DH eat for breakfast? 

[Carol in Cal.]

3 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

Is he 10 minutes exercise after eating a specific thing or just a way to make it easy to get exercise?  DH is going to be workinv construction and he’s a pretty committed runner and weight lifter.  But he doesn’t do either of those tings right after eating, except maybe working after a lunch break.

It’s specific.

The purpose is to immediately reduce insulin resistance right when you need it most—after eating—which enables the blood sugar to be quickly taken into your cells rather than circulating in your blood building up to the BS spike.  Even in people without blood sugar control issues, blood sugar rise after eating is reduced this way.  

The benefit of running and weight lifting is also important but is a separate effect that is more about overall health, particularly aerobic health.

[Drama Llama]

9 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

 

You might read ‘Reversing Diabetes’ by Whitaker.  It’s got a lot of research based hints like that in it, and many of them are quite easy to implement.

I will check it out 

[Drama Llama]

2 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

It’s specific.

The purpose is to immediately reduce insulin resistance right when you need it most—after eating—which enables the blood sugar to be quickly taken into your cells rather than circulating in your blood building up to the BS spike.  Even in people without blood sugar control issues, blood sugar rise after eating is reduced this way.  

The benefit of running and weight lifting is also important but is a separate effect that is more about overall health, particularly aerobic health.

And is it walking specific?  Like if he waited and ate breakfast at a worksite right before work would that work?

[ScoutTN]

High fat foods like avocado or whole milk dairy will help him feel satisfied. Use good fats - evoo, high quality butter or ghee, unrefined coconut oil, lard from pastured hogs in cooking. Fat creates satiety without increasing blood sugar. 
 

 

[Drama Llama]

3 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

High fat foods like avocado or whole milk dairy will help him feel satisfied. Use good fats - evoo, high quality butter or ghee, unrefined coconut oil, lard from pastured hogs in cooking. Fat creates satiety without increasing blood sugar. 
 

 

But won’t those hurt the other pieces of metabolic syndrome — triglycerides and waist size etc . . .?

[ScoutTN]

If the problem is a side-effect of medication, then is cannot be “reversed”, only compensated for. 

Same with autoimmune related T2, where the body is attacking itself. T2 created by poor eating habits and lack of exercise can usually be corrected, but not all cases can. 
 

When medicine learns how to stop or prevent autoimmune diseases, so much suffering will go away. So many people on these boards with fibromyalgia, lupus, Hashimoto’s, etc. 

[TarynB]

6 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

But won’t those hurt the other pieces of metabolic syndrome — triglycerides and waist size etc . . .?

No, high triglycerides are driven by too much sugar/carbs, not fat.

[Drama Llama]

2 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

If the problem is a side-effect of medication, then is cannot be “reversed”, only compensated for. 

Same with autoimmune related T2, where the body is attacking itself. T2 created by poor eating habits and lack of exercise can usually be corrected, but not all cases can. 
 

When medicine learns how to stop or prevent autoimmune diseases, so much suffering will go away. So many people on these boards with fibromyalgia, lupus, Hashimoto’s, etc. 

Yeah I think the goal is to slow it down I don’t think we can reverse it.

But exercise is crucial to his mental health and I feel like we are at risk of him gaining enough weight that his body doesn’t work the way he wants it to.

 

[ScoutTN]

3 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

But won’t those hurt the other pieces of metabolic syndrome — triglycerides and waist size etc . . .?

No. I eat plenty of good fats, including animal products and my triglycerides are excellent. Not overweight, very good BMI. Carbs are what send those things sky high, ime.

Caveat that individual biochemistry may vary, but as a general rule, the science shows that sugar, refined carbs, and just straight up too many carbs cause high blood sugar and all the associated ills. 

[Carol in Cal.]

20 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

And is it walking specific?  Like if he waited and ate breakfast at a worksite right before work would that work?

The research Whitaker cited was walking specific.  I don’t know whether that’s because it’s the only thing that works, or just that it’s what was studied.  I attended a diabetes management class to support someone else, and we did a brief chair dancing warm up, and measured blood sugar before and afterwards, and it dropped for all of us, so maybe it doesn’t have to be walking.  I’m just not sure.

[wathe]

23 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

The thing is that’s kinda how he ate before.  Maybe an occasional fast food meal if he had unexpected overtime although not for a few years.  It’s part of why I feel like it’s the meds, since it’s a known side effect.

What does your DH eat for breakfast? 

Dh has been doing his "diet" for 20 years now - the most important thing about it is that it's been sustainable over the long term.  

His metabolic syndrome/hypertriglyceridemia is familial, not secondary to meds.

Breakfast wrap:  egg or egg white (alternates) on whole grain tortilla with copious salsa.  Quarter plate rule gets ignored at breakfast, apparently - but still complex/whole grain carb and lean protein.

[prairiewindmomma]

I have autoimmune and medication induced weight gain. My endo advised half a plate veggies, 1/4 plate protein, 1/4 plate grains or fruit.  
 

This is lifestyle change, not a temporary diet if he’s on a needed medication. It has to be mentally sustainable—if it feels too deprived it won’t last.

Edited April 16, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[Drama Llama]

Just now, prairiewindmomma said:

I have autoimmune and medication induced weight gain. My endo advised half a plate veggies, 1/4 plate protein, 1/4 plate grains or fruit.  
 

This is lifestyle change, not a temporary diet if he’s on a needed medication. It has to be mentally sustainable. 

What do you eat for breakfast?

Part of where I am struggling is that that is how we eat, well plus fruit.  So on one hand l know it’s sustainable, but on the other hand I don’t have a lot of confidence.

[freesia]

1 hour ago, Baseballandhockey said:

What grains would you pick? Are some better than others? 

Some are, but this is where the testing comes in which I know you said may not work for him. I can have a few tortilla chips or one taco shell, but no brown rice or potatoes. Others can. You could just advise him to stick to 1/3 of a cup per meal of a whole grain ( personally I wouldn’t do potatoes) and then see how that goes when he repeats his tests (4 months??). If he uses bread, have him use light or thin sliced. 

[freesia]

59 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

High fat foods like avocado or whole milk dairy will help him feel satisfied. Use good fats - evoo, high quality butter or ghee, unrefined coconut oil, lard from pastured hogs in cooking. Fat creates satiety without increasing blood sugar. 
 

 

Much of the time. When I had GD and now over the past few months fat does raise my blood sugar. 

[freesia]

47 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

No. I eat plenty of good fats, including animal products and my triglycerides are excellent. Not overweight, very good BMI. Carbs are what send those things sky high, ime.

Caveat that individual biochemistry may vary, but as a general rule, the science shows that sugar, refined carbs, and just straight up too many carbs cause high blood sugar and all the associated ills. 

Me, too. I have really good triglycerides and am normal weight. Until the past few months I have been able to eat without thinking about fats. 

[freesia]

15 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

What do you eat for breakfast?

Part of where I am struggling is that that is how we eat, well plus fruit.  So on one hand l know it’s sustainable, but on the other hand I don’t have a lot of confidence.

I eat one slice of light bread with peanut butter for breakfast. Sometime I’ll eat an omelet. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

16 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

What do you eat for breakfast?

Part of where I am struggling is that that is how we eat, well plus fruit.  So on one hand l know it’s sustainable, but on the other hand I don’t have a lot of confidence.

The meals that you have posted on this forum have had a LOT more carbs than I can eat.  Which is why I posted the sample diet I did.  I can add one gluten free flaxseed muffin to breakfast but nothing more.  And I can add perhaps 1/2 cup of brown rice at dinner (most of the time when I have brown rice I actually pay for it a bit in higher blood sugars.) 

[prairiewindmomma]

21 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

What do you eat for breakfast?

Part of where I am struggling is that that is how we eat, well plus fruit.  So on one hand l know it’s sustainable, but on the other hand I don’t have a lot of confidence.

Maybe it would be helpful to share what my Dh eats? I can only have about 1000-1200 calories a day without weight gain. Breakfast looks like intermittent fasting or two eggs cooked with no butter or a spinach/blueberry/flaxseed smoothie for me. 
 

For Dh:

veggie omelet scramble—he adds cheese, I cannot when I join him

leftover chicken breast + cherry tomatoes

protein shake + handful of nuts mid morning

His body does best under 50 carbs. Essentially, he has no grains, but he can eat whatever meat, veg, and fats he wants and lose considerable weight. My body does not handle food this way.

 

[sassenach]

I don't have much to add but I was SHOCKED when ds was put on depakote, just how much it impacted his metabolism. Years ago, I remember my cousin going on it and when he gained a bunch of weight, everyone blamed increased hunger- oh this med makes you more hungry, so you eat more and gain weight. Well, ds is tube fed and on a strict formula diet, so there was no way his caloric intake had increased. Ds gained so much weight that we had to lower his intake to balance it out. He's off of it now but I think his metabolism has been permanently impacted.

[prairiewindmomma]

Same with my dd and depakote for her seizures. Meds can be awful and wonderful at the same time.

My weight gain was from steroids but my wonky thyroid makes it hard to take it back off.

[Jean in Newcastle]

11 minutes ago, sassenach said:

I don't have much to add but I was SHOCKED when ds was put on depakote, just how much it impacted his metabolism. Years ago, I remember my cousin going on it and when he gained a bunch of weight, everyone blamed increased hunger- oh this med makes you more hungry, so you eat more and gain weight. Well, ds is tube fed and on a strict formula diet, so there was no way his caloric intake had increased. Ds gained so much weight that we had to lower his intake to balance it out. He's off of it now but I think his metabolism has been permanently impacted.

I have weaned myself off of my metabolism affecting med (with my neurologist's assistance).  My metabolism hasn't improved.  Sigh.  But it's only been a month, so who knows. . .