Topic: Diabetic considerations for eating and training?

[Dave In Odessa]

What a crappy week I've had this week.  Monday my Grandmother passed away, Tuesday I found out I'm diabetic with numbers through the roof, and wednesday an uncle that I was very close to passed away.  All of this has got me re-focused on losing weight and increasing my mtb skills and fitness so I can start some racing. 

With that said, does anyone have experience eating and training with diabetes?  Obviously staying away from simple carbs helps with losing weight and diabetes, but do I need to alter the "optimum" ratio of carbs/fats/proteins to keep my blood sugar in check? 

Does anyone have any recommended reading on the subject? 

[Gregg]

What type of diabetes do you have. If it is adult onset (type 2 i think?) you should be able to control it with a well balanced nutritious diet which will along with the riding and some other excersize will bring your weight where it needs to be. I was teetering on the edge of diabetic danger prior to my big weight loss, and now have no issues whatsoever (regarding that at least).


I would stay away from any 'fad' diets and focus on balance.

[Dave In Odessa]

Type 2 adult onset. 

Wow Gregg, I didn't know you had a big weight loss.  What did you weigh before? 

[Gregg]

Type 2 adult onset. 

Wow Gregg, I didn't know you had a big weight loss.  What did you weigh before? 

i lost about 65 pounds starting at thanksgiving last year, and about 25 ish the previous two years. So I weighed alot. Cholesterol was over 330 triglycerides were in the 600 range and blood sugar was in the middle 100's. It is all fixed now. It is really as simple as a balanced diet and keeping track of what you put in and how much you burn off.

I would recommend the website that I used to track www.myfooddiary.com. It is tedious at first, but you will really see how many calories and what they are made up of if you do it right. I still use it.  If you do this right, it will change your life...that is not an exaggeration.

[Dave In Odessa]

wow man, not to sound too sappy, but I admire your fitness and riding skills anyway, to know you lost that much weight and turned your health around makes me admire you even more.

I'm unfortunately in worse health than you are.  My triglycerides are 3300 and that's not a typo.  Cholesterol is 268, blood sugar hovering around 400, A1C is a 9 on a scale of 1-7 HAHA.

Unfortunately I'm addicted to food, and its the one bad habit you can't quit cold turkey.  I think I just need to focus on training and racing to motivate me to become more fit. 

I've seen myfooddiary mentioned here and on MTBR, I'm going to check it out now.

[Gregg]

wow man, not to sound too sappy, but I admire your fitness and riding skills anyway, to know you lost that much weight and turned your health around makes me admire you even more.

I'm unfortunately in worse health than you are.  My triglycerides are 3300 and that's not a typo.  Cholesterol is 268, blood sugar hovering around 400, A1C is a 9 on a scale of 1-7 HAHA.

Unfortunately I'm addicted to food, and its the one bad habit you can't quit cold turkey.  I think I just need to focus on training and racing to motivate me to become more fit. 

I've seen myfooddiary mentioned here and on MTBR, I'm going to check it out now.

Holy crap!!! 3300, did the doc put on Tricor?


Listen, you don't need to quit eating you have to find different foods to eat. I eat constantly ( I am eating right now!) Start right away if you put it off you won't do it.  The first week or two is the hardest, after that you start to crave the foods that are better for you. When I am done riding I crave a salad. I eat a TON of salad. It is filling and as long as you measure out the dressing you can eat as much as you want. Trust me. It will work....

If you want to talk off line more about it, just hit me up with a pm, and i will give you my cell.

[Garry]

http://www.trainingandrecipeexchange.com/recipes.html

http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

http://fitandbeyond.com/

[Dave In Odessa]

Thanks for all of the links and advice!  I've known I needed to get in shape for a very long time, but this has been the push that I needed. 

I've been eating alot better and alot less, I'm riding an exercise bike 20 minutes before work every day, and its really starting to pay off.  I've already dropped a few pounds, and I'm very happy to report I just checked my blood sugar after lunch and it was 190!  I went from over 400 to 190 in less than 2 weeks. 

I enjoyed a great ride by myself at hole in the fence this morning too (which I'm sure helped my sugar) but it was nice being able to set my own pace and break schedule because I found I don't need as many or as long breaks as we've been taking.  Now to get my wife on my schedule 

[Dave In Odessa]

Oh, I also bought a Garmin Forerunner 305 so I can better track my riding and quantify my training.

[SandPine]

Dave,
Sorry to hear about the recent events in your life.  MTB can definitely help you but NOT totally.  Also consider riding road more.  What I found out two years ago that it didn't matter how much I rode.  I if I didn't balance my food intake (habit changes), and added a bit of weight training to go along with the ton of cardio workouts (cycling) I was doing, I was not going to drop any weight.  ++ to what Gregg said.  There are several good food tracking online tools you can use.  The one I use is http://www.sparkpeople.com  It is just not a tracking tool but a community of many types of groups.  It allows you to track what you eat but it takes you through a process.  You setup your goals and it tailors you calories/carbos/fat/cholesterol/etc... intakes so you can follow daily/weekly/monthly plans.  It also tells you amount of minutes of exercise and even suggest types of exercise you can do.  It helped me drop significant weight in early 2008.  I plan on hitting it a bit more aggressively in 2009.

Also take a look at the Diabetes Community on SparkPeople:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/health_conditions.asp?condition=9

[Redriderpro]

Dave,

I glad you have made a decision, that is the hard part.

My weight loss of 45 lbs took about 3 or 3.5 months. There are many, many ways to get to where you want to be, any of the suggestions above may work for you, but you may end up trying them all over the next year only to not get the results you want.

I too, did a lot of different programs with some small progress. Finally decided that I would seek professional help and went to see Dr.Garcia, results started the first week and continued every week until I got to where I wanted to be.

My wife was taking three kinds of Diabetic meds and was a week away from starting injections. Two weeks into this program and she was able to drop all the meds except the lowest/weakest one.

My suggestion would be to make an appointment at his nearest office and get going.

Being healthy and in a condition to ride with just about anyone you want to ride with regardless of their speed is the result. ( of the weightloss and a lot of ride time)

( Until you break you femur and get sidelined for most of this year like I did recently)

I know many people that have followed his program, it worked 100% for them.

PS. I don't believe there is anything simpler or easy to follow, no cauculations, no keeping track of anything, just follow easy food choices.

Go here and good luck!

http://www.garciaweightloss.com/

Frank

   

[metatron21]

I have a pancreatic problem that acts a lot like Type 1 diabetes. It makes it hard to train hard-core because of the sudden loss of glucose in the body during strenuous riding and exercising. What I do is keep glucose tablets in my back pocket of my jersey and in my camelbak for the points in the ride when I start getting woozie. My blood sugar can sometimes run as high as 160 but then it will be 25 an hour later. I've had low glucose induced seizures and unconsciousness at times so I am very careful with riding.

It's an adjustment to think so much about what you put into your body and how it will affect you but you eventually learn it like a second language. You just have to think ahead a little bit and take some precautions.

GOOD LUCK!!

[Dave In Odessa]

I have an update.  I went to the doctors this morning for a follow-up.  Good news on my blood work. 

Triglycerides went from 3300 to 500
Cholesterol went from 500 to 300
A1C went from 9.4 to 8.8 (not bad for two months)
I lost 3 pounds which I was kinda bummed about until I realized I went on a 5 day cruise since my last appt.  So I lost whatever weight I put on during the cruise plus 3 lbs.  Not too shabby. 

I've been hitting the exercise bike for an hour a day or doing laps on my MTB at a local park.  I'm riding at least 5 days a week now so I'm really starting to see the fat drop off.  I am looking forward to an increase in my cardio fitness so I can ride my loop faster and keep up with friends on the trails. 

[Gregg]

I have an update.  I went to the doctors this morning for a follow-up.  Good news on my blood work. 

Triglycerides went from 3300 to 500
Cholesterol went from 500 to 300
A1C went from 9.4 to 8.8 (not bad for two months)
I lost 3 pounds which I was kinda bummed about until I realized I went on a 5 day cruise since my last appt.  So I lost whatever weight I put on during the cruise plus 3 lbs.  Not too shabby. 

I've been hitting the exercise bike for an hour a day or doing laps on my MTB at a local park.  I'm riding at least 5 days a week now so I'm really starting to see the fat drop off.  I am looking forward to an increase in my cardio fitness so I can ride my loop faster and keep up with friends on the trails. 

That is great news Dave!! Keep it up. You are probably starting to feel better too! Remember to pay attention to that heartrate!!!