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If you truly are obese, have Type II diabetes, and can't get access to Ozempic, have you considered a ketogenic diet?
I've been doing it for a couple months now, and the results have been incredible on both my waistline and on the scale. And I'm loving the food too. So delicious.
For me, the need is not that huge. I was only slightly overweight before and I'm doing it mostly out of vanity and for sports performance. For you, the benefits of a keto diet could be life-changing.
I know that pretty much everyone who is overweight wants to poo poo the keto diet, giving excuses not to do it, and reasons why it won't work for them. But it does work for almost everyone who tries it. I'd give it a shot!
I am back on the 'restricting carbs' diet, having fallen off the bandwagon from the early days. The only problem is, I fucking love carbs.
Bread. Having, say, a bread roll with the salad for lunch sends my blood glucose soaring (and since I'm doing regular testing now, I can track what happens when). Same with noodles, rice, pasta, potatoes... so I have to severely cut back on those.
No problem, I can eat as much protein and veggies as I like, right? Except meals don't seem 'right' without carbs, plus I get hungry within hours so I'm not really reducing what I eat as much as I am now obsessing over "I have to wait minimum two hours after eating to measure my blood sugar to be sure it's within the limits so I can eat again". It's crazy and I don't know why my physiology seems to work like that, but that's how it is.
This is surprising to me. That's the big benefit of keto for me. I don't really get hungry.
When you first start, there's a big difference between 100 carbs/day and 20 carbs/day. Gotta get to ketosis first and then you can relax a bit. But hunger shouldn't be a problem. If you go full carnivore, you'll feel stuffed all the time and have trouble getting even 2000/calories a day.
Personally, I love the keto bread products that are available as well. Not nearly as good as real bread, and expensive as fuck, but it definitely fills out the meal.
By the way, I sympathize. Everyone's body is different and reacts to carbs differently. You seem to have gotten a bad roll of the dice. I hope you find a solution that works for you!
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Ditto from me on basically everything you said.
Under the theories that power Keto, most of the food that's easily available in the Western world is completely terrible for you. Eating food that's terrible for you and also taking a drug that probably makes it have less of an effect for life seems like a worse idea than just eating better food.
I advocate a gradual approach to moving onto Keto. Start by making a list of everything you eat. One at a time, replace each thing with something more Keto, ideally starting with the worst. Keep going until you notice positive effects. The usual standard of 20g of carbs a day is probably not necessary to get down to if you're not trying to lose hundreds of pounds of weight. If you can stay under 100g or so of carbs a day and not notice at least some positive effects, then it's probably not going to work for you.
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