Does maintaining a diet feel like torture? Do your blood sugar levels keep spiking? And even when you do everything by the book, can you still not see much progress?
It may not be your fault. Most people’s understanding of how to treat diabetes is flawed. You can do everything as by the book as possible, but this may not help you.
Try to avoid these 7 diabetes management mistakes as listed below. They contain some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to manage their diabetes, and will help you mange your condition and lose weight more easily.
Mistake #1. Focusing on calorie restriction
Focusing directly on where your calories are coming from is far more important than restricting your intake. You need to make sure you are maintaining a balanced diet.
There are carbs which are good for your body, and carbs that are bad, the same can be said for fats. The main difference is refining and processing.
To have a chance at reversing diabetes, first, you need to start choosing whole, unprocessed foods and THEN adjust your portion sizes according to the calories that these wholesome, nutritious foods contain.
Mistake #2. Eating too many carbohydrates
At school, people were shown a food pyramid, with various breads and cereals at the bottom. This is what we were taught a healthy diet looks like. Which sounds daft now.
After all, those are the exact foods that cause the greatest increase in blood glucose!
To reverse diabetes, you need to follow a diet that eliminates all these unnecessary carbohydrates – such as bread, pasta, or white rice and replaces them with whole, unprocessed carbs (whole grains, legumes) and healthy fats.
Mistake #3. Avoiding fats
Most people try to lose fat when shifting weight – which is true. But when it comes to food, fats are not always bad. In fact the right amount can lead to a healthy diet.
As we mentioned before, there are good fats and bad fats. Good, natural fats, found in foods like avocados, eggs, nuts, or fish, are essential to a healthy, balanced diet.
“We need to realize that of all macronutrients, dietary fat stimulates insulin the least. Replacing those refined carbohydrates with natural fats is a simple, effective method of reducing insulin,” says health & wellness expert, Dr. Kameron H. Wyatt.
Mistake #4. Relying too much on exercise
Exercising is insanely beneficial to your health. It improves your strength, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, and more. We all know that it’s good for us.
Exercise is highly beneficial to your overall health. It helps to improve strength, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose levels, insulin sensitivity and even more.
However, when it comes to reversing type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, we need to understand that exercise alone is not enough.
Maintaining good nutrition should remain your number one priority. Diabetes is not a result of lack of exercise – but instead, poor diet.
Finding a diabetes program that combines the two (such as Klinio) is what really gives you a fighting chance at a healthier life.
Mistake #5. Quitting when it gets “too difficult”
It may seem overly difficult, but it is more likely that you are using a plan you found online, that is over-complicated.
What’s difficult is the guilt you feel when you quit a diet or a weight loss program. What’s difficult is starting a new one (yes, you will have to start a new one either way).
So, choosing the right diabetes management plan is key!
As your needs are unique, consider choosing a personalized diabetes management plan, such as Klinio. It’s really simple to use and offers a fully customizable meal plan with lots of new features, home workouts, diabetes tips, and more.
If you’re interested, go ahead and give it a try here.
Mistake #6. Leaving small gaps in-between meals
When you don’t eat, your blood glucose levels drop and your body starts burning fat for energy. To achieve this state, you need to practice intermittent fasting.
When combined with a proper diet, intermittent fasting can make a major contribution to your weight loss and diabetes management journey.
The simple explanation is this – you need to stop consuming sugar and then burn the remaining sugar off.
A low-carb, healthy-fat diet will help you to reduce the sugar you consume and fasting will help you burn it off.
Mistake #7. Believing that you “know best”
Everyone knows their own body to some degree. But when you think about your food choices, can you be sure that you can work this out alone?
There’s a reason why doctors spend years researching diabetes (and even they turn out to be wrong once in a while). So, be open to new knowledge, consult your doctor regularly, and educate yourself.
There’s a reason why the creators of products like Klinio pay good money to hire expert nutritionists. They need to give you a meal plan that’s not just for losing weight, but for losing weight with diabetes. Use their expertise!
Relying solely on yourself means choosing a longer, more complicated path towards reversing your condition. And who wants to wait longer for a healthy, happy, and effortless life? Well, you definitely know the answer to that.
So, how do you successfully lose weight?
Eveyone is different, and our bodies will all react differently. So it is best to try and strick with one plan, that is personalized to YOUR needs.
Understanding which habits and which foods work best with your body will take some trial and error, but in the end, it’s worth it!
Keep the suggestions above in mind, and you’ll be ready to begin your journey not only to successful diabetes management but to your dream weight as well.
Here are people results that did try this personalized Klinio meal plan:
app, I lost 45 lbs and my A1C levels went down 0.7%.”
– Deborah, 40
– Josh, 53
– Susan, 52
Always consult a professional for medical advice.