I have had a history of night eating from time to time and let me tell ya if I have noodles or taters as the main ingredient at dinner I am starving at 2am!
The wheat belly sounds super intresting

I have long suspected I am insulin resistant. Lately I am constantly tired and irritable and I get the brain fogginess and inability to focus a lot. I've been eating low carb and while I feel a little less irritable I am still not losing weight.

Boy, Rana, can I relate to that. I've just learned something about cravings that I want to share with you all.

When my endo. explained that I have insulin resistance he also explained about cravings. Here's what he told me and it makes sense and not only that, I have seen it in my own life.

He said that our body craves carbs because we are starved for energy. Insulin is supposed to cause our cells to open up to allow glucose in. It is glucose that creates the energy we need to live. It is the fuel that runs our body.

When we are insulin resistant the cells do not respond to the insulin and that means we are not getting enough glucose in our cells so that our bodies can function properly. This causes a craving for carbs that is physical, not emotional in nature.

I always wondered why I found it almost impossible to resist those carb cravings. The reason they are so strong is that it is our physical body screaming for fuel! It has nothing to do with emotions or willpower!

And I know this is so. I was a Sprite junkie and would drink between 3 and 4 cans a day. Two nights ago I went to the fridge for a drink and thought I'd have a Sprite. Then I thought, naw, I'll just have water.

Next day I had a real epiphany. Once the metformin had a chance to get my cells to open up to let glucose in I have stopped craving carbs. It has had nothing to do with willpower at all. Those cravings were physical in nature and that's why they were so powerful.

I now have more energy, am not exhausted all the time and am losing some weight as well. So it's all good!

So if you are craving carbs, that's probably why. I can't believe the difference! So don't blame yourself, go ask your doctor if you can take some metformin to help the cells accept glucose and I think you'll find your carb cravings subside a lot.

And last night I went out for supper for Mother's Day and I ate more than I usually do and also ate dessert. Bad choice! Today I have brain fog, I'm tired as all getout and I just want to sleep! Lesson learned! I will now have to get back on track and I expect it will take a few days for me to start feeling better. Oh well, now I know just how much damage that can do!

Marg

Yup, I used to have carb cravings in the afternoon. But I also had them lots of times in the day. The cravings have subsided now that I'm on the metformin. Take a look at my post above for more information on the cravings.
Marg

What a wealth of knowldge from yur posts...I am in need of an idiot proof diet plan....well more like a meal plan for IR...I am a good cook and do like to make things in advance but I want something to get me started and is free :0...any suggestions

I am IR and PCOS (and Hashimotos and was bordering on adrenal fatigue and prediabetic).

I recently saw a homeopathic/holistic doctor and nutrionist and we are going to figure this thing out and help me to avoid getting worse (instead of better).

She has me on a strict, no carb (at all) diet for 30 days (Paleo structured minus the starchy veggies). I'm on day 6 and still figuring it out.

Hoping for answers and healing (looking like lifetime glutenfree diet - apparenty gluten is the worst thing EVER for people with auto-immune problems! Look into it!!).

Good luck to everyone - would love to have some pals during this interesting/ever-changing process

I am more and more convinced processed food, high carbs and starch are killing us all....pls keep us posted on your findings IMOVERIT... Will look into the gluten thing well...I have OA and rosace like mad all autoimmune

Just wanted to find out how everyone is doing with the insulin resistance. Has anyone found a diet that is working for them? I am not doing low carb or no carb because I know that our bodies still need carbs for fuel.

I am doing something that I guess is a cross between the glycemic index diet and low carb. I call it slow carbs. I try to pick carbs that are slow burning and take longer to get absorbed and turned into glucose. This helps to keep our insulin and glucose levels from spiking and instead, gives them a slow burn.

Additionally, I really try to eat protein with my carbs. I read somewhere that for every 15 grams of carbs you should eat 7 grams of protein so I really do try to do that and it seems to be helping.

I also try to eat something acidic with carbs. Things like tomatoes, pickles, or anything with vinegar or acid in it. Apparently this helps slow the rate at which we absorb the carbs as well.

So far I have lost 27.6 pounds, but right now I'm going up a pound, down a pound, up half a pound, down a pound, etc. etc. Not sure what is happening but am going to my endo. on Monday so should find out more then.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Marg

Anyone else got any good tips?

Exercise... it helps improve insulin sensitivity.

I am day 8-ish of my South Beach Phase one and am really struggling at night for a snack. I used to eat popcorn (air popped) but it isn't allowed in phase 1. Does anyone have any suggestions for SB snacks?

I'm sure this is not what you want to hear, but if I were you, I'd go ahead and eat my popcorn. I don't know enough about the South Beach diet to give you ideas for snacks. But I do know that popcorn is one of the things you should be able to eat without any consequences.

Good luck with your diet and let us know how it's going!

Marg

I've found that I have to cut carbs lower than I would like to, in order to consistently lose weight and control hunger. I don't like it, and it's hard for me to truly believe that "it's healthy," but I find it's the only thing that WORKS - so I've got to choose between eating what "seems healthy" and eating what allows me to lose weight.

I don't do "no carb" either, but I have to virtually eliminate grains and drastically limit fruits. Eating grain daily or eating more than a few servings of fruit daily can and does stall my weight loss.

Of course, I gained most of my weighty on "healthy food." I was a bit of a food snob, even at 394 lbs. The food pyramid really helped me gain the figure of a pyramid.

I don't limit non-starchy veggies, as they don't seem to be a problem food for me. Non-starchy veggies are probably the only food group that I haven't overeaten enough to have stalled weight loss on.

Everything else, I limit in some way. I use an exchange plan and just kept experimenting until I found a calorie-level and food group balance that worked best for me in controlling hunger and promoting weight loss.

The hardest part has been giving up breads. I had to give up wheat, because I was having an allergic reaction - and most of the wheat-alternative breads and pastas were really horrible, so it was easier to give up bread than it was to find edible bread. I still do eat two to three servings of carb, but the list of grains/starches that don't seem to cause me problems is a lot shorter than I would like (starchy veggies like sweetcorn, peas, beats, carrots, and potatoes - white and sweet - and a few grains and pseudo grains such as oatmeal, quinoa, wild rice, and less frequently rice and corn tortillas).

It's been hard to adjust to the idea that grains aren't a "necessary food group" even though grains aren't a natural part of any primate diet, and humans have been eating grains and large amounts of non-fiber carbohydrates for a only a very small fraction of our history.

Trying to eat truly natural foods (foods that are most like those that grow in the wild, unassisted and unaltered by man) has been difficult, but I lose and feel better when I do.

I do think it's possible to eat "too few" carbs, but I think "too few" is a very relative term. I'm finding that both "too few" and "too many" are both far smaller amounts of carbohydrate than I originally would have ever believed.

ernurse12, there is a recipe out there where u mix cream cheese, sfjello and regular cool whip also there is a cookie recipe on Kaylins kitchen( i think thats it) maybe help with the snax....week 2 of phase one for me .....no change in the scale too much this week but clothes r a little looser...

Thanks for your suggestions! I agree that popcorn isn't the worse food for you to snack on however, for me popcorn leads to wanting sweets so I am trying to give a lower carb snack a try

Am I allowed to give a web site here on the forums? If so, I could recommend a site for you.

Okay, I just read the information on links, so I will put it here. This is my personal site and I have several recipes on it that are low glycemic. I will be adding more as time goes on and I'll also be setting up a way for anyone to find out when a new recipe has been added. You can check it out at www.low-glycemic-recipes.net

And I just wanted to say that I have now lost 29.6 pounds. I'm thrilled with that! My recipes must be doing something right! Yeah! Sorry, I don't mean to brag, I'm just so darn happy that the pounds are coming off.