Frustrated Newbie

[RobRobRob]

Hi, I am newly diagnosed Type 2 not on meds. Have been pre diabetic for a few years. Had a 50 test last year and 48 this year. Repeated 1 month later at 46. I find it frustrating that my holiday and easter tipped me over. I have since lost 10 lbs. Perhaps 3 chances before diagnosis? or was it inevitable?

I am finding it so hard deciding what to eat. As a family we always watch the sugar food content. Now, I am fearful of eating and confused. My weight has reduced and I exercise. Do I carry on the same or exclude certain foods. All help appreciated. Thank you

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Hi @RobRobRob,
I can't help wondering if your difficulty in getting to grips with your D challenge lies within your post here.

Hi, I am newly diagnosed Type 2 not on meds. Have been pre diabetic for a few years. Had a 50 test last year and 48 this year. Repeated 1 month later at 46. I find it frustrating that my holiday and easter tipped me over. I have since lost 10 lbs. Perhaps 3 chances before diagnosis? or was it inevitable?

I am finding it so hard deciding what to eat. As a family we always watch the sugar food content.

A diagnosis of Diabetes comes from having elevated BLOOD GLUCOSE. And that elevated blood glucose comes from carbohydrates, not just sugars. All sugars are a form of carbohydrate, so food sweetened from sugar can play a part in raising your BG. But so do savoury foods such as potatoes, pasta, rice and breads. If all carb heavy foods are not in your vocabulary never mind on your "avoid eating" list you will continue to be challenged by your vulnerability to Diabetes.

Now, I am fearful of eating and confused. My weight has reduced and I exercise. Do I carry on the same or exclude certain foods. All help appreciated. Thank you

You need to reduce your total carb intake. Note reduce, not remove all carbs. Low carb does NOT mean no carb. Low carb could start at no more than 130 gms of carbs daily, but if you are already around that level, then a bit more reduction will be needed. Reduced portion sizes is a good place to start, then substitutions - eg grated cauliflower instead of rice or pasta made from Edame beans instead of wheat pasta.

The weight reduction is an excellent progression and likewise so is exercise. Have a look around the Forum, there is lots of information here that should help you. Also with HbA1c figures of 50, 48 and 46 you are not seriously adrift and probably small tweaks will be enough to get you back into a non-diabetic state.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi, I am newly diagnosed Type 2 not on meds. Have been pre diabetic for a few years. Had a 50 test last year and 48 this year. Repeated 1 month later at 46. I find it frustrating that my holiday and easter tipped me over. I have since lost 10 lbs. Perhaps 3 chances before diagnosis? or was it inevitable?

I am finding it so hard deciding what to eat. As a family we always watch the sugar food content. Now, I am fearful of eating and confused. My weight has reduced and I exercise. Do I carry on the same or exclude certain foods. All help appreciated. Thank you

Welcome to the forum, you are just really on the threshold of diagnosis and a short period of indulgence will not make much difference to your HbA1C result as it looks at a longer period of time as in the previous 3 months prior to the test.
Unfortunately people are often under the misapprehension that it is all about 'sugar' whereas it is all carbohydrates which are an issue as they convert to glucose.
This link has a good explanation of what foods to be cautious of and look to reducing portion size or cutting out altogether.
It is a low carbohydrate approach which many find successful at reducing blood glucose and losing weight. It is based on real food so can fit in with family life. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
It is suggested that reducing carbohydrates to no more than 130g carbs not just sugar is a good starting point.

 

[RobRobRob]

Thank you for your replies. Yes savvy eating and portion control. I understand better now that carbs are in the equation as they convert to glucose. I am adjusting and on with it. Does weight loss equate to reduced carb and sugar combined with my daily walk? Hopefully as mentioned a little fine tuning and common sense.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you for your replies. Yes savvy eating and portion control. I understand better now that carbs are in the equation as they convert to glucose. I am adjusting and on with it. Does weight loss equate to reduced carb and sugar combined with my daily walk? Hopefully as mentioned a little fine tuning and common sense.

For most people it does lead to weight loss as well as reducing blood glucose.

 

[JITR]

Does weight loss equate to reduced carb and sugar combined with my daily walk?

Hi Rob,
You may find this article informative. What should we eat?. The section on Weight Loss begins:

What is weight loss?
To understand how to lose weight, we need to understand what weight loss is. That should be obvious, but astonishingly few people know the mechanism by which we lose weight. This lack of awareness stems from the calories in/calories out (CICO) belief. The CICO brigade (I pronounce it psycho!) think that the mere act of putting fewer calories into the body will magically lead to weight loss. If only it were that simple.

Presuming you have normal "Dietary Type 2", your chance of having a fatty liver is about 98%. Fatty liver is the precursor of T2D. Diet will get rid of it and can put your T2D into remission for good, provided you keep weight down. That means losing about 8-15 kg, dependent on your weight. Even better aim for a healthy weight and waist.

The Harcombe Diet is one proven way to achieve that aim (HbA1c: mid 30s) and then maintain your weight.

Note: you may find the NHS and others saying diabetes causes fatty liver. That's wrong, but T2D may make fatty liver worse . During prediabetes HbA1c typically increases over ten years from 42 to 48 as fat accumulates in the liver. So does insulin resistance. At that point your body can store no more fat, so it mounts a full scale invasion of your liver and pancreas. Glucose control, hormones and enzymes then go haywire. In 2008 Professor Roy Taylor and his Counterpoint study team at Newcastle University proved all this to be reversible by diet. When caught soon enough, T2D was no longer an inevitable life sentence.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I am finding it so hard deciding what to eat. As a family we always watch the sugar food content. Now, I am fearful of eating and confused. My weight has reduced and I exercise. Do I carry on the same or exclude certain foods.

Welcome to the forum @RobRobRob

Sorry to hear you’ve ended up finding food fear-inducing and confusing. It should be one of life’s great pleasures.

One of the challenges, I think, is that the way food is presented and offered to us (and to no small extent the way in which it is now ‘engineered’, grown, and prepared) has hugely changed over the past 50-75 years, and many of our metabolisms, brains, and bodies simply aren’t equipped to deal with what some describe as an ‘obesogenic’ environment and food culture.

So don’t be too hard on yourself. Diabetes isn’t something you chose to bring about. And second-guessing the couldawouldashoulda’s and whether they may have delayed a diagnosis for a while won’t help. What really matters is what you do next and how you respond. Many on the forum later reflect that their diagnosis became a catalyst for change, and that they feel fitter, healthier, and more energised having made some tweaks and changes to their menu and lost weight (like you have), than they have in years.

Keep going! And try to seek out a flexible, sustainable, diabetes-friendly way of eating that suits you 🙂

 

[JITR]

Keep going! And try to seek out a flexible, sustainable, diabetes-friendly way of eating that suits you 🙂

FWIW Start with a list of what you can eat and take it from there. Here's a ready made one.

 

[Drummer]

Thank you for your replies. Yes savvy eating and portion control. I understand better now that carbs are in the equation as they convert to glucose. I am adjusting and on with it. Does weight loss equate to reduced carb and sugar combined with my daily walk? Hopefully as mentioned a little fine tuning and common sense.

Carbs are starches and sugars.
Many people find that reducing the carbs consumed results in weightloss, due to an improvement in their metabolism once the strain of dealing with carbs is removed. I lost a lot of weight without any effort in the time I was working out how to keep below 8mmol/l after eating and then watching the numbers reduce eating the same menu. I probably did more as I felt so much better, but I do think that it was due to the lowered intake of carbs setting things in the right direction, back to normal numbers.