Hello Diabetes Forum UK and thank you for welcoming me. Being prediabetic I am interested to see peoples ideas about diet and exercise.

[Cathy G]

🙂

 

[Madeline]

Low carb and a nice brisk daily walk if you can.

 

[grovesy]

You have to find what works for you and you can maintain long term.
Exercise what ever you like as if you find it a pain you wont continue.

 

[rebrascora]

As @Madeline says, that is the jist of it and should do wonders to improve your Blood Glucose (BG) levels if you are able.

If you are overweight, low carb with normal fat (avoid low fat products as they are usually higher in carbs but most importantly the fat will stop you feeling hungry and therefore help you stick to the diet) will help you lose weight. Once you reach your target weight, you can increase your fat intake but keep the carbs low to maintain remission and keep weight stable.

Just to clarify, carbs come in a huge range of different foods including those which are often considered healthy like fruit and wholemeal bread/pasta and porridge and beans, so these foods too need to be portion controlled as well as avoiding the obvious cakes, biscuits and sweets and sugar in it's various forms including honey and maple syrup etc. Reading nutritional information on the back of packets (not the traffic light info on the front) is key to getting to grips with low carb eating.

 

[Inka]

I think my advice would be to think about your personal starting point and then look at what improvements you can make. So assess before making a plan.

So, look at your weight, your current food intake, and what exercise you do. Keep a food diary - it’s great to help you work out how to move forward.

Cut down on carbs, especially refined ones. Move more - walking, swimming, exercising, even doing chores. Every little thing helps and tiny steps soon add up.

 

[Madeline]

It’s a good idea to actually read the packets, look up nutritional information. I laboured under the illusion that lentils and quinoa were healthy and low carb, turned out the quinoa I was shovelling down, thinking it was protein, was actually not quite as low carb as I thought!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Cathy G

Prediabetes isn’t a formal diagnosis as such, it’s just a sort of shorthand that gets used to say that someone is at increased risk of developing diabetes, which usually means that their body has begun to have difficulty metabolising carbohydrates.

This will include obvious things like sweet stuff, cakes, chocolate and biscuits, but it will also include almost all snacks, as well as staples like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and many fruits.

That doesn’t mean that you have to avoid all of that stuff entirely, but depending on what you are currently eating you may want to ditch some things, significantly reduce others, and generally reduce the proportion of carbs in your diet.

It can help to keep a food diary for a week or two, including an estimate of the carbs involved in everything you eat - this will give you a feel for where most of the carbs in your diet are currently coming from.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Marmite]

Hello Madeline, just noted your Quinoa comment. I too have sprinkled cooked quinoa grains on to cereals and mixed the coloured ones with brown rice . I do this to reduce the cereal and rice and understood it was good protein.
Are you sure this is a bad idea?

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Hello Madeline, just noted your Quinoa comment. I too have sprinkled cooked quinoa grains on to cereals and mixed the coloured ones with brown rice . I do this to reduce the cereal and rice and understood it was good protein.
Are you sure this is a bad idea?

Quinoa has 21% carbs, 4.4% protein, and 2% fat.
As you are only at risk, you will probably will deal with it a lot better.
Personally I would say test yourself to get an answer on how you personally react to it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Are you sure this is a bad idea?

It could well be fine, but differences in genetic makeup, gut biome and metabolism mean that what passes with barely a BG wobble for some, causes a much bigger rise in others.

At a guess I would say it’s likely to be better than all cereal... ut that it just a guess. A BG meter checking before and 2hrs after on a couple of different days would tell you for sure 🙂

 

[Felinia]

My go-to exercise is Aquafit, which had just re-opened in my area. All the classes I go to comprise ladies "of a certain age" with all our wobbly bits and all sorts of medical conditions. You can also do chair exercises at home, with a mini pedal bike, or stretching exercises on the floor (I use my firm bed as I can't get up off the floor!).

 

[Cathy G]

As @Madeline says, that is the jist of it and should do wonders to improve your Blood Glucose (BG) levels if you are able.

If you are overweight, low carb with normal fat (avoid low fat products as they are usually higher in carbs but most importantly the fat will stop you feeling hungry and therefore help you stick to the diet) will help you lose weight. Once you reach your target weight, you can increase your fat intake but keep the carbs low to maintain remission and keep weight stable.

Just to clarify, carbs come in a huge range of different foods including those which are often considered healthy like fruit and wholemeal bread/pasta and porridge and beans, so these foods too need to be portion controlled as well as avoiding the obvious cakes, biscuits and sweets and sugar in it's various forms including honey and maple syrup etc. Reading nutritional information on the back of packets (not the traffic light info on the front) is key to getting to grips with low carb eating.

Thank you for your advice Barbara. You are having a rough time! Hope things improve for you soon. Cathy