Hello recently found out I have prediabetes

[Slugsie]

Hello
Recently diagnosed withprediabetes pretty scared and not sure where I went wrong. I've usually eat pretty healthy but recent blood tests show my fasting reading is 6.4-8.5 and after eating 9.5-10.2. stupidly had some treats the other night and it went up to 16.5.....

I think sitting behind a desk and suddenly not working out anymore has brought this on as well as being diagnosed with PTSD and depression..

Hope to get some advice in these forums and motivation as it's really hard to cut most carbs out of my diet

 

[Drummer]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
What is your diet?
Personally I find eating low carb means I can have all the good stuff without the stodge, but I never really wanted it in the first place. I was pushed to eat 'healthy' carbs for decades and ended up about as round as I was tall and called 'a very bad diabetic' - but that was three years ago and my diabetes is just a rather hazy memory.
I only need to eat twice a day now - as the foods I chose to eat are so sustaining, and I drink a couple of mugs of coffee with cream as well.
I'm afraid that being more active will not bring about a 'cure' - it could help - but these days I am more active because I really want to be, and I have the energy to do it. Carbs make type twos feel sluggish - but at least you seem to have been diagnosed early, so you won't - with any luck, need to be as harsh at cutting down the carbs as I need to be, but I am determined to see normal numbers after meals, so I use a meter (the Tee 2 from Spirit Healthcare as it is cheap to run) and whatever makes me spike is off the menu.

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome to the forum Slugsie.

I've usually eat pretty healthy but recent blood tests show my fasting reading is 6.4-8.5 and after eating 9.5-10.2.

Finger prick tests? The after food readings aren't too unreasonable, considering your before figures. Depending on what you're eating.
Have you had a HbA1c test? What was the result of that?

 

[Felinia]

If you're pre-diabetic now, this is the time to get on top of it. Think of it as an early warning system. You don't have to go OTT but you do need to be sensible, by cutting down on the carbs, but not drastically. Diabetes UK recommends less than 130gm carbs per day, but a lot go much lower. I experimented from 90gm, to 75gm, to 50gm, but began to feel ill. My body is OK on around 90gm per day. You do need balance and to get the essential minerals and vitamins. Also it's very easy to become obsessive about finger tests without fully understanding what they mean - that's also what I did. Finger pricking is very useful to show you what foods spike your blood glucose, as you've already learned, but the HbA1c test shows the average over 8 - 12 weeks and is considered a better overall guide. Monitoring does of course become essential if you are on certain medications to manage full diabetes, but you're not there.
I thought my diet was OK, but it was carb heavy. I was advised to cut out the obvious stuff - cakes, biscuits, sweets, sugary cereals, fruit juice, pastries, processed food, ready meals, takeaways, but the occasional treat was acceptable. (Nobody's perfect and I have the occasional strip of 85% dark cocoa chocolate or a small packet of crisps - just not every day!!) Then I was advised to cut right DOWN on bread, potato, rice, pasta - to have wholemeal versions where possible and if you can't cut them out, to have SMALLER portions (a slice or 2 from a small medium-sliced wholemeal loaf, half the recommended portion size, or 2 small new boiled potatoes). There are plenty of substitutes out there - cauliflower or broccoli rice, Bare Naked Noodles, boodles, courgetti, squash lasagne and the Forum has some imaginative cooks. Also fruit should be fresh or frozen, and limited to no more than three 80gm portions per day (that's not a lot when you weigh it out).
I don't know if you cook or have a partner that does, but with a bit of planning you can batch cook and freeze in advance. And you can prepare a healthy packed lunch for work. Depending on your job, I suggest you should aim to get away from your desk at lunchtime, and go for a walk - round the block, round the car park, whatever is available. If you are physically able, also to try and get back into suitable exercise. When I worked some of us went to a lunchtime exercise class, and some for a 30 minute swim. These days, with lunch breaks being so drastically cut, I don't know if that's still possible! It's possible to exercise at home - I have a mini exercise bike, or to do some exercise on your way home. And do something healthy on your days off if you can. I believe exercise helps with depression, and I certainly found on testing after getting out of the pool, my BG dropped to below 7, which was very pleasing.
I'm sure others will add to my suggestions - I hope you work out an eating plan that suits you and reduces your BG.

 

[Slugsie]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
What is your diet?
Personally I find eating low carb means I can have all the good stuff without the stodge, but I never really wanted it in the first place. I was pushed to eat 'healthy' carbs for decades and ended up about as round as I was tall and called 'a very bad diabetic' - but that was three years ago and my diabetes is just a rather hazy memory.
I only need to eat twice a day now - as the foods I chose to eat are so sustaining, and I drink a couple of mugs of coffee with cream as well.
I'm afraid that being more active will not bring about a 'cure' - it could help - but these days I am more active because I really want to be, and I have the energy to do it. Carbs make type twos feel sluggish - but at least you seem to have been diagnosed early, so you won't - with any luck, need to be as harsh at cutting down the carbs as I need to be, but I am determined to see normal numbers after meals, so I use a meter (the Tee 2 from Spirit Healthcare as it is cheap to run) and whatever makes me spike is off the menu.

Hello thanks for replying.
My diet at the moment is a bowl of rice Krispies with full fat milk in the morning, a banana late morning snack, lunch time usually during the week is a panini, sandwich with tuna or chicken and cheese filling.
Dinners are usually chicken based with wraps, pasta 50/50 whole wheat and white. Occasionally fish of some kind. Maybe once or twice I would eat the Tesco pasta and sauce but now I think a full tub of that is bad.
That's it really it's all freshly cooked so no packaged stuff.
I have a dog so always have 20 minutes walking in the evenings and every Friday I play 2 hours of basketball.
I have always struggled to gain weight since I was 16 currently 31, any time I had sweets during Christmas etc since then I always lost weight during that time when everyone else would gain weight. Not a lot of weight but considering how much I ate and people eat during the festive period it always baffled me.

 

[Slugsie]

Welcome to the forum Slugsie.

Finger prick tests? The after food readings aren't too unreasonable, considering your before figures. Depending on what you're eating.
Have you had a HbA1c test? What was the result of that?

Hello, thanks for the reply

Yeah I bought one for myself as I had to do a work health check and the night before I was feeling a bit down so ate more than I should in sweets, when they gave me a reading of 16 I was shocked and then realised how stupid I was. So I decided to buy one to keep check of my levels.

I don't think so I'm not entirely sure what that is the doctors have taken blood and sent it away for testing 2/3 times. That's when they advised me that I have prediabetes.

Diet is pretty reasonable I've just added a reply to another user with my basic weekly meal plan. It doesn't really differ much from that, not with anything crazy or heavy carb

 

[Slugsie]

If you're pre-diabetic now, this is the time to get on top of it. Think of it as an early warning system. You don't have to go OTT but you do need to be sensible, by cutting down on the carbs, but not drastically. Diabetes UK recommends less than 130gm carbs per day, but a lot go much lower. I experimented from 90gm, to 75gm, to 50gm, but began to feel ill. My body is OK on around 90gm per day. You do need balance and to get the essential minerals and vitamins. Also it's very easy to become obsessive about finger tests without fully understanding what they mean - that's also what I did. Finger pricking is very useful to show you what foods spike your blood glucose, as you've already learned, but the HbA1c test shows the average over 8 - 12 weeks and is considered a better overall guide. Monitoring does of course become essential if you are on certain medications to manage full diabetes, but you're not there.
I thought my diet was OK, but it was carb heavy. I was advised to cut out the obvious stuff - cakes, biscuits, sweets, sugary cereals, fruit juice, pastries, processed food, ready meals, takeaways, but the occasional treat was acceptable. (Nobody's perfect and I have the occasional strip of 85% dark cocoa chocolate or a small packet of crisps - just not every day!!) Then I was advised to cut right DOWN on bread, potato, rice, pasta - to have wholemeal versions where possible and if you can't cut them out, to have SMALLER portions (a slice or 2 from a small medium-sliced wholemeal loaf, half the recommended portion size, or 2 small new boiled potatoes). There are plenty of substitutes out there - cauliflower or broccoli rice, Bare Naked Noodles, boodles, courgetti, squash lasagne and the Forum has some imaginative cooks. Also fruit should be fresh or frozen, and limited to no more than three 80gm portions per day (that's not a lot when you weigh it out).
I don't know if you cook or have a partner that does, but with a bit of planning you can batch cook and freeze in advance. And you can prepare a healthy packed lunch for work. Depending on your job, I suggest you should aim to get away from your desk at lunchtime, and go for a walk - round the block, round the car park, whatever is available. If you are physically able, also to try and get back into suitable exercise. When I worked some of us went to a lunchtime exercise class, and some for a 30 minute swim. These days, with lunch breaks being so drastically cut, I don't know if that's still possible! It's possible to exercise at home - I have a mini exercise bike, or to do some exercise on your way home. And do something healthy on your days off if you can. I believe exercise helps with depression, and I certainly found on testing after getting out of the pool, my BG dropped to below 7, which was very pleasing.
I'm sure others will add to my suggestions - I hope you work out an eating plan that suits you and reduces your BG.

Hello, thanks for the reply.

When would you recommend doing the finger prick test? Like how long after eating?
Can you get kits for the Hb1A test? How does that work?
I guess it won't happen overnight and it will take months maybe years for my sugar levels to get back to a normal rate?

 

[Drummer]

Hello thanks for replying.
My diet at the moment is a bowl of rice Krispies with full fat milk in the morning, a banana late morning snack, lunch time usually during the week is a panini, sandwich with tuna or chicken and cheese filling.
Dinners are usually chicken based with wraps, pasta 50/50 whole wheat and white. Occasionally fish of some kind. Maybe once or twice I would eat the Tesco pasta and sauce but now I think a full tub of that is bad. .

Wow - that is a heavy load of carbohydrates.
Rice is grain, so a poor choice first thing when many people are at their most insulin resistant. That eventually reacts with the insulin you release to deal with it, so you feel hungry - but then you eat a high carb banana, then bread at lunch time - and not low carb choices such as Livlife or a protein bread - then more bread in the evening or pasta.
It should be easy to make significant reductions in your carb intake and take the strain off your metabolism.
For my first meal of the day I might eat scrambled eggs with cheeses and a tomato, or a salad, a large one, with tuna or cheese or eggs, or something left from dinner the previous day. If I am not busy I might make a chop or steak with mushrooms and courgette or aubergine. I have a mug of coffee with cream, and then do not need anything else all day.
In the evening I have any meat, or seafood, and in hot weather another salad, but using slightly more carb dense foods, so a few peas, beetroot, radish, sweet pepper rather than just leaves and stems - and coleslaw and walnuts might be involved. For something warm, a stirfry of low carb veges. I set a limit of 10 percent carb content on everything except the high cocoa chocolate, which I eat in moderation.
Although my blood glucose was 17.1mmol/l at diagnosis it took only days for it to drop down below 10 when testing two hours after starting to eat.
I am sure that you will not need to cut back to the 50 gm of carbs a day I needed to set as my limit, but that is the way I am eating and finding I get normal results.
As you do not need to lose weight you can probably just swap the high carb foods for lower ones, and eat all the meat and fish, eggs and cheese you like, maybe snack on low carb nuts or make a bowl of hard boiled eggs, or roast a pack of chicken thighs on a rack so the skins are crispy, then keep them in the fridge to eat whenever you fancy something.
I am very sensitive to carbs, so soon found out that I had to be careful with legumes - peas and beans - even peanuts hit me harder than the carb content would have indicated.

 

[Ralph-YK]

When would you recommend doing the finger prick test? Like how long after eating?

The normal time given is 2 hours after eating. You may try at other times as well, as BG can spike at other times after eating. Either before or last. For example, breakfast ceriel BG is much higher at 1½ than it is at 2 hours.

 

[Felinia]

Hello, thanks for the reply.

When would you recommend doing the finger prick test? Like how long after eating?
Can you get kits for the Hb1A test? How does that work?
I guess it won't happen overnight and it will take months maybe years for my sugar levels to get back to a normal rate?

Ralph-YK is spot on with the testing. You can't get kits for HbA1c tests as far as I know. I seem to have got a bit confused and replied to you twice - senility, not diabetes!! Actually if you're only in the pre-diabetic range, and you do adopt the healthy eating suggestions, you should see yourself hopefully back in the normal range within 3 months. But it will be in a plan for life - if you go back to your old habits, the BG will go up again (says the person who did just that).

 

[Bruce Stephens]

You can't get kits for HbA1c tests as far as I know.

I have a feeling you can, but they're of the form of a test strip where you apply blood, seal it up, and send it back to their lab. Even if there were a machine that you could buy, it just wouldn't be useful. HbA1c is the sort of test you might want once every 90 days (at a stretch once a month since the value is skewed a bit towards recent BG levels).

I use a Freestyle Libre (and have done for about 3 years now) which (since it's giving 24 hour measurements) offers an approximate HbA1c (which matches the hospital test fairly well), but it's not something I actually use, day to day.

 

[Slugsie]

Wow - that is a heavy load of carbohydrates.
Rice is grain, so a poor choice first thing when many people are at their most insulin resistant. That eventually reacts with the insulin you release to deal with it, so you feel hungry - but then you eat a high carb banana, then bread at lunch time - and not low carb choices such as Livlife or a protein bread - then more bread in the evening or pasta.
It should be easy to make significant reductions in your carb intake and take the strain off your metabolism.
For my first meal of the day I might eat scrambled eggs with cheeses and a tomato, or a salad, a large one, with tuna or cheese or eggs, or something left from dinner the previous day. If I am not busy I might make a chop or steak with mushrooms and courgette or aubergine. I have a mug of coffee with cream, and then do not need anything else all day.
In the evening I have any meat, or seafood, and in hot weather another salad, but using slightly more carb dense foods, so a few peas, beetroot, radish, sweet pepper rather than just leaves and stems - and coleslaw and walnuts might be involved. For something warm, a stirfry of low carb veges. I set a limit of 10 percent carb content on everything except the high cocoa chocolate, which I eat in moderation.
Although my blood glucose was 17.1mmol/l at diagnosis it took only days for it to drop down below 10 when testing two hours after starting to eat.
I am sure that you will not need to cut back to the 50 gm of carbs a day I needed to set as my limit, but that is the way I am eating and finding I get normal results.
As you do not need to lose weight you can probably just swap the high carb foods for lower ones, and eat all the meat and fish, eggs and cheese you like, maybe snack on low carb nuts or make a bowl of hard boiled eggs, or roast a pack of chicken thighs on a rack so the skins are crispy, then keep them in the fridge to eat whenever you fancy something.
I am very sensitive to carbs, so soon found out that I had to be careful with legumes - peas and beans - even peanuts hit me harder than the carb content would have indicated.

Thank you for the detailed information Drummer, would you say I need to cut out cereal all together? It's just I really enjoy having milk in the morning.

As for the rest of the day no issue going whole-wheat cutting out bread and pasta etc. What kind of vegetables are okay? I usually have tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and broccoli, occasionally some avocado.

 

[Slugsie]

Ralph-YK is spot on with the testing. You can't get kits for HbA1c tests as far as I know. I seem to have got a bit confused and replied to you twice - senility, not diabetes!! Actually if you're only in the pre-diabetic range, and you do adopt the healthy eating suggestions, you should see yourself hopefully back in the normal range within 3 months. But it will be in a plan for life - if you go back to your old habits, the BG will go up again (says the person who did just that).

I hope I can achieve that, I suppose once I get back to going to the gym everyday my body will use the carbs up more than currently sitting behind a desk all day. But definitely need to cut back on carbs until I'm back into a proper training regime.
I never realised how badly carbs can have a negative affect on me.

 

[Slugsie]

The normal time given is 2 hours after eating. You may try at other times as well, as BG can spike at other times after eating. Either before or last. For example, breakfast ceriel BG is much higher at 1½ than it is at 2 hours.

Thanks Ralph, I'm going to start tracking my BG daily so I can figure out what I'm doing wrong over the next 2 months. I'm hoping once I'm back into the gym I can see a bit of a difference as my body will use up more carbs but I definitely need to cut back.

 

[Felinia]

You asked about cereals - most are best avoided (I really miss Maple Sunrise and Crunchy Nut cornflakes) but a small bowl of proper porridge of oatbran I was told was OK.

 

[Slugsie]

You asked about cereals - most are best avoided (I really miss Maple Sunrise and Crunchy Nut cornflakes) but a small bowl of proper porridge of oatbran I was told was OK.

Whole milk or should I only go semi? I always tried to eat cornflakes or rice Krispies thinking they were the healthy options

 

[Ralph-YK]

Thank you for the detailed information Drummer, would you say I need to cut out cereal all together?

I hesitate to tell people to cut most things out altogether. However I have with cereal. I only self tested on a couple. The rise I got was too much for my liking.
This is where self testing and a food diary helps. It gives you information on how things affect you.

Whole milk or should I only go semi?

Diabetes wise, I've not hear of a big issue with normal milk. General healthy eating advice (eat well plate) is another matter. And depend on your view of that.

 

[Eddy Edson]

Whole milk or should I only go semi? I always tried to eat cornflakes or rice Krispies thinking they were the healthy options

Everything affects different people in different ways - the "rules" which people quote about what to eat or not eat for BG purposes are just suggestions, which may or may not be right for you.

The only way you'll get a real handle on this is by testing before and after eating.

Cereals are often major BG culprits, and it's a fair guess to say you should probably cut down on them or cut them out, and that eg oats are going to be much better than cornflakes, but you'll really only know if that applies to you by testing.

In the same kind of way, whole milk is probably going to be better for your BG than semi, because the fat slows down carb processing - but you'll only know by testing. Also note that the saturated fats in whole milk are not good CV-wise - it's a balancing act, unfortunately.

 

[Slugsie]

Thank you so much guys and girls, I really appreciate the advice.

I've just come back from basketball and my reading was 4.4 (80mg) which I believe is normal. I had lunch 4 hours ago which was 13oz steak with side salad and a half lettuce with mayo and garlic.

I think with enough exercise and healthy diet as per all your advice I should get back to a healthy level.

I'll definitely look at testing myself after breakfast, no issue cutting it out or changing to something less carb or sugar. Oats or porridge. Was definitely a nice surprise to see my level so low compared to what it has been before.