Hi All

[Adiathia]

hi all , I am 57 years old , female and carrying far too much extra fat, my dad had diabetes 2 and I have been given conflicting information - that id i simply lose weight the issue will go away on its own, but then have been told to stick to a low carb diet , but no idea how may carbs is low ?
Im kinda on the cusp as blood test came up with a reading of 48 which is I think at the bottom end of the diabetes scale , but im looking for guidance on how may carbs i should be eating each day 9 or a book that will just tell me exactly what to eat each day lol

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi Welcome to the forum
The problem is with being able to be prescriptive about what people should eat is that everybody is different in how their body tolerates carbohydrates as well as peoples food preferences.
Low carbohydrate generally means less than 130g per day TOTAL carbohydrate. As you are just on the border of a diabetes diagnosis cutting out some obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks and things with lots of added sugar and reducing portion size of the other high carb foods like potatoes, cereals, rice, pasta, pastry, bread and tropical fruits.
Basing your meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, dairy, vegetables , salads, and fruits like berries will still give options for tasty filling meals.
Keeping a food diary of everything you eat and drink with an estimate of the amount of carbohydrate, then you can see where savings can be made. Information on carb amounts can be found on the back of products looking for Total carbohydrate or internet search putting food X total carbs. The book Carbs and Cals is a good resource as are some apps people use.

 

[Lily123]

A HbA1C of 48mmol/mol is the minimum number to be diagnosed as diabetic. 42 to 47 is pre-diabetic

 

[Lucyr]

A HbA1C of 48mmol/mol is the minimum number to be diagnosed as diabetic. 42 to 47 is pre-diabetic

You wouldn’t be diagnosed as diabetic based on one hba1c of 48 unless you have symptoms of diabetes too. The hba1c will be repeated to determine whether you’re diabetic or at risk of diabetes.

 

[Lily123]

You wouldn’t be diagnosed as diabetic based on one hba1c of 48 unless you have symptoms of diabetes too. The hba1c will be repeated to determine whether you’re diabetic or at risk of diabetes.

I never new that! You learn something new everyday 🙂

 

[ianf0ster]

hi all , I am 57 years old , female and carrying far too much extra fat, my dad had diabetes 2 and I have been given conflicting information - that id i simply lose weight the issue will go away on its own, but then have been told to stick to a low carb diet , but no idea how may carbs is low ?
Im kinda on the cusp as blood test came up with a reading of 48 which is I think at the bottom end of the diabetes scale , but im looking for guidance on how may carbs i should be eating each day 9 or a book that will just tell me exactly what to eat each day lol

Low carb is loosely defined as anything from approx zero (usually only achieved by a totally carnivore way of eating) up to 130gms per day. But since we are all different in our sensitivity to carbs, and even to the same quantity of carbs but in different forms, combined with different amounts of fats and even at different time of day, if you really want to get back down to 'normal' levels (which are actually lower in the USA than in the UK) you will probably need the help of a Blood Glucose meter to test your own sensitivity to the foods you eat,
If you can keep the rise in blood glucose for every meal down to a maximum of 2.0 mmol then (provided you are insulin resistant ( a Type 2) rather than insulin deficient or some other form of diabetes you should be able to achieve normal levels = 40 or below for the UK). I managed to do so without any diabetes medication as have thousands of others, however it's generally thought that a little help from Metformin (if your gut can tolerate it) does no harm.