Wyrd sister 4
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- At risk of diabetes
Newly diagnosed prediabetic and struggling to get my head round it. I'm seriously overweight but struggling to get myself started.
-
Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Hi from sunny Margate
- Thread starter Wyrd sister 4
- Start date
- Status
john e
Active Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Check this out and welcome, https://www.diabetes.org.uk/preventing-type-2-diabetes/prediabetes
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I assume you are a Terry Pratchett fan, my other half is.
You may also find this link helpful as it has good explanation and principals for reducing weight and blood glucose. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
You may only need to make some modest changes to have impact.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome
There are two main approaches which seem to work well for many members.
1. A short term very low CALORIE diet which works by stripping away the visceral fat from the vital organs and in particular the liver and pancreas, allowing them to communicate better which can be key to rebalancing blood glucose levels. The Newcastle diet or Fast 800 are examples of this and for convenience often use meal supplement shakes to achieve the 800 calories a day. The key to this is finding a long term solution to maintaining the weight loss after the program ends and you return to normal food. Some people seem to intermittently return to the Fast 800 if their weight starts creeping up again when they return to eating normally. The key is usually portion control and taking action before weight increases too much.
2. A low CARBOHYDRATE way of eating. This is a long term strategy and a change in your approach to food. We have mostly been brought up to fill our plates with carbs at every meal.... bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals etc. These foods along with the obvious sweet stuff raises our blood glucose levels and and triggers our bodies to produce more insulin which stores the surplus glucose as fat in our cells. Once the cells get to the point that they are reaching storage capacity they become less responsive to the insulin trying to store the surplus glucose in the blood. The body tries to overcome this by producing even more insulin to clear the excess glucose from the blood and overcome the resistance. If we put less glucose into our blood by eating less carbs and ideally increase our activity levels by perhaps having a brisk daily walk if we are able, the body is not only has less glucose in the blood but starts using up some of the fat stores in the cells and then becomes less insulin resistant. The interesting thing about cutting back on carbs is that the less you eat, the less you crave them. As someone who was a sugar addict and bread and potato fiend pre diagnosis and could polish off a multipack of snickers or a whole box of Cadbury's Cream Eggs in an afternoon and still be craving at tea time, this has been a revelation to me as I now have so much more control over my eating. I still eat lovely tasty food and I now (contrary to NHS advice) eat more fat which provides slow release energy and keeps me from feeling hungry but I avoid those high carb foods that give me a sugar rush and spike my BG and set the cravings away. I have been eating low carb higher fat now for 3.5 years and there have been huge health benefits, weight loss, much less joint pain, migraines have stopped completely, I'm fitter, my bones and teeth feel stronger and I feel younger.
Oh and despite now eating lots of fat and much of it saturated fat (cheese, cream, full fat yoghurt, occasionally pork scratchings 🙄, my cholesterol levels are the lowest they have ever been. I should also point out that I eat lots of fresh vegetables, particularly green veg like cabbage and broccoli.... oh and cauliflower (not green I know but low carb and a wonder veg for those of us following a low carb way of eating as it can be mashed to replace mashed potato or grated to use as a rice replacement. It works really well mashed as a topping for cottage/shepherd's/fish pie with plenty of grated cheese of course.
Learning to eat low carb took a bit of getting my head around and the first 3 months were hard but once I figured it out and found low carb (usually higher fat and protein) treats and snacks which I enjoy, it has just become so much easier.
Anyway, I just want to say that my diabetes diagnosis was the kick up the backside I needed to change and I am now far healthier than I was before diagnosis and fully intend to live longer with a better quality of life as a result, so, far from being something which has limited my life, I feel it has probably improved my health and lengthened my prospective lifespan. Of course I feel guilty that it took the diagnosis to make those changes but all I can do is live my best life now to make up for it.
There are two main approaches which seem to work well for many members.
1. A short term very low CALORIE diet which works by stripping away the visceral fat from the vital organs and in particular the liver and pancreas, allowing them to communicate better which can be key to rebalancing blood glucose levels. The Newcastle diet or Fast 800 are examples of this and for convenience often use meal supplement shakes to achieve the 800 calories a day. The key to this is finding a long term solution to maintaining the weight loss after the program ends and you return to normal food. Some people seem to intermittently return to the Fast 800 if their weight starts creeping up again when they return to eating normally. The key is usually portion control and taking action before weight increases too much.
2. A low CARBOHYDRATE way of eating. This is a long term strategy and a change in your approach to food. We have mostly been brought up to fill our plates with carbs at every meal.... bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals etc. These foods along with the obvious sweet stuff raises our blood glucose levels and and triggers our bodies to produce more insulin which stores the surplus glucose as fat in our cells. Once the cells get to the point that they are reaching storage capacity they become less responsive to the insulin trying to store the surplus glucose in the blood. The body tries to overcome this by producing even more insulin to clear the excess glucose from the blood and overcome the resistance. If we put less glucose into our blood by eating less carbs and ideally increase our activity levels by perhaps having a brisk daily walk if we are able, the body is not only has less glucose in the blood but starts using up some of the fat stores in the cells and then becomes less insulin resistant. The interesting thing about cutting back on carbs is that the less you eat, the less you crave them. As someone who was a sugar addict and bread and potato fiend pre diagnosis and could polish off a multipack of snickers or a whole box of Cadbury's Cream Eggs in an afternoon and still be craving at tea time, this has been a revelation to me as I now have so much more control over my eating. I still eat lovely tasty food and I now (contrary to NHS advice) eat more fat which provides slow release energy and keeps me from feeling hungry but I avoid those high carb foods that give me a sugar rush and spike my BG and set the cravings away. I have been eating low carb higher fat now for 3.5 years and there have been huge health benefits, weight loss, much less joint pain, migraines have stopped completely, I'm fitter, my bones and teeth feel stronger and I feel younger.
Oh and despite now eating lots of fat and much of it saturated fat (cheese, cream, full fat yoghurt, occasionally pork scratchings 🙄, my cholesterol levels are the lowest they have ever been. I should also point out that I eat lots of fresh vegetables, particularly green veg like cabbage and broccoli.... oh and cauliflower (not green I know but low carb and a wonder veg for those of us following a low carb way of eating as it can be mashed to replace mashed potato or grated to use as a rice replacement. It works really well mashed as a topping for cottage/shepherd's/fish pie with plenty of grated cheese of course.
Learning to eat low carb took a bit of getting my head around and the first 3 months were hard but once I figured it out and found low carb (usually higher fat and protein) treats and snacks which I enjoy, it has just become so much easier.
Anyway, I just want to say that my diabetes diagnosis was the kick up the backside I needed to change and I am now far healthier than I was before diagnosis and fully intend to live longer with a better quality of life as a result, so, far from being something which has limited my life, I feel it has probably improved my health and lengthened my prospective lifespan. Of course I feel guilty that it took the diagnosis to make those changes but all I can do is live my best life now to make up for it.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Wyrd sister 4
Were you given the result of your HbA1c check that showed you were at risk of developing diabetes? This will have been a number between 42 and 47mmol/L, with readings of 48 and above leading to a diagnosis with diabetes.
It can sometimes help you to understand where your metabolism is currently sitting on the diabetes ‘spectrum‘, and whether a few tweaks to your menu, or more wholesale changes are likely to be needed.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
It’s not that you have to avoid all those things entirely, but finding the sources of carb, and portion sizes, that are gentlest on your BG levels can really help your metabolism to keep things in balance.
Have you had success with any weight loss strategies in the past that you can call on again? There are lots of different approaches, and you can find threads in the Weight Loss Group where forum members keep a sort of diary to share their progress with various strategies. It can really help to have friendly folks walking alongside you and encouraging you along the way 🙂
Fire away with any questions you may have too - we have literally centuries of lived diabetes experience on the forum, and no questions will be considered ‘silly‘ 🙂
Were you given the result of your HbA1c check that showed you were at risk of developing diabetes? This will have been a number between 42 and 47mmol/L, with readings of 48 and above leading to a diagnosis with diabetes.
It can sometimes help you to understand where your metabolism is currently sitting on the diabetes ‘spectrum‘, and whether a few tweaks to your menu, or more wholesale changes are likely to be needed.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
It’s not that you have to avoid all those things entirely, but finding the sources of carb, and portion sizes, that are gentlest on your BG levels can really help your metabolism to keep things in balance.
Have you had success with any weight loss strategies in the past that you can call on again? There are lots of different approaches, and you can find threads in the Weight Loss Group where forum members keep a sort of diary to share their progress with various strategies. It can really help to have friendly folks walking alongside you and encouraging you along the way 🙂
Fire away with any questions you may have too - we have literally centuries of lived diabetes experience on the forum, and no questions will be considered ‘silly‘ 🙂
- Status