Hi. I’m underweight if anything

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kelbi

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello. I’m aged 83 and just been diagnosed with diabetes after being prediabetic for 4 years. I’m really health conscious, fairly active for my age, but suffer from IBS daily and also anxiety. I am only five feet tall and weight just under 7 stone. I’ve never been overweight. My ideal weight is 7 stone 7 but I’ve gradually lost weight in recent years. I haven’t yet had the appointment to discuss how I get my reading down from 49 but as you see losing weight isn’t desirable at all. Any advice? I’m a bit stressed about this. I see the GP or maybe diabetic nurse on 11th September
 
Welcome @Kelbi 🙂 I’m pretty sure I read here that the recommended HbA1C for more mature people is slightly higher, so you might not have to make too many changes. Can you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you?
 
I'm 82 and I wonder what scope you have to adjust to a diet like this. Are any of the red or amber foods in your daily diet?

I am following a similar diet descibed here in What should we eat? That's because I do not want to put all the weight I have lost back on again.

No reason I can see why you might be able to put some weight back on either of them, while getting your HbAic down.
 
Kelbi said:
Hello. I’m aged 83 and just been diagnosed with diabetes after being prediabetic for 4 years. I’m really health conscious, fairly active for my age, but suffer from IBS daily and also anxiety. I am only five feet tall and weight just under 7 stone. I’ve never been overweight. My ideal weight is 7 stone 7 but I’ve gradually lost weight in recent years. I haven’t yet had the appointment to discuss how I get my reading down from 49 but as you see losing weight isn’t desirable at all. Any advice? I’m a bit stressed about this. I see the GP or maybe diabetic nurse on 11th September
Click to expand...
You are only just in the diabetes range, so it could be as simple as pinpointing your highest intake of carbs and making a few swaps - using swede instead of potato, or cutting out bread or breakfast cereals - just so you don't have spikes after meals all that often.
In the last few years I have been able to go back to work servicing knitting machines as I have become stronger eating more meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and by avoiding high carb foods my HbA1c has come right down from 91 to 43 - but I really needed to lose all the weight I put on eating a conventionally healthy diet.
 
Inka said:
Welcome @Kelbi 🙂 I’m pretty sure I read here that the recommended HbA1C for more mature people is slightly higher, so you might not have to make too many changes. Can you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you?
Click to expand...
 
I have porridge made with water and then a dash of cream and milk for breakfast. I eat my main meal at about one. Usually fish, or chicken with potatoes ( am now trying to substitute sweet potatoes) and green vegetables. Or a stir fry with brown rice. Followed by Kefir yogurt but am now substituting that for Greek yogurt with fruit. I always have two pieces of dark choc after that. For tea I used to have wholemeal toast with cheese or avocado or hummus but now substituted ryvita for bread. I follow that with a kiwi for my bowels plus other fruit. I drink one glass of wine five nights a week. I drink coffee in the morning and green tea the rest of the time.
 
JITR said:
I'm 82 and I wonder what scope you have to adjust to a diet like this. Are any of the red or amber foods in your daily diet?

I am following a similar diet descibed here in What should we eat? That's because I do not want to put all the weight I have lost back on again.

No reason I can see why you might be able to put some weight back on either of them, while getting your HbAic down.
Click to expand...
I have mostly kept off red and amber because of prediabetes. Obviously didn’t work though!
 
Drummer said:
You are only just in the diabetes range, so it could be as simple as pinpointing your highest intake of carbs and making a few swaps - using swede instead of potato, or cutting out bread or breakfast cereals - just so you don't have spikes after meals all that often.
In the last few years I have been able to go back to work servicing knitting machines as I have become stronger eating more meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and by avoiding high carb foods my HbA1c has come right down from 91 to 43 - but I really needed to lose all the weight I put on eating a conventionally healthy diet.
Click to expand...
Well done you! I want to find out what GP Thinks as I really don’t want medication especially as it may exacerbate IBS
 
Kelbi said:
I have porridge made with water and then a dash of cream and milk for breakfast. I eat my main meal at about one. Usually fish, or chicken with potatoes ( am now trying to substitute sweet potatoes) and green vegetables. Or a stir fry with brown rice. Followed by Kefir yogurt but am now substituting that for Greek yogurt with fruit. I always have two pieces of dark choc after that. For tea I used to have wholemeal toast with cheese or avocado or hummus but now substituted ryvita for bread. I follow that with a kiwi for my bowels plus other fruit. I drink one glass of wine five nights a week. I drink coffee in the morning and green tea the rest of the time.
Click to expand...
If it is any help I don't eat porridge, no potatoes no rice no bread no hummus no ryvita.
I drink green tea with either peppermint or lemon, or coffee with cream.
 
Kelbi said:
I have mostly kept off red and amber because of prediabetes. Obviously didn’t work though!
Click to expand...
Are you sure?
I don't use the colour codes myself but just a quick glance at the lists does puzzle me.....
 
Drummer said:
If it is any help I don't eat porridge, no potatoes no rice no bread no hummus no ryvita.
I drink green tea with either peppermint or lemon, or coffee with cream.
Click to expand...
Porridge suits me because of IBS. I’m reluctant to give that up as also love it but I see it is high carbs
 
Kelbi said:
Porridge suits me because of IBS. I’m reluctant to give that up as also love it but I see it is high carbs
Click to expand...
If you can test your response to it in blood glucose terms it might help. I know that oats and beans raise my levels rapidly and to high levels but that doesn't happen for everyone.
 
Kelbi said:
Porridge suits me because of IBS. I’m reluctant to give that up as also love it but I see it is high carbs
Click to expand...

Try it and see @Kelbi Porridge works for some people. If you have the traditional jumbo oats then that’s lower GI than the powdered instant variety, so usually kinder to the blood sugar. Remember portion size too. A moderate bowl of porridge isn’t too high carb and it might be that you can manage that.

Your diet sounds pretty healthy with a nice lot of variety 🙂 See what the doctor says. It might be you can just tweak it a bit.
 
Kelbi said:
I haven’t yet had the appointment to discuss how I get my reading down from 49 but as you see losing weight isn’t desirable at all. Any advice? I’m a bit stressed about this. I see the GP or maybe diabetic nurse on 11th September
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis @Kelbi

Hope you can find a way of eating that suits your IBS and your diabetes. It can be tricky to balance the needs of multiple conditions :(
 
There are indeed some newer NICE guidelines that mean that more mature people should have a more lenient threshold at which they would be diagnosed as diabetic and unless there were other indicators like being overweight or were suffering some of the common symptoms then a higher level is appropriate.
I would have thought that what you were having if that suited your IBS then you don't really need to make any changes. It might be that increasing your protein and healthy fats would help you maintain your weight
 
Kelbi said:
I have porridge made with water and then a dash of cream and milk for breakfast
Click to expand...
As you don’t need to lose weight if you could add a bit more cream or full fat milk to the porridge, then it would help to reduce any spike from the porridge since fats slow down carbs. You could use a similar approach to other meals with adding some healthy fats
 
Inka said:
Try it and see @Kelbi Porridge works for some people. If you have the traditional jumbo oats then that’s lower GI than the powdered instant variety, so usually kinder to the blood sugar. Remember portion size too. A moderate bowl of porridge isn’t too high carb and it might be that you can manage that.

Your diet sounds pretty healthy with a nice lot of variety 🙂 See what the doctor says. It might be you can just tweak it a bit.
Click to expand...
I do have the old fashioned whole oats. And my portions are small as they are for all my meals. Thanks!
 
Lucyr said:
As you don’t need to lose weight if you could add a bit more cream or full fat milk to the porridge, then it would help to reduce any spike from the porridge since fats slow down carbs. You could use a similar approach to other meals with adding some healthy fats
Click to expand...
Heck it goes against all the usual advice doesn’t it? I’d be happy to have more cream lol!
 
Kelbi said:
Heck it goes against all the usual advice doesn’t it? I’d be happy to have more cream lol!
Click to expand...
There aren’t any carbs in fats so you can have those without worrying about your bg.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top