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Niori

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At risk of diabetes
Hello!

Got a bit of a wake up call in the form of a prediabetes diagnosis back in February.

Trying my hardest to reverse that but figured I'd better get informed since I am high risk with a few factors influencing that.

Since then I have lost 2.5 stone, invested in a fitbit, taken up exercise besides my daily yoga I was already doing, changed a lot of my diet and generally tried to look after myself better.

Hope everyone is keeping alright 🙂
 
Niori said:
Since then I have lost 2.5 stone
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Good for you. You should have received a HbA1c blood test reading. Do you know what it was?
< 42 is normal.
42 - 47 is pre-diabetic.
> 47 is diabetic.
Code: 
               42                  47
   ------------|-------------------|--------------------------------------
   normal           pre-diabetic        diabetic
 
Niori said:
It was 44 ...
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That should be easy to fix with a few diet tweaks and without medication (but I'm not a doctor!). Have a look at my progress below.
It takes about three months for the blood cells to be replaced and that's why there's no point in doing another HbA1c blood test very soon after the first. If you've made changes though I'd ask for another test after three months to get a feel for progress. A glucose meter (with lancets and test strips) is also very handy for daily trending. Mine downloads results to my phone over Bluetooth so I have 18 months history now.
 
I invested in a glucose meter. My high levels tend to be first thing in a morning (dawn phenomenon?)...during the day they are generally OK (with the exception of having a carvery once which really upped the numbers...Yorkshire pud/potatoes)

Your numbers look good - low carb?
 
I think I get Dawn phenomenon too - sometimes I take my BG just before going to sleep, then again when I wake. If the latter is higher than the former then I assume DP. (Er, unless insomnia drives me down to the kitchen for a mid-night snackie, alas....)
 
Niori said:
Hello!

Got a bit of a wake up call in the form of a prediabetes diagnosis back in February.

Trying my hardest to reverse that but figured I'd better get informed since I am high risk with a few factors influencing that.

Since then I have lost 2.5 stone, invested in a fitbit, taken up exercise besides my daily yoga I was already doing, changed a lot of my diet and generally tried to look after myself better.

Hope everyone is keeping alright 🙂
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You’re doing great with weight loss and as others have said you should be able easily to get your next HbA1c below 42 from your earlier 44. I got mine down from 74 to 42 with that same amount of weight loss and it was a doddle. Well done and keep going!
 
Thanks

It's good to know that I am not necessarily doomed to a life of medication and salads and all of the complications that come with diabetes

It's inspiring to read other people's success stories!
 
Yes, I'm similarly inspired. I think if I were taught that diabetes (T2) and pre-diabetes is just irreversible and that's that, I would be far more gloomy. Also, for many of us the DX has served as a wake up call, or trumpet signal, to improve our own lifestyles.

I'm probably not alone in having slumped dreadfully during the Covid years - the gym closed down, I pigged out (etc).

I think, ironically, that since my pre-DB DX this year (45 - horribly close to call!), I'm actually healthier now, as in, back at the gym (some but not enough yet) and lost well over a stone, and shifted off face-stuffing carbs to appetite-sating protein/fibre (not enough, but definitely noticeable.)

So it can be done!!!
 
Even though you might get below the magic number of below 42mmol/mol and be in the normal range, it still needs some vigilance with your diet not to go down a slippery slope and end up back where you started or as some people do worse. The regime that got you to normal really has to become your new way of eating rather than A DIET.
 
Yes, very true. I would say there are two stages to all this. The first is 'reactive', as in, oh gosh, my Hb reading has soared, what do I do to bring it down? Then the issue is 'how fast', in case there are downsides to too dramatic a reaction.

But then it's a question of stage two which is 'for ever' - ie, a maintenance regime. Probably (one hopes) not as draconian, and with allowance for treats etc etc, but never reverting to the pre-DX lifestyle.

I'm hoping I'm reaching the end of Stage one (depends what my next Hb reading is!) and can then lower my guard a bit and go into Stage two.

For myself, Stage 1 is low-carb/low-cal

Stage 2 ( I hope!) will be 'lower-carb' but a bit higher cal!!!
 
Callista said:
Yes, very true. I would say there are two stages to all this. The first is 'reactive', as in, oh gosh, my Hb reading has soared, what do I do to bring it down? Then the issue is 'how fast', in case there are downsides to too dramatic a reaction.

But then it's a question of stage two which is 'for ever' - ie, a maintenance regime. Probably (one hopes) not as draconian, and with allowance for treats etc etc, but never reverting to the pre-DX lifestyle.

I'm hoping I'm reaching the end of Stage one (depends what my next Hb reading is!) and can then lower my guard a bit and go into Stage two.

For myself, Stage 1 is low-carb/low-cal

Stage 2 ( I hope!) will be 'lower-carb' but a bit higher cal!!!
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You may find, as I did, that if you succeed with stage 1 then, provided in stage 2 you keep weight stable then it won’t matter physiologically whether your carbs are low or not. But you may find that low carbs helps you tactically in stage 2 to keep that weight stable by favouring satiety. I find that I can now vary my carbs at will with no ill effects.
 
Callista said:
Yes, very true. I would say there are two stages to all this. The first is 'reactive', as in, oh gosh, my Hb reading has soared, what do I do to bring it down? Then the issue is 'how fast', in case there are downsides to too dramatic a reaction.

But then it's a question of stage two which is 'for ever' - ie, a maintenance regime. Probably (one hopes) not as draconian, and with allowance for treats etc etc, but never reverting to the pre-DX lifestyle.

I'm hoping I'm reaching the end of Stage one (depends what my next Hb reading is!) and can then lower my guard a bit and go into Stage two.

For myself, Stage 1 is low-carb/low-cal

Stage 2 ( I hope!) will be 'lower-carb' but a bit higher cal!!!
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The way I look at this is like this. If one gets their numbers down to prediabetic, and their BMI and weight into a healthy normal range, then you are essentially like everyone else who is considered healthy (even though most people are not metabolically healthy and don't know it).
Some things have to be gone for life, all sugary drinks for example, there's just no reason for them. That includes all sodas, fruit juices, smoothies etc. They are pure sugar. At least if you eat a doughnut or a chocolate bar, there are fats, proteins, and other things in them. I think sugary drinks are the major culprit compared to everything else because of the carb content, sugar content, and high fructose corn syrup and other junk.
Try and not buy bread for at home, or cereals, and only eat at meal times, with limited snacking, and one will generally remain thin and trim, and glucose and insulin will likely be stable so long as one's pancreas is functional.
 
Admiral Benbow said:
The way I look at this is like this. If one gets their numbers down to prediabetic, and their BMI and weight into a healthy normal range, then you are essentially like everyone else who is considered healthy (even though most people are not metabolically healthy and don't know it).
Some things have to be gone for life, all sugary drinks for example, there's just no reason for them. That includes all sodas, fruit juices, smoothies etc. They are pure sugar. At least if you eat a doughnut or a chocolate bar, there are fats, proteins, and other things in them. I think sugary drinks are the major culprit compared to everything else because of the carb content, sugar content, and high fructose corn syrup and other junk.
Try and not buy bread for at home, or cereals, and only eat at meal times, with limited snacking, and one will generally remain thin and trim, and glucose and insulin will likely be stable so long as one's pancreas is functional.
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I would qualify this by suggesting that, purely for reasons of variety and enjoyment, one should be perfectly able to eat things like bread, pasta, rice, cake, potatoes and fruit with no ill effect upon blood glucose, provided always in moderation and in tandem with plenty of fats etc and provided always that one avoids weight regain. I eat all those things without concern. This is the real meaning of remission: the active diabetes has gone, one’s metabolism has re-normalised, and only the genetic susceptibility to relapse with weight regain remains. But we know that not all T2s can or will achieve stage 1, so they will indeed be lumbered with low carbs and/or meds for life, which is very regrettable and deserving of much more remission research.
 
For myself I completely agree that sugary drinks are useless - especially and without any excuse the rubbish junk-food fizzy cr*p pumped out by advertising (the profit margin for the soft drinks industry is sky high!).

That said, a glass of freshly squeezed OJ can be a real joy! (But best drunk diluted, I know!)

But maybe the trick is to select, out of the array of 'bad' carbs, those that one personally gets the best 'hit' from - ie, that gives us the biggest level of 'treat'. That can vary for folk - some want chocolate, some what OJ, some want starchy puddings, some want pasta etc. It's very personal.

If we remember that it all ends up as blood glucose (even if it takes the long road via the liver and our fat stores!), then in a way 'all carbs are equal' in that respect.
 
childofthesea43 said:
be lumbered with low carbs
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Or you could look at it as eating what mankind was designed to eat and avoiding ultra processed food is a great way to maintain both a healthy weight and a healthy body?
childofthesea43 said:
one should be perfectly able to eat things like bread, pasta, rice, cake, potatoes and fruit with no ill effect upon blood glucose
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Why would one want to eat the foods that got us here in the first place?
 
bulkbiker said:
Or you could look at it as eating what mankind was designed to eat and avoiding ultra processed food is a great way to maintain both a healthy weight and a healthy body?

Why would one want to eat the foods that got us here in the first place?
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Carbs are not inherently harmful to us. Our problems have arisen from eating too much food and in particular processed food for our individual bodies to cope with. Of course that has been encouraged by the distortions of the food industry and the changes in our lifestyles. Mankind was not provably designed for anything, we just evolved to survive in changing circumstances, and that evolution has equipped us to deal perfectly well with eating carbs when we want to - it just hasn’t equipped us to deal well with an excess of them.
 
But I think it would be fair to say that the 'original' human diet, the hunter-gatherer one, was relatively low-carb compared to what happened to our carb intake (and our dependence on carbs!) once the Neolithic agricultural revolution got underway. A carb heavy diet (even to the point of probably becoming carb-exclusive/dominant - think of Van Gogh's painting The Potato Eaters!) allowed the human population to soar, but it meant we could never go back to hunter-gatherer lifestyles.

As you say, though, the main problem is (a) junk food and (b) too much carb intake (and fat of course too)
 
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