Pre-diabetes

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Inevitable

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Hi there. I have been told I’m pre-diabetes with my level at 42. I’m obviously upset, but confused as to why. Anyone been in this situation?
 
Welcome to the forum
It does not need much of a change in lifestyle to mean your body is no longer able to cope with the amount of carbohydrates you are eating. The good thing is that you have been alerted to the situation and can take some action to retrieve the situation. 42mmol/mol is just at the bottom end of prediabetes so you are in a good place to make some modest changes to your diet. Cutting out cakes, biscuits, and sugary drinks including fruit juice and reducing your intake of starchy foods like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and tropical fruits by reducing portion size and having more veg, salads with protein and healthy fats will help.
Many have been in your situation and with some modest changes have been able to reduce their HbA1C back down to normal range.
 
How is your weight and lipids? (I.E cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides?)
It may be that you have some insulin resistance which is raising levels a little.
 
Inevitable said:
Hi there. I have been told I’m pre-diabetes with my level at 42. I’m obviously upset, but confused as to why. Anyone been in this situation?
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Welcome to the forum @Inevitable

Sorry to hear you’ve been told you are at risk of developing diabetes :(

Do you have T2 in your close family?

Try not to be too hard on yourself. You didn’t set out intentionally aiming for this, and you can’t change what has gone before - what matters more is what you do next.

We’ve had lots of members who treated this news as a sort of catalyst and used it to motivate them to make positive changes that perhaps they had been meaning to make for years!

You are at the bottom edge of the range which suggests you are at increased risk of developing diabetes, so hopefully a few tweaks and changes to your menu, plus cutting right back on sweet and sugary things could make a big difference 🙂
 
Thank you for all the lovely helpful replies. However at 5’4 weighing 120lbs I’m neither overweight or unfit. I’m a keen gymaholic. I don’t smoke and I never eat processed foods or rubbish. My doc said lifestyle changes, but when I said suggest some she really couldn’t. This is why I’m confused. How on earth can I reduce this level? I’m baffled?
 
Inevitable said:
Thank you for all the lovely helpful replies. However at 5’4 weighing 120lbs I’m neither overweight or unfit. I’m a keen gymaholic. I don’t smoke and I never eat processed foods or rubbish. My doc said lifestyle changes, but when I said suggest some she really couldn’t. This is why I’m confused. How on earth can I reduce this level? I’m baffled?
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Sometimes people feel they are eating healthy foods but what might be healthy for non diabetics is not so if diabetic or heading that way. As said it may only need some modest changes in a few things and reduction in portions of any high carb foods. Fruit can be a problem as people feel they are being healthy but fruit is quite high carb with the exception of berries which are not bad, similarly breakfast cereals can be very high in carbs and by having something else for breakfast there is an immediate saving in carbs at a time of day when carbs can increase blood glucose more than at other times of the day.
This link may give you some ideas for modifying your diet. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Would you like to post some examples of the sort of meals you are having as people may spot some foods which could be a problem
 
Inevitable said:
Thank you for all the lovely helpful replies. However at 5’4 weighing 120lbs I’m neither overweight or unfit. I’m a keen gymaholic. I don’t smoke and I never eat processed foods or rubbish. My doc said lifestyle changes, but when I said suggest some she really couldn’t. This is why I’m confused. How on earth can I reduce this level? I’m baffled?
Click to expand...

Ah interesting @Inevitable

How did you come to get checked?

Have you been having any symptoms?

Have you got a follow-up organised? There are various different types of diabetes, so it may be that you have a different form of diabetes than the ‘bog standard’ ones… Or it may be that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrates.

Keep an open mind, and keep asking questions - particularly if your blood glucose levels don’t behave as expected as your presentation seems slightly atypical.
 
Leadinglights said:
Sometimes people feel they are eating healthy foods but what might be healthy for non diabetics is not so if diabetic or heading that way. As said it may only need some modest changes in a few things and reduction in portions of any high carb foods. Fruit can be a problem as people feel they are being healthy but fruit is quite high carb with the exception of berries which are not bad, similarly breakfast cereals can be very high in carbs and by having something else for breakfast there is an immediate saving in carbs at a time of day when carbs can increase blood glucose more than at other times of the day.
This link may give you some ideas for modifying your diet. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Would you like to post some examples of the sort of meals you are having as people may spot some foods which could be a problem
Click to expand...
Okey doke - so this is me today:
Breakfast:
Oats/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds and skimmed milk
Dinner: steak n mushroom pie (homemade by me) sweet potatoes and broccoli
Black cherry low fat yoghurt.
My portions are very small.

I use fresh ingredients. I’m not a big fruit eater. Maybe half a banana some days - don’t eat biscuits/cakes. Don’t have sugar or salt at all. Use herbs n spices, fresh garlic and onions. I rarely eat chocs/sweets. Don’t put any sauces on my food. Use salad dressing rather than salad creams. I love bread but I don’t eat it in excess and if I eat a slice I usually cut crusts off. Probably 4/5 slices per week.
I think that’s a fairly normal diet for someone who is conscientious about being healthy.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Ah interesting @Inevitable

How did you come to get checked?

Have you been having any symptoms?

Have you got a follow-up organised? There are various different types of diabetes, so it may be that you have a different form of diabetes than the ‘bog standard’ ones… Or it may be that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrates.

Keep an open mind, and keep asking questions - particularly if your blood glucose levels don’t behave as expected as your presentation seems slightly atypical.
Click to expand...
I’m quite surprised and I agree even though I’m not knowledgeable about diabetes.
 
Inevitable said:
I’m quite surprised and I agree even though I’m not knowledgeable about diabetes.
Click to expand...

We have members who have been diagnosed with T1 into their 50s, 60s, and beyond. And some forms of autoimmune diabetes come on slowly later in life, so diagnosis isn’t always sudden and dramatic.

Plus there are genetic forms such a MODY.

So perhaps try reducing your total carbohydrate content (not just ’of which sugars’) as a precautionary measure to help your metabolism for the time being?
 
Inevitable said:
Okey doke - so this is me today:
Breakfast:
Oats/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds and skimmed milk
Dinner: steak n mushroom pie (homemade by me) sweet potatoes and broccoli
Black cherry low fat yoghurt.
My portions are very small.

I use fresh ingredients. I’m not a big fruit eater. Maybe half a banana some days - don’t eat biscuits/cakes. Don’t have sugar or salt at all. Use herbs n spices, fresh garlic and onions. I rarely eat chocs/sweets. Don’t put any sauces on my food. Use salad dressing rather than salad creams. I love bread but I don’t eat it in excess and if I eat a slice I usually cut crusts off. Probably 4/5 slices per week.
I think that’s a fairly normal diet for someone who is conscientious about being healthy.
Click to expand...
There are a few foods which people with diabetes would struggle to tolerate, oats, flour used to make pastry, sweet potatoes and some yoghurts have added sugar which makes them quite high carb so it could just be the combination of those all in one day is pushing your blood glucose a bit too high.
I recommend the book Carbs and Cals as you can compare the carb values of various portions of foods. Healthy fats and protein do not convert to glucose so there is no need to avoid low fat products unless you need to for other reasons. The suggested amount of total carbs per day is no more than 130g per day. If you work out the carbs for the portions you have you could see how close to that you are.
 
Inevitable said:
I’m quite surprised and I agree even though I’m not knowledgeable about diabetes.
Click to expand...
Leadinglights said:
There are a few foods which people with diabetes would struggle to tolerate, oats, flour used to make pastry, sweet potatoes and some yoghurts have added sugar which makes them quite high carb so it could just be the combination of those all in one day is pushing your blood glucose a bit too high.
I recommend the book Carbs and Cals as you can compare the carb values of various portions of foods. Healthy fats and protein do not convert to glucose so there is no need to avoid low fat products unless you need to for other reasons. The suggested amount of total carbs per day is no more than 130g per day. If you work out the carbs for the portions you have you could see how close to that you are.
Click to expand...
Thanks that’s very interesting. Never considered my diet before so this is all new to me. Thanks again for this.
 
As you are so close to normal numbers just starting the day with something lower in carbs and higher in protein and fat (yes really) might be all that is required. I find that I am more energetic during the day if I have that sort of a meal and I then do not need to eat until evening. That scenario is almost diagnostic of ordinary type 2s, and if you react differently it might well mean that there is more going on and more tests or thoughts by your GP are required.
 
Inevitable said:
Thanks that’s very interesting. Never considered my diet before so this is all new to me. Thanks again for this.
Click to expand...
I would highly recommend using MyFitnessPal, either the website or phone app (I use both) to log food intake. The database of food it has is extraordinary and using the phone you can scan in the bar code of what you're eating which makes logging even quicker. It's free as well. You'll need a digital food scale to weigh everything.
 
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