Prediabetes and A levels

[tonimckenzie04]

Hi,
I just got diagnosed with prediabetes. My mum is a T2D and is telling me all about these crazy diets I, of course, should lose weight but I have my A levels in the summer and I don't want these non-suitable diets to affect my school as that is my main priority. I know I should lose weight as I am obese but I have no idea how to do it, where to start, and stay on top of my school work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Lucyr]

The good news is that losing weight and improving your diet and blood sugars will only help you feel better and improve your energy levels and ability to focus on your school work.

Do you have a meter to test your blood sugars? I’d start by cutting out the things that are more obviously unhealthy, biscuits chocolate sweets cake etc. Then work on increasing your veg portions and reducing your carbohydrate portions.

You are young so if you start to feel worse or your blood sugars aren’t improving make sure you go back to the doctor.

 

[Inka]

I think you said you had PCOS in an earlier post @tonimckenzie04 Many people with PCOS find that eating a reduced carb diet helps. A diet like that would also help your pre-diabetes and should help you lose weight.

If you’re happy to give us an idea of an average day’s food for you, you’ll get some ideas of how you can tweak your meals and snacks.

Slow, steady changes would be more sensible than a crash diet. Such changes wouldn’t affect your A levels. In fact, you’d probably feel better in yourself. Don’t forget exercise too. Walking and swimming are both good. Go for a walk after your evening meal, get off the bus/train/car a little early so you have to walk further, etc etc.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @tonimckenzie04

Sorry to hear you've been told you are at risk of developing diabetes. It must be extra stress you could really do without in the midst of your exam preparations!

When it comes to trying to find a new way of eating, many members have found it can be really helpful to keep a food diary for a week or two. Be brutally honest! Note down everything you eat and drink, along with a reasonable estimate of the total carbohydrate content (not just 'of which sugars') in your meals and snacks - it doesn’t have to be gram-perfect, the nearest 5-10g is fine. This will give you an understanding of your 'baseline'.

It might sound like a bit of a faff, and will involve weighing portions, squinting at the fine print on packaging, and possibly looking up things on the internet, but it will give you a really good idea of which foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu. Once you can see which meals or snacks are your ‘big hitters’, and where carbs might be unexpectedly lurking.

You can then use your diary to look for likely candidates for swaps, portion reductions, or using lower carb alternatives (eg celeriac or swede mash, or cauli ‘rice’).

Hopefully you'll be able to make some fairly modest and sustainable changes to your menu which will help your metabolism cope better with your meals and snacks and begin to reduce your BG peaks. This should have a positive impact on your levels of energy, and ability to concentrate. Often you don’t realise how weary, worn down and lethargic you have been feeling. Erratic and elevated blood glucose levels can be exhausting and are linked with low mood, but this may have come on quite gradually. Making a few positive changes can give you more energy, a clearer mind, and a brighter outlook.

Moderate and sustainable tweaks to your current menu seems a better way forward than "all about these crazy diets" 🙂

 

[Admiral Benbow]

My last medical report said I have a 51.96% chance of getting diabetes in 10 years. Here is what I am currently doing:

1. Drinking only water
2. Fasting
3. Sprinting on the weekends for more than 150 min
4. Lowering carbs as much as possible (I.e trying to not eat breads, rice, pastas, cereals, or anything with refined flowers/grains, sweets
5. only eating fruits, vegetables, and meats

I've lost about 5 kg last month and my BMI is now in a normal range, and my belly is much flatter. Not a six pack, but pretty flat now. I am hoping this will all help me have a great new report in June. I'll post my results here if they are good. Not sure what to do if they remain bad, but I feel I am heading in the right direction.

 

[Docb]

Hi @tonimckenzie04. What subjects are you doing at A level? I only ask because it will say something about the things you are interested in which might give some ideas on ways in which you can approach your weight losing quest.

 

[tonimckenzie04]

The good news is that losing weight and improving your diet and blood sugars will only help you feel better and improve your energy levels and ability to focus on your school work.

Do you have a meter to test your blood sugars? I’d start by cutting out the things that are more obviously unhealthy, biscuits chocolate sweets cake etc. Then work on increasing your veg portions and reducing your carbohydrate portions.

You are young so if you start to feel worse or your blood sugars aren’t improving make sure you go back to the doctor.

Thank you so much! This helps me so much 🙂

 

[tonimckenzie04]

I think you said you had PCOS in an earlier post @tonimckenzie04 Many people with PCOS find that eating a reduced carb diet helps. A diet like that would also help your pre-diabetes and should help you lose weight.

If you’re happy to give us an idea of an average day’s food for you, you’ll get some ideas of how you can tweak your meals and snacks.

Slow, steady changes would be more sensible than a crash diet. Such changes wouldn’t affect your A levels. In fact, you’d probably feel better in yourself. Don’t forget exercise too. Walking and swimming are both good. Go for a walk after your evening meal, get off the bus/train/car a little early so you have to walk further, etc etc.

Yes, I also got diagnosed with PCOS and weight is something I have struggled with for practically my whole life. I will start incorporating exercise into my schedule because it can help! Do you know any good low-carb diets? Thank you so much for the advice, it helps a lot 🙂

 

[tonimckenzie04]

Hi @tonimckenzie04. What subjects are you doing at A level? I only ask because it will say something about the things you are interested in which might give some ideas on ways in which you can approach your weight losing quest.

Hi, I study Biology, Chemistry and Maths A levels

 

[Inka]

Yes, I also got diagnosed with PCOS and weight is something I have struggled with for practically my whole life. I will start incorporating exercise into my schedule because it can help! Do you know any good low-carb diets? Thank you so much for the advice, it helps a lot 🙂

There are lots of low carb diets but avoid the more extreme ones. You could borrow some books from the library to get ideas. Take a bit from each book and tailor it to what would work for you and - importantly - what you could keep up week after week. Some of them will have ‘low carb’ in the title, but others, eg Pinch of Nom might not. There are also lots of ideas and recipes online.

A good thing to do is look at what you’re eating now (count the carbs if possible but that’s not crucial) and then make changes. If you post what you’re eating now, people will suggest swaps for each meal.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi, I study Biology, Chemistry and Maths A levels

Great choices! Though hard work I bet.

 

[tonimckenzie04]

Welcome to the forum @tonimckenzie04

Sorry to hear you've been told you are at risk of developing diabetes. It must be extra stress you could really do without in the midst of your exam preparations!

When it comes to trying to find a new way of eating, many members have found it can be really helpful to keep a food diary for a week or two. Be brutally honest! Note down everything you eat and drink, along with a reasonable estimate of the total carbohydrate content (not just 'of which sugars') in your meals and snacks - it doesn’t have to be gram-perfect, the nearest 5-10g is fine. This will give you an understanding of your 'baseline'.

It might sound like a bit of a faff, and will involve weighing portions, squinting at the fine print on packaging, and possibly looking up things on the internet, but it will give you a really good idea of which foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu. Once you can see which meals or snacks are your ‘big hitters’, and where carbs might be unexpectedly lurking.

You can then use your diary to look for likely candidates for swaps, portion reductions, or using lower carb alternatives (eg celeriac or swede mash, or cauli ‘rice’).

Hopefully you'll be able to make some fairly modest and sustainable changes to your menu which will help your metabolism cope better with your meals and snacks and begin to reduce your BG peaks. This should have a positive impact on your levels of energy, and ability to concentrate. Often you don’t realise how weary, worn down and lethargic you have been feeling. Erratic and elevated blood glucose levels can be exhausting and are linked with low mood, but this may have come on quite gradually. Making a few positive changes can give you more energy, a clearer mind, and a brighter outlook.

Moderate and sustainable tweaks to your current menu seems a better way forward than "all about these crazy diets" 🙂

Hi,
Thank you so much for the advice, I have now started that diary! Trying to be brutally honest with myself is a lot harder than I anticipated!! 🙂

 

[tonimckenzie04]

My last medical report said I have a 51.96% chance of getting diabetes in 10 years. Here is what I am currently doing:

1. Drinking only water
2. Fasting
3. Sprinting on the weekends for more than 150 min
4. Lowering carbs as much as possible (I.e trying to not eat breads, rice, pastas, cereals, or anything with refined flowers/grains, sweets
5. only eating fruits, vegetables, and meats

I've lost about 5 kg last month and my BMI is now in a normal range, and my belly is much flatter. Not a six pack, but pretty flat now. I am hoping this will all help me have a great new report in June. I'll post my results here if they are good. Not sure what to do if they remain bad, but I feel I am heading in the right direction.

Hi, That is amazing well done and keep it up!! This is definitely the right direction and you should be so proud of what you have already achieved!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi,
Thank you so much for the advice, I have now started that diary! Trying to be brutally honest with myself is a lot harder than I anticipated!! 🙂

Haha! Yes I think that's a really big part of the process. So much eating is habitual and almost automatic / on autopilot. It's notoriously hard to accurately recall how much of what we consume - and underestimating is very common!

Seeing it all laid out can really help you understand the details of your menu and your current habits. It's not about self-accusation or guilt - it's just about gathering information in order to inform your choices going forwards 🙂

 

[Docb]

Hi, I study Biology, Chemistry and Maths A levels

Excellent! I did maths, physics and chemistry (a long time ago) and finished doing R&D for most of my career.

Can I suggest that you don't think about "diets", but use what you are learning in your studies to understand how the human system works and from that devise what you need to do to make the changes you want to see happen.

When I really needed to do something about my high blood glucose levels my background led me to thinking about my body as I would have thought about a chemical plant which was not working well. I looked at what I could measure and gathered information from whatever sources I could find to see what variables were most likely to affect what was going on. Then I worked out a plan to make things happen. Most important is that it was my plan, not some magic offered by some noisy person or other telling me what to do.

My problem was getting my blood glucose down and maybe lose a little weight - I am one of those who had high blood glucose but was a little overweight, certainly not obese. I did exactly what I would have done with a chemical plant - understand as best I could what was going on, figure out what I could change which might affect things and measure the outcomes to see what worked and what did not. I then focussed on the things that worked.

If I had to lose weight then I would have used the same process. Measuring outcomes is easy - bathroom scales. When it comes to inputs, thats straightforward. Its what you consume and it looks like you are already grappling with that. A brutally honest food diary looking at inputs in terms of calories and major food groups. When you have a base line start making changes and measure the outcomes and work from there.

Set up a spreadsheet or a database to keep track of everything, good data and good data records will give you far more insight into what is going on than multiple opinions from glossy books and websites promoting the latest diet. I am not saying ignore those opinions, just do as you would do in any research, look for consensus and be sceptical about magic solutions.

I know the approach of detaching you the person from the structure in which you exist and treating that structure dispassionately might not suit everybody and might even be alien to some but it is a possible way forward someone with a technical mind.

Good luck with your studies... we need more scientists!!