Hi everyone, I had a HbA1c blood test March 12th and my score was 44. I have been referred to the Diabetes prevention prevention programme. I have changed my diet and lost 5lbs I am 9st 5 BMI is 21and active.I'm a 58year old woman. I had another HbA1 on Monday and was so upset that my score has not gone down but stayed at 44. I'm not sure what else I can do?
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Prediabetic
- Thread starter Sulfate
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Hi Inka. Breakfast is 45g of less than 5%sugar granola with a few strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with soya plain yoghurt. Lunch a wholemeal sandwich with cheese or ham and a protein blueberry yoghurt which is fat free and sugar free. Dinner varies. One night this week I had prawns ,smoked salmon with jacket potato and cheese with salad, a chicken salad with 100g new potatoes, prawn stir fry with egg noodles, I do allow myself a cake once a week and a dessert once a week. I have a very sweet tooth and I have cut out alot of chocolate, pudding gs and cake etc. I have had an Indian takeaway a couple of times since March. I also go to the gym twice a week and do pilates once a week
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi and welcome. I can see why you are a bit puzzled as you are slim and fit. And your meals certainly sound very healthy. So I had a look at your diet, and ran it through my app for calories and carbs.
Diabetes UK recommends less than 130gm carbs a day. I assumed low or fat free, medium slices/portions, 1oz cheese, 220gm baked potato, baked chicken quarter, 75gm noodles, semi skimmed milk. Your breakfast came to 330 cals with 28gm carbs. Your cheese sandwich lunch came to 350 cals and a whopping 48.5gm carbs. Your baked potato with prawns, smoked salmon, cheese and salad came to 520 cals and 60.9 gm carbs. So those 3 meals came to 1200 cals and 137.4gm carbs. This is before you take into account drinks and any snacks, like fruit you may have. 6 mugs of tea would add 110 cals and 11.4gm carbs. Your chicken salad meal was 325 cals and 25.4gm carbs. The prawn stir fry was a surprising 534 cals and 44.9 gm carbs.
It is my gut feeling - and I am ready to be disagreed with - that your diet is a bit carb heavy for a pre diabetic person. You might look to reducing your carb intake with a few tweaks. For example, an open sandwich on a small slice of wholemeal or low carb bread, piled with salad. Replacing the noodles in your stir fry with cauliflower rice, or using Bare Naked carb free noodles. Most of us avoid breakfast cereals, but when I do have some, I only have 25gm oat based cereal, with unsweetened almond milk and 40gm mixed berries. My breakfast of choice is a poached egg with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. Others have the berries and yogurt without the cereal. I love a baked potato, but look for the smallest ones and fill up with protein. I'm hoping with just a few carb tweaks you can get your next HbA1c below the magic 42.
PS: I got my latest HbA1c yesterday, and had dropped 17 points - so I treated myself to an Indian takeaway. Back on the carb count today!
Thanks Felinia that is so helpful. In the winter I was having porridge oats with almond milk too but more like 40g oats. Is there anything i can find online that will give me an accurate count of carbs? I really have no idea of what is carb heavy apart from pasta rice bread etc? Because i am slim I'm not sure how much to eat of those things because I really dont want to lose too much weight.i have lost 5lbs since March due to changing my diet. Can I still have a weekly treat? I'm so confused! I know I would do better with a diet sheet to follow but I dont know where to find a good one.
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi - I hope I haven't rambled on too much here.
I use an app with website called NutraCheck and there are others available online. It was the first thing I did when I became diabetic and I fill it in faithfully every day in advance, so I know exactly what I'm having. As one person put it - you don't want to get to dinner to find you've used up your carb allowance! I believe NC still offers a 7 day free trial, then it works out at £7.99 a month - less than one Costa coffee a week! It contains literally thousands of foods with varying portion sizes and weigh options. It then adds them in by meal, day and week and saves them for posterity. It offers 7 different types of plan, from low fat, low carb, low sugar, to "set your own".
I chose "set your own" as the low carb version was still too high in carbs. I experimented with varying carb levels and settled on 90gm a day - others go lower or higher. We are all unique and have to find out what suits us best. It is possible that you are more sensitive to certain carbs, and others may suggest you invest in a blood glucose monitor. As Type 2 you won't be offered one free! If you test immediately before eating and 2 hours from first bite, then compare it with your food diary you will soon see what causes your blood glucose to spike. I can get away with a small slice of bread or 2 new potatoes, but not rice, pasta or apples! That might also give you more clues why your HbA1c remained unchanged. Once I had worked out what foods suited me I stopped testing and my sore fingers thanked me. I just test now for new foods.
Diabetes UK sells a brilliant book Carbs & Cals Pocket Counter which is a pictorial reference for portion sizes and also includes all the important stats like cals, carbs, fats. Horrifying fact - one 16gm square of dark chocolate is 10gm carbs and 4gm fat! The other publication I found very helpful was The 8-week blood sugar diet by Dr Michael Mosley with foreword by Prof. Roy Taylor. It includes a 4-week menu plan and recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You don't want to lose weight but I do. I also got a number of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes books, but most of them were for the American audience with their ingredients and measurements. I have The Hairy Bikers Type 2 Diabetes Cookbook (entertaining but a bit high in carbs still), plus another book with over 100 recipes and UK measurements called "Can I eat that? by Jenefer Roberts.
Can you have a treat? Yes, but build it into your daily plan, so you stay within your carb limit. Moderation in all things, not total denial. These are just my personal experiences, and others may offer different ideas - I'm not a medical person. Please feel free to ask any questions.
I use an app with website called NutraCheck and there are others available online. It was the first thing I did when I became diabetic and I fill it in faithfully every day in advance, so I know exactly what I'm having. As one person put it - you don't want to get to dinner to find you've used up your carb allowance! I believe NC still offers a 7 day free trial, then it works out at £7.99 a month - less than one Costa coffee a week! It contains literally thousands of foods with varying portion sizes and weigh options. It then adds them in by meal, day and week and saves them for posterity. It offers 7 different types of plan, from low fat, low carb, low sugar, to "set your own".
I chose "set your own" as the low carb version was still too high in carbs. I experimented with varying carb levels and settled on 90gm a day - others go lower or higher. We are all unique and have to find out what suits us best. It is possible that you are more sensitive to certain carbs, and others may suggest you invest in a blood glucose monitor. As Type 2 you won't be offered one free! If you test immediately before eating and 2 hours from first bite, then compare it with your food diary you will soon see what causes your blood glucose to spike. I can get away with a small slice of bread or 2 new potatoes, but not rice, pasta or apples! That might also give you more clues why your HbA1c remained unchanged. Once I had worked out what foods suited me I stopped testing and my sore fingers thanked me. I just test now for new foods.
Diabetes UK sells a brilliant book Carbs & Cals Pocket Counter which is a pictorial reference for portion sizes and also includes all the important stats like cals, carbs, fats. Horrifying fact - one 16gm square of dark chocolate is 10gm carbs and 4gm fat! The other publication I found very helpful was The 8-week blood sugar diet by Dr Michael Mosley with foreword by Prof. Roy Taylor. It includes a 4-week menu plan and recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You don't want to lose weight but I do. I also got a number of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes books, but most of them were for the American audience with their ingredients and measurements. I have The Hairy Bikers Type 2 Diabetes Cookbook (entertaining but a bit high in carbs still), plus another book with over 100 recipes and UK measurements called "Can I eat that? by Jenefer Roberts.
Can you have a treat? Yes, but build it into your daily plan, so you stay within your carb limit. Moderation in all things, not total denial. These are just my personal experiences, and others may offer different ideas - I'm not a medical person. Please feel free to ask any questions.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
That doesn’t sound like an excessive amount of carbs at all. You’re clearly thinking about what you eat. Depending on the size of your baked potato, that day could come in at under 130g carbs. How does that compare with a normal day’s food for you pre-diagnosis?
You’re slim, active, aren’t eating processed rubbish or an excessive amount of carbs. What prompted you to have the blood test that led to your diagnosis? Was it just a general check-up? Is there any history of Type 2 in your family? I’m wondering about the possibility of a slow-onset Type 1.
Do you test your own blood sugar at home? That’s a really good way to keep an eye on things and see how foods affect you.
You don’t need Carbs and Cals to count carbs. I roughly totted yours up using my supermarket shopping app and my memory (but Google could stand in for that) - all free.
It was a general mot blood test that my GP suggested. My previous count was HbA1c 41 and is now 44. I cant remember when my last blood test was it could have been a couple of years ago. I was really shocked when I was told I'm prediabetic. My mum is type 2 but got it in later life but she was very sedentary. I borrowed a friend of mine( who is type 1 ) blood glucose tester and used it forca week and each time my levels were completely normal!
was a general mot blood test that my GP suggested. My previous count was HbA1c 41 and is now 44. I cant remember when my last blood test was it could have been a couple of years ago. I was really shocked when I was told I'm prediabetic. My mum is type 2 but got it in later life but she was very sedentary. I borrowed a friend of mine( who is type 1 ) blood glucose tester and used it forca week and
No you haven't rambled on! I really appreciate your help. Thanks for reading my posts and helping me.
O
I did it twice breakfast and dinner. It was a while ago. I think before breakfast and then after dinner? She told me when to do it and all the readings were normal. I had a full blood count with the glucose and cholesterol. Full blood normal
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hmm, ok, so it doesn’t sound like something affected the accuracy of your HbA1C. So you must be going a little high somewhere during the day. Your HbA1C works out as an average blood sugar of 7.3. That’s not awful, so your blood sugar might not be very high - just at the higher end of normal and staying there longer than it should, if that makes sense?
Personally, I’d get/borrow a meter and do a number of tests to see what’s happening, if you really want to understand it.
Personally, I’d get/borrow a meter and do a number of tests to see what’s happening, if you really want to understand it.
Thanks again for your help. I have a telephone appointment with my GP on Monday but to be honest I'm not expecting him to help much. He referred me to the Diabetes prevention programme which is delivered by zoom and I haven't enjoyed it and it's not reduced my blood sugar levels.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Diabetes and pre-diabetes are conditions where you have to ‘be your own expert’ quite a bit @Sulfate and advocate for yourself a surprising amount. You sound very organised so you might have already done this anyway, but if not, compile a short list of questions for your GP. Don’t let them grab hold of the conversation and talk over you, take control and get your questions in.
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