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Surprised to be told I was prediabetic

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Sue Miles

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At risk of diabetes
I lost my husband 2 months ago and was feeling pretty down with stomach and eating problems amongst other things, the GP initially thought depression but after a range of blood tests was informed I was prediabetic with a blood sugar level of 46 mmol, this figure means nothing to me and I have nothing to compare it too. I have been advised to join the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme but this is not going to be got a couple of months. I would like to know what my mmol should be and what is the mmol when you are diagnosed with T2. Sorry for such a long post
 
Diabetic is 48 or over, normal is below 42, and in-between is prediabetic.

People have reported figures of over 100 on diagnosis.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Diabetic is 48 or over, normal is below 42, and in-between is prediabetic.

People have reported figures of over 100 on diagnosis.
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Thanks Bruce, that is very helpful, my concern at the moment is weight loss I am just under 8 stone and don't want to drop any lower, so trying to work out what to eat to make up for the cut in carbs is going to take some figuring out.
 
Sue Miles said:
Thanks Bruce, that is very helpful, my concern at the moment is weight loss I am just under 8 stone and don't want to drop any lower, so trying to work out what to eat to make up for the cut in carbs is going to take some figuring out.
Click to expand...

I had a patch where I wanted to lower my carbs to reduce
Last meal spikes that I was getting. Weight dropped off and like you I didn’t have a lot to spare.
I topped up with nuts, and protein snacks, but in the end took my carbs back up a bit as my head is full of carb counts and I didn’t want to have to start working with ratios fro protein as well to calculate my insulin dose at each meal. Happily working things out with a good target of carbs which suits me.

Have you lost weight recently, around the time of diagnosis. If so this is worth mentioning to nurse. I was diagnosed late on with T1 rather than the usual T2 when I lost 1 1/2 stone in one week.
 
As you are still not quite diabetic you might well be able to reverse your numbers by cutting down on the amount of carbs, swapping low carb foods for higher ones - cauliflower for potatoes for instance, and protein bread or other low carb options - the Livlife bread, although the slices are small, they are only 4 gm of carbs each, a big difference if you are having toast or sandwiches regularly.
roasting veges, or making stirfries is a good way to keep up the calories (not carbs as I put priginally) - cream in coffee, berries with cream, adding walnuts to a salad all help.
 
Last edited:
SB2015 said:
I had a patch where I wanted to lower my carbs to reduce
Last meal spikes that I was getting. Weight dropped off and like you I didn’t have a lot to spare.
I topped up with nuts, and protein snacks, but in the end took my carbs back up a bit as my head is full of carb counts and I didn’t want to have to start working with ratios fro protein as well to calculate my insulin dose at each meal. Happily working things out with a good target of carbs which suits me.

Have you lost weight recently, around the time of diagnosis. If so this is worth mentioning to nurse. I was diagnosed late on with T1 rather than the usual T2 when I lost 1 1/2 stone in one week.
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Thanks for your reply, I have dropped about 9ib in a couple of months so not a drastic change, but since the diagnosis I am now probably eating less in the confusion of what to eat and what not to eat.
 
Hello @Sue Miles welcome to the forum. So sorry to hear about your husband, please accept our deepest sympathies. I was diagnosed with a HbA1c of 156 at first and with help of this forum got it down to 48 in 3 months. The weight loss is a real sign something is wrong, I lost 4 stone in 6 months and was eventually rushed to hospital with DKA. You are in the prediabetic range which can be controlled/reduced by diet and exercise, some good advice already from other members. Eating less is not always the correct way to begin, just reducing the amount of carbohydrates will help, so e.g. if you have a roast dinner have less potatoes and more veg. You will have plenty of support on the forum and probably have a load more questions so ask away whenever you need too, take care.
 
KARNAK said:
Hello @Sue Miles welcome to the forum. So sorry to hear about your husband, please accept our deepest sympathies. I was diagnosed with a HbA1c of 156 at first and with help of this forum got it down to 48 in 3 months. The weight loss is a real sign something is wrong, I lost 4 stone in 6 months and was eventually rushed to hospital with DKA. You are in the prediabetic range which can be controlled/reduced by diet and exercise, some good advice already from other members. Eating less is not always the correct way to begin, just reducing the amount of carbohydrates will help, so e.g. if you have a roast dinner have less potatoes and more veg. You will have plenty of support on the forum and probably have a load more questions so ask away whenever you need too, take care.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ted, you have
KARNAK said:
Hello @Sue Miles welcome to the forum. So sorry to hear about your husband, please accept our deepest sympathies. I was diagnosed with a HbA1c of 156 at first and with help of this forum got it down to 48 in 3 months. The weight loss is a real sign something is wrong, I lost 4 stone in 6 months and was eventually rushed to hospital with DKA. You are in the prediabetic range which can be controlled/reduced by diet and exercise, some good advice already from other members. Eating less is not always the correct way to begin, just reducing the amount of carbohydrates will help, so e.g. if you have a roast dinner have less potatoes and more veg. You will have plenty of support on the forum and probably have a load more questions so ask away whenever you need too, take care.
Click to expand...
KARNAK said:
Hello @Sue Miles welcome to the forum. So sorry to hear about your husband, please accept our deepest sympathies. I was diagnosed with a HbA1c of 156 at first and with help of this forum got it down to 48 in 3 months. The weight loss is a real sign something is wrong, I lost 4 stone in 6 months and was eventually rushed to hospital with DKA. You are in the prediabetic range which can be controlled/reduced by diet and exercise, some good advice already from other members. Eating less is not always the correct way to begin, just reducing the amount of carbohydrates will help, so e.g. if you have a roast dinner have less potatoes and more veg. You will have plenty of support on the forum and probably have a load more questions so ask away whenever you need too, take care.
Click to expand...
Hi Ted, every one is being very helpful, I can see now that perhaps I paniced and started to drop too many things from my diet in one go, hence my still losing weight, I always thought I ate a healthy diet but unfortunately smacked a lot on sweets, chocolate biscuits , crisps etc. So perhaps if I just leave these out my blood sugar may drop back down and my weight may remain static. I walk my dog 3 times a day and line dance twice a week so I do enough exercise. It's just got to be down to diet
 
Replace the carbs with fats - they are, after all a natural and essential part of our diet - unlike sweets chocolate biscuits and potatoes which are all recent introductions so no wonder there are those who simply cannot cope with them.
 
Drummer said:
Replace the carbs with fats - they are, after all a natural and essential part of our diet - unlike sweets chocolate biscuits and potatoes which are all recent introductions so no wonder there are those who simply cannot cope with them.
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I understand what you are saying, I have bought myself some nuts to snack on and am adding olive oil to salads instead of ready made salad dressings, I have always bought everything low fat thinking I was doing myself a favour, but now I see that's not always true
 
Sue Miles said:
and am adding olive oil to salads instead of ready made salad dressings
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you could try a mustard dressing yourself, I just use some Lidl's Dijon mustard, some white wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and drizzle it over my green beans and potatoes when I have an omelette for tea xx
 
Kaylz said:
you could try a mustard dressing yourself, I just use some Lidl's Dijon mustard, some white wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and drizzle it over my green beans and potatoes when I have an omelette for tea xx
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That sounds delicious, I will give it a try
 
Sue Miles said:
That sounds delicious, I will give it a try
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I love it and so does my mum so I quite often make it for her roasted veggies for her 🙂

Anitram said:
Hi, Sue. Another source of fat is cream. For dessert I generally have 50g of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries with a couple of tablespoons of double cream. I don't drink coffee but I know some members drink it with cream rather than milk, so that's another option.

Martin
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I used to use cream in my coffee but I was always tempted (ok I always did) sup it off the spoon as well! 🙄 I use almond milk now and although I love it at the moment I'm not drinking it out of the carton as it isn't on offer anywhere :( xx
 
Hi Martin, I would have thought cream would have been a no no, I will be visiting the supermarket shortly to get some, I having been eating my fruit with low fat yogurt and drinking my coffee with semi skimmed,I shall look forward to having some cream instead. I am so glad I joined this forum I am getting so much good advice
 
Avoid low fat anything - cream is fine - though high sugar fruit with it is not advisable, stick to berries, avoid the supersweet strawberries which are appearing - I could not buy ordinary strawberries in Tesco the other day and pointed it out to a member of staff who seemed bewildered at the concept of sugar being bad for anyone.
 
Kaylz said:
you could try a mustard dressing yourself, I just use some Lidl's Dijon mustard, some white wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and drizzle it over my green beans and potatoes when I have an omelette for tea xx
Click to expand...
Mmmmmmm. That sounds good
 
two tablespoons? A daily allowance? So I've been doing it wrong all this time?
Good thing it worked anyway.....
 
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