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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Type 2 Newbie just arrived.
- Thread starter barry47
- Start date
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Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hello and welcome.
It would help to know where you are starting from.
Do you know your Hba1c level?
Have you had any advice on diet? This can be problematic, as for many ordinary type 2s simply reducing the amount of carbohydrates is the key, but many are told to eat things which are high carb low fat, or whole grain - oh and it would help to know if you restrict your choices of what to eat.
It would help to know where you are starting from.
Do you know your Hba1c level?
Have you had any advice on diet? This can be problematic, as for many ordinary type 2s simply reducing the amount of carbohydrates is the key, but many are told to eat things which are high carb low fat, or whole grain - oh and it would help to know if you restrict your choices of what to eat.
Average weight for age and height, never been an issue. Hba1c is 6.4% or 46mmol, whichever is more relevant. No advice on diet from GP, but after hospital flagged up diet issues I now have been able to get a future appointment. Now on self researched low carb/sugar diet and seen significant drop in levels using Betachek C50 before/after meals for feedback on what's good/bad.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome.
Would you like to tell us a bit about how your diabetes diagnosis came about? ie. Routine blood test or perhaps you were symptomatic and if so which symptoms?
The HbA1c test is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes. It will usually be a number in excess of 47 but may be into 3 figures if things have gone seriously awry, so knowing that number gives us a clue as to how serious your glucose levels currently are and therefore how much work you have ahead of you to bring them down and whether minor lifestyle changes may do it or whether you may need to make more significant changes.
Have you much/any weight to lose.... if you don't mind me asking?
Have you been prescribed any medication?
What sort of things do you typically eat and drink currently for breakfast lunch and evening meal, to give us an idea of where you could make simple swaps and substitutes to help reduce your levels. It is best to start where you are and make slow steady changes, perhaps just focusing on breakfast initially (if you eat breakfast) and finding something which is better for your diabetes and then move on to lunch and evening meal options once you have found a breakfast that works well for you. Even as diabetics, we are all quite different and whilst some people can manage a bowl of porridge which has typically been recommended for diabetics, many of us find that it is like rocket fuel and best avoided, whereas a full English breakfast minus the beans, hash browns and toast/fried bread can work well for many of us but probably not something to have every morning unless you have a very active lifestyle. Personally, I have creamy natural Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds and sometimes some chopped nuts and that works well for me most mornings as it does for many others here on the forum.... but it depends what you like and how your body responds.
Would you like to tell us a bit about how your diabetes diagnosis came about? ie. Routine blood test or perhaps you were symptomatic and if so which symptoms?
The HbA1c test is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes. It will usually be a number in excess of 47 but may be into 3 figures if things have gone seriously awry, so knowing that number gives us a clue as to how serious your glucose levels currently are and therefore how much work you have ahead of you to bring them down and whether minor lifestyle changes may do it or whether you may need to make more significant changes.
Have you much/any weight to lose.... if you don't mind me asking?
Have you been prescribed any medication?
What sort of things do you typically eat and drink currently for breakfast lunch and evening meal, to give us an idea of where you could make simple swaps and substitutes to help reduce your levels. It is best to start where you are and make slow steady changes, perhaps just focusing on breakfast initially (if you eat breakfast) and finding something which is better for your diabetes and then move on to lunch and evening meal options once you have found a breakfast that works well for you. Even as diabetics, we are all quite different and whilst some people can manage a bowl of porridge which has typically been recommended for diabetics, many of us find that it is like rocket fuel and best avoided, whereas a full English breakfast minus the beans, hash browns and toast/fried bread can work well for many of us but probably not something to have every morning unless you have a very active lifestyle. Personally, I have creamy natural Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds and sometimes some chopped nuts and that works well for me most mornings as it does for many others here on the forum.... but it depends what you like and how your body responds.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I see our posts crossed. So you are actually in the pre diabetic zone ie 42-47, so some minor changes should help you to get back down to normal levels quite quickly and it sounds like you have made a great start. Using a BG meter to test your levels and see how your body responds to different food/meals is the single most empowering thing you can do to manage your diabetes in my opinion because it allows you to "see" your diabetes and therefore steer your diet away from it.
Well done! You are already well on your way to pushing back against your potential diagnosis.
Well done! You are already well on your way to pushing back against your potential diagnosis.
Thanks for the feedback. I am on 500mg metformin once daily. Have modified my breakfast to limit carb intake as that was quite high. For breakfast I have reduced quantity of oats and made up with a nut mix and half a fresh orange instead of a whole one. Biggest diet issue is finding a substitute for pasta which I used to eat ~ 3 times a week. Very rarely eat any fast food, have always cooked evening meal with plenty of veg. Have cut out all in between meal snacks. Not sure about bananas, greenish ones probably have lower sugar content. Like fruit, so that has been something I am watching closely.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I am surprised that you have been put on metformin as that would only usually be prescribed for people with a much higher HbA1C or where the GP is unconvinced that dietary changes would not be taken on board.
I use edamame bean or black bean pasta as it is much lower carb than normal pasta, you can usually find it in the FREEFROM section in the supermarket.
Bananas are one of the highest carb fruits but you may be OK with it but as you are able to test then you could check their effect.
If you test before you eat and after 2 hours than an increase of less than 2-3mmol/l or less than 8-8.5mmol/l indicates your meal is OK.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is really useful for giving the carb value of various portion sizes of a good range of foods.
This link you also may find useful for some meal ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
As you are only prediabetic then some modest changes are probably all that is needed.
I use edamame bean or black bean pasta as it is much lower carb than normal pasta, you can usually find it in the FREEFROM section in the supermarket.
Bananas are one of the highest carb fruits but you may be OK with it but as you are able to test then you could check their effect.
If you test before you eat and after 2 hours than an increase of less than 2-3mmol/l or less than 8-8.5mmol/l indicates your meal is OK.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is really useful for giving the carb value of various portion sizes of a good range of foods.
This link you also may find useful for some meal ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
As you are only prediabetic then some modest changes are probably all that is needed.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @barry47
Sounds like you are off to a cracking start, great to hear you’ve been modifying your menu based on the results you see on your meter.
This is where the fickleness of diabetes can really be revealed, as you may find that somethings other forum members might consider ’off limits’ or a rare treat, will be absolutely fine for your metabolism.
The beauty of a BG meter is that it doesn’t have an agenda, and doesn’t know which things are supposed to be ‘good’ - it will just show you how your individual body responds, and then you can decide how frequently you want to eat whatever it is (and whether the enjoyment is worth whatever BG upheaval you see) 🙂
Hope your follow-up HbA1c shows encouraging progress after the efforts you have been making 🙂
Sounds like you are off to a cracking start, great to hear you’ve been modifying your menu based on the results you see on your meter.
This is where the fickleness of diabetes can really be revealed, as you may find that somethings other forum members might consider ’off limits’ or a rare treat, will be absolutely fine for your metabolism.
The beauty of a BG meter is that it doesn’t have an agenda, and doesn’t know which things are supposed to be ‘good’ - it will just show you how your individual body responds, and then you can decide how frequently you want to eat whatever it is (and whether the enjoyment is worth whatever BG upheaval you see) 🙂
Hope your follow-up HbA1c shows encouraging progress after the efforts you have been making 🙂
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