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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.
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Take a look at our new Type 2 Diabetes Remission section on the Diabetes UK website: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/diabetes-the-basics/type-2-remission
Type 2
- Thread starter Taramal77
- Start date
Kopiert
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Welcome to the forum. I think people will be able to help you, but some more information would be useful, not least of which would be current HbA1C levels.
I was in remission for about three years. I achieved it through careful management of my carb intake. I bought a blood glucose monitor and began learning which foods I could tolerate and which ones caused a spike. I think that it would be hard to go into remission without the use of a blood glucose monitor.
Others will be along soon and will provide much better advice than me, What I would say is that this is a frustrating condition, be prepared for ups and downs!
Best Of Luck
Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Morning and welcome to the Forum. Would you be willing to share some information about yourself? In that way we can better make suggestions. For example, what was your HbA1c on diagnosis, are you on any medication for Diabetes, or any other condition, was it a surprise diagnosis, do you exercise, are you a normal weight (there are thin diabetics)? My signature below will give you some ideas.
Kopiert beat me to it by a couple of minutes, but what they suggested is how many Type 2 diabetics approach the path towards remission. It is suggested keeping the daily carb intake below 130gm a day. Carbs are what turn to glucose in the blood - not just sugars. This means bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, processed food, some fruit, as well as cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries, pies. Kopiert already suggested the blood glucose monitor. I got an app in which I daily record everything I eat and drink, including snacks and alcohol. I'm UK based and use NutraCheck which covers thousands of foods. I believe MyFitnessPal is USA based. I plan first thing every morning. But you can keep your own diary - pen and paper or a spreadsheet, to work out which foods cause your blood glucose to spike.
People either reduce their portion sizes of carbs, or replace them with alternatives. I do a mixture of both - for example I might have just a couple of small boiled potatoes, or a small slice of no added sugar wholemeal bread. I replace rice with beansprouts (Chinese) or cauliflower rice (Indian). I get edamame bean pasta. I also keep digital scales and a clear glass bowl on my kitchen top, so I can weigh my portion sizes. No guesstimating until I learned the correct portion sizes.
As a 6 year diabetic, I now just test for new foods. I'm retired so have the time to batch cook in a slow cooker, and make my own soups, so I know what goes into my food. If you don't need to lose weight, you might need to increase your protein intake. The Freshwell plan might give you recipe ideas - I'm sure someone will post the link for you.
One thing to remember - this must be sustainable, and is for life. I believe in moderation, and have the occasional treat, within my carb allowance. Best wishes.
Kopiert beat me to it by a couple of minutes, but what they suggested is how many Type 2 diabetics approach the path towards remission. It is suggested keeping the daily carb intake below 130gm a day. Carbs are what turn to glucose in the blood - not just sugars. This means bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, processed food, some fruit, as well as cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries, pies. Kopiert already suggested the blood glucose monitor. I got an app in which I daily record everything I eat and drink, including snacks and alcohol. I'm UK based and use NutraCheck which covers thousands of foods. I believe MyFitnessPal is USA based. I plan first thing every morning. But you can keep your own diary - pen and paper or a spreadsheet, to work out which foods cause your blood glucose to spike.
People either reduce their portion sizes of carbs, or replace them with alternatives. I do a mixture of both - for example I might have just a couple of small boiled potatoes, or a small slice of no added sugar wholemeal bread. I replace rice with beansprouts (Chinese) or cauliflower rice (Indian). I get edamame bean pasta. I also keep digital scales and a clear glass bowl on my kitchen top, so I can weigh my portion sizes. No guesstimating until I learned the correct portion sizes.
As a 6 year diabetic, I now just test for new foods. I'm retired so have the time to batch cook in a slow cooker, and make my own soups, so I know what goes into my food. If you don't need to lose weight, you might need to increase your protein intake. The Freshwell plan might give you recipe ideas - I'm sure someone will post the link for you.
One thing to remember - this must be sustainable, and is for life. I believe in moderation, and have the occasional treat, within my carb allowance. Best wishes.
Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- In remission from Type 2
Sorry that you've had to join us but welcome. Yes, remission is possible and many of us have managed it. There's a section of the site that covers this:-
Type 2 diabetes remission
Type 2 diabetes remission is when your blood sugar levels return to a safe, non-diabetes level long-term, without the need for glucose-lowering medication. It stops diabetes in its tracks and boosts your chances of a healthy future. When you are in remission, you reduce the risk of diabetes...
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Good luck in finding a way to move towards remission that works for you @Taramal77
Weight loss is one approach. Typically 10-20kg or something like 20% of bodyweight I think. Prof Taylor calls it a ‘personal fat threshold. The idea is to remove visceral fat from around organs like the pancreas and liver.
Reduction in carb intake is another. The aim is to develop a diet that the metabolism can cope with where it has begun to struggle with the amount of carbs in the modern Western diet. Often this is less than 130g of carbs a day, but some people find they do better on 100g, 80g, or some other amount that suits their body.
Weight loss is one approach. Typically 10-20kg or something like 20% of bodyweight I think. Prof Taylor calls it a ‘personal fat threshold. The idea is to remove visceral fat from around organs like the pancreas and liver.
Reduction in carb intake is another. The aim is to develop a diet that the metabolism can cope with where it has begun to struggle with the amount of carbs in the modern Western diet. Often this is less than 130g of carbs a day, but some people find they do better on 100g, 80g, or some other amount that suits their body.
PerSpinasAdAstra
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hi @Taramal77 and welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.
The technical, medical definition of remission is where your HbA1c test comes in below the diabetic threshold, which is 48 mmol/mol, after a Type 2 diagnosis and while not taking medications for the previous three months. The HbA1c blood test represents, roughly speaking, your average blood glucose levels for the previous three months.
There are three ways you might be able to achieve that - controlling the amount of carbohydrates (carbs) in your diet which will avoid your blood glucose levels 'spiking' too high after meals, moderate exercise, particularly beginning about 30 minutes after meals which have carbs in them, which will help to bring levels down more quickly after the meal, and weight loss.
The first two can be thought of as ongoing 'treatments' for the disease, a bit like medications. They don't address the underlying disease condition, they handle it, helping to keep your blood glucose levels from going unhealthily high. Significant weight loss is different though in that it does address the underlying disease and can, for want of better language, partially reverse the disease. If you are overweight at time of diagnosis and if you lose enough weight you can roll back the clock on the disease, but not completely, and it's most effective if it's done soon after diagnosis.
There is no cure, but there are cases of some people who reverse it so much through weight loss that they can eat almost anything they like and maintain a HbA1c well below the diabetic threshold without medications. I read one such report just a couple of days ago on Reddit where the person lost 15 lbs within weeks after diagnosis, went on to lose 39 lbs in total over a couple of months, and their next HbA1c was completely healthy, below even the prediabetes level, but without much restriction of carbs in the diet. The person was posting on Reddit asking what was going on, mentioned that almost nothing they ate was causing an unhealthily high spike in blood glucose levels according to their finger stick meter, and couldn't understand how this was possible.
The person mentioned that their initial HbA1c test result was just barely over the diabetic threshold but that their fasting blood glucose level at diagnosis was well into the diabetic range. I would speculate that they weren't diabetic for very long before diagnosis and that the weight loss achieved quickly almost completely reversed it. Almost, but very probably not completely. I believe it likely they got the excess fat out of their liver and pancreas before much damage had been done. I've read similar such reports in the past, two of which where the weight loss was achieved immediately and where their doctors actually said that they must have been misdiagnosed, that they were never diabetic in the first place. In context it was obviously the weight loss that did it, and the doctors weren't aware of the significance of the weight loss in terms of how the disease actually happens.
Remission is possible but a lot depends on genetics, body weight at diagnosis, and perhaps how long a person was diabetic before they were diagnosed. I would suggest that the best path toward achieving it is probably to use all three strategies - reducing carb intake, exercising, and if overweight at diagnosis, losing a whole lot of weight. Maybe you'll get lucky and get significant 'reversal' and remission, but if nothing else the attempt at achieving remission may make you healthier in many ways. It certainly did that for me.
Best of luck!
The technical, medical definition of remission is where your HbA1c test comes in below the diabetic threshold, which is 48 mmol/mol, after a Type 2 diagnosis and while not taking medications for the previous three months. The HbA1c blood test represents, roughly speaking, your average blood glucose levels for the previous three months.
There are three ways you might be able to achieve that - controlling the amount of carbohydrates (carbs) in your diet which will avoid your blood glucose levels 'spiking' too high after meals, moderate exercise, particularly beginning about 30 minutes after meals which have carbs in them, which will help to bring levels down more quickly after the meal, and weight loss.
The first two can be thought of as ongoing 'treatments' for the disease, a bit like medications. They don't address the underlying disease condition, they handle it, helping to keep your blood glucose levels from going unhealthily high. Significant weight loss is different though in that it does address the underlying disease and can, for want of better language, partially reverse the disease. If you are overweight at time of diagnosis and if you lose enough weight you can roll back the clock on the disease, but not completely, and it's most effective if it's done soon after diagnosis.
There is no cure, but there are cases of some people who reverse it so much through weight loss that they can eat almost anything they like and maintain a HbA1c well below the diabetic threshold without medications. I read one such report just a couple of days ago on Reddit where the person lost 15 lbs within weeks after diagnosis, went on to lose 39 lbs in total over a couple of months, and their next HbA1c was completely healthy, below even the prediabetes level, but without much restriction of carbs in the diet. The person was posting on Reddit asking what was going on, mentioned that almost nothing they ate was causing an unhealthily high spike in blood glucose levels according to their finger stick meter, and couldn't understand how this was possible.
The person mentioned that their initial HbA1c test result was just barely over the diabetic threshold but that their fasting blood glucose level at diagnosis was well into the diabetic range. I would speculate that they weren't diabetic for very long before diagnosis and that the weight loss achieved quickly almost completely reversed it. Almost, but very probably not completely. I believe it likely they got the excess fat out of their liver and pancreas before much damage had been done. I've read similar such reports in the past, two of which where the weight loss was achieved immediately and where their doctors actually said that they must have been misdiagnosed, that they were never diabetic in the first place. In context it was obviously the weight loss that did it, and the doctors weren't aware of the significance of the weight loss in terms of how the disease actually happens.
Remission is possible but a lot depends on genetics, body weight at diagnosis, and perhaps how long a person was diabetic before they were diagnosed. I would suggest that the best path toward achieving it is probably to use all three strategies - reducing carb intake, exercising, and if overweight at diagnosis, losing a whole lot of weight. Maybe you'll get lucky and get significant 'reversal' and remission, but if nothing else the attempt at achieving remission may make you healthier in many ways. It certainly did that for me.
Best of luck!