Prediabetic - My second day Low sugar, Low Carb. Help?

Hi all. I'm new to MFP, and how awesome and user friendly it is! Not to mention all the support and tools.

So, down to business.

I was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic by my family doctor 2 days ago, who suggested eating low-carb, low-sugar, and not overboard on the fats. The first goal of mine is to lose 10% of my body weight (18 lbs,) which she said could possibly reverse it! I am aware that I will always need to eat this way, which makes more sense than the average American diet to me anyway.
I am having a hard time figuring out the role of natural sugars (like fruit) in this. My goal is to keep under 50 carbs daily, just until I lose the 10%, then maybe I'll add some more occasionally. Should I just stay away from fruit for now?
And also, a 100 calorie Greek yogurt has 12 gr of carbs, I always eat one in the morning with my pills, but is it still a good choice or not so much?
And also, Here is a rundown of my totals from yesterday. Am I eating too much?
Sorry for all the questions, thanks for any feedback!

Totals 1,475 70 98 101 3,192 26
Your Daily Goal 1,200 45 40 165 2,300 45
Remaining -275 -25 -58 64 -892 19
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar

Lots of great responses overall, though I'm a bit concerned with your ratios.

Low carb is certainly a great way to eat, but low carb, low fat is a recipe for disaster. Your body needs fat for hormone function, nutrient absorption, and cell creation. I suspect your doctor is still working on the long-defunct and debunked lipid hypothesis, which claims that dietary fat causes heart disease (and since Diabetics and anyone at high risk of developing Diabetes are also at higher risk of cardiovascular disease...). This assertion, however, is not true and has been thoroughly debunked even before Ancel Keyes tried to prove it true.

For an interesting history on the history behind it, I recommend checking out this video by Dr. Peter Attia -- https://player.vimeo.com/video/45485034

So what's the problem with low carb, low fat? Simply put -- protein poisoning, aka rabbit starvation. The name stems from explorers and other people who get stranded out in the wilderness and had to survive off only lean animals, such as rabbit. The overwhelming majority of their calories came from protein. The problem with this is that protein is not intended to be fuel. It's for tissue repair. When the body has to use it for fuel, it has to first turn it into glucose, which taxes the kidneys. The body doesn't really like to do this, and will start triggering cravings for carbs and/or fats, and these cravings can only be sated through the consumption of carbs or fats. In extreme situations (namely, the actual long term survival situations), this even results in death. This fact was so well-known among indigenous populations that they believed that living on lean meat alone would actually result in faster death than plain starvation, and they went to great lengths to ensure sufficient fat intake.

Now, that's not to say that the above will happen to you (and even if it did, it's not like you don't have the means to fix it quickly). However, it does illustrate the importance of fats and/or carbohydrates to the body. You can live on minimal fat, or you can live on minimal carbs, but you cannot live on minimal of both. And trying to keep both low does put you at risk of putting yourself in such a circumstance, and will most likely cause you to binge on carbs and/or fat, and since low-carb really is a great tool when used properly, I don't want to see that happen to you and you give up the idea of low-carb.

Now, as I said before dietary fat does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, a meta-analysis of a large number of studies has shown that there was zero relationship between fat intake and cardiovascular disease over a total of 375,000 people. If that's not enough people studied to come to an authoritative conclusion, I don't know what is. ( http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract )

In fact, low-carb, high-fat diets have been showing to improve cardiovascular risk by increasing HDL, lowering triglycerides, and increasing the size of LDL particles without increasing their number (this is a very good thing, but it does give the illusion of being bad, because the LDL measurement in standard cholesterol tests goes up, because of course increased size means increase in weight, but weight isn't the problem here, particle count and size are; increasing the size of LDL particles renders them inert).

So, what numbers should you have?

Keep your carbs where they are, though I agree with others. At that level, do it as net carbs. Vegetables are your friend, especially since most people aren't keen on eating the parts of animals necessary to get the nutrients most people associate with plants.

Reduce your protein to no more than 1g/lb of lean body weight. This should end up around 100g, give or take about 10-20g depending on how tall you are.

Fill the rest in with fat, but make sure it's at least .35g/lb of total body weight. If it's not, then increase your calories, because you probably have MFP set to too ambitious of a goal (as most people do when their calories are set to 1200, which is highly recommended against unless your under 5' tall). Besides, one of the nice things about low carb is that you don't have to starve yourself to see results (and before the CICO people jump on me -- yes, calories do still matter, but for those with insulin/glucose issues, there are profound hormonal and fuel burning differences between a low carb and a high carb diet, and these differences are huge in such people; I'm not saying you can eat unlimited everything, just that you don't have to rival an Auschwitz prisoner in calorie intake).

As for foods -- yes, fruit sugar still matters. In fact, fructose is one of the big factors in triglyceride levels, because the body can't burn it directly like it can with glucose. Instead, fructose goes to the liver to be turned into fat.

That said, you don't have to always and forever avoid fruit. You might want to for a while, until you get your weight down a little bit and are out of the red zone. Then, as others have said, favor berries over just about any other fruit. They're low GI/GL and packed with nutrients, antioxidants, and other goodies.

Instead, favor non-starchy vegetables overall, particularly greens. Be mindful of things like carrots and peppers, which have a higher sugar content.

Also, don't be afraid of things like real butter and coconut oil (or anything coconut, though watch added sugar). Coconut oil, especially, has shown promise in helping Diabetes and obesity. Butter, particularly high-quality (ideally from pastured cows), is packed with Vitamin A (not beta carotine, actual Vitamin A), K2 (integral to a number of bodily functions and dental health, rare to find elsewhere), and other vitamins, as well as conjugated linoleic acid and butyrate, compounds known to be great for health.

There are some great answers on here.
I am not pre-diabetic or diabetic, but I have switched to a lower carb/grain-free approach because I do have PCOS (which many times comes with an insulin resistance and affects the way my body processes carbs).
I know that your doctor said to go easy on the fats, but adding some healthy fats (avocado, real butter, heavy cream, coconut oil, nuts) in moderation to your daily routine will help immensely with carb cravings and will help keep you from feeling deprived and hungry all the time.
I get most of my carbs from veggies and fruits and tend to eat more fruit on days that I run so that I am fueled for those workouts.
I agree with the other posters who have mentioned that you will have to play around with different levels and find what works for you. Every person's body works differently and what works for one person may not necessarily do it for the next. It's about trial and error and finding what works for you.
Good luck!

I tested about an hour after, then took the insulin to lower it to 80.

Well I am just a random person on the internet but I feel it should be said that someone should not be taking insulin that is not prescribed to you for obvious reason. You should ask to meet with an actual Endo dr. and establish that you need to be on anything more than diet and exercise before taking anything... but that is your call, I just no it would be a red flag for me and as I am diabetic with a wife that is prediabetic I would never allow her to take anything that was prescribe to me... Best of Luck though.....

For the short term, limit fruit, eliminate everything white except cauliflower and garlic. Get your allowable carbohydrate from leafy green vegetables.

Try eggs and bacon or sausage for breakfast, no toast or potatoes or juice. Yogurt is probably not the best choice unless it is plain yogurt. If you plan your carbohydrate choices ahead for the entire day you may be able to have limited quantities of fruit, so long as it is within your daily carbohydrate budget.

Instead of potatoes, cook cauliflower and food process it with cream, butter, and garlic to make something that visually resembles mashed potatoes but has it's own delicious taste.

Animal-sourced foods are your friends. Leaves and buds are your friends (spinach, broccoli...) Unsweetened tea or coffee is your friend.

Grains and root vegetables are your enemies, with the exception of chia for fiber.

Fruits are your guilty pleasures.

Oh yeah, and I have an appointment on Tuesday with my general practitioner, after the terrible taco bell fail, we felt I should not wait until November to follow up. My husband said if I can get to 249, it's worse than my AC1 A1C? let on. Hopefully I will get a script for a test kit so I can keep level!

249 is high and definitely outside the target range, but I wouldn't be rushing to the hospital for that. You are still producing insulin and so that number would come down. I would highly advise AGAINST taking your husband's insulin for that reason. You are VERY lucky you didn't have a hypo. If you are in that range again, I would suggest going for a brisk walk. It WILL help. The problem with taking your husband's insulin is that you don't know your insulin sensitivity rate, or your I:C ratio or your correction factor or any of these things. Going very low is MUCH MORE DANGEROUS than going slightly high. I've had some pretty scary lows. Probably your husband has too.

When I was diagnosed Type 1 I was running in the high 400s and felt like absolute crap.

An A1C does only give a general "average" picture of your blood sugar, but unless you have having many lows - which I doubt - I would say 6.1 is a pretty decent number!! It's well within the medical "accepted" non-diabetic range.

However, spiking to 249 after eating does indicate there is definitely insulin resistance happening in your body.

What you need to do is get your own test meter and use it.

I know it's frightening and scary and confusing, but it can be managed. Don't put yourself in more danger!

Berries are the best possible lower carb fruits. Low glycemic index also.

Another approach to reduce insulin resistance, the cause of type II diabetes, is intermittent fasting. It is not yet in the treatment guidelines but dietitians and clinicians are becoming aware of its merits.
Diabetes UK and the American Diabetes Association still recommend a low fat, high carb approach but like others here already pointed out us type II diabetics cannot process the carbs in a normal way and should reduce them. Btw. low GI foods do not work well either because we lack the second phase insulin release, our response to carbs is totally screwed.

A lot of information about obesity, diabetes, nutrition and also fasting can be found here: http://intensivedietarymanagement.com/

I either have a couple of scrambled eggs or some bio yogurt and a small handful of raspberries for breakfast. The only fruit I will have is berries. I have cut out all processed foods and my carbs are primarily coming from veggies, lots of broccoli, kale and spinach.
I am not particularly tolerant to red peppers and tomatoes. I am lactose intolerant and also cannot eat wheat - IBS, so afar cutting out everything I am feeling amazing. Hopefully reducing my risk of diabetes too :-)

I started low carb about a month ago due to high triglycerides and high fasting blood glucose. My doctor's group also includes a nutritionist. I have talked with the nutritionist and she recommended Yoplait Greek or Greek Light if I wanted yogurt. Hope this helps and good luck to you!