prediabetic

I am insulin dependent diabetic. Friend me. My blood sugars stay in the normal range with very little insulin.

Think of diabetes T2 as being a born with a particular sensitivity. If you take care with your diet, you can delay symptoms for a long time, even indefinitely. But think of the eating habits as being a lifetime thing. Luckily, the diabetic regimen is full of of healthy foods and is very balanced.

diabetes.org/food and fitness

I was just diagnosed with prediabetes also. Have had blood sugars within normal range with exercise and a low carb diet, no meds. I agree with the poster above-- keep carbs under 45 per meal. Friend me, I'm new at this too.

@owlfan88 the A1C is an average of how you've been doing for the last three months, so a one month renovation would not be enough to change your numbers.

When I was diagnosed I asked for a referral to a dietitian which I got. I also got a tester and diarized for three months to understand the relationship between food and blood sugar. Back then it was all on paper.

I did learn to recognize the sleepy feeling from high sugar.

jgnatca wrote: »

@owlfan88 the A1C is an average of how you've been doing for the last three months, so a one month renovation would not be enough to change your numbers.

When I was diagnosed I asked for a referral to a dietitian which I got. I also got a tester and diarized for three months to understand the relationship between food and blood sugar. Back then it was all on paper.

I did learn to recognize the sleepy feeling from high sugar.

Yes, that's why I want a new set of bloodwork, so I have more than 3 months of "trying to be good" data. I want to see if the changes I have made are "good enough" or do I need to crank down harder on the carbs or make other changes. I've been walking about 30 min/2 miles a day 5-6 days a week (or a little less the 2 days I am now working out with a friend in her home gym for 30+ min).

hello everyone! prediabetic here.

I went straight in at 'diabetic' in January 2018 with a reading of 60 (which seems to convert to 7.6) - it was a shock but gave me the push I needed to actually do something about my weight / diet. Although my weight was stable, I was 'overweight' per BMI. I'd also been eating a lot of cakes, pastries etc in the six months prior to diagnosis as, for various reasons, there was an almost endless supply of goodies available at my new place of work.

As I was reluctant to take tablets, my GP agreed to let me try a diet change, to start with, and gave me six months. Three months later, my A1c was coming down so she let me carry on. By the end of the first year I was down to a pre-diabetic number (48 / 6.5) and by the end of 2019 I was below pre-diabetic - and that's where I've stayed. So far I've never taken any medication.

Over the same period, by changing / tracking what I was eating, I lost 15kg (around 33lbs). I don't know whether diet alone or also losing weight made the difference to my diabetes numbers, but it's probably a combination of the two.

A lot of credit goes to info I learned from this forum. Once I knew what to look for, I found that Diabetes UK recommends not having more than 120g of carbs a day - and that number is fixed, no matter how much you weigh / how many calories a day you're consuming - so I changed the MFP macros settings in My Guided Setup so that the percentage for my carbs calculates to 120g (or as close as I can get it). Eventually I found that the daily protein recommendation is around 0.8g per 1lb that you weigh, so now my protein is set to a percentage that equates to that figure. Fat makes up what's left.

I also learned that carbs are processed slower if consumed with some protein, so make sure your meals have a mix of macros.

I roughly pre-log my day, so that I can see how my carbs will potentially end up. If they're high, I look at what I can remove or reduce. Mostly, though, my carbs come from veg, legumes and some fruit now. Instead of pasta, rice or potatoes with my dinner, I have sauted cabbage as my base with most things. 200g of finely sliced white cabbage, gently sauted in a little butter for 20 mins, works with curries, grilled meat/fish & veg, bolognese, chilli etc etc. It's also quite filling. Sometimes I'll do a small portion of rice and also do cauliflower rice to bulk it out or, if I want pasta, I'll cook a small amount and also spiralise some courgette and have courgetti with it too. Small swaps but the basic meal is the same and the carb (and calorie) count is much lower. I rarely eat bread anyway, but my lunches tend to be large salads with some protein (and no dressing) or homemade soup with lots of veg. If I want a snack, I have 20g almonds or chop up an apple and mix it with some cubes of cheddar cheese or have a packet of lentil curls (no better than a packet of crisps but sold in smaller packets!).

If you have time, play around and look at how many carbs are in what you usually eat and see if you can make any substitutions. If I have yoghurt or porridge, I now add raspberries (they freeze well) instead of blueberries as they're lower in carbs for the same weight of fruit. If I have carrots with my dinner, I find smaller ones, as they're higher in carbs (per 100g) than green beans, for example.

Not everyone is the same but if I eat sufficient protein, and bulk up my meals with salad or other veg, I find that I feel fuller and don't need to snack. Eating sufficient protein / bulk eating are common responses to many questions in these forums, so it's not just me who finds this to be true.