Borderline diabetic

I found the book, Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution to be a great guide. He shows how to reduces carbs, and to a lesser extent protein, because both will raise insulin needs - not good for any type of diabetic. As a general rule, fat is the best basis for a diet to correct high blood glucose associated with diabetes.

I'm Type 2 diabetic. When you lower carbs, you just replace it with protein and fat. They make up your calorie totals as medic2038 explained. Protein and fat make you fuller longer, so lowering the calories isn't that much of a struggle. Getting used to eating foods that we have been told were "unhealthy" for years seems to be the biggest hurdle. (Butter, Eggs, Red Meat, Bacon, etc..) Also, they cost more. Eat starches and sweets in moderation. You can do it!

Hi! Long time diabetic type 2 now in remission from significant weight loss. I am very conservative when it comes to weight loss and I've never done anything more adventurous than the Canada Food Guide.

When I got my wake-up call, head buzzing with the pep talk I got from the doctor, I wandered in to a little Greek restaurant and saw a combo platter that seemed to be lifted right out of the textbooks. Half the plate was made up of a green herbed salad with a fresh viniagrette, there was falafel, and rice stuffed grape leaves. The rest of the plate is lost to memory. But that plate lifted me up and I thought, this could be a very good thing.

What followed was months of training, logging my foods, and testing my sugars. I got to know what sorts of foods to avoid and how to combo my foods for a nice sustained burn of energy.

Start with small changes.

Logging all your food and eating on a schedule is a great place to start.

feeferb wrote: »

So got some routine lab work at annual exam and my fasting blood sugar was high...further testing said I was in normal range. BUT huge wake up call. Family history and other factors indicate diabetes is in my future. Up to me to decide how far in the future. Need help with diet ideas that keep carbs moderate and protein high...BUT low in calorie. It's a struggle but certainly have motivation to get of my butt now. Need encouragement.

It's amazing what a doctor's visit can do. I'm now watching portion sizes and plate combinations like never before.

Read Jason Fung's book, Obesity Epidemic and also info on eatingacademy.com. From reading these sites and others, I've learned that a lot of type II diabetics do produce insulin, it's just not effective at clearing the blood glucose. The person has become insulin resistant. Dr. Fung treats type II diabetics by fasting. He says insulin resistance is caused by chronic exposure to high insulin and it becomes ineffective. To make it effective again, the body must have periods of time where insulin is low. That is accomplished by fasting and eating fats that don't raise insulin levels. An insulin resistant person will even have high insulin levels while fasted and high insulin will also keep you from metabolizing fat. We need to become insulin sensitive to lose weight and also to reverse type II diabetes.

I was starting to get fasting blood sugar levels over 100 and started an intermittent fasting diet and either through that or the weight I lost or both, my fasting blood sugar is not in the mid 80s. I've lost 44lbs (male, 6' 1", cw 208). With intermittent fasting, you can eat the same calories you are currently eating but in a smaller time window. I like this way of dieting because I don't have to do a lot of food planning, weighing, or calorie counting and I get to eat tell full when I do eat. There have been studies done where at least with rats, that one group became leaner eating the same cals as another group but doing so with some fasting thrown in (the rats fasting got to eat more when not fasted). Give those references a read and also look up insulin resistance and intermittent fasting. Some good threads on MFP are "5:2", "IF", "OMAD"

feeferb wrote: »

So got some routine lab work at annual exam and my fasting blood sugar was high...further testing said I was in normal range. BUT huge wake up call. Family history and other factors indicate diabetes is in my future. Up to me to decide how far in the future. Need help with diet ideas that keep carbs moderate and protein high...BUT low in calorie. It's a struggle but certainly have motivation to get of my butt now. Need encouragement.

Have you spoken with your doctor about your concerns? Gotten a referral to a registered dietician?