Am I being too impatient?

[Ronniemoo]

I was diagnosed as being pre diabetic in December and immediately altered my diet. I am attending a NHS diabetes course at present. I am losing weight steadily and generally feeling well if a bit tired at times.

l have been doing as much exercise as possible but am limited to a certain extent by an ankle injury. I have been taking steroids for over ten years for an autoimmune condition. There is a family history of diabetes. I’m 67.

After over 6 months my blood sugar levels have remained the exactly the same.

Does anyone have any experience of how long it takes for blood sugar levels to drop and is it possible that despite my best efforts I might remain pre diabetic?

By the way, I’m not going to give up the low carb diet and I’m determined to keep on losing weight.

 

[MrsA2]

Would you mind sharing what those levels are? And what you eat?
And do you test your bg before each meal and 2 hours after?


It might just be that you are not low carb enough for your body, or that the steroids are affecting bg, we are all different

 

[Antje77]

is it possible that despite my best efforts I might remain pre diabetic?

With the steroids in the mix, yes it could be possible that those are just too much to deal with with diet only. If you have been in the prediabic range while on steroids you must be doing something right!
I agree with @MrsA2 on testing before and after meals to see if there's anything there you missed, and which could be adjusted.

Should it be that prediabetes is the best you can get on diet only, you might want to think about medication to give you that small extra push, or you might decide that prediabetes is good enough, if you can sustain this.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Ronniemoo I'm afraid that if you are going to get any reasonable answer to your questions you will need to supple more information as is mentioned above.

As for experience of BG levels dropping, I went low car (eating to my meter) within about 3 weeks of being diagnosed with T2D. Blood Glucose dropped noticeably in the first week of Low Carb, but not after that since I was eating to my meter!
Of course my HbA1C was still dropping as was my weight because HbA1C is approximately a 3 month average indication of BG level and any weight loss takes time (mine was at around 1 and a half to 2lbs per week) - again because I was eating to my meter and not actively trying to lose weight!
Both my HbA1V and my weight dropped over the next 6 months even though I didn't notice a difference in my BG levels. This may have been due to needing less glucose to be dumped from my liver at times when I wasn't measuring my BG.

Steroids are one of the medications which badly affect high blood glucose. Cardio exercise tends to play little part in reducing BG compared with what you eat. But if you enjoy it, then go ahead and do more that a 30 min brisk walk 5 times per week. Alternatively do some resistance exercise or some weight in order to build muscle which will act as a store of glucose and so help reduce your BG levels.

 

[Ronniemoo]

My fasting blood sugar level was 6.2 this morning. I don’t do too much testing as I don’t want to become neurotic about it and have fingers full of needle pricks but I do realise that more frequent monitoring might give me a better picture of what is going on.

Do some people remain pre diabetic for years?

 

[Lamont D]

You know your fasting BG levels are stable, so, now you need to test around your meals, that will give you more information about the food you are having.
6.2 is not bad for a prediabetic, just adjustments in exercise and diet as you proceed. It could even be the steroids that are maintaining (just) above normal levels.
I think moving ahead, is to carry on, and keep an eye on your BG levels. And only worry if it gets out of control.
You will always be prone to prediabetes. But good control will ease worries.

Best wishes

 

[In Response]

I don’t want to become neurotic about it and have fingers full of needle pricks

Fingers do not become "full of needles pricks" if you correctly test regularly.
As someone who regularly tested 10 times a day before I was lucky to get a CGM, my fingers are as sensitive as anyone who does not test their blood sugars.
Sure it is slightly inconvenient but if you.have a purpose (e.g. finding out what food your body can cope with), your health is worth it.

Once the Libre upgrade fiasco is over, you may benefit from the free 14 day trial to learn how your body reacts without any needle pricks.

 

[MrsA2]

Multiple tests a day are only for a few weeks/couple of months. After that you can reduce to a number you are comfortable with.
For example I only do once a day just to keep me on the straight and narrow, but I will test more when on holiday as less of the food is under my control

 

[Outlier]

Nowadays I test three or four times a week unless I eat something new or get a rogue high reading, usually caused by a dud strip or illness/stress. My blood knows I am unwell before I do!

Soon you'll have such a good handle on this that you won't be testing so often - but even so, it's helpful to do a few tests at intervals suited to your lifestyle.

 

[ianf0ster]

For me, in remission there seems no point in testing more than 1 meal per month, unless I eat something out of the ordinary (which is vey rare after these years! So that's just 2 finger pricks per month. I don't see the point in testing my fasting BG either, though last time I did (out of curiosity) it was 6.8 since I've always had strong Dawn Phenomenon!

 

[KennyA]

My fasting blood sugar level was 6.2 this morning. I don’t do too much testing as I don’t want to become neurotic about it and have fingers full of needle pricks but I do realise that more frequent monitoring might give me a better picture of what is going on.

Do some people remain pre diabetic for years?

"Pre-diabetic" is a very recently invented label for people whose blood is out of normal range but not yet at the "automatic diagnosis" level. I think the important words are "out of normal range". I started having quite nasty symptoms when my BG was in the 43/44 area, so as far as I'm concerned I had (undiagnosed) diabetes at that point. The healthcare system told me firmly I didn't have diabetes, and I believed them, which was a mistake on my part.

I guess in theory you can stay with slightly elevated BG indefinitely, providing your insulin resistance remains stable and doesn't worsen for any reason and you eat just enough carb not to lower your BG, but not enough to raise it. Maybe do-able in theory, but in practice very hard to guarantee. And you've little control over how your liver and insulin system decide to behave.