Carb levels for prediabetic

Hi!

Ignore your doctor. Firstly, your focus should not be weight loss, it should be reducing your blood insulin concentration. Weight loss will follow as the insulin sensitivity improves and your blood glucose concentration goes down. Your best bet really is to start reading more in the low carb forums here.

No matter what level of carbohydrate restriction you choose, you MUST displace the lost energy with dietary fat, otherwise you’ll be hungry, miserable, and your metabolism will stall. Also be sure to avoid anything claiming to be a vegetable oil. Use only natural fats.

Do you know how many carbs you eat yesterday, today? How are you going to count? manually/using an app like cronometer/my fitnesspal

Do you want to reduce gradually or are you a 'go in head first' kind of person?

https://www.ruled.me/carb-tracking-for-keto-diet/ This a good link discussing the pro and cons of two apps

You will need a different app for blood glucose, Mysugar app is very popular on the forum as the more readings you put in it will estimate HBA1C

Hi Angi,

as you know the more carbs you eat, the more insulin you need, and insulin is the fat storing hormone, So cutting carbs is a good place to start.
Personally I just cut bread, potato. rice and pasta out of my diet all together. That brought carbs below 50gms (from about 200 gms) and calories cut by a 1/3). Personally I didn't replace the missing calories with extra fat and I believe that is a personal thing. What I was happy with may not be everyone's idea of a good thing. It's interesting that your doctor naturally assumed that you'd increase fat to make up for the missing carbs, you don't have to, it's your choice. Some people do and some people don't. I was happy with the calorie restriction and my stomach doesn't handle fat to well. Also when I did try to increase fats my total cholesterol very definitely increased as did my weight. I nearly had to have one of those statin talks with my GP (I stopped after 17 years because it dropped when I cut the carbs).
As for how much carb to cut, it's very difficult to recommend a one size suits all, so how about measuring what carbs you eat now and halve it as a start, then make further reductions if you want to. Alternatively, cut out bread and potatoes (my mum use to do that back in the 1960's, she always lost weight), and maybe have some rice and pasta. Or cut out what you have most of those 4 forms of carb.
I think tailoring carb reduction to your specific needs is a good idea, it has to be easy to stick to.
All the best.

AngiH said:

is that any double type of cream?

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Not emlea with the extra **** or squirty.

It's not about eating loads of fat more about eating normal fat so you are feeling fuller for longer and not eating the sugar laden low fat spreads, low fat coleslaw, low fat mayo, low fat salad dressing etc. The less carbs you eat the more fat you can eat (and still lose weight).

Don't skip meals until you get the hang of low carbing, it can lead to bad food choices if you are caught short in mcd's.
Download one of the apps and check out the carb content of hot chocolate and cheeseburger.

Many members eat between 20-130G a day. It has got to be sustainable for you long term rather than a quick fix diet. Why not start at the top end until you get your meter then you can fine tune it.

Remember all the scorn and derision of Dr Atkins and his low carb approach to eating which cured so many problems for people as well as causing weightloss and giving them control of their appetite usually for the first time in their lives?
The mainstream diet industry, doctors dieticians and nurses probably all saw successful weightloss as a threat to their authority and income - so it had to be wrong.
I've lost three stone without trying - other people might want to put the idea of it being difficult to lose weight into your head, but over and over I had the same thing happen - whenever the doctor and nurse stopped hounding me demanding that I stick to a low fat low calorie diet, I went back to what I can only describe as proper food, low carb and not low fat, and my weight dropped I felt well, energetic, and happy.

AngiH said:

Wow just downloaded the myfitnesspal app and yes what an eye opener!! What is the guidelines for the protein and fat parts. I've entered 60g fat, 20g protein and carb. But think this is wrong. It says the 3 must add up to 100?? Sorry for being dim haha..

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If they have to add up to 100 then you are looking at percent not grams. Try 55% fat, 30% protein and 15% carbs.

If you then go into menu, goals, nutrition goals you will see the grams @AngiH

Hi Angi
I am new to this too. I think we are similar I am preD my HbA1c was also 43 and I have put 2 stone on over the past couple of years!
I was not sure how many carbs to start with but when I looked at how many I had been eating it was scary
I decided to start at 100g per day maximum and hopefully I won't feel the hit too bad.
I know I am going to miss my bags of maltesers etc but like you I do not want to end up with Type2.
My mission this week is to find low carb snacks I can munch at my desk, in the past it would have been a box of fruit.
I feel very positive I can do this and I hope you do too @AngiH

TrendyD said:

My mission this week is to find low carb snacks I can munch at my desk, in the past it would have been a box of fruit.

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Nuts, olives, pepperami are just a few ideas. Try to phase out snacking if you can as it just keeps topping up you blood sugar and therefore needing insulin causing insulin resistance and weight gain. I found it helpful to have a bigger lunch with natural healthy fats would keep me going until dinner

AngiH said:

Ok I'm about to start this journey to attempt to get back to my old self. I weighed myself today and just broke down as I've never ever been so heavy and in these last 6 months I've not changed what or how much I eat. Now I really want to see both weight loss and the drop back to normal levels. I want to follow the low carb high fat diet even though my Doctor said, no you can't diet eating high fat!! My question is as a prediabetic what should be a good start point for carb allowance per day? I need to loose 10% of my weight according to my doc, but I know I need to loose a lot more...10% would not even get me back to where I was at the start of this year. I've gained about 24lb. I feel so ashamed and hideous right now. I'd like to loose 3 stone and I'd be 11 stone. The lowest I've weighed in about 20 years! It will be hard but I want to start planning my meals and really need to know my carb level allowance...I will also be testing once I get my meter.
Thank you all.
Pics are me at 12stone and the awful one today 14 stone

View attachment 30054View attachment 30055

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Hello - I don't totally agree with @Jim Lahey. assume you are type 2 pre diabetic.... AND OK your Dr is wrong. You can eat as much FAT as you want, just avoid veg. oils like corn, soya, which are full of the wrong kind of omegas [ ie full of omega 6 ] and stick to olive, coconut, butter, even saturated fat like on pork chops or chicken skin, and good old fashioned home made lard. Check out the Newcastle diet, by going to Guardian newspaper uk, type 2 diabetes reversed, Richard Doughty and especially the story of Carlos Cervantes. Pre diabetic is the best time to start '' the cure '' Prof Taylor says you must lose 15% -20% of your starting weight. So your Dr is wrong again - you are absolutely right you need to lose more than 10%
LOW CARB is great long term, but see what Newcastle say about LOW CALORIE to get going. Dieting on Low Carb Hi Fat is easier than the WRONG advice to eat low fat. Our mothers knew what puts on the weight. It is the fast starches, pastries, sugars, jams, cakes, white rice and breads, when we shoud be eating lots of fats and veg and salads and proteins.

AngiH said:

Yesterday I didn't eat until late afternoon, and became shaky so had a hot chocolate and cheeseburger...I was in MacDonalds with my son at the time of getting shaky...
Today I've had mash, pie and veg.
A normal day for me is toast in the morning, sandwiches for lunch then dinner will be potato and something....I now need to scrap it all and start new, I want to start it and hit it in one go rather than a bit at a time.
Is there an app for tracking carbs and glucose readings etc.

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Try a breakfast of a three egg omelet with cheese, tomatoes, using olive oil and / or butter and a plate of mixed veg. cabbage,broccoli, etc [ yes all on the same plate - can be delicious ] You wont be hungry for a long while and you will be low carb on that.

Alison Campbell said:

Nuts, olives, pepperami are just a few ideas. Try to phase out snacking if you can as it just keeps topping up you blood sugar and therefore needing insulin causing insulin resistance and weight gain. I found it helpful to have a bigger lunch with natural healthy fats would keep me going until dinner

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Thanks Alison! I did not snack at all just drank lots of water!
I really want to get out of the habit of snacking tbh.

TrendyD said:

Hi Angi
I am new to this too. I think we are similar I am preD my HbA1c was also 43 and I have put 2 stone on over the past couple of years!
I was not sure how many carbs to start with but when I looked at how many I had been eating it was scary
I decided to start at 100g per day maximum and hopefully I won't feel the hit too bad.
I know I am going to miss my bags of maltesers etc but like you I do not want to end up with Type2.
My mission this week is to find low carb snacks I can munch at my desk, in the past it would have been a box of fruit.
I feel very positive I can do this and I hope you do too @AngiH

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@TrendyD porky scratchings are zero carb but there's a problem that they're salty.The other is Itsu seaweed, wasabi flavour, brilliant