Confused, terrified and frustrated !!!

Isn't a reading of 7 "53" under the new system - not 49? I presume a reading of 7 puts you at the top of the pre-diabetic range/bottom of the range for Type 2. Are you experiencing any diabetic symptoms - e.g. weeing a lot, excessive thirst, weight loss, tiredness etc?

Hi Tweetypie - I've been in the position you are in. As good as the doctors/nurses at my local clinic are, they don't know everything and I've had to educate myself. You can too. There's a lot of interesting information on Dr. Mercola's website, the Wheat Belly Blog website and a blog called BloodSugar101. I'm going for an HbA1c at the end of May and I'm checking my BG 5 times a day at present - Morning Fasting, 1 hour after lunch, 2 hours after lunch and the same for dinner. Testing today I've got my 2 hour level down to 4.5! I don't eat grain-carbs or sugar anymore - and that seems to be the key. I'm dealing with the emotional reasons behind my overeating and I'm upping my exercise. It can be done. Your doctor is correct to say lose weight and exercise (if only it were that easy eh?) but if you check your BG levels and keep a food diary, you'll see which foods cause the biggest spikes and then you'll know what to avoid. Hope I've given you some food (pun intended!) for thought. Good luck.

It looks to me like the HbA1c (49) is in new money and all the other readings are BGs in mmol/l.

Seems like you are borderline Tweetiepie, 7 mmol/L is the kind of fasting reading that a T2 diabetic on the way to control would have (or a prediabetic getting higher). Your spikes after eating are quite high though, what are you eating? Most T2s on here restrict their carbohydrate intake significantly.

HbA1c is a 2-3 month 'average' BG measure, making use of the combining of some glucose with the blood haemoglobin, which itself recycles over a 2-3 month period. So depending on recent history it may or may not have any bearing on a 'snapshot' fasting level.

Hi
Totally agree with what's been said, the Hb1Ac of 49 (6.6 in the old terms) and a fasting blood sugar of 7 is near the top of the pre diabetic readings but not seriously high..
If you go the diet route of cutting down on Carbohydrates, (Bread, Rice, Pasta, potatoes, high sugar content etc.) and doing some exercise , about half an hour three times a week minimum, this will defiantly help with bringing down levels and loosing some weight.
If you want to do testing, measure first thing in the morning.( below 6 is ideal).
If you want to test At meals, test before the meal, and then 2 hours later.(under 6.6 is ideal)
Only test at meals to get an idea of what food caused big increases in Blood Sugar, and then try and limit these foods or don't eat them.
Read the forum's on Low Carb, new to diabetes, etc. and you will find a lot of info.
Also the members will all help with advise
Good luck, once you get used to things it will all fall into place, and things will be easier

Don't do what I did and reduce carbs and fat. I ended up feeling terrible. Once I increased my fat intake a little I started to fell better than I have for years.

The new potato thing may not be a good idea. I read they were the best for me but got high readings after even a few.

Tweetypie281266 said:

I checked my bloods before replying to see how they were and I think you might be right they were 5.5 before the and just 10.3 just goes to show you dosnt it and Iv kept them down today to ...

What would you of had with steamed cod and veg ? Or would you of just had that ?


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Just that probably. We seem to have a habit of having to have a high carb thing with all our meals. Pasta, rice, potatoes and bread. wheat seems to be the worst of the grains. If you cut them all out you levels will possibly drop. I use a little pearl barley as a rice substitute, other than that I don't miss it much any more. Well a bit maybe.

Tweetypie281266 said:

Iv always reduced my fat ... Always used olive oil .. I had a few new potatoes at tea time and it was nice putting a little clover on them for a change as I'd not usually bother x

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As a diabetic you can be sure of one thing, fat will never make your bg go up so fat is a safe source of energy. And we want bg to stay low. That said, we also want good quality fat like olive oil, butter, lard, duck and goose fat and coconut oil. Never margarine, ever. And go easy on most of the vegetable oils, apart from olive oil and coconut oil.

Your readings are diabetic, nothing pre there as far as I can see. You are already testing and that is the way to go, The only way to get to know what makes you bg go up is to test. Then you try something else and test and work out what suits you.

Look at Dietdoctor:

http://www.dietdoctor.com/diabetes
https://www.dietdoctor.com/science

Yep steamed cod and veg but for some it depends on the veg as most root veg is a bit carby. I am lucky in that I can eat a small potato, a small portion of Basmati rice or a wee bit of pasta without any effect on my BG but I know that for some on here that would send their BG's into orbit! Bread of any kind at all, and that includes pita bread, any Indian flat bread, crumpets and basically any bread with wheat flour, has a dreadful effect on me but oddly enough, I can have a small amount of pastry as long as it's with some protein and a bit of fat. All that just proves we are all so different and the only way to find out just what affects you and what's okay for you is to test, test and test. Eat to your meter which means find out your own particular needs and eat to them. Eating some fat with your meal will slow down absorption and might make your BG rise not so bad or at least slower.

You doc is repeating what they all say mostly. In my opinion testing is the single most important tool in your armoury for finding out how your body is re-acting. To begin with, test just before a meal then two hours after. You will soon find you are automatically abandoning certain foods that you have found don't suit you. Tastes change and appetites reduce too!

Low carbing is great but please don't do what I did in the beginning will you? I thought okay I can have fats....yay! but I made the mistake of having quite a lot of carb too, my BG's were good but my weight wasn't! This isn't how low carbing works. You replace the carb with some healthy fat, this gives you the energy that carbs used to but don't overload on fat. Don't think Oh fantastic I can have lots of butter and cream. Just have a nice amount and I tell you what, a fresh ground coffee first thing in the morning with a splash of cream is just heaven! I used to swear by low fat milk, I didn't like it much but thought I was doing okay. Now I find out that it has a lot of carb in it so I have ditched milk completely but because I am older I do need some calcium so have full fat yoghurt twice a day and I am fine on that.

It's all experimentation though. What works for me may not work for you but you will get there. We all started out scared and confused but if you work at it it will come right.

Good Luck and ask any questions you need to ok?

how are peanut sesame and grape oils Totto?

this is too difficult said:

how are peanut sesame and grape oils Totto?

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I don't know but I think grape seed oil might be better used on hinges than in humans. As to peanut oil I use a little for mayonnaise and such. As I go through a large amount of fat every day in order to stay healthy I stay away from most seed oils and stick with butter, olive oil, lard, duck fat and coconut oil. I prefer to eat the sesame seeds and peanuts, not to squeeze the oil out of them.

I believe so.
Proper stuff though with no added sugar.