De-lurk, Thank you, Hello - and a Confession

[Dancing Badger]

Hi Everyone - First, may I say thank you to the very knowledgeable posters on this forum for their extremely helpful advice, insights and personal experiences. I've been lurking on this site for a few months and have learned so much.

I was diagnosed as Type 2 with an HBAc1 of 51 earlier this year. I had a routine annual blood test in February, then received a call from the surgery saying I needed another test six weeks later. Concerned, I looked at my results online and saw "Abnormal" against the figure of 48. Google confirmed this wasn't good news. The second blood test came in at 51; I was called in for a GP appointment. A very approachable locum GP outlined the numerous risks and offered me Metformin, which I declined saying I'd been "all over" the Diabetes UK site, to which he said was "excellent - a very good source of information".

Back Story
Over five years ago I was told I was pre-diabetic and, to my shame, didn't really take on the seriousness of the situation (diabetes happens to other people, right?). I'm kicking myself now.
Reluctantly, I was eventually enrolled on the Diabetes Prevention Course in November 2019. It was awful. The venue was a freezing scout hut heated with a two-bar electric fire. About 20 of us were grouped round a large table shivering in our coats and were handed plastic replicas of various foods and given the sort of quizzes aimed at 7-year-olds. Additionally, the woman delivering the course was unable to answer any questions, stating she had no medical background. She also floundered when asked to explain some of the teaching - e.g., you shouldn't eat anything beige or white. The chap who asked whether that included chicken and cauliflower was treated to a death stare. I attended three sessions before Covid put a stop to the face-to-face contact, which was a relief. The opportunity to finish the course via Zoom was offered, but I was so disengaged at that point that I declined. To that extent, I'm probably the author of my own fate.
To be clear, I'm not criticising the Diabetes Prevention Programme as a whole, merely outlining my own experience at a local level.

Following the recommendations on this site, I bought a TEE+ BS monitor directly after diagnosis, and also made rapid changes to my (and my husband's) diet. So far, he's lost a stone and I've only lost 7lbs!

 

[Deleted member 475901]

Sounds like you've made a good start. And don't beat yourself up, it seems that few GPs explain how to reduce pre-diabetes readings.

Loved the question about chicken and cauliflower - two mainstays in my post-diagnosis diet! The old course I was offered didn't include anything positive about low carb, leaning on the carb-heavy Eatwell Plate, which is a disaster for T2s.

And it is unfair that men lose weight more easily than women, but I found I lost weight most easily and maintained my new weight better on low carb than any diet I'd tried before.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Dancing Badger and welcome to the forum.
Firstly, you appear to have gone on one of the better courses - the worst ones are so much worse (aside from comfort).
Oh and by the way, this isn't Diabetes UK - this is Diabetes.co.uk the other one is a charity sponsored by food and pharma companies and until recently took a very dim view of Low Carb.

Don't worry about weight loss compared to anybody else - we are all different. I have said that so many times, what matters most is your diabetes, which fortunately is only at the low end of the scale. You aren't in a weight loss competition, or even in a Blood Sugar reduction competition with anybody else.
Only compare your progress with how you were in the past, no other comparisons are valid because you and I could eat exactly the same amount of the exact same food item and get very different results due to genes or gut biome.

It isn't always advisable to reduce either Blood Glucose or weight too much too fast, because in the case of BG there can be temporary vision problems (the eyes get used to high glucose then get lower glucose and take time to adjust), and in the case of large fast weight loss, the skin doesn't always shrink back enough and loose hanging skin is very depressing.