Hello from a newbie

Hi welcome to the forum

@daisy1 will be along soon to give you lots of info.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You are doing well to take action to improve your lifestyle now when you are still prediabetic and not yet a fully fledged member of our club. Trust me this is one club you do not want to join!

You say your levels (fasting levels, I assume) have moved up to 7. Seven is actually a diabetic level, and two fasting counts of seven or above would mean you are diagnosed as diabetic.

So treat it as very much a final warning.

Where you given any other tests such as an hbA1c (measures your "average" plasma glucose levels of the previous three months) or an Oral glucose tolerance test? These two are also used to diagnose diabetes particularly when the fasting glucose test gives a marginal result.

The way forward for you is to continue with the lifestyle changes you have started:
- more exercise
- less body weight
- less sugar and carbs in your diet( cereals, grain products, rice, pasta, potato)
- what carbs you do have make them whole grain but still restrict intake.

Consider yourself fortunate to have received this final warning/chance and make the best of it.

Diabetes is a condition that can be managed and still allows for a fulfilling life, but given a choice not to be diabetic there is no question that we would all jump at it.

You have that choice.

Pavlos

Hello and a big welcome to the forum

Best wishes RRB

Good morning and welcome Pavlosn has pretty much said what I would say,
You will be advised on diets from many here and you will find that the one thing we all agree on is that the so called eat well plate that your Dr or nurse will recommend is considered by many of us to be basically useless to diabetes sufferers.
You have to watch you carbohydrate intake as these all turn to sugar in your blood.
Don't worry the are some people here Ally springs to mind who started off with readings in the 30s and now after a couple of months they have nearly normal readings.
Please ask any questions you want ans someone will be along to advise.

Welcome to the forum Bob

zand said:

Hi welcome to the forum

@daisy1 will be along soon to give you lots of info.

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Hello @bobbsee and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask more questions if you need to and you will get answers from other members.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Welcome to the forum,I am sure you will find lots of good information.

Hello and welcome.
The way I started with a change of diet diet was to change the fractions on my plate so that half is covered with veg and salad, a quarter protein (meat, fish) and a quarter or less of carbohydrate. Put the veg on your plate first. Doing this for a few weeks helped me to settle into the diet whilst I got my head round all the new information. Good luck and remember low-carbing does work.

Hello and welcome!

Yes, it would be an excellent idea to get a meter. They are essential if you want to learn which foods you can or can't cope with. You mention the Accu chek and it only being £10. Many meters are given away for free. Meters are cheap, relatively speaking. It is the cost of replacement testing strips/cassettes, that you need to watch. You will need a lot of replacement strips but only one meter. Acc-chek are expensive. Many of us here use the Codefree because the strips are about the cheapest going. http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm but of course, the choice is yours.

Hi and welcome. Yes, it's worth getting a meter to do occasioanl checks. Keep the carbs down as you are now doing. Although exercise is really good and helps, diet is the highest priorty

I have an accu-chek nano and the cheapest that I've found the strips is £12.50 for 50 on e-bay and, once you've registered it, you can get 2 free batteries and calibration fluid every 3 months.

bobbsee said:

hi all.
Great to find this forum, and will be a regular visitor.
Just been told I am in prediabetes stage by doc, and advised to change certain life styles. I am overweight, and this has crept up significantly over the years. I am 57 years young! My job is either behind a computer screen, or sat in a car driving silly hours to give a presentation then driving home. My excersise has been changing gear or flicking the indicator switch!
My blood sugar levels have been around 5 for years, but my last test in November it crept up to 7.
I joined the gym about six weeks ago, and have worked up to 3 x 40 mins sessions a week. Going at 7.00amish so it is out of the way and I cannot wriggle out of it using tiredness and the weather as an excuse on the evening. I am allready up a notch on my belt.
I don't drink a lot of alcohol these days as I depend on my driving license for work. I usually have a couple of bottles of ale either Friday or Saturday evening. Hope I haven't got to give those up.
I have no problems changing from white to brown rice, bread etc. and cutting down on bad foods, but I am hoping you guys can give me good tips on diet. In fact, any advice and info welcome.
At this stage, is it worth getting a testing kit? I notice Asda have an accu chek one for £10.00.
As I say, any help or advice welcome.

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Hi @bobbsee and welcome. I am 58 years young too...so just a year ahead. You've come to the right place. Loads of experience and knowledge on here and they wont hesitate to give you advice. Trust me. I am a newbie, well 56 days to be precise. But I started in a much worse state than you. You will gt great improvement once you get your carbs managed and get your exercise going. For me losing weight has helped big time. Good Luck

Hi bobbsee, welcome