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Just Diagnosed Pre Diabetic, What Now?

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Buzyizzy

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6
Hi,
I am so glad to have found this forum. I had a full health check last week and surprise, surprise I came back with a 42, so at the amber level.
I am 60 years old and weigh 65 kg. I have a BMI of 21. I have an extremely active life as I am a domestic cleaner, so I do 6 hours cleaning each day from M-F and I also have two horses to look after and ride. I would guess I eat about the same as my son, but as I don't put on any weight despite having hypothyroidism as well, I cannot cut back on any foods as I burn up so much energy.
I also, like many on here I am sure, cannot afford the expensive really healthy foods anymore. I have three meals a day, weetabix, a sandwich (usually wholegrain), banana, a cooked tea which is almost always completely balanced, yoghurts, dried fruit and nuts, that's pretty much it. I may occasionally buy some cheap chocolate and crisps, but this is less than once a week.
How am I supposed to change my diet when all the recommended diets for diabetics and pre diabetics are for people who need to lose weight? I have tried to make an appointment with the diabetes gp at my surgery and will try again next week, but I am actually at a loss.
Suggestions welcome as there must be millions like me out there.
 
Welcome to the forums @Buzyizzy . Have a read of my favourite introduction to T2 diabetes and low carb. As you're only prediabetic, and your diet sounds quite high in carbohydrate, I would hope that tweaking the carbs down a bit might improve your blood sugar levels.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/

Good luck.
 
Apologies for a new thread, but I can’t reply.
If I reduce my carbs, I will not have the energy for my working day. If anyone can suggest really cheap and healthy alternatives, I’ll be very grateful, but I cannot afford any of the suggestions made on the link given in my previous post. TIA
 

The best part is that you are still young and at early stage found that you are pre. Cutting down on carbs and processed food is a good start, good luck.
 
Well if you cut down carbs, increase fat to produce energy - in my experience you’ll end up with way more energy. I don’t have a physically demanding job, but have fuelled long distance (20miles+) walking this way.

It need not be expensive - use cheap cuts of meat such as mince (higher fat content = more flavour and satiety), for example, which goes a long way either on its own or combined with veg/tinned tomatoes.

Tins of fish in olive oil or tomatoes are also good. Eggs are cheap and filling too.
 
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Bacon is a good one, nuts seeds in small doses there are lots of foods that can keep you full.
 
Have a look at the advice on this website provided by some GPs down in Essex. It should give you some ideas. When cutting carbs, the idea is to replace them with fats which are more energy-dense but don't affect our blood sugars the same way. I'm just a newbie and learning as I go but feeling hungry or lacking energy hasn't been part of my experience. I've got weight to lose so I intentionally have a calorie deficit each day but it wouldn't be hard not to. Good luck!
P.S. All those cheap mince based meals - just don't use potatoes to top the shepherd's or cottager's pie (you can use mashed cauliflower), and use finely sliced courgettes instead of spaghetti for spag bol. You can do a nice curry with riced cauliflower rather than rice. Lots of leafy brassicas to accompany whatever else you're having. Have a sandwich, cheese or corned beef or whatever, but wrap the middle between two lettuce leaves instead of bread. Add a few nuts, olives on the side and so on. Oh and pork scratchings are a great replacement instead of a bag of crisps. It's doable, honest.
https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/meal-planners/
 
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The idea of dietary changes for type 2 are to control the blood glucose levels - there are a lot of people who consider being overweight the reason for the diabetes, but it is actually the other way round, the typical type 2 puts on weight easily and the production of insulin makes it difficult to lose.
If you eat fewer carbs - maybe swap the high carb elements of your diet, the cereal and bread, for nutrient dense foods - I eat a lot of eggs, and have meat with a stirfry or fish with salad for breakfast quite often, then that provides all the energy I require for 12 hours.
As you are in the prediabetes range then removing the high carb foods - the fruit, grains and crisps - and possibly the cheap chocolate which will have a lot of sugar rather than the high cocoa ones most type 2s can manage, should all combine to reduce your blood glucose levels.
They do actually only give a short burst of energy and then that drops away rapidly and there is a sensation of weariness and hunger which can result in a rollercoaster of high and lowish blood glucose.
 
Welcome, first don't panic, you caught it early at the lowest prediabetic level (Hb1Ac of 42), You have been given lots of suggestions, all good, but you might find it easier to make step changes so you can see what works for you. Ask the GP for a blood sugar meter and strips, They don't give it by default, but if you insist they just might. From what you say you eat, cooked meals, yogurt and nuts, looks all relatively low carb, but check for sugars, e.g. most cereals have added sugar, weetabix is almost 70 g of carbs per 100g, I've stopped buying any cereal and I am making my own muesli using oats, they are cheap, filling and have no added sugar. Some people here would not touch oats, but we all have to find out what works for us; our tolerance to carbs varies a lot. I try avoiding bananas, but still eat berries and apples, which are spiking less. I do intermittent "fasting" where I don't eat any carby foods and restrict to 600 to 800 calories a day, eating a lot of vegetables and soup and a bit of chicken or fish, so I don't feel hungry. I don't touch any food which says low fat as it likely has added sugars. T2s need fatty food, which provides calories and is satiating, best of wishes.
 
I'm properly diabetic and when diagnosed in January set off on my quest to lower carbs but was hindered by what turns out to be out of date information. I struggled to cut carbs but eat enough calories because I was trying to avoid fats, the saturated variety in particular. Having read many books, it would seem that modern dietary advice allows many of those old demonised foods. So, full fat milk (lower in sugar than semi skimmed), full fat Greek yoghurt, eggs, cheese etc are all, apparently, OK now. I'm neither a doctor nor a dietician, so please do your own research. I found two books really helpful, Reverse Your Diabetes by David Cavan, which also has an accompanying recipe book, and Spoon Fed by Tim Spector. I got them both through the library. Following their advice my HbA1c is now about 40, it was 99 in January! And I have halved my drug dosage. Also my cholesterol and triglyceride levels have dropped to within normal ranges.
 
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I just want to echo all of the above, I was diagnosed with an HbA1c of 94 but reduced it to 34 in 3 months and have put my diabetes into remission with low carb high fat - it still blows my mind that by reversing everything I was told my whole adult life about avoiding fatty foods I am fitter and healthier now (BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol) than I have ever been. I eat cheese, full fat greek yogurt and double cream every day and have more energy than I did 25 years ago
 
FORGET everything you've ever been told is healthy to eat, 5 a day is nonsense to anyone with diabetes or pre-diabetes and will certainly tip you over the edge to full blown diabetes. Eat all the things you've been told are bad for you and you will flourish.
Avoid bread, potatoes and rice, and throw out the Weetabix, have Bacon and eggs instead. Don't eat anything low fat. If you don't have energy eating this way then you're not eating enough. 2000 calories of carbs equals 2000 calories of fat, the difference is the carbs will disappear quicker, the fat will continue to fuel you for longer. The message that fat is bad and carbs are good originated from the worlds largest supplier of grain seeds, funny that eh. Funnily enough i've also read somewhere that they also control 90% of the worlds Insulin production, so they're laughing all the way to the bank. They just happen to be the driving force behind Genetically modified grain, whatever they claim i'm sure the bottom line is as it's sterile farmers cannot produce their own seed from their crops but have to buy fresh seed each year.
 

Great job along with hard work, keep up the good work, testing and low carb
 
My view, you just need to make a few tweaks not wholesale revolutionary changes. If you like nuts increase those & get rid of the dried fruit. Scrap the weetabix for breakfast, there’s little of value in it & replace with Greek yoghurt & a few berries instead or perhaps an egg if you like those?

I’d probably look to replace the sandwiches with salads, perhaps with tuna or oily fish a few days a week also?

That would probably cut over half the carbs you currently consume each week, replacing them with healthy fats so no net loss in calories.
 
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