• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Non Diabetic but need some help

1plus2

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hi i am not Diabetic yet but i am at a high risk of getting it due to my ill health due to suffering 2 heart attacks which made me stop work and i piled the weight on due to this.

My concerns are that i have been told that i am a high risk of getting Diabetes but luckily i have not as of yet got it but i am wondering what i can do to reduce the risk in the future.

My heart attacks were about 6 years ago and i piled the weight on and i cannot get around to well so exercise is not really an option i did go to a course to get my stomach stapled but there was concerns about the amount of alcohol i was consuming at the time and after initially getting told i was to get the operation i did a heart trace and a breath test then i was told that because of the drinking they had decided not to risk wasting the operation on someone that may not be worthy of it due to the drinking.

So basically i am on all sorts of meds for the heart condition and now i am thinking more and more about Diabetes i am actually about 25-27 stones and struggle to do basic everyday things due to my weight but also the most concerning issue my heart and lack of breath etc etc etc.

As i say i would like some help/advice on how to limit the chances of me getting Diabetes further down the line i am 52 years old and i am looking to get as much info from people that know all about Diabetes. One thing i am concerned about is obviously the drinking of alcohol but i also have read that fruit juices and healthy drinks are loaded with sugars,so i would like to know what is out there that is ok for to drink apart from water and tea etc thx in advance.
 
Hi and welcome,

The best thing you can do to help prevent or delay diabetes is to lose a lot of weight. This will also help with your heart condition and breathlessness.
This will require effort on your part.
All alcohol is full of calories, so that will not help with weight loss. Water is by far the best drink, and can be spiced up with a slice of lemon, or by drinking fizzy mineral water. Yes, fruit juice is loaded with sugars. Some of the zero sugar soft drinks may be OK but I'm not an expert on these as I don't drink them.

Tell us what you eat/drink in a typical day and we will try to help.
 

If you do not yet have T2diabetes, there is much you can do to prevent it.

A start would be to reduce the alcohol intake. It is liquid sugar. As is juice. Try also to cut down carbs ( bread, potatoes, rice pasta and starchy veg).
 
Hi 1 plus2, you have had a good ol go havn't you, I would not do anything without consulting your doctor....but as you can read on this forum , lots of us have gone on the lchf regime , but I would encourage you to see you doc 1st , before going on such a diet. Keep us posted how you get on .
 
Hi 1plus2 and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about the circumstances that have caused you to gain weight and the associated inability to move around and exercise. Can I ask whether you are actually an alcoholic because if you are then that will be a big contributor to excess weight, and of course, a huge barrier to losing it. I appreciate that you might not want to say on here whether you are or not, but it's something for you to bear in mind if you seriously want to avoid developing diabetes.
As to what you can drink hopefully somebody will come up with some ideas for you, as this girl sticks to tea and coffee so I don't have a clue about other options.
How about the food side of things? Do you have a relatively healthy diet. If not there are lots of meal ideas and do's and dont's on the forum to help you get an idea of the best way forward.
Stick around and ask any questions you may have as we're a helpful bunch on here who are always happy to offer support.
Good luck.
 
Welcome

As bluetit and others have pointed out, you need to lose weight .... might be a long haul for you but aim for small targets and cut down on the alcohol. Good luck
 
Hi and welcome!

I suggest that you have a good read of the forum, just following your nose, dipping in and out of threads, and watching any video links.


I expect people have been telling you to lose weight and reduce your drinking for years, and you've been trying, and struggling, and probably feel like it's a hopeless task... Well I did too(about weight loss, never been a drinker). Turns out that my body does well on low carb foods, with just enough fat to stop me feeling hungry. Of course, that doesn't mean it will work for you, but hopefully it will give you hope that somewhere (possibly mentioned on this forum) there will be something that works for you.
 
A big thx for all the replies and very much appreciated regarding losing weight through exercise this is why i went down the stomach stapling route because of the inability to get about like i used to and i know myself any exercise physically is just to hard to do, i did try this at the start thru a doctors advice and i got 3 months free at my local gym but i collapsed when i was doing the very basics.

Also i know have angina related to the heart issues and the more i try to do the more the angina kicks in

I have a triple blockage of the arteries and due to the proximity of the damage they cannot stent the arteries so i am stuck with what i have until i basically collapse and need to be brought back to life ( not my words the doctors) then they will have to give me a triple bypass but i have been let down so many times by what i have been told and what actually happened it has really affected me mentally and i have a person that comes and sees me every week for mental health issues that i have.

The thing is when i actually try to explain the issues it can look like i am just making excuses when i get advice to do exercise etc etc etc but i just thought i could get some info on what is the best way to counter possible Diabetic issues further down the line.

To be perfectly honest i am really surprised i have not contracted Diabetes due to my weight especially but i am on all sorts of tablets but does that mean i will not encounter Diabetes later on i often think surely i would have got it know but every time i get checked it is always negative which is obviously great for me.

Again thx for all the replies i really appreciate them.
 

No problem with the asking if i am an alcoholic i personally do not consider myself as an alcoholic as my dad was an alcoholic and i am nowhere near like he was but as i say i am 25-27 stone which you can imagine is really big but i am 6ft 2 and everyone cannot believe that i am that weight when they ask me as i have got to say i do carry it quite well.

But i do drink every day nearly but io am never drunk i can have 2 bottles of wine a night with a half bottle of whisky and some tins of cider but i am never drunk but the doctor and the dietician have said that you may not think you are an alcoholic but they class it as way to much drink daily and i guess they reckon i probably am but they have never actually said that to my face but i just reckon they think that by what they say to me.
 

Again thx for the reply and i went on the atkins diet a few years ago before the heart attacks and lost 2 stone in 2 months without any exercise but i was more active due to working at the time, the only problem with that was i ended up with an anal fissure which is unbelievably sore when that happens and they reckoned that was down to the atkins diet and the way it had made me constipated.so i swerved the atkins diet totally as this anal fissure was total agony.
 
A lot of people on this forum are not unlike yourself and struggle to do any type of fitness. Just going for a walk and doing housework, keeping yourself busy and not just sitting around would help enormously, cutting down on carbs, eating more veg and importantly reducing intake especially of snacks.
Have a look at the recipes, prepare yourself instead of fast food or ready made meals. You can still have a treat now and then.

It's about you and your future self.
Asking is the first step, take more little steps and then you will feel better in your head. You can mate! I did.

My brother and my brother in law died premature because they didn't find the right questions to ask. One died an alcoholic and the other of diabetic complications and heart problems.

I am determined not to go early as they did.

Best wishes mate. Keep posting, look after yourself.
 

Well I wish you the best ..... thanks for the honesty. I'd still play around with the diet as that can't hurt. REALLY little steps

Mike
 
@1plus2

Hello. I have posted some information for you on your other thread. Hope it is helpful in addition to the help you are already receiving here.
 

Hello there, welcome to the forum, I hope you find the advice and support useful.

You have clearly identified an area where there's room for improvement, supported by what your medical advisers are saying to you. It's only my opinion but you may have done well to avoid gastric surgery, it is my opinion that we don't all need gastric surgery.

Eight years ago I was 27 stone, and although my weight had increased while my eating and drinking habits had stayed the same, drinking was my downfall. How much is an interesting question because the answer is just too much and although I didn't think I was alcoholic, I never had the DTs, I was always functioning, never drove for 12 hours after a drink, could stop for 2 weeks while on holiday without problems etc etc. There's a term for it, Functional Alcoholic. The problem is that we obsess on the term alcoholic, so I just said to myself, it doesn't matter what they call it, I drink way too much and I want to stop because I want to live. The best thing I ever did was go to AA meetings, hearing other people's experiences put me off alcohol permanently.

I can actually say that sitting in a room with 70 or more SOBER people is something I'd never experienced before because it dawned on me that a lot of people we deal with on a day to day basis are under the influence of alcohol. They might be fit to drive and all that, but under the influence the moment they take a mouthful. I would suggest that you seriously consider ditching alcohol altogether, even go to an AA meeting, they are not full of drunks, and I can already hear cries of but . . . . but . . . . . But it was the BEST thing I ever did.

It is the major source of carbohydrate that is making your pancreas work it's nuts off making insulin, your pancreas will lose it's ability to make the stuff. At the same time, because you are making loads of insulin to deal with all the carbs, your body will become more and more resistant to the insulin that your pancreas is making and before you know it, you'll be a fully paid up member of the type II diabetes club. The other thing to bare in mind about insulin is that it's not called the fat storing hormone for nothing.

As someone who was 27st I can safely say that it's not good to carry around an extra 14 stone (at 6ft 12 1/2 stone is my 'ideal', at 6ft2ins it's 14 stone) and not to put too fine a point on it, it's really not attractive. It really doesn't matter about what people think about one's weight and the strange thing is that the ones who love us are the ones who make those "you're not that big" type of comment. Even my mum, bless her cotton socks, still keeps telling me that I've lost weight. She's right, I have, but I still need to lose at least another 4 stone, so my point is that we know what we should weigh to reduce problems. I may never reach my ideal weight, but I do everything within my power to get there because I don't want a long slow uncomfortable death.

My initial weight losses occurred because I was on a sensible alcohol free regime, then I stopped taking Rosiglitazone (I gained 7 stone after first being prescribed the bloody stuff, knackered my liver as well), so 4 stone went there. Then when I reduced my carb intake to about 80 gms a day I lost another 3 stone and I had a TKR 6 weeks ago and have lost another stone over the christmas period and I didn't starve, just ate sensible and without all those unnecessary carbs.

Sorry for lengthy reply, but I believe your way forward is clear. Cut out the booze, lower your carbs.

The interesting thing about free advise is that it is quite often ignored, where shall I send my invoice? LOL

I wish you all the very best in whatever you decide to do. Please don't be a victim, take charge of your life. Lecture over. LOL
 
Well said

Mike
 
Hi it seems like trying to cut down on the drink is the thing that can help you most and what you should work on first Even without diabetes that amount of alcohol cannot be doing your heart problems any favours let alone your weight cutting down on the carbs will really not do a lot to help you until you cut out the drink .Because of your serious health problems and as Clivethedrive said you really need to speak to your doctor first
 
Hi. I agree with what many of the posters have said. I think you are saying you haven't yet had the stapling op? Reducing the carbs and portion sizes should help gradually bring your weight down. It's the carbs not the fats that are the big culprit. So, look at all the food/drink packaging and look for total carbs and not just sugar. Diet soft drinks should be fine and even a little alcohol. Some alcohol drinks have more carbs than others. Alcohol is never good for the body but a few units a week unless advised otherwise by the GP or med leaflets should be OK but keep it small. As for the risk of diabetes, it seems that some of us are genetically disposed to become daibetic and excess weight can trigger it. So, you may never get diabetes but keeping the weight down will reduce the risk.
 
Assuming the wine is red and some cans of cider means only 2, that is almost 2000 calories. As you are inactive you would not lose weight even if you ate nothing. That is an enormous amount of drink and if you keep it up I fear diabetes may be the least of your worries. I also am unable to exercise but I lost 0ver 4 stones in 4 months by cutting down on carbs and calories. But I had no alcohol during that period. Good luck with the weight loss.
 
One of the reasons I gave up alcohol all together was because it was silly adding up all those empty calories, also, even the one can of beer (in my case) meant that my willpower was right out the window and hello fridge, what 'snack' can I have. Ditch the alcohol, you'll never look back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…