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Pre-diabetic

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Rungirl12

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Just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Can't understand why as I'm not overweight run 8 miles a week walk & i am active.
Read some of the threads on here so do I need to avoid all bread rice pasta & carbs?? I eat bananas regularly for breakfast so are these a no no now??
 

Hi, do you have a glucose meter? If not, get one,

You may not need to cut carbs so drastically. Armed with your meter, you can work on optimizing your diet. For example, since you’re active, eat your bananas and carbs for breakfast and lunch, but drop the high carbs for your dinner. Focus on protein, building some muscle.

With regular testing, you can make incremental adjustments. I still have carbs, but I know when and how much.
 
Google TOFI thin on the outside fat on the inside. Not a glamorous phrase but it will explain why some of your cells aren't working properly.

You've caught it early and can adjust. Replace carbs with more protein and healthy fats so you don't loose too much weight, but you may need to go lower initially to empty out the cells around your liver, then increase weight agai .

As @LaoDan said, you're in good place to get into remission and stay there
 
Bananas are one of the highest carb fruits - can you swap to full fat Greek yogurt with berries?
 
 
Hi thank you for your reply. No I don't have a glucose meter but have ordered one today.
Ive swapped pasta for spelt pasta but not sure if that's better or not as it seems higher in carbs on the packet.
 
Yes I can swap to berries & I eat Greek yogurt but %fat but looking at all the information it looks like I have to go to the full fat Greek yogurt. What about frozen fruit like cherries & mango? Are these too high in sugar?
 
 
If you are suffering from excess glucose then turn off the tap by reducing carbs to what you can tolerate without those carbs turning into glucose in your blood. That's why you need a glucometer.
It is tricky because all that you've been told is that fat people get diabetes, bananas are healthy as are rice, pasta etc. Yet this is the diet that has brought you to diabetes as it does for many so its not the diet that's going to get you out of it. You are early stage into this so you will likely find it is easy to come out again just by replacing some carbs with more proteins and fats.
None of those changes need impact your running btw as it is a toal myth that you need all those bananas etc. but if you love them I'd try and eat them with full fat yoghurt to blunt the rise of your blood sugars.
I always recommend the Freshwell Low Carb site and app for newbies because its UK based and free (low carb GP surgery in Essex). There are also loads of good resources o this site and also Diet Doctor if you'd like to know more about the nutritional science.
https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
 
Rungirl12 said:
Hi thank you for your reply. No I don't have a glucose meter but have ordered one today.
Ive swapped pasta for spelt pasta but not sure if that's better or not as it seems higher in carbs on the packet.
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Getting a glucose meter is indeed so helpful. I bought one two days ago, one were a tiny drop of finger blood is checked.
I intend also for a couple of weeks to keep a record my food intake, quantities in carbs, eating hours, water intake, and to keep a record of my physical activities, sleeping hours. All of that on an excell spreadsheet so that I can have a basis of infor
It's difficult to get rid of carbs, but to at least prefer whole bread rather than white bread, eat less of carbs.
Also make you have good HDL cholesterol an
Good idea than reducing your carb intake, many humans on earth eat too much carbs.
In my case it even affected my triglycerides level.
Prefer whole bread to white bread which is full of carbs.
The glucose meter will really help you, I bought one 2 days ago and it is a good way of monitoring how your body deals with sugar without having to keep going to lab.
Where you diagnosed on fast blood
Rungirl12 said:
Thank you I will have a look at that. So confusing carbs & of which sugars on the food labels!!!
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Indeed to me on food labels both the carb and sugar quantities should be both indicated under a more scary "sugars" category. Before being prediabetes diagnosed I stupidely kind of thought that carbs were "benign" and that only sugar could be very harmful, on labels I would only look at the sugar number, not the carbs one.
Even better they could put a diabetes color code on food labels (green : ok, yellow : be carefull with quantity, red : not recommended), maybe one day.
Before my diagnosis I was not eating too much sugar (no sodas nor chocolate bars for instance) but way too much white bread... which is aso full of carbs... and also too much rice, potatoes, crisps etc. over so many years.
 
I too have recently been diagnosed with prediabetes. My 3 month blood test is next week. I too haven’t been taking any notice of the carb number on the labels, just the sugar and the fat (I’m on statins for high cholesterol and my last triglycerides reading was too high). Finding it a huge learning curve. Just reading something today that suggests I should perhaps be having more fat. I have lost too much weight for my liking. Wasn’t much of me before! I had believed I could switch from white rice to brown rice and white pasta to brown pasta (of which we eat a lot) but now understand either is too high in carbs. Keeping fingers crossed for a lower reading next week.
 
 
Yes it's a learning curve. Finding it hard what to have instead of potatoes rice & pasta.
Hope your blood test gives a good reading.
 
Rungirl12 said:
Finding it hard what to have instead of potatoes rice & pasta.
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Simple answer is to up the portions of proteins and green veg and healthy fats so you feel full
.
For example I used to have 100g steak and a few chips, now it's often 200g and a big salad. Or I had 2 eggs on toast, now it's a 3 egg cheese omelette. Spaghetti bolognaise, I still have the meat sauce but served on cabbage instead of spaghetti

I've tried the processed low carb pasta and bread alternatives and don't like the taste, nor the price, so I just go without.

Hope this helps
 
I understand completely - the idea is daunting to begin with. I promise that it's a lot easier to actually do than it is to think about.
 
A good level of HDL cholesterol is important: the higher it is the better it is, mine is too low at usually at 0.35g/l, below the minimum 0.60 g/l 0.90 mmol/l
Avocado, fish, nuts, chicken meat, oive oil and whole bread is some of the recommanded type of food to improve the HDL.
Surely that trigs are to be as low as possible, I got my level of trigs below the recommanded max value last week, a first time achievement in so many years : wish I had done it way earlier because it was always almost double the recommanded max value.
For me too my lowering weight is becoming a bit annoying, I want to keep a minimum of muscle strength and don't want to end up skinny : I miss the appetite needed and probably my metabolism is playing me tricks or adjusting (lost 15 kilos in less than 3 months). I will count my calories intake if needed so to keep a normal bmi (I am still within the normal range).
 
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@Rungirl12 it sounds like you are where I was 20+ years ago. I was not overweight (although 6-7 kg above my racing weight) did lots of exercise, cycling, running and gym, and surprised to be told I was pre-diabetic.
I followed the NHS healthy plate guidance swapping the carbs for low GI options and lo an behold the next time I was assessed I was diagnosed as type2.
After a few years of getting nowhere, whilst being told my diet was 'ideal', I started a LCHF diet and lost those 6-7kg. I've stayed in the pre-diabetic range ever since and stayed off the meds through diet and exercise and the advice of the wonderful people on this forum.
However, as the last couple of disruptive years has shown, I can't afford to take my eye off the ball. If I let things slip then my numbers go back into the diabetic range and the GP is reaching for the prescription pad.
So my advice is to think of yourself as diabetic and adopt an appropriate lifestyle that you can maintain indefinitely because T2 wont go away, it will only ever be held at bay. And best advice? keep engaged with these forums and the latest science.
Good luck.
 
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