Prediabetes newly

[Passionate]

Is low carbon diet the only way to reverse this state?

 

[jjraak]

Hi @Passionate

Welcome to the forum.

If it helps...
I see my T2D as an inner pot.

I loaded it up with carbs through my earlier years and used them up as expected.

Later on that system became less efficient...

And the unused carbs (glucose) didn't fully get used up , so some remained in the pot.

Over time that sludge accumulated meaning the pot couldn't hold the amount of carbs I was still putting into it, and eventually the pot filled up to the brim, then began to spill over, the excess glucose spilling over constantly and began jamming up every one of my organs.

...Hello type 2

All this, by way of pointing out that 'less' carbs in, at your levels might be enough in itself to avoid sliding in to a full diagnosis of 'Type 2'

Low carb & keto hint at serious changes many might not be able or willing to make.

Simply seeing carbs as an issues (for pre or full diabetics they can be our kryptonite)

Might help in seeing & establishing the amount of carbs you ate. and reducing your intake to below what you previously ate,
and That MIGHT be sufficient to stop or slow yours down .

Fewer processed meals, more home cooked sort of thing.

Reducing how often you have potatoes , rice, pasta would be a good start, and could be all some need.

I got DX'd at T2D, no warning & it shocked me.

I was like on the very edge of the waterfalls, in danger of going right over the lip

I cut back hard, turned the boat around and rowed hard & long to get back to safety & calmer waters ... successfully I might add.

See me, now resting peacefully in my boat, politely waving at you in yours, warning of the dangers upstream & suggesting you simply change direction or row a tiny bit harder backwards

Save yourself from my error & never have to row so hard in your journey....or not

So is it the only option ..mmmh

If you keep doing what you did to get to pre diabetic, I'd say you follow my path upstream to the waterfall ..

So cut back, go lower carbs, go lchf or go keto

Call is yours to try AND monitor as you choose

But yes, in my opinion lowering your carbs is the only option.

Best of luck whatever you choose.

 

[KennyA]

Is low carbon diet the only way to reverse this state?

Hi Passionate and welcome. I would be very hesitant about saying low-carb is the only way. However it has worked very well for me (I don't have any experience of anything else) and for many others - you can read a large number of accounts in the "Success Stories" part of the forum.

As mentioned above, the typical diet is now very heavy in carbs and processed food, including industrial seed oils. I accepted the standard (since about 1980) advice to eat lots of carbs and avoid meat, dairy and animal fats. Previously, pre-1980, the standard advice for people wanting to lose weight was to cut out starches and sugars - essentially a low-carb approach. There wasn't a T2 problem then, so blood glucose levels didn't come in to it. My great-grandmother was T1 before injectable insulin was developed and she survived with the help of an extremely low-carb diet - otherwise I wouldn't be here.

So there's nothing new at all about reducing carb intake to put less stress on your insulin response. This site has tons of useful information largely drawn direct from personal experience or valid published sources - you may have realised already that there is a lot of diabetes-related rubbish on the internet, often put there by people selling something.

best of luck, and there's no limit to the number of questions you can ask.

 

[Paul_]

To answer your immediate question, it's my view that lower carb, as a minimum approach, is the best and most efficient way to turn prediabetes around and also to limit/halt the progression of full type 2 diabetes without medication.

As @jjraak outlined, there are 3 approaches from a high level perspective - 1) fewer carbs than your currently consume but not necessarily low carb, 2) low carb (under 130g carb intake per day), or 3) keto (officially under 50g carb intake per day, but generally 20-30g or less). There are also some extremely low/no carb diets around too, such as Ketovore and Carnivore, but personally they're not for me.

As a prediabetic, all 3 options are potentially valid, so you could start with option 1 above and see how your hba1c tracks. If that's enough, great, if not you could move to option 2 and so on. I was diagnosed as type 2 last year, with an hba1c of 83. After years of ignoring my health and diet, I decided to change my lifestyle completely and went strict keto, 20g carbs per day. In 3 months that approach lowered my hba1c from 83 to 32, so it definitely works and I'm not alone in seeing this turnaround when reducing carbs. I now eat 20-30g of carbs per day, but that's out of choice and I like eating this way. After losing a lot of weight though, plus having my blood glucose well controlled for a decent duration now, I can actually eat 50-60g of carbs in a day if I want without any adverse impact on blood glucose levels, and although I haven't tested this I could probably go higher still with limited impact - I just don't feel the need or desire to though.

What I'm saying is that you can turn the boat around here, to use @jjraak's analogy, and you likely can do that without medication. I would also echo the advice to make sure you do and avoid the progression into full type 2 diabetes. Your body is giving you a massive red flashing warning signal with a prediabetic result, in my experience with ignoring health issues/symptoms/warnings, I'd advise anyone and everyone to not ignore it.

This forum is a wonderful resource, with so many helpful people, who have a wealth of experience. Just ask anything you're worried about or want to know, someone will always be able to help!

 

[Roy Batty]

Whatever strategy you use you will have to reduce your calorie intake, although I don't advocate counting calories. A low carb diet will almost always decrease the calories you consume, in fact it's the same for any diet.

Can you cut down on the refined carbs as a start, the cakes, pastries, sweets (candies) cookies and biscuits in particular? That's going to help a lot. If you eat a lot of pasta and pizza try to reduce those as well.

Eating low carb and replacing it with protein and fat often means that you won't feel as hungry as you might think and without the sugar rush or crash.

Try to think a little further than just losing weight, what you really want to aim for is changing for the better your body composition, more muscle and less fat.

Increasing muscle mass has multiple benefits, as well as making you stronger it also raises your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate). More muscle will also increase the uptake of blood sugar.

I suggest that you don't worry too much about cardio exercise, it's not going to help very much and not as much as resistance exercises. If you don't do much cardio presently then start slowly, walking on a treadmill for 5 or 10 minutes or around a park and increasing the time and speed. Much more importantly start doing some resistance exercises, if you don't want to join a gym then buy some light weights, or resistance bands. There are lots of online resources with good exercises. Don't try and do big weights, start light and get the form right, you'll be able to increase the load without injury.

 

[Outlier]

Very respectfully - it's my experience that we don't need to reduce calorie intake as long as we restrict carbs and sugars. I certainly got excellent results this way, and I'm by no means the only one here who found this happy fact.

 

[Roy Batty]

Very respectfully - it's my experience that we don't need to reduce calorie intake as long as we restrict carbs and sugars. I certainly got excellent results this way, and I'm by no means the only one here who found this happy fact.

Did you reduce your weight to lower your blood sugar?

 

[Outlier]

It reduced itself, as a very welcome and totally unexpected side effect of the keto diet I used to lower my blood glucose.

 

[KennyA]

I'm another who doesn't restrict energy intake ("calories") at all. I eat as much as I want - it's what I eat that's changed.

My HbA1c fell from 50 to 36 between January and April 2020 solely through low-carb - no exercise etc involved. I didn't lose much weight at all, and nothing like the percentage that is usually claimed necessary. My actual (and substantial) weight loss has happened over the following 4 years and is still continuing. I only restarted exercise once most of that was done.

That's why I am always wary of telling people what to do - I will certainly share my experience, but I don't claim that what happened for me will happen for everyone. This condition (or possibly conditions) is/are a lot more complex than it seems at first sight.

 

[Resurgam]

And me - no calorie counting at all in any way, never even considered it.
At diagnosis I reduced my carbs to no more than 50gm a day and fixed type 2 in 6 months.
I lost weight, but only know that as there is one nurse who insists that I be weighed.

 

[Helen H]

I was told I was pre-diabetic in November last year. After doing my own research I came across thus forum and it all made perfect sense to me to cut the carbs. I admit I went right in at the deep end and went keto - less than 20g carbs/day. I have lost 2 stone doing this without even trying and generally love this way of eating - I do get the occasional urge for Chinese takeaway - I am still human. To me it was a no brainer as I had been given a big red warning that my body was struggling and I have the chance to try and halt a full type 2 diagnosis or at least keep it at bay for as long as possible.

As others have said you have options - you need to decide what is right for you. Just don’t be scared of giving up most carbs - I was - and now I wonder why I was as I very rarely want them. Good luck with whatever way you decide to try and tackle this.

 

[Roy Batty]

Very respectfully - it's my experience that we don't need to reduce calorie intake as long as we restrict carbs and sugars. I certainly got excellent results this way, and I'm by no means the only one here who found this happy fact.

I don't know how to lose weight without a calorie deficit and losing weight is the number one strategy for reducing blood sugar.

 

[Antje77]

I don't know how to lose weight without a calorie deficit and losing weight is the number one strategy for reducing blood sugar.

All carbs turn to glucose in our body.
So fewer carbs is lower blood sugar, regardless of calories or weight.

 

[Roy Batty]

All carbs turn to glucose in our body.
So fewer carbs is lower blood sugar, regardless of calories or weight.

Yes, I know that. But weight loss is still promoted as the most effective strategy to lower blood sugar. Besides which, there are multiple other health benefits to lowering weight, or rather body fat and in particular visceral fat in conjunction with increasing muscle mass.

 

[lovinglife]

Yes, I know that. But weight loss is still promoted as the most effective strategy to lower blood sugar. Besides which, there are multiple other health benefits to lowering weight, or rather body fat and in particular visceral fat in conjunction with increasing muscle mass.

It may be what’s promoted doesn’t make it true for me at all. For me and many others with T2 on this forum it’s the lowering of carbs that is the most effective strategy to lower blood sugar

 

[Roy Batty]

It may be what’s promoted doesn’t make it true for me at all. For me and many others with T2 on this forum it’s the lowering of carbs that is the most effective strategy to lower blood sugar

Did you lose weight as a result of a low carb diet? I think the evidence is that a diet that restricts any of the macronutrients is often accompanied by a reduction in calories.

 

[lovinglife]

Did you lose weight as a result of a low carb diet? I think the evidence is that a diet that restricts any of the macronutrients is often accompanied by a reduction in calories.

Yes I lost over 11st and kept it off for 12 years now, never counted calories but the weight just melted off, I know that I was consuming more calories than I did before low carb/keto because I was obsessed with calories and knew the calories in everything without looking it up. At the beginning I reckon I was eating about 300 cals a day more than I had for years on low calorie weight loss diets of which I’d tried every one including shakes, bars, cabbage soup,

 

[Roy Batty]

Yes I lost over 11st and kept it off for 12 years now, never counted calories but the weight just melted off, I know that I was consuming more calories than I did before low carb/keto because I was obsessed with calories and knew the calories in everything without looking it up. At the beginning I reckon I was eating about 300 cals a day more than I had for years on low calorie weight loss diets of which I’d tried every one including shakes, bars, cabbage soup,

Wow, that's a significant amount of weight to lose You were consuming more calories on a low carb diet than previously and still lost weight. Did you do a lot of exercise?

 

[lovinglife]

Wow, that's a significant amount of weight to lose You were consuming more calories on a low carb diet than previously and still lost weight. Did you do a lot of exercise?

None, nothing changed apart from my food choices.

 

[lovinglife]

@Roy Batty My size 32 jeans - I still have these in my wardrobe along with a T shirt