Prediabetes update

D

DanW13

Well-Known Member
Messages
119
Hi all,

Quick update on my situation. 6 weeks ago diagnosed with prediabetes following a Hba1c result of 43.

Since then gone low carb, mod fat, more emphasis on good fats, still a bit cautious on the LDL stuff.

Diet - Breakfast : weetabix x 1, boiled egg
Lunch - fish/chicken with spinach, followed by full fat yoghurt & berries.
Dinner - Usually white meat/fish with veg & Quinoa,

Lost 1 stone over past 6 weeks, BMI now 21 & weight target reached, now applying brake with slightly bigger portion sizes.

Yesterday had private BUPA well-being check to test impact on Hba1c, expectations were low as it’s only been 6 weeks.

Results : Hba1c down from 43 to 37
Blood Pressure 113/74
Cholesterol up 0.5 to 5.6
HDL up 0.4 to 1.8
LDL up 0.2 to 4.0

So overall delighted with results especially blood sugar & BP. Pleased also to see increase in HDL. Thinking rise in cholesterol & LDL likely due to sharp weight loss, as not really increased amount of saturated fats.

Target is to reduce Hba1c to between 30-33 by time of my 6 month check. I’ve been using the Libre for 3 weeks & that has an estimated Hba1c of 29, but I think that will creep up to 30-31 before I finish as slightly increased carbs to stem weight loss & boost energy.

So overall really pleased, any comments/thoughts? Would welcome ideas on dietary amendments for example, breakfast is still a bit tricky.

All the best
Dan
 
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DCUKMod

DCUKMod

Master
Staff Member
Messages
14,298
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
DanW13 said:
Hi all,

Quick update on my situation. 6 weeks ago diagnosed with prediabetes following a Hba1c result of 43.

Since then gone low carb, mod fat, more emphasis on good fats, still a bit cautious on the LDL stuff.

Diet - Breakfast : weetabix x 1, boiled egg
Lunch - fish/chicken with spinach, followed by full fat yoghurt & berries.
Dinner - Usually white meat/fish with veg & Quinoa,

Lost 1 stone over past 6 weeks, BMI now 21 & weight target reached, now applying brake with slightly bigger portion sizes.

Yesterday had private BUPA well-being check to test impact on Hba1c, expectations were low as it’s only been 6 weeks.

Results : Hba1c down from 43 to 37
Blood Pressure 113/74
Cholesterol up 0.5 to 5.6
HDL up 0.4 to 1.8
LDL up 0.2 to 4.0

So overall delighted with results especially blood sugar & BP. Pleased also to see increase in HDL. Thinking rise in cholesterol & LDL likely due to sharp weight loss, as not really increased amount of saturated fats.

Target is to reduce Hba1c to between 30-33 by time of my 6 month check. I’ve been using the Libre for 3 weeks & that has an estimated Hba1c of 29, but I think that will creep up to 30-31 before I finish as slightly increased carbs to stem weight loss & boost energy.

So overall really pleased, any comments/thoughts? Would welcome ideas on dietary amendments for example, breakfast is still a bit tricky.

All the best
Dan
Click to expand...

Great results, Dan.
 
Ronancastled

Ronancastled

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,235
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
DanW13 said:
Target is to reduce Hba1c to between 30-33 by time of my 6 month check. I’ve been using the Libre for 3 weeks & that has an estimated Hba1c of 29, but I think that will creep up to 30-31 before I finish as slightly increased carbs to stem weight loss & boost energy.
Click to expand...

You've already done the hard work so take a bow.
Data on average HbA1c in non-diabetic populations is difficult to come by as it's normally skewed upwards by the inclusion of the whole population.
Here is one of the better studies I've uncovered.
https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14502679/01c1.pdf

HB.PNG

So with a HbA1c of 37 you are already as good as an average non-diabetic Dutch person.
As you can see from this graph getting sub 30 is almost an anomily living off the Western diet.

Once again well done.
 
D

DanW13

Well-Known Member
Messages
119
Thanks everyone for the responses, I’m really pleased with the results & have many of you to thank as would’ve been much harder without the diet advice & tip on buying a Libre.

Just got to keep it going now & avoid falling back into bad habits over time!

I would definitely recommend the Libre for any newly diagnosed out there, it’s been a real help getting to understand the impact of various foods on blood sugar levels.

I’m still not quite sure how big a deal a spike to say 9.0 is versus one to 7.0 following a meal, providing the levels return back to normal (or a rise < 2.0) after 2 hours. Is there a level I should want it not to spike higher than? The Libre green/good zone ends at 10.0 is that what I should use?

Or am I worrying too much about the odd spike given the overall progress I’ve made??

cheers
Dan
 
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Carpetsalesman

Active Member
Messages
41
That is brilliant. Well done. Make sure to check in when you get your 6months.

Noticed that your BP is slightly elevated considering your BMI and all the miles you run. Mine is slightly higher and I'm watching salt. Are you going to think about doing anything about it? I suppose it depends when it was taken. First thing - that's high. End of a busy day - not so much.

On suggestions.

My main issue has been managing costs. I'm not constrained on costs but I'm prudent by nature. I want to find sustainable ways of doing this which are not wasteful.

On breakfast, I tend to go FFYoghurt + seeds to shut me up and shut down dawn phenomenon early. Other than that omelettes, loads of omelettes. I could cook one with my eyes closed and at this stage it's just a vehicle for whatever I'm putting in the middle: cheese, smoked sausage, cooked chicken, ham, spinach. Sriracha hot sauce makes it. It's really just five minutes of prep.

Kippers, particularly a full fish rather than a fillet, are amazing and are no prep just wrap it in foil in the oven for 12mins. Appreciate they're not for everyone.

Salads with feta, avocado, cooked chicken, tuna or tinned salmon. Loads of dressing. Again, if you have the stuff in and ready it's five minutes prep.

Dinner - often I'm not that interested. Burgers sometimes. Steak every couple of weeks. Frozen salmon fillets are as good as fresh and just need to be taken out the night before, so they're more convenient IMO.

Mixed nuts for snacks. Olives. Have had a few glasses of red wine, which is something I would never ever consider in the old days. No impact.

I've gone off piste a few times in the last couple of weeks - first pasta since May, fish & chips, dark chocolate, bananas. Weirdly the pasta and chocolate spiked me but then business as usual the next day. Fish and chips took three days to get back into the low 5's from. And that heavy carb feeling that you get from overeating, I'm not sure I'm into it anymore. I think I prefer low carb now.
 
D

DanW13

Well-Known Member
Messages
119
Carpetsalesman said:
That is brilliant. Well done. Make sure to check in when you get your 6months.

Noticed that your BP is slightly elevated considering your BMI and all the miles you run. Mine is slightly higher and I'm watching salt. Are you going to think about doing anything about it? I suppose it depends when it was taken. First thing - that's high. End of a busy day - not so much.

On suggestions.

My main issue has been managing costs. I'm not constrained on costs but I'm prudent by nature. I want to find sustainable ways of doing this which are not wasteful.

On breakfast, I tend to go FFYoghurt + seeds to shut me up and shut down dawn phenomenon early. Other than that omelettes, loads of omelettes. I could cook one with my eyes closed and at this stage it's just a vehicle for whatever I'm putting in the middle: cheese, smoked sausage, cooked chicken, ham, spinach. Sriracha hot sauce makes it. It's really just five minutes of prep.

Kippers, particularly a full fish rather than a fillet, are amazing and are no prep just wrap it in foil in the oven for 12mins. Appreciate they're not for everyone.

Salads with feta, avocado, cooked chicken, tuna or tinned salmon. Loads of dressing. Again, if you have the stuff in and ready it's five minutes prep.

Dinner - often I'm not that interested. Burgers sometimes. Steak every couple of weeks. Frozen salmon fillets are as good as fresh and just need to be taken out the night before, so they're more convenient IMO.

Mixed nuts for snacks. Olives. Have had a few glasses of red wine, which is something I would never ever consider in the old days. No impact.

I've gone off piste a few times in the last couple of weeks - first pasta since May, fish & chips, dark chocolate, bananas. Weirdly the pasta and chocolate spiked me but then business as usual the next day. Fish and chips took three days to get back into the low 5's from. And that heavy carb feeling that you get from overeating, I'm not sure I'm into it anymore. I think I prefer low carb now.
Click to expand...

Hi Mate,

No I was really pleased with the BP result, last check I had in Jan this year has me at 130/78 and that worried me a bit as systolic (think that’s the top one) had never been above 120 before. I’ve been taking Gaviscon advance for LPR the last 2 years (ongoing chronic throat probs for past 7 years), and that’s high in salt so was worried that was causing the increase.

Since the PD diagnosis I’ve dumped the Gaviscon Advance & amazingly I’ve had no LPR issues whatsoever, that’s a huge gain for me as it’s plagued me for years but looks like it was being driven by high sugar also.

So basically the BP has come down a fair bit so I’m delighted with it!

Slightly worried by the LDL going up, but thinking/hoping that’s just the rapid weight loss causing that & it should reverse at the 6 month check.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’m steering clear of too much saturated fat (dairy) until I see the LDL drop back, though I am having a full fat yoghurt every day. Plenty of nuts (love cashews) & I love fish & chicken so no probs with those. I will have an omelette or two as well as like those, not every day though.

One thing I noticed on the Libre with red wine. It lowers the reading on the evening I drink it, but on the one night I had 2 large glasses I noticed my post breakfast spike the following day was much slower reversing (something that hasn’t happened before or since). I ate the usual breakfast so can only put it down to the extra glass of red wine potentially inhibiting the impact of insulin the following morning. May be a red herring but it was a noticeable anomaly.

If I do get the Hba1c back into low 30s I’m going to celebrate by eating an enormous cake (just a one off)!

All the best
Dan
 
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T

Tux 56

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
DanW13 said:
Hi Mate,

No I was really pleased with the BP result, last check I had in Jan this year has me at 130/78 and that worried me a bit as systolic (think that’s the top one) had never been above 120 before. I’ve been taking Gaviscon advance for LPR the last 2 years (ongoing chronic throat probs for past 7 years), and that’s high in salt so was worried that was causing the increase.

Since the PD diagnosis I’ve dumped the Gaviscon Advance & amazingly I’ve had no LPR issues whatsoever, that’s a huge gain for me as it’s plagued me for years but looks like it was being driven by high sugar also.

So basically the BP has come down a fair bit so I’m delighted with it!

Slightly worried by the LDL going up, but thinking/hoping that’s just the rapid weight loss causing that & it should reverse at the 6 month check.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’m steering clear of too much saturated fat (dairy) until I see the LDL drop back, though I am having a full fat yoghurt every day. Plenty of nuts (love cashews) & I love fish & chicken so no probs with those. I will have an omelette or two as well as like those, not every day though.

One thing I noticed on the Libre with red wine. It lowers the reading on the evening I drink it, but on the one night I had 2 large glasses I noticed my post breakfast spike the following day was much slower reversing (something that hasn’t happened before or since). I ate the usual breakfast so can only put it down to the extra glass of red wine potentially inhibiting the impact of insulin the following morning. May be a red herring but it was a noticeable anomaly.

If I do get the Hba1c back into low 30s I’m going to celebrate by eating an enormous cake (just a one off)!

All the best
Dan
Click to expand...

Can I ask please. What is Libre?
 
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