Reversing pre diabetes

[Seizethedog]

I’ve had a massive wake up call. I am now in the diabetic range , high BP, high cholesterol. I am four stones overweight. I eat a very healthy diet and walk regularly but over the winter have done a lot less exercise due to awful weather. I’ve also had a horrible virus that has knocked me out for about three weeks.

I intend to up the exercise, have all but given up alcohol. I don’t eat junk at all or snack. What has worked for you if you have reversed all of these? I am in despair. The doctor tells me to fast but other advice is that this spikes blood sugar so I don’t know what to do.

I have back problems so can’t swim or go to the gym.

For breakfast, why not just eat food you like? It doesn’t have to be ‘breakfast’ food. It might feel weird at first but there’s no reason to eat differently in the morning to later on.

When you are able, I can recommend Pilates to help support your back. I prolapsed a couple of discs years ago and it's the only thing that I've ever done which works to keep it healthy.

Thanks. I find yoga really good, but that's slipped too in the past few months.

If someone is overweight by 4 stones, this is not healthy. Ergo the diet that is contributing to that, by definition, cannot be healthy.

As you say yourself when you say It is quite easy to become prediabetic from weight gain alone, while eating well, and develop high blood pressure also, from weight gain alone.

Not silly at all

@Seizethedog I don't know enough about different types of CGM, but the ZOE programme (as far as I understand it) is more than just giving you the monitor. In particular, it is more about a personalised approach to eating/health by identifying specific foods that are better/worse for you.

https://zoe.com/

How old are you @Seizethedog I think that also makes a difference. Peri and post meno it can extremely hard to lose weight.
I also have polycystic ovaries. Was never particularly overweight but not as slim as I should have been when I was exercising hard 4-5 times a week (weights/running/spin). The only time I substantially lost weight was when I was on the pill. Research suggests that polycystic ovaries can make weight loss much harder.
I developed high BP with perimenopause sadly and am now on meds for it. With some people there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it, it’s purely familial, despite best efforts.

You could be eating the Mediterranean diet - viewed as the healthiest diet in the world - but taking in too many calories, with generous use of extra virgin olive oil, or with too generous portions.

Your diet is still a healthy diet. Modifications of your healthy diet will have to be made to lose weight - but it is still a healthy diet.

Could you up your protein intake as it's filling and cut back a bit on carbs. I only have bread/potato/pasta about every third day. I just eat a chicken breast peas and carrots and fruit/yoghurt for dessert. I've managed to go from pre diabetic to now not pre diabetic. I've lost weight but my GP gave me Ozempic to help me balance out glucose spikes and aid weight loss. If I eat carbs every day even a small portion it comes back so I have to cut them out.

Exactly what I was doing. 'Mediterranean diet' is a bit misleading .

Now that I am peri menopausal I find that I can only lose weight by cutting carbs drastically.
When I was younger I could lose by eating less of the same food but now I can't.
I have lost just over 4 stone over the past year by cutting carbs, eating better and eating in a calorie deficit.
It's very boring but I have to do this for the rest of my life as I had high cholesterol and blood pressure and have an increased stroke risk. My blood sugar has always been fine though.

You can gain weight on a healthy diet ie one that doesn't involve lots of sugar, processed/ultra processed foods etc by eating too much. You are eating enough food to maintain your current weight, check your TDEE and eat less than this.

Using a blood glucose monitor like this one will help you identify what foods raise your levels. Test just before you eat and two hours after.

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/tee2/products/copy-of-copy-of-tee2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793

This might help you work put what you can (or shouldn't) eat:

https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/

Finally, there's a wealth of knowledge on the following websites. If you register and post on the forums, you'll find a wealth of knowledge from some very helpful people:

www.diabetes.org.uk
www.diabetes.co.uk

Yes, this is me really. I wish my GP would give me Ozempic! I need to work out a sustainable way of eating that cuts out carbs. The way I did it before was to live on Greek salad which I love, and I had that with everything. Bread, potatoes, pasta are all lethal for me.

Have you had thyroid and hormones tested? You’re not eating badly so I wonder if hormones are off. Or did you used to eat worse and that’s when the weight was put on?

Would backstroke be possible?

It's only available through tier 3 weight loss clinics - your GP can't.

I've had an underachieve thyroid for years. I think my portion sizes are just too big and I'm not doing enough exercise.

Ozempic and the new one that I want to call Muntjac (but that’s a deer) kill your appetite so your portions shrink immediately. I know the idea is that you have to be on it forever but if your eating habits are already good and its portion sizes you need to relearn it might help with that while you lose weight and then hand over to your willpower afterwards.

Hi sorry to jump on this but is caffeine directly a weight/ sugar levels problem or soemthinf else? Thanks x

Ask your GP. They can give it to you on NHS if you have BMI over 35 and any 1 other condition so pre diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma etc. I had to be monitored closely weekly by the nurse in the beginning, then once a fortnight, then monthly. I still have to do a weigh in once a month and monitor my blood glucose in a little book for nurse to see. I've managed to get it down from 9-10 to under 5.

I have asked and they just say they can’t prescribe it.

It’s to do with lowering the candida in the gut. It’s something about that candida (a fungus that naturally occurs in our gut) feeds off sugar and if we eat too much sugar, the candida levels get overgrown. They then send messages to the brain to ask for more sugar to keep growing (sugar cravings) so the idea is to cut off the food supply (sugar) to the candida.

I can’t remember the role caffeine plays in that but it was part of that process for some reason.

The idea says that overgrowth of candida causes not only sugar cravings (which in turn make us unwell in sorts of ways) but also other symptoms.

I found that following anti-candida principles not only reversed my pre-diabetes diagnosis (bloods now normal) but also cleared up my rosacea, joint pain, sleeplessness, and levelled my moods out.

I realise this doesn’t adequately answer your caffeine question, but maybe the background info is of some use to you?

Posted upthread but had another thought. I did Zoe last year and wouldn't recommend it. It was interesting and I learnt a lot, but it was expensive and my cholesterol went up. I think I ate too many nuts and too much cheese. I struggled to hit the protein targets and I'm allergic to fish/seafood. Wearing a two week blood sugar monitor and then maybe a ketone one would be more useful. Keep a food diary and work out what suits you.

My DH was the same as you. He massively restricted sweet stuff and carbs. He's now reduced it to almost being borderline so the Dr has given him a couple more months to get completely out of range. He watched a lot of you tube videos- lots of helpful stuff on there. It's absolutely reversible- without meds !

I avoided diabetes by a mixture of cutting carbs, intermittent fasting and upping exercise. I unfortunately can’t tell you what was most effective because I started all the three actions together 😁

I like grumpy mule’s suggestion above too.

My partner has been a very big chap for as long as I’ve known him found he was diabetic last year, he stopped eating carbs, gave up booze and started going for three moderate walks a week of about 3-6 miles a time. He’s lost 14kg and is no longer in the diabetic range. He also looks brilliant.

I've been supportive and cut some of my carbs, given up booze and I’m exercising more often and my weight has started to creep down. Not a massive loss like his, but I think men somehow drop weight a bit quicker that us.

Good luck with it. A bit of determination and you’ll get there.

I cut carbs right down and have lost a stone since January. Haven't missed them nearly as much as l thought l would. Don't really drink tea or coffee any more, have hot water and lemon instead.

Try the freshwell program op xx