Pre diabetes diet

[Pinkpeanut27]

I’m really struggling . Found out on 23rd I’m prediabetic. Can’t speak to nurse on diet before 11 jan . I’m trying to manage things but ending up on 1000 a day cals and am losing weight and feeling a bit off . I don’t need to lose weight but need to improve muscle with exercise.
Can anyone share a typical day with me ?

Yesterday I missed breakfast as I’m doing intermittent fasting .
Fir lunch had a 2 egg Spanish omelette with avocado and rocket .

Mid afternoon I have a pice of low carb seeded wholewheat toast

Dinner was 2 quorn sausages half a small sweet potato , half a plate of broccoli sprouts and leeks .

Dessert was 2 spoons of Greek yoghurt and a few blueberries.

This is just about ok on carbs but too high on fat and low on protein. And about 700 cals short of what I meds daily to maintain my weight .
I’m 5.9 and 9 stone 4 , I’ve lost 3 lbs this week .

Can I ask what your HB1AC is?

A typical day for me is something like this:
Breakfast - 2 eggs sometimes with low carb toast and mushrooms, full fat Greek yog
Lunch - veg soup, cheese & low carb seeded crackers or salad with protein / avo
Supper - usual supper as everyone else no carbs but extra veg
Snacks - nuts, pork scratching, no sugar jelly & cream, dark choc 70%+ - a selection not all ( unless I am having a bad day )

I think it is pretty difficult to keep cals up without eating more fat otherwise I find I am ravenous. Nuts are your friends here, along with good fats eg olive oil. I also enjoy butter guilt free.

Exercise will probably also help as it builds muscle which will help you become less insulin resistant and I find a brisk walk after eating helps my blood sugar levels

Hi HB1AC is 42 .
I don’t like nuts but may have to try them .
I have avoided sweeteners up until now going for small amounts of sugar . Again this will stop .
Have stopped butter as my cholesterol is borderline.
Feel so fed up as dh says I’m not the only one with this and it’s just about a diet change but I feel pretty isolated . They are currently in Tne kitchen cooking bacon sarnies with fresh cooked bread and eating crisps !. I’m sitting in Tne bathroom in tears . Pathetic I know .

Have you been on diabetes.co.uk, it's excellent?

Yes and got confused ! I feel I need to get daily results even though I know it’s not possible to know what is right and what is wrong !
I’m just not in a good place , I bake a lot cakes and bread and all of our family favourites are carb based along with the influx of Christmas carbs it is all just a bit much . Especially as I was being investigated due to having long covid symptoms!

I'm new to it all too and there is conflicting advice out there. It's also hard not to up the meat/dairy products, so I'm not much use I'm afraid. I know stress pushes my sugars up, so try not to stress too much as I'm sure a couple of weeks until you speak to the nurse will be fine.

Where are you getting your advice from re your fat being too high? Could you have olive oil on vegetables (roasted brocoli for instance).

@Pinkpeanut27 you can have the bacon and a small slice of fresh baked bread, you really do not need to eliminate carbs completely just reduce and go for complex not simple carbs. You could have bacon and a fried egg on a slice of bread while they have bacon sandwich. You can use the fry light spray if cholesterol is a concern.

IF can be 16:8 so an 8 hour eating window. If you start it at 11am then you can eat up to 7pm.

• 2 egg Spanish omelette with avocado and rocket .
• pice of low carb seeded wholewheat toast - could you add cheese, nut butter or even baked beans to add protein and calories
• Dinner was 2 quorn sausages half a small sweet potato , half a plate of broccoli sprouts and leeks. - pork loin steak, chicken breast or turkey thigh would give you more protein without a lot of fat. You could have brown rice, more sweet potato than just half a small one, lentils, beans, Dahl, Pearl barley, quinoa.
• Dessert was 2 spoons of Greek yoghurt and a few blueberries. - I know you're not a fan of nuts but I really enjoy Greek yoghurt with a drizzle of maple syrup and crushed up pecan nuts, it's worth a try. You could also do a Bircher muesli/overnight oats pot which is basically oats left to soak in Greek yoghurt and then flavoured, you can add cocoa (good dark high cocoa content), peanut butter, apple and cinnamon, cherries and cocoa (Black Forest gateau).

Low or lower carb dieting is considered a good way to go for diabetic t2 and pre diabetics. I took out sweetners as well as sugar - I just don't drink hot drinks with sugar so rarely have coffee and stick to tea.

Stick to berries for fruit rather than melon and other sweeter fruits

Plenty of veg ad salad, meat is OK and keep carbs down low so one potato or a small portion of rice no breads with meals

For cholesterol consider benecol drinks - I found they know mine down enough they stop worrying about cholesterol

@RB68 does sweetener have a bad effect on blood sugar too? I've read varying things.

Also, I thought fasting was bad as glucose is released back into the blood stream?

Thanks all
I got a copy of my results which said cholesterol was slightly high which was worrying as I don’t eat red meat and don’t have butter or much dairy .

I now have an appointment with the diabetic nurse about diet on Monday after breaking down at the surgery ( still having long covid tests )

I can see a way forward now and to be honest it doesn’t look bad .

@Pinkpeanut27 - I know when I was diagnosed it is very bewildering and I was very upset and in denial. You are only just in the pre diabetic range so it is probably just a case of reducing your carbs and increasing your exercise. In fact there will be millions of people who are pre diabetic and don’t even know so in some ways you are lucky as it has been picked up and you can reduce it

It is interesting that you said he have had long Covid as infections tend to increase blood sugars so it might well just be a reaction to Covid....

It doesn’t need to be the end of your baking - lots of keto recipes and if I want a bacon roll I buy some very expensive rolls from seriously low carb and freeze them so I can indulge periodically

I think some sweetness do have an impact on blood sugar - I know Mali told raises mine but I am ok with erythritol and stevia. I tried to avoid sweetness though as I have a terrible sweet tooth.
Fasting is fine for me - the body produces the glucose it needs from glycogen and fat from the liver. I believe scientists believe reducing visceral fat around the pancreas and liver reduces risk if type 3 diabetes developing

@Pinkpeanut27 - when first diagnosed I bought a meter and cheap strips to test before eating and 2hrs after eating to see what I could cope with in terms of carbs - expensive but this might help. I only periodically check now as I have a better idea of what to avoid. Pune and I will send you a link to where I buy my strips from

Thanks I feel so much better told my kid’s and they thought it was a good idea diet wise and reduced their carbs at dinner for extra veg , including my very fussy eater and my no eating teen girl ate a whole pile of veg and most of the rest of her food .
I know I’ve a long way to go and I’m worried that it’s going to get worse as I’m not over weight and that seems to be the main advice . Lose weight and you will be fine.
But feeling good about the food to come and I didn’t eat any of my pasta with my meal as I was full of other good stuff

I think its more that sweeteners cause an insulin reaction in the body but alot depends on what sweeteners and how they are used. What my experience is is that they do impact on your ability to loose weight which is often down to insulin being released by the food you have eaten and laying it down as fat rather than releasing it into the blood as energy to be used up now. As a T2 its your insulin response that is faulty rather than not there at all (for most t2 anyway - once you get the really bad end it doesn't work at all) but they are variable so the nack is to not trigger an insulin response. A few odd things can do this even though they are not sugars as such - sweeteners and caffeine are two

I'm T2 and for a long time I was in denial but have had a wake up call now. I have found understanding how my body works and why really helps, I was recommended to read Life without diabetes by Roy Fletcher. Super easy read and has helped 'get it'. Family support is good.