Really bloody annoyed with pre diabetes/diabetes!! What am I doing wrong???

[icantwaitforsummer]

I am so pissed off with my pre diabetes diagnosis in November.

Nothing is working and I feel like I am heading toward diabetes and feeling really deflated. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong, feel free to be really honest as I am getting so bloomin sick of it.

Yesterday I had a salad for lunch just chicken and leaves, for dinner made shepherds pie, full of veggies, celery, carrots, peas and made a thin layer of mash on top. With a side of broccoli, peas, cabbage and kale and gravy.

Walked on the treadmill, fast pace for 15mins straight after dinner. At 9pm I had a cup of tea with 1tsp xylitol sugar.

By the morning my blood sugar was 8.1!!

Tonight before dinner my blood sugar was 6:9. Had a roast with mounds of broccoli, kale, cabbage, some roast chicken from the air fryer and 1-2 small roast potatoes. Gravy.
Had 4 squares of chocolate after dinner. Ran on the treadmill for 16 mins. My blood sugar 2 hours after is 8.9!

I cannot get it below 6. I don't eat breakfast, I only drink green tea and water, very occasionally have a cup of tea or coffee with almond milk. Sometimes sourdough with avocado, mushrooms, egg, chia seeds. I feel like I live on salad and vegetables, celery, hummus and occasionally Greek yoghurt with nuts, but nothing is working!!!

I don't drink, don't smoke, since diagnosis I have lost a stone and will try to lost another 5-7lbs. But my weight is in the healthy range now.

After 3 months I feel ready to give up. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Totally agree with this!

Diabetes.Org not Diabetes.co.uk , diabetes.co.uk is a private company that makes money selling diets .

my dietician said to me when he heard my Ha1bc was 39, you actually listened to what i said! I got the impression it doesnt happen very often.

I too got that impression, when I was congratulated on losing weight. She looked even more amazed when I said, "but you told me to!"

Minf you, it goes both ways, the not listening.
<dagger stares to practice dietician, who seemed incapable of listening at all>

Hi op, sorry not read the full thread so apologies if I repeat advice. I had gestational diabetes and always had high readings on waking despite eating a very controlled diet. Someone advised me to eat a small protein-y snack before bed. Something like natural yoghurt with a handful of blueberries or cottage cheese on cucumber slices. Worked a treat, brought my sugars right down in the morning. Just a suggestion.

Thank you @Bruffin!

That interesting. Just talked to the GP on the phone. He advises intermittent fasting or fasting two days a week.

Could someone explain to me how the monitors work and how to use them please? Also recommendations for an easy one .

OP you don't have diabetes. You don't need to monitor BG levels every day. Your Hba1c gave a reading at PRE Diabetes level, so good for you, you are watching things now.

Have you had a follow up HBa1c test since the first result? If yes, what was it, and if no, try and get one. That is a far more accurate reading of BG levels and whether you are in pre diabetes, have normal readings, or actually ARE diabetic. The reading reflects the position over a longer period of time than daily.

I'd suggest getting a regular Hba1c. I was also pre diabetic and after three months of just cutting out crap basically, but not doing anything punishing either, it was normal reading at three months follow up. I don't do anything particular to maintain it, just avoid crap! I now have Hba1c every six months and docs are happy with that.

I don't stress about it, because I am not checking every day. Maybe discuss with your doctor. Daily monitoring is for those WITH diabetes, not those who are PRE diabetic.

If I am wrong on this someone will correct me, but I am doing as advised by my GP and practice nurse. Best of luck.

I should have a follow up next month so hopefully the Hba1c will be lower. If it's not I am going to be really annoyed!

Dinner tonight was avacado, hummus, celery, spinach, cheese, pickles olives, and walnuts. Very Mediterranean which I love and then Greek yoghurt with chia and flax seeds. I'm then did 40mins on the treadmill.

I'm about to test my blood sugar as haven't all day. If it's over 7 arghhhh!!

Do you all have breakfast or skip breakfast?

Breakfast has never been my thing, but if I need to have it to help control things I will.

Did you have a good reading? Fingers crossed you did!

Why are you testing every day? Did your doctor advise you to do that.

It was 5.7 and I ate dinner at 6pm.

For me that is good the number was under 6!

I have just put the CGM on my arm, I was shocked by the size of the needle, but didn't hurt a bit.

So now I wait the results in an hour. And this weekend I will finally solve the mystery of eating/not eating breakfast!

OP

Was the greek yoghurt full fat? The low fat stuff has sugar added.

Good luck with the monitor. As I said a banana caused a spike so you might have something that causes a spike for you.

Do remember that the monitor is checking the interstitial glucose so there will be a lag between what you are eating and the measurement.

As you don't normally have breakfast have something ready for you. I often have ham for breakfast maybe with some cheese. Baby bell are good to have in the fridge.

So I now have data from the glucose monitor and it is all a lot higher than I thought.

I have just woken up and it's already 8.4 and rising, unbelievable really. Must be the dawn phenomenon.

From looking at the numbers it seems scarily high. Does anybody here with pre diabetes know what I should be as an average?

It’s too early to say, you need to do some scientific food testing eg same time each morning do different things and add a tag to the app eg day1 no breakfast, day2 scrambled ages and spinach etc.

You’re looking to identify which foods are unexpectedly sugar triggering FOR YOU and then devise a reasonable way of eating around that.

You may want to order another monitor afterwards to test everything.

Then you must ditch the daily testing as it’s not giving you any consistent information, there are far too many variables. You just eat your new diet for 3 months then test your hba1c again.

After a week or so similar result to the hba1c will show in the app menu but you must remember it’s not a blood test, you can’t directly compare it with the doctors test and it’s only based on the previous 7 days

That doesnt say rising, the arrow indicates its leveled out

@icantwaitforsummer

Are these useful? I’m not sure if one of them is relevant because I think it’s target glucose for if you already have diabetes.

Thank you for those.

But they are a perfect example of how unclear glucose levels are and not one website explaining or clearly showing what is good and bad.

The first one with all the colours there are three columns in green, what do they all represent, before eating and after and then what?

The second one I'm screwed as I'm always 8+ as soon as I wake up. With a healthy dinner at 6pm and nothing but water. Dawn phenomenon

The third one again there are two columns in green but what for? Before and after eating? As they completely contradict what is on the NHS and diabetes website which says as long as you are under 7.8 2 hours after eating it's good.

Unless I'm reading something wrong?

@icantwaitforsummer

I think you may be thinking about this in the wrong way, and I'm not saying you are not intelligent, I agree it is confusing.

What is important is that the graph on your phone is mostly horizontal. What you don't want is big spikes and dips.

Medicine has 'normal' and 'abnormal' but abnormal isn't always wrong or of concern.

Eg normal heart rate at rest is between 60 to 100 beats per minute. That is at rest and for an adult.

But long distance runners often have a resting heart rate of 40 - 45 bpm. It's abnormal but not an issue.

Our bodies are individual, so a normal, non diabetic blood glucose is 4 - 7. That does not mean everyone who is not diabetic has the same blood glucose.

It will naturally go up after eating something but what you want is a gentle curve not spikes.

@icantwaitforsummer I know! It’s very frustrating! Eating wise these books (as well as having an introduction about pre-diabetes and diabetes) are very good. They have very tasty meals and some great reduced carb alternatives.

My understanding is that it isn’t sugar/carbs par say that cause pre-diabetes or diabetes; the sugar spikes are a symptom that insulin isn’t doing the job it’s supposed to (by shifting glucose from the blood to muscles/fat/use etc). Reducing carbs/sugars reduces the symptom of spikes. I’m currently trying to unpick what my cause is. Am I not releasing enough insulin, not able to utilise it (insulin resistance) or some other reason.

I don’t feel that not all general practitioners (GPs) are clued up about pre or full blown diabetes.

Good Luck!

@icantwaitforsummer What is your most recent Hba1c score? Are you T2 diabetic or pre-diabetic? We were told during our pre diabetes prevention programme to ignore any daily readings (which fluctuate all over the place numerous times every day) and to work on reducing the Hbac1 score, which is based on an average over the last 3 months.

Anyway, the reason your blood sugar goes up during/after exercise is that your body produces adrenaline, which releases glucose into your bloodstream to provide the energy for that exercise.

I realise from reading these threads that I don’t understand anything about pre diabetes really. I don’t know where to start. GP just say fast.

Have a look at this explanation of how to interpret CGM readings. Dr Becky is using a sponsored monitor, but I expect others are similar. The pertinent information starts about 2.45 minutes in.

The important thing is that the levels are fairly steady, and any spikes are linked to specific foods consumed so you can plan your food intake accordingly.

GP could not be more wrong. By fasting and then eating, you will cause your blood sugar to spike and trough. You need to keep your blood sugar at a more constant level. Try a low GI diet.