Just found out I'm prediabetic

[LittleMermaidRose]

Hello everyone, looking for some support and advice please.

I just got blood test results back which show that I have prediabetes. I had been at the doctors for an unrelated issue, so I really wasn't prepared for this.

I am obese so I did know it could one day be a possibility, but had always been in the mindset of "it won't happen to me". I'm 35 years old, and diabetes runs in my family. My Dad and his sister have it, as well as their mother.

I have a telephone appointment with the doctor tomorrow to discuss this properly, but I would be really grateful if anyone could give me some advice on what to do to try to reverse it? I'm already pretty active but I could still use improvement in that area.

I'm just feeling very scared and alone as I don't want to tell my partner or family. I feel embarrassed and I don't want them to worry.

Any help or advice would be so appreciated, thank got

Tropical fruit is worse than an apple

Avoid fruit juice. All sugar and no fibre

Blackberries, strawberries & blueberries are good. Stay away from ripe bananas, oranges etc.

So let's say I change my diet, go low carb, more veg, less sugar etc. If I do that 6 days a week, but on a Saturday I have a pizza with a bar of chocolate/cake for dessert, is that a huge problem? Does it undo my hard work throughout the week?

I'm seeing a lot about blood sugar spikes, but does it matter if that happens for one meal? What are the consequences there?

I have a lot more research to do, I know. I'm just trying to make sense of things. As these things are part of my usual diet, I'm just trying to figure out what's been happening to my body

I don’t think it does undo all the good work, @LittleMermaidRose. My understanding is that the problem with high blood sugar is when it is high for too long, and causes the diabetic side effects like neuropathy, diabetic retinitis, circulatory problems - so if your blood sugar is OK most of the time, the odd short spike won’t be a disaster.

I hope I am not wrong - it seems to be working OK for me so far.

What is happening is that your body no longer responds to insulin as it should do.
As a result it no longer deals with sugar as it should .

For many , but not all, people reducing weight and getting rid of some fat permanently around their waist will help , as will being more active , particularly after meals.

However type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease and any lifestyle changes have to be permanent because the likelyhood is at some point in the future even with lifestyle changes your pre diabetes will tip over into diabetes . The longer you can hold this off , the longer you can control blood sugar without medication , the less chance of getting diabetes that is difficult to control and the horrible consequences of this.

The occaisional lapse will not make a difference but you have to find a way of changing your diet and lifestyle that is long term sustainable because “cheat “ days turn into “cheat “ weekends , cheat holidays , cheat weeks etc .

The problem is sugar is an addiction , the quick blood spike leads to a slump and your body craves more. Each diabetic blood spike increases the inflammation in your body and this inflammation is what causes the damage in diabetics.

We are lucky as unlike type 1 diabetics most of us can make simple lifestyle choices to put type 2 into remission . But we can easily go out of remission if we don’t keep up the changes.

Thank you, it's all so much to take it. I'm going to spend the weekend researching

I got diagnosed as being T2 in mid August, it was a huge wake-up call. The GP wanted to put me on statins, Monjaro and whatever else they suggest. I like to do things naturally so I gave it a really good go for 3 months with diet (and I already exercise 3-4 times a week anyway).

I stopped having scrambled eggs and butter for breakfast, I stopped having sushi or carby food at lunctimes.

I swapped it for tofu scramble with avo and mushrooms or Mexican lean mince beef dish with mushrooms and black beans + avo (made up recipe).

For lunch I have chicken and salad, with rasberries.

Dinner is salmon/meat with veg

snacks are nuts, homemade sugar free biscuits
I avoided all carbs, apart from beans and cut out alcohol and all sugar

I am astonished at how much the numbers went down
HbA1c went from 49 to 39
Cholesterol went from 6.9 to 5.1
These numbers havent been this low in years - but its because I was so strict for 3 months.

I also wore a Libre GCM which is a game changer. I could see in real time what foods had spiked me. The biggest surprise was the dressings on vegan salads, the marinades on Korean BBQ meat. I bought italian roasted veg dish from a deli and that spiked me - I was livid afterwards! It tells you that eating out is full of hidden sugars!

I still have lots of weight to loose, and I need to maintain this way of eating otherwise the numbers will go up again, this is the hard part for the next 25yrs!

My advice to anyone who is pre-diabetic or just got diagnosed it to have a CGM for a month and it will tell you what you need to cut out or minimise, cut out your every day treat to pay for it if necessary and you wont regret the data it gives you.

Unfortunately it is a lifetime change in habits. 😫
Instead of pasta, I have shredded cabbage fried in a bit of butter until slightly browned, which makes me feel less deprived and makes me feel I am eating tagliatelle even if I am not.
Pizza is a rare treat, I only ever eat a quarter and always eat after a massive salad and make sure I go for a walk after which dulls the spike.
If I eat chocolate, it is always dark (not really dark) with nuts.
I would recommend low carb diet and always eating veg first and some exercise afterwards.
You will find that you miss carbs less and less after a couple of weeks.

Oh and give up drinks with sweeteners. My need to binge eat sugary things is much better now I don’t drink Diet Pepsi or squash!

ow carb is absolutely your friend. A few days of your brain sceaming give me sugar then it all calms down and you life is so much calmer once you step off the glucose roller coaster

havd a look at the low carb boot camp threads here in Mumsnet. There is a spreadsheet attached which provides everything you need to get started.

it’d not a very forgiving way of life, if you want to stop diabetes in its tracks, this is the way to do it.

you will loose the weight, feel better and have more energy than well for me it was since adolescence and I’m in my sixties now.

Sorry, posted before I read the thread. A CGM is a great idea, really helped me to get in touch with how badly I was treating my body on a low fat high carb way of eating.

I have type 2 that it quite hard to control so I have a Freestyle Libre 2 glucose monitor (which might be out of your budget, but if you can do it for a month or two might help). Diabetes is a bit different for everyone and I have found the monitor useful to see patterns that didn't show up with finger prick testing. You can do some intensive fingerpick testing to see your patterns if you prefer. I take a bunch of medications including a slow release insulin and am also careful with my diet and exercise.

Some things I would recommend for you that have worked for me. I really limit my carbs, you probably don't need to go too far with that but definitely limit sugar. Don't have carbs by themselves, like a piece of toast as a snack or for breakfast, always have them with protein and fibre to reduce the spike.

If you have meals that you enjoy regularly then test them by finger prick before eating, then one hour and two hours after eating. If you are still too high two hours after then see if you can adjust the meal to make it better. I pay less attention to meals that are a one off, like going to a restaurant or Christmas dinner, I just try to keep carbs down on those. Some meals are going to be a no-go no matter how you change them, I still miss porridge even after more than decade but it sent me way high, but some meals will be surprisingly fine. Bulk all your meals out with green, fibrous veg.

Exercise after a meal, all exercise is good obviously but if you start between 10 mins and 30 mins after a meal it will mop up some of the glucose swilling around in your blood. Some people have different opinions about whether high-intensity short exercise or longer low-intensity works better, but just do what you don't hate and have time for. I find that if I spike the spike lasts for ages unless I do a bit of something to bring it down. I got a rowing machine for Christmas and a km or so on that drops it and it doesn't take much time and I can do it in my pjs, but anything would do like skipping (you can do it without a rope if no room) or running up and down the stairs or going for a walk. If you work in a sedentary job then try to add in tiny bits of regular exercise, like if you sit at a desk then every hour on the hour do something that requires you to walk around or do five minutes of seated heel raises.

Read the labels on everything you buy, particularly pay attention to total carb, sugar and fibre. If something is relatively high carb but also low sugar and very high fibre (some breads for instance) then it might work well for you. Some things have unexpected sugar, I was surprised to be spiked by some chicken liver pate and when I read the label it had dextrose added (why????). Learn the different names for sugar like glucose, sucrose, dextrose, also maltodextrin is often added to things and while it isn't strictly speaking a sugar it will spike you like sugar. Avoid processed food like ready meals and anything that has ingredients that you don't recognise or wouldn't find in your kitchen, they are way more likely to have things in them that do weird things to your body.

Most of all, try not to obsess and go too hard because that will make you feel bad about yourself when you can't sustain it. Focus on little adjustments that don't feel like a hardship so that you have more energy left to do the things that really are a hardship, like not eating sugar.