Anyone reversed pre diabetes

[Pansypath]

Please tell me what you did. My bloods today were 43 (apparently anything over 42 is pre diabetic).

I haven’t but I know keto and fasting (e.g. google Jason Fung) can be very helpful.

Yep, I managed to get mine down to 41 which both I and the doctor were very pleased about. I managed to lose three stone in eighteen months on a low carb/keto diet...I've put some of it back on since unfortunately so I'm back on the diet to try and lose it again; it's very definitely a "way of living" thing rather than a quick fix diet...but it is definitely doable!

My dad did, he was the diabetic where you have to take tablets. He totally removed processed carbs. No bread, no sugar, pasta, biscuits, cake.

He eats meat, animal fat like butter, cream, coconut oil, vegetables , salads and low sugar fruit like melon, strawberries.

Breakfast is a huge fry up with continental style sausages ( no rusk in them so lower carb) , bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes .

Then for lunch he will have a protein and veg. He loves buttered sprouts with belly pork or smoked bacon. Cauliflower cheese with bacon lardons on top. Corned beef and cabbage. Roast minus the spuds. Then he was a fruit with double cream . Melon or strawberry's.

Evening meal is much lighter. Veg soup and pork scratching instead of croutons or a salad.

He only eats between 8am and 5pm. After that it's clear liquid. He includes wine and soda in that category 😂

Is this from a Hba1c blood test? If so they can be relatively easy to influence and bring down - are you being retested again in 3 months?

Sensible changes now - like daily walks, reducing your sugar consumption, researching about 'food pairings' and making small tweaks to how and what you eat - can make a difference.

Remember exercise is one of the best ways to bring down your post meal blood sugars because your body converts it to energy - so a brisk 30 min walk after an evening meal is brilliant.

For a real life example, my first reading was 41 but when I was retested 10 weeks later I had managed to bring it down to 36 with only a few small changes.

(8 weeks after that it was back up to 39, but I am pregnant so I'm battling with my damn placenta at the moment)

You need to think of it as long term changes though rather than something to do for a few weeks - so it really is a big mindset shift.

Keto can be a really dramatic life style change, so I'd recommend trying to incorporate small keto recipes and tweaks into your daily diet rather than jumping straight into it.

Remember - fat is good, sugar is bad 😊

Also meant to say fasting for women can be tricky around hormones, so worth looking up Mindy Pelz too.

Yes I know several people who have reversed a prediabetes diagnosis - it’s a warning sign to do something to avoid developing Type 2.

My husband is a healthy weight but was drinking over half a pint of fresh orange juice a day - simply cutting this out corrected his blood sugars.

And like the previous posters I have friends who have done so by adopting a keto or low carb way of eating.

Good help & advice on Diabetes UK website-

www.diabetes.org.uk/preventing-type-2-diabetes/prediabetes

Yes @cooperlooper HBa1c and is being repeated in Feb.

I had gestational diabetes in third pregnancy in 2015 and am overweight so it is not a shock. But i would like to do what I can do.

I have piles - three large babies by vaginal birth - so am worried about low carb leading to hard stools.

This is all v helpful though thank you

Definitely low carb - I was on the verge of pre-diabetes a few years ago, (41) and went low carb, but it is a life style change and not a quick fix.

Yes, my blood was 1 point away from pre diabetes (41) in March this year. I weighed 128kgs the day of the blood test. I had my blood retook in July and it was 34. I can’t remember what I weighed at that point but I’m now 103kgs and still losing (aiming to get down to 75kgs).

I’ve basically lost the weight by intermittent fasting, eating one ‘big’ meal a day and drinking 3 litres of water. I haven’t cut anything out, just ate less. I also have PCOS and the IF helps with insulin resistance and blood sugar levels. It’s not for everyone but it really works for me and some weeks where I’ve not been so good (like I’ve had chocolate or something) I surprisingly still lose!

@igotdemons I would love to know more as I have pcos too and am about 118kg. When do you eat your big meal? And how bad ar eyour bad weeks/days?

I really think I need weetabix in the morning for my stools but think I could low carb the rest of the time, or skip breakfast and have the weetabix for lunch

@Pansypath I tend to eat around 5pm, so halfway through the day. I’ve been suffering with chronic hormonal headaches for the last few months as the weight loss brought my absent periods back with avengence so I’ve not been as strict with myself due to generally feeling terrible. The other week I had lots of naughty treats (namely chocolate!) and I still lost 1kg, which surprised me! So it is doable without cutting food you enjoy out. I’m very much a carb lover and I still have my fill, just less of them. I always have a treat once a week too, whether it’s a takeaway pizza or an afternoon tea and I still lose. Sometimes I think a big blow out speeds the metabolism up! And I should add that I’ve done all that without exercising as I am waiting to sort out another chronic pain issue that flares when I exercise.

If I have to eat like this for the rest of my life to maintain my weight then I’d be quite happy to 🙂 It’s all about finding something that works for you ☺️

Dh has. Was actually labelled as y2 diabetic but recent bloods way below even pre diabetes.
He's done it by 10 months of 800-1000 cals a day and watching carbs too and keeping protein high.
He's lost 6 stone +.

T2 not y2

Oh and regarding your worry about hard stools, have you thought about taking psyllium husk capsules? I take 2 a day and the difference for me was amazing! 😊 Although I do also drink 3 litres a day which helps, so make sure you’re drinking enough too.

If you're worried about constipation/hard stools, try having a tablespoon of linseed/flaxseed a day - it's low carb and you can easily mix it into other meals, without really noticing. It's good for lowering cholesterol, too. Make sure you get the milled, rather than the whole, seeds.

I did.

Reduced carbs to 20-30 a day in two- three meals of 10 carbs. Weighed and measured everything with carbs in at the start to understand quantities.

Cut out all refined carbs to begin with in the first 12 weeks. no wheat to begin with no rice, no pasta, no potatoes,no sugar.

I bought an affordable glucose checker and use this every morning.
I also use it before eating something I wouldn't normally, then check an hour after eating and then two hours after eating. The aim is to get back to the pre meal blood reading within two hours. Then you know what you've eaten is good or not for your blood sugars.

I'm stable now, 5 months in. I've also lost 50 lbs as a result because I am just never hungry with this way of eating. I love it. Delicious food.

I use almond flour in small quantities to make keto muffins and I have these each day. It works out to about a tablespoon per muffin so its ok.

I enjoy home made keto quiche, home made ice cream, home made sugar free jams. Home made keto muffins and pancakes.

You can eat vegetables (and mushrooms) that grow above ground. Meat, fish, eggs, cheese. Nuts and oils. Berries but not other fruits. And not things that grow under under the soil. I still use onions and garlic in small quantities.

I think the only down side is, diabetes is not catered for at all. You have to cook well from scratch to enjoy healthy eating. I can't choose a supermarket sandwich or sushi, I'm left with the boiled eggs and a packet of nuts.

Since stabilising I'm now using my meter to see what my body can cope with. I now know that a very small piece of fruit cake without trimmings doesn't impact my bloods too badly. But, if I add in a single strip of marzipan it's sky high for most of the day. I've found I can eat some basmati rice, but a spoonful of wheat flour will again send me sky high for ages.

Anything over 5.5 on your meter means you are sustaining cellular damage which eventually over decades results in sight loss and nerve damage. This number will jump up naturally after you eat, but the jump is only meant to be for a short while (one-two hours) whilst your body processes the food.

I'm now 4.7 in the mornings and I was 7.5 when I purchased the meter. So it can work. You can do this!

@planningaheadtoday which meter is that, please?

Keto (although that’s actually a bit extreme - you don’t need to go quite so far).

Low carbing. BIWI runs a low carb bootcamp here every few months, they are about halfway through one right now.

Lowcarbing is brilliant for controlling pre-diabetes and diabetes.

If you eat right you really shouldn’t suffer with constipation.

Why not pop in to the current bootcamp thread in the low carbing topic, there are lots of lovely, knowledgeable and helpful people there.

I had gestational diabetes with readings so high that the consultant said I must have been on the verge of diabetes before I was pregnant, and he said he would very surprised if I wasn't diagnosed with type 2 after the pregnancy. That really scared me so after my DC was born I adopted a low carb diet - not as strict as keto but I use the app Carb Manager and stay under 35g of carbs per day, which doesn't sound a lot but I actually never feel deprived. And I really believe that it has been due to my drastic change in diet that I didn't develop type 2 as the consultant had predicted.

@Mumisnotmyonlyname @
It's the accu check performa. The pharmacist in Lloyds chemist recommended it as the refills are cheaper. They are also available reasonably on EBay.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Accu-Chek-Performa-Blood-Glucose-Meter-Monitoring-Kit-20-Test-Strips-/142250694970?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

I reduced Diabetes to pre-diabetic levels in three months by eating low carb. Sadly, despite this I’m now back to diabetic levels, but I think I’d have a much higher HBA1C if I wasn’t low carb.

@planningaheadtoday thank you.

I'd definitely recommend popping on to the Low Carb Bootcamp area of this site, lots of useful advice and support.

@igotdemons what do you have for your big meal? Do you literally eat nothing else?

The research says that basically anything that will make you lose weight will help. So keto is a good way to go as that can be very effective for some people. But there is nothing in being low carb that is inherently good for it. So by all means have your weetabix/ root vegetables. It will be a lifestyle change and a marathon rather than a sprint. This will need to be for the rest of your life....