Has anybody reversed prediabetes?

[WinnerTakesAFall]

Would anybody be willing to share what they did?

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed & don't know where to start really.

I have an appointment with the GP nurse but not for 5 weeks.

Yes, although I’d say I’m in remission rather than cured.

I lost 6st by going low carb, intermittent fasting, calorie counting, absolutely no snacking and increasing exercise massively. It took 18 months, and it’s been stable for years now.

Once you’ve developed insulin resistance, it doesn’t go away, you just take that into account with your diet and exercise. It still takes longer than it should for my blood sugar to fall after a carby meal.

Thank you everybody for the responses. This is all really helpful.

I'm not sure if I could manage a monitor, I'm really squeamish about things going into my skin (although obviously if it's a need-must then I would)

I don't suppose there's any other way to find out which/how foods affect you?

I've had half an hour extra exercise today so I'm happy with that. No fizzy (normally I would have had some by now)

StuntNun I'm not sure if that would make any difference for me, as I often miss breakfast any way. Like on these weekdays when my kids are with their dad, I don't have breakfast.

The evenings are my downfall as I've got into the habit of snacking/eating rubbish when the kids were small & in bed & I was bored/lonely. Now the older one stays up & we watch films & snack, or they are at their dad's & I spend the evening on the sofa eating.

Yes, followed the Michael Moseley diet and advice

Yes. Started by changing foods to foods with less sugar and less processed. Lost weight. Got just at the bottom of the range then started Mounjaro. It’s amazing what it’s done to my levels.

I know at least four people who have reversed actual type 2 diabetes, using different methods. The fix is simply to lose weight - it doesn't matter how you do it. One friend just started walking for 30 minutes a day, building up to an hour. Another went low-carb. The other two used weight loss injections. And it didn't take long to see an effect on blood sugars.

Yes I have by losing weight using Mounjaro. Can’t advise that enough and also eating a high protein, fibre and low carb diet

I don't suppose there's any other way to find out which/how foods affect you?

Not specifically for you, but Dr Hyman’s book explains the data from clinical trials and scientific studies, and this would at least give you some pointers.

Having said that, I didn’t think a CGM is very invasive, and ones it’s there it’ll work for 2 weeks, which is probably all you need to tell you what foods spike your blood sugar.

I spend the evening on the sofa eating.

You will have to knock this on the head, particularly if you are snacking mostly on UPF, carbs and sugar. Can you snack on fruit instead, especially berries?

Distraction can work too - doing 10 minutes of housework, clearing one’s inbox, doing a 5-minute plank, embroidery or knitting…..

MarieTheresevonWerdenberg The habits that I've got into all include food. So, I like doing wordsearch/sudoku/doing a puzzle/crochet, I'm not just sat watching TV but I am eating sweets/crisps whilst I do those things.

I'm feeling positive about trying a few berries for times like this instead, & with cinema snacks etc.

Another vote for BIWI’s low carb bootcamp here on Mumsnet. DH agreed to follow it to the letter (to prove to me that it wouldn’t work ). Lo and behold, within six weeks even he couldn’t deny that it was working.

a continuous glucose monitor was really helpful to get in touch with how fluctuations in blood sugar really feel

Too interested in alcohol to really stick to it but would go back to strict bootcamp when his numbers started to drift upwards.

as for me, I just feel so much better getting off the high/low glucose rollercoaster that I eat be pretty much low carb all the time.

lots of research on why it really works better for out metabolisms. Also lots and lots of resistance from food manufacturers who find the low fat high carb long shelf life model of food so much more profitable

hope you find what works for you.

Another benefit of low carb is that stable blood sugar means the sensation of hunger changes dramatically. Much of what we experience as hunger is actually the sensation of blood sugar dropping which the brain interprets as life endangering and pulls out all the stops to get you to eat. Couple of weeks (max) low carb and all that noise just disappears. Still have to be careful of other triggers to eat like boredom or it’s time for lunch but those are manageable

Stop buying rubbish food, just don’t have it in the house. Decent sized meals and a lot less snacking (ideally none).

I was diagnosed prediabetic in March, and had my first nurse appointment last week.

Between diagnosis from the GP and my initial nurse appointment I’d already lost 10lbs, but my next bloods review isn’t until December. By which point I’m hoping I’ll have moved out of the range.

I’ve been moving more, and have cut all snacks and sweets, so no more crisps, chocolate or cake. If I do get peckish, I have fruit. I’ve also switched from sugar to sweetener in tea, reduced the amount of brews I’m having, and from white bread to wholemeal.

I’ve lowered my carbs, and have bread either not at all or once a day, and then less carbs with dinner.

My hope is that with weight loss and some lifestyle changes, I’ll be able to get out of prediabetic range and prevent it from becoming T2.

I had a pre-diabetes diagnosis about a month ago and remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the information out there. There is a diabetes section here under Health which has several threads regarding pre-diabetes which are very helpful.
There was a recommendation for an app - Second Nature. I have joined - it is completely free and they send you a swanky set of electronic scales and a nice recipe book. You need to give the date of your blood test and the result and is very simple to join. (you can also be referred by a Health Care Professional). They have lots of daily tips and articles to listen to or read and there are forums to join if you want. I find it keeps me on track. They don't track calories, however, I also use Nutracheck to check calories.

I am trying to do more exercise (not always successful!), but I am a work in progress and I know change won't happen overnight.

Also, have a listen to Dr David Unwin on YT. He is an NHS GP who has done an amazing amount of work in reducing his patients blood sugars and putting T2 into remission. He is a lovely, gentle, but enthusiastic man and very inspiring.

You can do it - best of luck.

Mine wasn't caught as pre-diabetes, but I did manage to reverse Type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise. I've since had weight loss surgery, but my HbA1c was normal prior to the surgery due to weight I'd lost myself.

I just got a real grip of what I was eating - cut out chocolate and cakes, significantly reduced starchy carbs, and calorie counted. It sounds flippant to say I "just" transformed what I ate, but as an ex-nurse I've seen the impact of diabetes and I did not want to be losing my legs to peripheral vascular disease, or losing my sight so that was really strong motivation.

I bought myself a blood glucose monitor and started regularly doing fasting tests. My bloods were high but only if I had had a stressful day beforehand. I didn’t really change my diet but I was able to reverse prediabetes by making some massive life changes. I quit my job and retrained.

For me, stress was a bigger factor than sugar.

Another recommendation for Roy Taylor's book;
HERE

Michael Mosley's book is based on this.

Cut out sugar and reduce carbs is the simple answer!!

If you start looking at sugar content on things you may buy it will shock you what % of sugar is in many things sold - and not always the obvious items.

I found just saying: 'I don't eat after 7pm' enough to stop evening snacking. It's a clear rule which always helps rather than having to negotiate with myself whether I'm going to eat something or not.

Cut out sugar and reduce carbs is the simple answer!!

This. Eat more fruit, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains. Exercise more. Reduce the processed foods, fats, and sugars you eat. Don't worry about fruit as a sugar at this stage, fruit has other components which alters how the sugar is digested, and what you really want to focus on are free sugars rather than intrinsic sugar.

You definitely don't need a blood glucose monitor to be able to reverse pre-diabetes; you just need to understand what's happening in your body and why, and the foods which contribute to it. BGMs become indispensable when you're administering insulin or medication which makes you prone to hypoglycaemia, and to titrate dosage, but for pre-diabetes you're absolutely fine without!

Lovelyview I'm glad that this worked for you. It doesn't work for me in general, because as soon as I tell myself NOT to do something then it's all that I can think about & I'll end up doing it (learned from bitter experience)

Thank you for all of the responses. Very helpful!

I reversed type 2 by using Mounjaro which enabled me to eat a proper healthy diet. I lost almost 9 stone in the process - I started using it for weight loss and didn’t expect it to impact the diabetes at all never mind reverse it!

I survived gestational diabetes twice with a low carb diet, and successfully managed to lose weight well too.

Unfortunately, now I'm perimenopausal, it probably means I may end up with prediabetes as my weight has crept up quite a bit and I don't exercise as much as I should. But I also think I could potentially be ok with the low carb diet again, as my blood sugars were all good throughout my pregnancies when I was monitoring them. I never needed metformin or insulin, but the doctors told me most pregnancies with gestational diabetes struggle without medication.

Low carb diet is much healthier but I found it pretty limited and occasionally I was tempted by the odd chocolate treat 😅

So glycaemic index is basically how much something impacts your blood sugar per 100g of the stuff you consume. So vegetables are good, pure sugar is bad, oatcakes can be better than lots of things.

But glycaemic load is how the actual stuff you end up eating impacts your blood sugar. E.g. eating a single square of chocolate will impact it less than eating an entire bowl of mash.

So if you learn about these things you can then use them to minimise blood sugar spikes which is ultimately how you reverse pre diabetes.

Diagnosed with T2 diabetes some years ago. My GP surgery has a regular diabetes clinic with a visiting diabetes nurse.

One of the few advantages of having a GP surgery which frequently doesnt actually have a GP at the practice is that prescription requests made by the various nurses who actually do the work pretty much go through on the nod.

I’m really squeamish about needles but I managed it because you don’t see the - very small and short needle - when applying it. Once it’s on, it’s just like a raised sticker on your arm.

Fizzy water is your friend. I squeeze in a bit of lime juice, or add ginger juice (or both together, nice combination) if it gets boring. You can get Biona ginger juice from Amazon (or probably other places).