My name is Dave and I'm new to the group. 46 and live in Notts and recently had a letter from my GP telling me I'm pre-diabetic so I'm really keen to lose the weight at last and start eating better for my health and the sake of my young family.
Hope to hear from you guys and share our successes together.
Dave
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dave24872450
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Hi dave I’ve only been here a week now so welcome and good luck ive already found it a good place and helpful. I think one of the admin people will be in touch and will pass you links and good advise they are very helpful and understanding I keep getting lost at times on the forums etc but it doesn’t matter and when I do it just means I’ve found others to chat to and I can then read about thier stories and tips etc. I only use my iPhone which I think makes it a little harder but i seem to manage. I’m neraly 60 and need to get myself sorted I’ve gained weight and lost it only to put more on but this time like you I need to sort it long term and make it a life style change for good. My long term goal is to lose 5 stone but my short one is to lose 2-3 stone by August. Bye for now and good look.
Hi here, great to hear from you and thanks for making me feel welcome. There's lots to take in on here but what better way to spend a Sunday morning 🤣 good luck on your journey and hope to stay in touch. You look great btw 👍
Good morning dave24872450 and welcome to the forum.
You have some great incentives to make the changes, for yourself, your health and your young family, and you will find plenty if ideas and encouragement here.
Tackling diabetes isn't just about losing weight, it's about changing the things you eat. I'm going to give you a few links. Please take your time reading and come back with any questions. This is going to be a better approach for you than the 12 week plan.
You'll get further advice and support from diabetes.co.uk
Back to this forum
This Welcome Newbies post explains how the forum works and will help you find your way around healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh... Please take your time reading it so you get the best out of your time here.
A good way to start would be joining today’s weigh in team. You'll get to know a very supportive bunch of people who will appreciate your support, too. Click on this link and read the opening post which will explain all (DON'T click on Write) healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...
Please be aware that if you leave your post unlocked, it can be seen on Facebook, Twitter etc. Some of our members will not respond to unlocked posts as they value their privacy.
Now I've drowned you in reading! Do pop over to the Sunday weigh in (link above). You'll get a warm welcome and you'll soon feel part of the Sunday team
You're welcome. I know I've given you a lot of reading but it will be well worth you investing the time and getting on the right track regarding your pre-diabetes
Hi Dave, welcome to the forum and best of luck with your plans. What do you think your biggest pitfalls are when you try to change how you deal with food?
Hi there. Temptation and changing my mindset but the letter from the Dr was a wake up call. Got a gorgeous family and want to be around longer for them so that should motivate me. Thanks again 👍
well done Dave- keep track of what you eat and walk to the shops. Carrying my food home reminds me how much I eat!
Hi Dave - from personal experience of having had type 2 diabetes for over 27 years, I have found that dairy with fat not only can increase cholesterol levels, but can increase your sugar levels. The lactase in dairy milk. yoghurts, cream cheeses, cottage cheese, converts to glycogen in the liver, and is stored as fat. I am sure you will find NHS diet information helpful. When first diagnosed, I turned to cheese and savoury foods, thinking that my blood sugar would go down. I was lucky for about five years. Then I had a ticking off from a diabetic nurse as I had been low fat yoghurts, with no added sugar, and some cheddar cheese sometimes more than a pound of mixed cheeses during the week. I managed to change my diet altogether last year, with a new insight into all those grain foods I was eating, which I had intolerances to. My blood sugar went down to normal. However Christmas has been and gone, and I am hesitant to test my blood levels. Your enthusiasm to tackle your pre diabetes has spurred me on to test my blood sugar levels, with a glucose monitor with a fasting test not eating for 12 hours before the test is done. You can drink water only. Cheers... best of luck!
Thanks so much for your message which has motivated me too but I must say I'm really starting to struggle trying to understand what i should and shouldn't be eating! Think I've read too much so will come back to it tomorrow and opt for a chicken salad for lunch 😂😂
To start with cut out salty snacks and crisps, sweets and confectionery cakes and biscuits and eat meat/fish and two veg and a piece of fruit such strawberries which are very low in calories. You could have a bit of single cream with your strawberries. You are not diabetic so providing you cut down the known sugars in foods you will probably lose weight and blood sugar. You can drink tea and coffee and no added squash and enjoy a beer from time to time. You can rinse can food in water to take off the syrup.
Drinking water before a meal can help you feel full before your meal. Coffee after a meal helps to curb your appetite.
Beware of some low sugar soft drinks, and tonics - as they may contain sweeteners which turn into sugar in your liver. If you like fish and chips if you cut out the batter and breadcrumbs, and eat a potato in it's jacket or salad it will reduce your calories and carbs. You'll be fine. Men need up to 2000 calories a day if they are expending physical energy - but you could start with 1500 calories with the emphasis on sugar reduction.
Thank you, much appreciated. Really appreciate what you typed there and makes it clearer for me. Had a jacket today with beans but then panicked should I be eating this lol.... you're a star 👍
You can buy a calorie food book to help you - a healthy beef stew will have more calories than chicken or fish - but if you like steak and have no digestive problems then you are not going to give it up - nothing like a serving of steak pie and green vegs! No need to reply.
Ideally, no, Dave, you'd be better avoiding the baked potatoes. You would be much wiser listening to the vast experience and knowledge of TheAwfulToad and moreless on this topic. Stick with them and the pchuk link and you won't go far wrong
dave, I'll add a +1 to moreless 's link. Diabetes (and pre-diabetes) is really not complicated: it's a state where your body has lost (or is losing) its ability to derive useful energy from starchy foods such as potatoes, rice and pasta. It has nothing to do with salt or fat or dairy or calories or any of the other fashionable health bugbears.
Your body has two equally-capable pathways for extracting energy from food: the first involves starches and sugars (starches being made up of sugar units) and the second uses fat. It's currently in vogue to pretend the second one doesn't exist, which means that most people are eating starch-based energy almost exclusively. Some bodies can adapt to this, but many have real trouble and eventually fail catastrophically. That's diabetes. All you need to do here is give your body a break: ease off on the starches, and give it a chance to start burning fat instead.
The phcuk.org link gives you all the details. It's very straightforward, and it's increasingly being used as a mainstream treatment; Dr David Unwin (an NHS GP) is having great success with it and has been training other doctors. He's one of the phcuk contributors. You can fix this.
Thank you think I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be 👍
Hi Dave - as you are getting used to cutting down the sugar which most people eat in foods, the so called sustaining carbs such as rice and pasta, add up to sugar with glycogen stored in the liver - there is a special type of obesity diabetes, which is linked with the lowering of insulin in blood sugar. Will send info on it. I am sorry to say that dairy does increase your blood sugar because of the milk sugar, Drinking lactase free milk may help.
Depending on fats to give you energy can work for a few but most people will have a rise in cholesterol which can affect your arteries. Exercise is good for lowering blood sugar. Baked beans are in a sugar sauce so if you use a soup ladle to with holes in it you can strain off the sauce. Am sure if you can obtain a booklet on the NHS on how to control diabetes it will help. Everyone is different but NHS websites will explain cholesterol levels in foods which may help you choose the right ones.
Hi Dave westernsussexhospitals.nhs.uk gives advice on pre diabetes and a diet sheet. A detailed paper in academic.oup.com/article subject obesity in type 1 diabetes mentions the probability of descendants of pre diabetes sufferers, developing type 1 diabetes. No need to reply.
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