Thread: Pre-Diabetes or Diabetic?

I think the Colonel is correct in saying that it depends on what your height and weight are. For instance...if you're 5'0" and you weigh 250, losing 20 pounds is not going to have much affect on your blood sugar. When your BMI is within a "normal" range then generally your sugar will follow suit. Unless of course, you're type 1 Diabetic, then all bets are off.

You're doing great though!!!!

Originally Posted by Redeemed

I was wondering if any one here has diabetes or has received a pre-diabetes test result from their doctor.

I was told that I am pre-diabetic at the end of May. Since then I have completely changed my diet etc. Now I have two strikes not in my favor. As Diabetes does run in my family (although no one is currently taking insulin etc) its just something that I know that does run in my family. And two, I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my first child. I controlled sugar levels with my diet and was never insulin dependent. So that was great.

Since June, I have lost about 15 pounds from simply changing my diet and be more aware of what I eat. That seems fast to me. Is that normal weight loss for some one in my situation?

What other ideas do you have in keeping sugar levels more to the normal side?

Thank you!

Yes, healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week I believe.

im a type 2 diabetic and my son is a type 1 diabetic. i found out unexpectedly as my sugars were in the 800 - 900 range. my wife would find me n my car unconscious and i was having severe mood swings. that was 14 years ago. lost 100 pounds and i exercise 3 days a week... i

I started doing some more research on the benefits of 3 day fasting, the thread I started last night and found this. Fuego and Krys have found benefits in intermittent fasting and I have fasted both for health and prayer for many years. But this starts to address your "pre-diabetes" diagnosis.

Might be worth investigating, Redeemed.


How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Live Healthier, Longer

By Dr. Mercola

In the featured documentary, Eat, Fast, and Live Longer,1 British author and journalist Dr. Michael Mosley documents his journey as he decides to try fasting, to see if it might improve his health.

At the outset, his blood work revealed he was borderline diabetic and his cholesterol was high, which his doctor wanted to treat with medication.

Concerned by this diagnosis—especially as he considers himself somewhat of an expert on conventional health strategies—Dr. Mosley sets out to investigate his alternatives.

"I have always been interested in self-experimentation as a research device because so many of the most important discoveries came from scientists and doctors who used themselves as test subjects," he says, "but I had never before performed a series of trials on my own health."

His journey takes him across the United States, where he meets with both long-lived, healthy folk, and health and longevity experts, to learn the secrets of their success.

Your Body Was Built for Periodic Cycles of 'Feast and Famine'

Fasting, it turns out, has a number of health benefits that most people seek: from improved cardiovascular health and reduced cancer risk, to gene repair and longevity.

In short, he discovers that part of what appears to be driving the disease process is the fact that we're eating too frequently. When you're in constant "feast mode," your body actually forgoes much of its natural "repair and rejuvenation programming."

It's true that severe calorie restriction promotes both weight loss and longevity in animal models, but this kind of "starvation diet" is not a very appealing strategy for most people.

However, newer research shows that you can get most if not all of the same benefits of severe calorie restriction through intermittent fasting, i.e. an eating schedule where you feast on some days, and dramatically cut calories on others.

This effectively mimics the eating habits of our ancestors, who did not have access to grocery stores or food around the clock. They would cycle through periods of feast and famine, and modern research shows this cycling produces a number of biochemical benefits. In short, by altering what and when you eat, you can rather dramatically alter how your body operates. And that's great news.

Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Fasting is historically commonplace as it has been a part of spiritual practice for millennia. But modern science has confirmed there are many good reasons for fasting, including the following:

Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, and boosting mitochondrial energy efficiency: One of the primary mechanisms that makes intermittent fasting so beneficial for health is related to its impact on your insulin sensitivity.

While sugar is a source of energy for your body, it also promotes insulin resistance when consumed in the amounts found in our modern processed junk food diets. Insulin resistance, in turn, is a primary driver of chronic disease—from heart disease to cancer.

Intermittent fasting helps reset your body to use fat as its primary fuel, and mounting evidence confirms that when your body becomes adapted to burning FAT instead of sugar as its primary fuel, you dramatically reduce your risk of chronic disease
Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production: Research has shown fasting can raise HGH by as much as 1,300 percent in women, and 2,000 percent in men,2 which plays an important part in health, fitness, and slowing the aging process. HGH is also a fat-burning hormone, which helps explain why fasting is so effective for weight loss
Lowering triglyceride levels and improving other biomarkers of disease
Reducing oxidative stress: Fasting decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in the cell, and thereby prevents oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids associated with aging and disease

There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process.

Intermittent fasting is by far the most effective way I know of to shed unwanted fat and eliminate your sugar cravings. Since most of us are carrying excess fat we just can't seem to burn, this is a really important benefit. When sugar is not needed as a primary fuel, your body will also not crave it as much when your sugar stores run low.

As mentioned above, the other mechanisms that makes fasting so effective for weight loss is the fact that it provokes the secretion of HGH—a fat-burning hormone that has many well-recognized "anti-aging" health and fitness benefits.

Last but not least, intermittent fasting has also been identified as a potent ally for the prevention and perhaps even treatment of dementia. First, ketones are released as a byproduct of burning fat, and ketones (not glucose) are actually the preferred fuel for your brain.

In addition to that, intermittent fasting boosts production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. It also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Research by Dr. Mark Mattson, a senior investigator for the National Institute on Aging, suggests that alternate-day fasting (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), can boost BDNF by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the brain region.3

The 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Plan

Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term that covers a wide array of fasting schedules. As a general rule, it involves cutting calories in whole or in part, either a couple of days a week, every other day, or even daily. Dr. Mosley became so convinced of the health benefits of intermittent fasting he wrote a book on the subject, called The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting.4

The fasting schedule he ultimately suggests in the book (after trying a couple of variations in the film), is to eat normally for five days a week, and fast for two. This schedule is sometimes referred to as the "5:2" intermittent fasting plan. On fasting days, he recommends cutting your food down to one-fourth of your normal daily calories, or about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women, along with plenty of water and tea. Dr. Mosley claims to have lost 19 pounds in two months by following this 5:2 intermittent fasting plan.
(go to link to view graphic)

Alternate-Day Fasting—Another Alternative

Yet another variation that is quite common is the alternate-day fast. This fasting protocol is exactly as it sounds: one day off, one day on. When you include sleeping time, the fast can end up being as long as 32-36 hours. The drawback is that it requires you to go to bed with an empty stomach every other day, which can be tough for most people—at least initially.

However, according to Dr. Krista Varady, author of The Every-Other-Day Diet: The Diet That Lets You Eat All You Want (Half the Time) and Keep the Weight Off, the alternate-day fasting schedule does have a much higher compliance rate than many other fasting schedules. In the end, the best fasting schedule is the one that you will comply with. If you're constantly cheating, it won't work.

Dr. Varady's research shows that alternate-day fasting, where you consume about 500 calories on fasting days and can eat whatever you want on non-fasting days, works equally well for weight loss as complete fasting, and it's a lot easier to maintain this type of modified fasting regimen.

In her study, which was recently completed, participants ate their low-calorie fasting day meal either for lunch or dinner. Splitting the 500 calorie meal up into multiple smaller meals throughout the day was not as successful as eating just one meal, once a day. The main problem relates to compliance. If you're truly eating just 500 calories in a day, you will lose weight. But when eating tiny amounts of food multiple times a day, you're far more inclined to want more, so the cheat rate dramatically increases. (go to link to view video interview)

Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...longevity.aspx

Goodness, thank you all for the replies. I have not been here lately.

I am 5'6 and currently weight 156. So my BMI is considered to be overweight. As for fasting, I could try that, thank you for that post. :)

All I know is that I eat pretty well, plenty of mix in my diet and less carbs. When I first found out, I dropped the three "C's". Candy (my biggest downfall) cookies, chips. I backed off from my carb intake and increased my vegi's as suggested by my diabetes class. It was a slow weight loss, as I have lost 20 pounds total in about a five month period. I am working on my last 6 before I take on another change in my life style.

I used to snack in between meals, now, not so much. I find that I remain "full" longer these days, and am not so hungry in between meals like I was when this first started.

This week, I joined a gym (thanks to my son who added me to his account) and will be going for sure at least 4 times a week, I hope to do more, but I am taking baby steps where the gym is concerned and getting my requested 150 minutes a week done. So that should help quite a bit. The weight loss was not my original goal, but it has started to become a goal as I have seen the pounds go away. The final six, if they come off by the end of the year, I will be extremely happy. That would also put me in the "normal" range with the BMI.

Blessings to you all!

Originally Posted by Redeemed

Pre-Diabetes or Diabetic?

Neither... Jesus took that upon His Body as part of His work at the Cross so I would not have to have it.

Some think I have some sort of special dispensation from the Lord but it's actually for all that have been born again who allow the Great and Mighty Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ LIVE within them.

Of course we should eat good food, a few supplements for nourishment is good since you'd have to eat a bunch of different foods for various nutrients the body needs (supplements is just nutrition). exercise, get plenty of rest, drink plenty of water and otherwise treat our bodies well as the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

But, Jesus has paid for us to be free from sickness and disease so it's very unreliable to put one's trust in medical science since they don't know what's going on. They just experiment on folks with chemicals and many people get worse or die early after trusting the arm of the flesh.

I recommend going to the Lord and asking Him to teach you all about what He has purchased for you at the Cross.... if we cannot rely on Jesus, we may as well all go get drunk!