Hi
I am Graham (Oldtimeram), aged 63 and 5ft 9ins.
Went for a check up last week (Tues 26/10/21) and was told my HBA1c was up in the 90s. I was told I need to diet and they will review again in January 2022. I don’t want to go on insulin.

My weight was 14st last week and commenced the diet last Wed ( so not a week yet). I weighed myself today and I was 13st 5lbs so I am quite pleased, but very early days.

I am still trying to work out diets that are suitable but with time I’ll get a decent amount of food choices all being well. My target is 11st 7lbs, so quite a way to go yet.

I do quite a bit of walking so hopefully I’ll get my 10,000 steps most days. I also do some muscle resistance training on my upper body to try and keep my muscles from sagging too much.

I’ll keep you up to date with my progress

Regards
Graham (Oldtimeram)

Hi Graham and welcome to the site.

You will have lots of questions (do you have the BSD book which explains lots). The weight loss alone will give you an improvement in the BG but, as a fellow diabetic I can tell you no you really dont want to go onto insulin. My doctor put me on it 15 years ago as I was struggling with the meds in terms of tummy problems and he convinced my the insulin would bypass the digestive system. So here I am all those years later and still trying to get off the stuff. However, I was using 40.42 units daily with HAb1c of around 8.5 (dont know what that is on your scale) and daily readings of around 180/190 again dont know the conversion but to say normal is between 80 and 120 shows how out of control I was. I am now on only 14 units and my BG runs around 80 to 100 with doctor wanting a discussion as he has realised I havent renewed my insulin prescription for nearly a year.

Best advice I can give you at this early stage is CARBS ARE THE ENEMY. They are what turn into sugar in the blood and drive the insulin spikes. They also drive hunger. So if you can get rid of them from your diet you will be well on your way to kicking the diabetes. Good luck and keep us up to date with your progress.

Welcome Graham… just want to echo all that sunshine-girl had said ….. CARBS, bread, pasta, rice and potatoes in all their guises, as well as all processed foods, really are our enemies as people with T2. Carbs are ok in vegetables, not great in fruit as there is too much fructose, but we eat well with low carbs to keep our BS in check.
Best of luck on your journey to normal blood sugar.

Thanks for the helpful advice. I’ll certainly keep you informed of my progress.

Hello Graham. Welcome from a 48 yr old male who had great success nearly 2 years ago with this way of eating – and successfully been maintaining that weight loss (and associated health benefits) ever since…

Hi Graham
Thought I’d post too as we have a similar story. It can be a big shock getting a diabetes diagnosis but as the others have said the BSD works and it’s all do-able.
I was 61 when I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes (I’m 66 now – just become an official pensioner – yikes!) . My Hba1c was 106 on diagnosis and the GP wanted me on metformin and talked of putting me on insulin at my first 3 month review. I did the BSD and also went very low carb and by my first review (which was actually 4 months later) my Hba1c was 35 (back in the normal range) and it’s stayed at that level ever since.
There is a thread called Take A Look at This on this forum where people have listed various resources which you might find interesting at some point (just search in the box at the top right-hand corner of the screen).
But to start I’d recommend the diet doctor website. There are sections of the site which they charge for (and are promoting heavily atm) but still lots of free resources, such as infographics with amount of carbs in fruit, vegetables, etc https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegetables
I’d also recommend looking up
Dr Jason Fung – he is a Canadian diabetes expert and knows his stuff when it comes to putting diabetes in remission. He has lots of stuff on youtube and also has a book The Diabetes Code.
Dr David Unwin – he is an award-winning GP in Southport who has successfully treated his Type II diabetic patients with low carb – again lots on youtube.
Lastly, just to say I had a lot of weight to lose (5 stone). I tested my blood glucose throughout (some people do, some people don’t) and found my blood glucose started going down pretty quickly – within first 2 weeks. I lost weight but my hba1c was back into the normal levels well before I’d lost all the weight I needed to.
Hope this is helpful.
Jennie xx

Thanks very much Jennie and every one else that has been good enough to reply with advice.

I will certainly be looking up some of the websites that have been suggested.

My weight loss has slowed down now but I guess that’s to be expected. So long as the weight comes off and I keep my carbs low I hope I will have a good review when I go to my next appointment.
Graham