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Prediabetes

Being told to lose weight and nothing else, for eleven years

Started 29 April 2025 · 16 replies · 160 hearts · read 2.6k times

VivLuton, UK · 29 April 2025
about a year ago

A question rather than an update: Being told to lose weight and nothing else, for eleven years

I have had this diagnosis for a long time and none of the general advice quite fits me.

Bringing this here rather than to a general circle because the specifics change everything about how the question should be answered.

I would like to know what other people in this position asked for, because I do not think I am asking for the right things.

I have put eleven years in the title because that is the number I keep coming back to, and I would rather be specific than vague about it.

Not looking for interpretation of anything. Looking for what other people asked for and whether it helped.

53

JontyOxford, UK
#1

I found the group programme's most useful feature was that everybody in it was in the same position, which is a very similar reason to why I am here.

10

KaiVancouver, CA
#2

To the opening post rather than to the thread: Viv, this is my version of it.

Nothing here is medical advice. The figure is yours, the context is yours, and the person who can interpret both is the one holding your record.

12

LuPreston, UK
#3

Coming back at the two-year mark to say the number held, the habits held, and the whole thing has become unremarkable, which was the aim.

9

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands
#4

I want to be plain about what this circle does with something a member has been told was in their head: it does not treat it that way. If that is why you have been slow to post, it is worth knowing in advance.

22me too 3

GethinMerthyr Tydfil, UK
#5

Picking up Lu’s point rather than starting a new one.

I would say do not let a number become the whole of how you think about yourself. I did that for about six months and it was not useful.

11

FreyaReykjavík, IS
#6

What I underestimated was how much better I would feel from the changes independently of any number. That turned out to be the durable motivation.

7

FlossieShrewsbury, UK
#7

My review is annual now and it is a five-minute conversation, which is exactly the amount of attention I want this to have in my life.

9me too 9

NellaUtrecht, NL
#8

Freya has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

Somebody in this circle said this is information rather than a verdict, and I have repeated that to two family members since.

5

KeeleyBlackpool, UK
#9

Flossie — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Mine moved back within the ordinary range over about a year, and my nurse was clear that the habits mattered more than the number itself.

6me too 3

LarkGalway, IE
#10

What worked practically was walking after eating rather than anything I changed about the eating. Twenty minutes, most days, and the effect was visible.

8

MinaLisbon, PT
#11

Reading Nella, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

Mine was a number on a routine test that nobody had been looking for, and it got my attention in a way that fifteen years of general advice had not.

14

SorayaTehran, IR
#12

The word itself was the useful part. It gave me something specific to act on rather than a vague sense that I should be doing better.

7me too 1

MaisieScarborough, UK
#13

I would have written the same thing a year ago, word for word.

10

AshwinBengaluru, IN
#14

What I would say is find out exactly which test it was and what the figure means, because I spent two months worrying about the wrong thing.

8

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands
#15

Speaking as a facilitator: a specialist who knows your history is worth more than any consensus in a thread, including a thread full of people with your diagnosis.

12me too 5

OssieWolverhampton, UK
#16

My GP was matter-of-fact and offered a structured programme, which I nearly turned down and which turned out to be the most useful thing on offer.

10