I was recently told by my doctor that I am pre diabetic fasted blood glucose at 120, My doctor told me to cut back on the weight training and start doing more cardio and that I should shoot to lose 10lbs. I lost about 40lbs 2 years ago and was at 162lb at my lowest before I got into starting strength and ran my LP. I was hoping you might be able to give me some general recommendations. Losing weight is the fucking worst.
My father and paternal grandfather both had type 2 diabetes and where overweight.
I lift 3 days a week using a HML program. I squat, bench press, press and deadlift 3 days a week rotating through 4 sets of 6, 5 and 4 for each except deadlift with is just 1 set on my heavy deadlift day.
I work in construction and am on my feet all day which I generally count as my cardio.
I eat a 2600 calories a day 200 grams of protein and about 200 grams of carbs with the rest being fat obviously, and gain about 1 lb a month.
Quit drinking and smoking about a year ago, but I do dip.
Generally don’t get enough sleep, 5-6 hours
Creatine is the only supplement I take but I drink a shit ton of caffeine in pretty much all its forms.
You will not benefit from “cutting back” on the barbell training; however, adding in some conditioning will likely be beneficial.
You also must improve your sleep situation to get 7 hours per night. Sleep restriction significantly contributes to insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance.
That is fascinating! I have been having issues with sleep for about seven weeks. My sugars have been slightly elevated for six weeks. I have been banging my head against the wall trying yo figure out what variable to tweak…
Diving into the details of this stuff is getting into formal consult/individualized medical advice territory, but for the simpler questions:
I’d start w/ 1 session per week of some LISS work (e.g., Airdyne), 20-30 min for a couple weeks, then add in a second session of some interval work using the prowler, sled, or Airdyne if you have access to these.
We generally don’t advise folks shift to higher fat / lower carb as it generally impairs performance in training and has a few other drawbacks that we’d rather avoid. It is, after all, just a way for some folks to “feel more full” while in a caloric deficit. However, some folks 1) have a far easier time adhering to a higher fat / lower carb diet, and 2) are unconcerned with the short term training outcomes – and are therefore willing to take the hit in exchange for dropping weight quicker. This is a more individualized situation, of course.