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Prediabetes puts you on the road to type 2 diabetes — a serious, lifelong condition that can lead to heart disease, stroke, blindness and kidney failure. The good news: if you are overweight and have prediabetes, losing just 5 percent of your weight can help reverse it. CDC's guide On Your Way to Preventing Type 2 Diabetes is for people not quite ready to join a lifestyle change program, or who want a head start before one begins.
First, find out
CDC's Prediabetes Risk Test takes less than a minute. If it shows you are at high risk, a doctor can confirm with a simple blood test. If you have prediabetes, consider the National Diabetes Prevention Program's lifestyle change program, which is proven to cut the risk of type 2 diabetes in half.
Why are you doing this?
Start with your motivation — for example, wanting to be active enough to keep up with your grandchildren. Remembering why makes new habits easier to build.
Three steps to a new routine
- Figure out what needs to change. Write down how you eat and move in a typical week.
- Eating: Do friends, family or coworkers influence what you eat? Do you plan meals or decide in the moment? How comfortable are you reading a nutrition label? How often do you eat out, and where? What makes eating well easier or harder?
- Moving: How much of your commute is on foot or bike? How much time goes to active chores like walking the dog, cleaning or gardening? How much to exercise such as walking, biking or swimming? What are your favorite ways to be active, and what gets in the way?
- Plan a new routine. Be specific and realistic: small changes stick better than big ones.
- Pick a cue that tells you when to do it — a time or place, a feeling, other people, or something you already do, right before or after.
Tips: make the new routine easy and the old one harder, find a way to make it rewarding, and repeat it until it is automatic.
Set a goal
With your starting point in mind, set a weight-loss goal. If 5 percent turns out to be out of reach, eating well and moving more may still lower your A1C — a simple blood test of your average blood sugar over the past 3 months, commonly used to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes:
| A1C | Means |
|---|---|
| Below 5.7% | normal |
| 5.7% to 6.4% | prediabetes — the higher within this range, the greater the risk of type 2 diabetes |
| 6.5% or more | diabetes |
Ask your health care provider about your A1C.
Working out a 5 percent goal — CDC's example:
| Step | Example |
|---|---|
| Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, when the reading is most accurate, and write it down | 240 pounds |
| Find 5 percent: drop the last digit, then halve it | 24, then 12 — a 240-pound person needs to lose 12 pounds |
| Subtract that from your current weight | 240 − 12 = 228 pounds, the goal weight |
A nutrition plan you can keep
Popular diets often bring quick weight loss that is hard to keep off. Your plan does not need a name; it needs two things: it should be based on healthy eating, and it should be something you can keep doing. People try different approaches — eating less sugar and more protein to stay full longer, crowding out unhealthy food with fruit and vegetables, or sticking to a few breakfasts and lunches they know are nutritious. Good food in the right amounts also helps you feel and think better.
| Choose more often | Choose less often |
|---|---|
| non-starchy vegetables such as peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli and spinach | processed foods: packaged snacks, packaged meats such as bologna, chips, granola bars, sweets, fast food |
| fruit | trans fat, in margarine, snack foods, packaged baked goods and many fried foods |
| lean protein: fish, chicken, turkey, tofu, eggs, low-fat yogurt | sugary drinks: fruit drinks, sports drinks, soda |
| whole grains such as quinoa, brown rice and steel-cut oatmeal | alcohol |
| water and unsweetened drinks |
- Portions. Most of us do not know how much we eat. Estimate portions with the plate method or a "handy" guide.
- Shopping. Put foods without labels first on your list: stock up on fresh vegetables and fruit (skipping the packaged snacks and toppings shelved among them), then the outer aisles for dairy, eggs and lean meat. For packaged food, the Nutrition Facts label shows calories and grams of carbohydrate, sugar and fat.
- Variety. Eat from all the major food groups — vegetables, fruit, grains, dairy or dairy alternatives, lean protein — though not necessarily all at every meal.
- Calories. Count them, without getting hung up on them. Eating fewer and moving more helps you lose weight, but cutting too far leaves you too hungry to stay on plan. The National Institutes of Health's Body Weight Planner can estimate how many calories a day will reach and keep your goal weight.
Making places work for you:
- At work: bring a healthy lunch, keep fruit and vegetables in the fridge for snacks, and pack nuts in small containers.
- At home: cook while doing something you enjoy, such as listening to music, and keep healthy snacks ready for cravings.
- At the shop: go on a full stomach, so unhealthy food is less tempting.
- At restaurants: decide what to order before you go.
An activity goal
Our bodies are made to move, but you will not stick with something you dislike, so find activities you enjoy — walking suits almost anyone. Ask your doctor which activities suit you, and which to avoid.
Work up gradually to at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity, such as brisk walking, which makes you breathe harder and your heart beat faster — for example, 30 minutes on 5 days a week. CDC's example of building up:
| Goal | Days a week | Minutes each time | Minutes a week | By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For now | 3 | 20 | 60 | March 1 |
| Intermediate | 4 | 30 | 120 | April 15 |
| Ultimate | 5 | 30 | 150 | May 31 |
Put it on the calendar, at the same time or place each day: the more regular you are, the sooner it becomes a habit.
Track your progress and get support
- Track. Research shows people who track their food, activity and weight reach their goals more often. Use a free app, pen and paper, or photos of everything you eat and drink.
- Get support. Tell friends and family your goals and why they matter: walk with a friend after dinner, cook a healthy meal with your children or partner, ask friends for advice, share your successes. You may help someone you care about prevent type 2 diabetes too.
- Go online. Free online communities of people with the same goals can boost motivation — and sharing your goals makes you more likely to keep them.
- Ask for help. Your doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner can help. If a repeat risk test shows higher risk, or you are struggling, they can refer you to specialists such as a registered dietitian or mental health counsellor. If you have prediabetes, ask whether joining the National Diabetes Prevention Program would help.
Lifestyle changes take time, but small steps every week can make healthy living a habit — bringing more energy, better check-ups and better mental health along with protection from type 2 diabetes.
Sources
Based on "On Your Way to Preventing Type 2 Diabetes," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion), May 15, 2024, a work of the United States government in the public domain. The guide's second half — from the weight-loss example on — was missing from the imported page and is taken from the guide as published.
Licens: CC0 1.0 (offentligt eje) · Bearbejdet efter www.cdc.gov
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