Pro Triathlete Lionel Sanders diagnosed with prediabetes

Years ago this guy made a video of himself doing a cycling workout on the trainer, except instead of having the trainer in his house like normal people, he put the thing right there in lane 1 of his local track. Everyone had to walk/run around while he filmed himself doing intervals.

What a twat

The people in this thread have A1C high enough to be considered prediabetic. Yet, as I mentioned, they cut carbs and saw no change. It doesn’t really make sense to me. In the case of Lionel, are there other things in his diet that could be influencing his numbers? I feel like, if high carb was causing this, we would see way more information about this with athletes becoming diabetic but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

N=3, but I think amkelley, same_heree and I are healthy and not prediabetic with our HbA1c values < 6.

And so is Lionel Sanders.

Yes but Sanders has to clean up his diet, or he will get diabetes, like Tim Noakes.

If I was under the impression that conventional medicine (as a system) wanted what is best for people, then everything you’re saying would be valid — practice prevention, catch people when they are in the warning zone.

Problem is, conventional medicine has shown itself to be largely profit driven, uninterested in free and low-cost interventions, overinterested in making money off of new medications, overinterested in billing insurance for unnecessary tests, screenings, office visits and procedures.

making money in the name of health care. not caring very much about actual health.

If conventional medicine is establishing a new market, i am curious what they have in mind for this market. What will they be marketing to this new type of patient?

They want us to NEED their insurance and their interventions.

Does he have any teeth left after eating all that sugar? Sheesh!

Idk if there's a real take here other than try to eat healthier. Being an elite athlete doesn't mean you can eat like garbage all the time. Lionel is long course's most popular athlete & does videos like this for the masses. Lots of hyperbole to go with it. I doubt he was eating 2 pounds of sugar/day (something like 900g) but the message is that he would go to processed sugars after a lot of his hard sessions & now a blood test is saying he should switch that up.

I used to drink a lot of gatorade or chocolate milk on a daily basis when I was running 16-18 miles per day week in and week out in a very hot and muggy climate where I was getting bad dehydration headaches regularly and saw the sugar (plus lots of water) as the only solution and a regrettable one at that. The price was rotting of my teeth over time, a number of cavities and teeth and a couple that had to be removed, plus what I believe to be insulin related issues when I don't fuel adequately. In truth, what I needed to handle the headaches was to drink water right away after workouts, but not too much, and then to add some salt to meals occasionally, and to have a glass of orange juice every few days. I also realized that often the headaches actually stemmed from drinking too much water and thus decreasing the sodium content in the blood too much (hyponatremia), rather than dehydration itself. I suspect many endurance athletes have such issues but they're concealed by the effects of the exercise itself and will impact them when they stop training.

How do you figure this? Please explain. High blood sugar is high blood sugar- an elevated A1c cannot be manipulated falsely.

This makes zero sense. The standard intervention for prediabetes is telling you to exercise and improve your nutrition. Next you'll be saying the labs are faking A1Cs

i think regular people become very vulnerable to taking bad advice when they are told that they have a serious health condition.

and type 2 diabetes IS a very serious health condition, and being on a collision course with T2D SHOULD scare people.

my problem is, conventional medicine is very invested in the “manage blood sugar” philosophy of displacing simple sugars and complex carbs and eat more fats and meats. (not a long-term solution, doesn’t reverse insulin sensitivity or anything else, which is why type 2 patients use so much medical care over the course of their lifetimes).

i see doctors (and nurses) as being the assembly line workers in an overall system designed by those at the top. If the tippy-top of medicine were to say that standard of care for prediabetes is to now put patient on a low-carb diet and a CGM and low dosage of metformin, then assembly line workers would do it.

prediabetes patients get a health scare, picture they’re on a collision course with diabetes related amputations, and diabetes related blindness, etc., and they do not question the (questionable) advice and motives of conventional medicine.

Study? Or people misreporting carb Intake

What world do you live in where prediabetics are prescribed CGMs Willy-nilly? 40% of Americans have prediabetes. Do you see nearly half the population walking around with CGMs?

Of that 40%, the vast majority of those will just be told to exercise and lose weight by cutting simple carbs and processed foods - closer to the Mediterranean diet (lots of vegetables, healthy fats, lean meats and fish, whole grains). CGMs, other diets (including keto), metformin, etc are absolutely not the first-line interventions for prediabetes.

Remember kids, don't do drugs and too many carbohydrates.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2025/03/how-hobbs-kessler-won-two-us-titles-fueled-by-rice-krispie-treats-and-country-time-lemonade/

Is he still doing the threshold training? He seems like a dude that needs to experience things himself.

Similar. Nothing you can do about your genes. It is almost certain one or both of your parents had 'pre' diabetes or in fact diabetes since they may not have cut back on sugars.

I eat very little high starch carbs, mostly green veg etc. I can do that , change it even more it doesn't matter what I eat...5.x A1C and holding on. Siblings not into running have gone into diabetes. That came from mother's side. Similar with borderline cholesterol from dad's side. Diet doesn't change it.

I suspect if I did no training and put on weight, then I would go over on both.