Digesting my new A1C results
DrawnToScale
Posts: 126 Member
Back in February, I first found my A1C was a bit elevated at 5.8. Not terrible by some standards, but it scared me, and motivated me to take action. I started LCHF at ~100 carbs/day. In July, my A1C went down to 5.4, and I was very pleased. Over the summer I experimented with 50 carbs/day, weekly fasts of 36+ hours, but didn't notice much change in my weight loss rate. Hit my weight goal in September (down ~32 lbs in 7 months) , and eased up a bit on myself. I noticed that my insulin resistance was improving (glucose spikes were much better than before). Feeling virtuous, I stopped fasting, exercise went down from 5 to 3 hours walking per week, and allowed small amounts of carbage ~3 times/week. Still, much healthier than my previous WOE.
Just got my A1C results last week (just PRIOR to Thanksgiving!) and it was up to 5.7. Wrong direction. I guess the obvious thing is that I need to ditch my occasional carbage, get back below 100 grams/day, etc.
For those struggling to lower their A1C, have you found that LCHF gave you the numbers you were looking for? I guess I'm slow to come to terms with saying a fond goodbye to old favorites forever. And ever. And the biggest lesson of all - do not bring the old favorite carbage of my youth inside the house!!
Just got my A1C results last week (just PRIOR to Thanksgiving!) and it was up to 5.7. Wrong direction. I guess the obvious thing is that I need to ditch my occasional carbage, get back below 100 grams/day, etc.
For those struggling to lower their A1C, have you found that LCHF gave you the numbers you were looking for? I guess I'm slow to come to terms with saying a fond goodbye to old favorites forever. And ever. And the biggest lesson of all - do not bring the old favorite carbage of my youth inside the house!!
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Darn carbage... Why must you be so good?
I haven't had my A1C checked yet but eating low carb definitely helps keep my blood glucose down. I have a glucose meter and check it a few times per day. Based on that, I am guessing my A1C is down... I hope so. A year ago it hit 6.0.0 -
Mornin Joel, I was waiting to hear your results. I dont know the answer. I dont get mine checked until the end of December. I had mashed potatoes for the first time since June over Thanksgiving and they were soooooo good. LCHF may lower blood sugar but its hard because you have to live too. I have never tracked or tried to get into ketosis, I have just cut out the big ones like pasta, bread, potatoes and watched the others. We are all different on here but we are all here to support each other, no matter what their choice. It has to be best for you. You can do this buddy!!!0
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Mornin Joel, I was waiting to hear your results. I dont know the answer. I dont get mine checked until the end of December. I had mashed potatoes for the first time since June over Thanksgiving and they were soooooo good. LCHF may lower blood sugar but its hard because you have to live too. I have never tracked or tried to get into ketosis, I have just cut out the big ones like pasta, bread, potatoes and watched the others. We are all different on here but we are all here to support each other, no matter what their choice. It has to be best for you. You can do this buddy!!!
Thanks Doug - I guess I was just feeling a bit sorry for myself. I've already shown from my July numbers that LCHF does the job regarding A1C. What I guess I didn't fully accept was the "forever-ness" of this WOE and the ease at which one's victories can be reversed with just a bit of regular indulgence. Certainly there are people out there who can't eat dairy, or nuts, or ..... whatever. They probably whine when they first find out and then they grow up and accept it. That's what I need to do!0 -
You are right, the foreverness sucks!! I may have to dig deeper when I get my results too. Hang in there!!0
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DrawnToScale wrote: »For those struggling to lower their A1C, have you found that LCHF gave you the numbers you were looking for? I guess I'm slow to come to terms with saying a fond goodbye to old favorites forever. And ever. And the biggest lesson of all - do not bring the old favorite carbage of my youth inside the house!!
I don't have a second A1C - my first was 7.2 in early October. Based on my daily tests now, it should be around 5.86 (averaging in 1/3 of 7.2 and 2/3 of my current 5.25). Since I'm testing 4+ times a day, looking for peaks, that should be a high estimate.
I'm eating under net 50 carbs a day. Most days it is around net 40.
I'm hoping that my insulin resistance will decrease as I lose weight so I feel as if I can occasionally have a treat (I'm down 19.7 lbs in the same period - with a goal of around 65 lbs down by May-ish), but I'm not counting on it.
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Mine came down, but only when I went keto. Lower carb didn't work well enough. I've been low carb for 20 months and keto for 11 of that and I can now eat a few bites of carbage without a bg spike, although it's just a few bites. There are a lot of keto recipes out there to replace much of a carbage. I'm back to eating pancakes, pizza, stromboli, french toast, and other faves on occasion... but all keto recipes. They take more work, but having a few faves again is worth the work.
I like these sites...
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/ (pancakes, flax crackers, mug cake)
http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com (eggnog, tiger butter, cheddar biscuit, lava cake)
http://www.ruled.me/ (french toast, coconut custard, fat bombs, cauliflower mash)
https://shecallsmehobbit.wordpress.com/ (bread, coconut cookies, walnut cookies, stromboli)0 -
Carbs are relentless! My daughters most recent A1C was over 14... Yep. Not a typo. T1D
Best that she's ever been able to achieve was 10.
The nurse started mentioning using the double concentrated insulin since her carb/insulin ratio is so high and luckily she doesn't want to do that and realizes the carbs must go if she wants to use less insulin. With such a high ratio, she must have some degree of IR. She knows that having too much insulin in the body leads to problems and hopefully will buckle down and drastically reduce carbs once she goes back on her pump in a few weeks. The pump only holds 200 units and can be worn up to 3 days, but she was using all of that 200 units half way through the second day. Changing the pump is painful, so hopefully trying to get 3 days of use will finally be enough of a motivator to beat the carb addiction.
The desire for that stuff shouldn't be able to beat us out of our own health! But it sure does sometimes.0
