Newly diagnosed and hopefully heading in right direction

[taloolah1]

I am newly diagnosed type 2 , and I feel pretty annoyed with myself after years of sugary drinks and sweets instead of meals I am now reaping what I have sown. My fasting glucose was 12.5 and my HbA1c was 8.5. I was put on 2000 mg metformin per day. I knew I needed to amend my diet urgently and I decided to just go for complete abstinence from sugary food I am not the type of person who can have a little bit of chocolate.If its there I will eat the lot.
After 3 months I now have an HbA1c of 4 and my Metformin has been reduced to 1000 mg a day. Is it possible to come off the Metformin all together ? If so what do I need to be aiming for with regards to the HbA1c?

Thank you everyone.

[BioHaZarD]

I am newly diagnosed type 2 , and I feel pretty annoyed with myself after years of sugary drinks and sweets instead of meals I am now reaping what I have sown. My fasting glucose was 12.5 and my HbA1c was 8.5. I was put on 2000 mg metformin per day. I knew I needed to amend my diet urgently and I decided to just go for complete abstinence from sugary food I am not the type of person who can have a little bit of chocolate.If its there I will eat the lot.
After 3 months I now have an HbA1c of 4 and my Metformin has been reduced to 1000 mg a day. Is it possible to come off the Metformin all together ? If so what do I need to be aiming for with regards to the HbA1c?

Thank you everyone.

Hi, we'll done on getting your levels down, my hBa1c is 5.5 and I decided to stop metformin, I was only on 1 x 500mg, I am diet only now so hopefully my next HbA1c is the same or better.

[Fraddycat]

Hi Taloolah, welcome to the forum. Your post reminded me of me, when I was diagnosed 2.5 years ago I went through that feeling of regret that I had done this to myself, but if you read and research more about diabetes you find that the symptoms of diabetes may have made you crave sugary sweets and drinks. Anyway, there is no mileage in beating yourself up, you just have to find the best way of living your new life.

I am looking forward to my next HBA1C when I hope to have my Metformin reduced from 2000mg.

[Daibell]

Hi. With an Hba1c of 4 you're doing extremely well. If you keep up a good low'ish carb diet and your Hba1c stays around 5'ish then you should be able to come off the Metformin; discuss with your GP and be firm if needed. BTW if you have 85% dark chocolate you can eat reasonably freely. I have Green & Blacks variety and it's very low carb.

[Grazer]

Hi and welcome! Well done on your results! Just one thing - are you SURE your HbA1c was exactly 4%?? That's remarkably low, lower than a normal non-diabetic and, I would think, not really possible. Are these the same units, or was it 40 odd on the IFCC scale? (I believe some european countries do rounding on some units?) It's important to know for future reference when you look at how you're progressing (or not!) Regarding the Metformin, why a rush to come off it? It doesn't have much effect on blood glucose levels, but is very safe and gives good protection against future possible cardio problems. If it's because of side effects, you can get a Slow Release version which doesn't normally give you those problems.