How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone?

Nefadiva_

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Hello, I found out 5 weeks ago that my blood sugar was high (fasting 7.6 hba1c 6.6) but as I was also suffering a liver infection at the time my GP said to repeat the bloods in 3 months.

Well I ignored him and got a monitor as I was feeling so scared and decided to completely change everything about my diet.

I started on a low carb low calorie diet straight away and have lost 10kg in 5 weeks. BUT my BG still isint coming down and is now going up ( 9.2 my highest reading) and this is worrying me.

How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone for other people? Do I need to get back to the GP and push for meds? I want to take control of this so any advice would be appreciated thank you.
 

Grateful

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,398
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone for other people? Do I need to get back to the GP and push for meds? I want to take control of this so any advice would be appreciated thank you.

I did it in 2.5 months -- diet alone, no meds.
 
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Mike d

Expert
Messages
7,997
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
idiots who will not learn
3 months (only due to the first HbA1c date and then the second) and it dropped enormously. Halved it in fact to "non diabetic" levels
 
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CherryAA

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,171
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello, I found out 5 weeks ago that my blood sugar was high (fasting 7.6 hba1c 6.6) but as I was also suffering a liver infection at the time my GP said to repeat the bloods in 3 months.

Well I ignored him and got a monitor as I was feeling so scared and decided to completely change everything about my diet.

I started on a low carb low calorie diet straight away and have lost 10kg in 5 weeks. BUT my BG still isint coming down and is now going up ( 9.2 my highest reading) and this is worrying me.

How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone for other people? Do I need to get back to the GP and push for meds? I want to take control of this so any advice would be appreciated thank you.


I started out at 10.3% I manages to get down to 8% in 6 weeks with a strict LCHF diet and then to 6.2% in 5 months since then it is coming down very gradually to 5.8% .

Everyone is different in terms of how long it takes to improve the readings, so I wouldn't panic too much yet. if you continue to plug away with the strict low carb approach your numbers will most likely come down eventually. You will still get the occasional high reading .I still get a dawn phenomenon reading of upto 8.5 now and again - no apparent rhyme nor reason, but my hba1c is still in the non diabetic range ( just! ) . I think we all tend to forget that many others suffers these kind of spikes occasionally too!

Well done in getting as far as you have.
 
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Nefadiva_

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Thank you. I am trying so hard but was starting to loose hope that it was working despite the weight loss so I will just keep up the battle!
 

Nefadiva_

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Thank you. I am working on how to get some excersize as walking along with every other "normal" excersize is not possible due to another condition I have (only bits of me actually work lol) which is so frustrating!

I'm also in the middle of a very complicated highly stressful situation so really not doing myself any favours here!

I will just keep battling as I have done and won't beat myself up if the results dont happen as quickly as I would like.
 

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello. Doctor DeeJay (just pretending) prescribes a day off at a spa or some such relaxing therapy. "Battling", "stressful" and "beating yourself up" are not good experiences for you on top of trying to control your blood sugar. Be kind to yourself. You can only do your best, and you are.
 
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bluecurlylegend

Well-Known Member
Messages
91
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Films with Nicholas Cage !
In my experience, stress definitely puts your BG up. Quite considerably too. Even when you reduce stress your BG won't drop overnight it can take a few weeks.
Stay calm, best of luck.
 

Art Of Flowers

Well-Known Member
Messages
956
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Up to nine month by diet alone. As little as three months if you also do intermittent fasting. :)
 

Alexandra100

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,738
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Up to nine month by diet alone. As little as three months if you also do intermittent fasting. :)
Hello, I found out 5 weeks ago that my blood sugar was high (fasting 7.6 hba1c 6.6) but as I was also suffering a liver infection at the time my GP said to repeat the bloods in 3 months.

Well I ignored him and got a monitor as I was feeling so scared and decided to completely change everything about my diet.

I started on a low carb low calorie diet straight away and have lost 10kg in 5 weeks. BUT my BG still isint coming down and is now going up ( 9.2 my highest reading) and this is worrying me.

How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone for other people? Do I need to get back to the GP and push for meds? I want to take control of this so any advice would be appreciated thank you.
Very well done in finding and sticking to your low carb diet and in losing so much weight. Lots of people on here are rightly proud of having lowered their bgs with diet (and often also exercise) but without drugs. Others however do take some medicaments alongside their diet and exercise efforts. Personally I have only been trying to lower my bgs since the end of August, and my efforts at first were not totally well-informed but so far I have not reached the ideal bg levels I want even by nowadays cutting carbs pretty drastically, and if my GP were willing to prescribe me Metformin, I'd take it like a shot, not instead of my low carb and exercise efforts but alongside them. Here is an article by Jenny Ruhl, a respected writer on diabetes who is herslef a T2, on the uses of Metformin:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045911.php
IMO it is not either / or. I see no reason why a person should not try Metformin for a while, but later stop taking it. The downside would be if a person trusted to Metformin to cure their diabetes and stopped trying to do that for themselves by diet and exercise, but I don't think you would do that.
 
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wiflib

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,966
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello, I found out 5 weeks ago that my blood sugar was high (fasting 7.6 hba1c 6.6) but as I was also suffering a liver infection at the time my GP said to repeat the bloods in 3 months.

Well I ignored him and got a monitor as I was feeling so scared and decided to completely change everything about my diet.

I started on a low carb low calorie diet straight away and have lost 10kg in 5 weeks. BUT my BG still isint coming down and is now going up ( 9.2 my highest reading) and this is worrying me.

How long does it take to lower blood sugar by diet alone for other people? Do I need to get back to the GP and push for meds? I want to take control of this so any advice would be appreciated thank you.

Could you tell us what you actually eat? Are you on any meds?
 

Nefadiva_

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Completely low carb, low calorie, no starches, sugars, processed food at all. Almost all my meals are leafy greens. Due to another medical condition large food groups are out for me, red meat, anything from the sea, fruit, soya, eggs, so with taking out carbs as well that doesn't leave to much but I'm managing it okay at the moment.

I'm not on any meds as GP.