Came from HBA1c 147 to 44

Congratulations on getting your condition under control.

I noticed that there's no meat/nuts in your diet. Do you happen to be vegeterian?

harrysingh5654 said:

Hi All,

I am 30 years old.

My HBA1C was 147 in the month of July 2018 but now it is 44 in December 2018(Still not 40 which is my target). I am taking 2 metformin 500 in the morning and 2 in evening daily , but no insulin from last 3months.

Currently my diet is :

2 chapatis and small portion of cooked vegetable in the morning with tea (without sugar) at 9.00 am with my 2 metformin
Then at 11 am I take one regular size coffee with 1 sugar
Then at 1 or 2 pm I take one Green Apple and Orange
Then at 5 pm I take 3 Chapatis with cooked vegetables
Then at 8 pm I take one half plate if fruits having green apple, pear and orange.
Also, I do walk daily 2 Kilometers every evening

But some time on weekends occasionally I take pizza or other fast food.
Thats it.

So, is 44 a good number for me being diabetec ? How Can I still come down to 40. My Cholesterol Levels are normal in recent report and my Blood Pressure too.

Click to expand...

You're doing really well, though chapati's and fruit are high in carbs... (And you probably know pizza is too). As practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, you might want to dial that down a bit and see what it does for your levels. Do you have a meter? If so, check before a meal and 2 hours after first bite. If you go up more than 2 mmol/l that meal contained more carbs (and thus, sugar) than you could process back out again. Also, you eat rather often in a day, which means your pancreas never really gets a break. Maybe eat more at less moments? If you eat bigger meals, with more fat, you wouldn't need to eat so often.

As @kokhongw noted, there's no meat in your diet, and from what I can see, over all you eat rather little and practically no fat... And if you don't want to become malnourished, vitamin and mineral deficient and want to actually feel full throughout the day, you do have to up the fats some. (If you lower carbs, you have to up the other 2 macro-nutrients; fat and proteine) Avocado's and cheese, are those okay? Eggs? If you're a vegetarian, you might want to check dietdoctor.com as they do have meal plans for vegans and vegetarians too. That should get your HbA1c down further. I'm not a medical professional, but, you know... It might help.

Good luck!
Jo

Hi @harrysingh5654 and welcome to the forum. That's a huge reduction from 147 to 44 in six months, well done!
You could cut out the sugar in your coffee, and the fruit - tropical fruit is high in sugar. The chapattis, pizza and fast foods would be high in starchy carbohydrates which turn into sugar in our bodies, so aren't good for Type 2 diabetics.

44 is a good number - better than my 46. In the UK our National Health Service classifies below 42 as non-diabetic, 42-47 as pre-diabetic, and 48 and above as diabetic. So you have reduced your blood glucose levels from diabetic to pre-diabetes. If you can reduce it to below 42 you will be in non-diabetic figures.
I'll tag @daisy1 who will give you some useful information. Have a read and ask anything you want to.

@harrysingh5654
Hello Harry and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

My immediate thought is that you are not getting enough protein, hardly any in fact. And really your diet is very high carb, (your chapatis alone provide you with 75g carbs a day) but very well done for getting your HbA1c to it’s current level. That is, unless, you have a lot of pulses in your cooked vegetables.

Maybe you are happy with your current regime, presumably you are eating less now that you did when your HbA1c was 147, and incorporating exercise into your life is always a help, but if you do want to modify your diet, to achieve truly non diabetic levels and if you are looking to ‘tweak’ your diet a bit, (and maybe reduce your medication requirements) first I’d consider your fruit intake. I’d eliminate at least one of these fruit snacks and replace with a handful of nuts. And if you could change the type for fruit in the other portion to mainly berries, that would be better for your blood glucose, and maybe eat it with a full fat unsweetened yoghurt to increase your fat and protein intake. And I’d gradually reduce the sugar in your coffee till you can drink it without.

Then I’d increase the portion size of your vegetables (and lentils) at breakfast and reduce the chapatis to one.

And maybe, change your dinner to cauliflower rice instead of the bread. You just grate or foodprocess raw cauliflower, to a ‘rice like’ consistency, prepare the species, chopped onion, garlic etc as you would for pilau rice then instead of adding rice, add your grated cauliflower. Stir it all to coat the grains of cauliflower with your ghee spicy mix, add a tablespoon of water and cover with a tight lid, stirring periodically, until it’s done (maybe 5 minutes max). It’s my absolute favourite, I now actually prefer it to rice.

Can you eat paneer? That would give you some more protein.

Anyway, well done you, that is great progress!

harrysingh5654 said:

Hi All,

I am 30 years old.

My HBA1C was 147 in the month of July 2018 but now it is 44 in December 2018(Still not 40 which is my target). I am taking 2 metformin 500 in the morning and 2 in evening daily , but no insulin from last 3months.

Currently my diet is :

2 chapatis and small portion of cooked vegetable in the morning with tea (without sugar) at 9.00 am with my 2 metformin
Then at 11 am I take one regular size coffee with 1 sugar
Then at 1 or 2 pm I take one Green Apple and Orange
Then at 5 pm I take 3 Chapatis with cooked vegetables
Then at 8 pm I take one half plate if fruits having green apple, pear and orange.
Also, I do walk daily 2 Kilometers every evening

But some time on weekends occasionally I take pizza or other fast food.
Thats it.

So, is 44 a good number for me being diabetec ? How Can I still come down to 40. My Cholesterol Levels are normal in recent report and my Blood Pressure too.

Click to expand...

Congratulations for bringing your A1c down tremendously.

I suggest eat lots of karela - very nutritious and helps regenerate beta cells in the pancreas according to medical studies.

We’re yiu taking insulin and for how long?

harrysingh5654 said:

Great, thank you very much and I definitely follow your valuable advise.

, can you tell me what target goal should I have to hba1c being type 2 diabetec

Click to expand...

What a fantastic achievement. Every credit to you.

To get your HbA1c into the non diabetic range you only have a little way to go (UK leveks). 41 and under. The hba1c is a guide on your average levels o er the past 2 to 3 months and doesn't capture the spikes. You have a meter so that's great. You will be able to work out the foods that raise you BS too much and eliminate/amend portion size.