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Disgruntlement!

Sue192

Well-Known Member
Messages
594
Location
Somerset
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Received the results of the three-ish monthly bloods today. hbA1c STILL 44 (everything else again normal). I am miffed. I've stuck pretty much to LCHF, apart from Christmas Day and one or two meals out when it was tricky to choose from the menu (although I didn't go mad). I haven't had rice since diagnosis (Sept 2017), potatoes once only on Christmas Day, only Lidl rolls for bread, no fruit other than berries except for a fruit salad Christmas Day, a dessertspoonful of apple sauce (no sugar), and three lychees. A typical day's food consists of morning: one or two coffees with cream, sometimes an M&S prawn and coctail sauce dip packet (1.3g per pack) when I haven't been organised enough to take Greek yoghurt, berries and seeds or hb eggs to work; lunch: nutty crackers with cheese or cold sausages; dinner: a portion of a Diet Doctor casserole, usually a keto recipe with or without veg/salad, more cheese and crackers sometimes, occasionally Oppo ice cream. Nibbles include salted almonds (handful), one or two pieces choc fat bombs, although I find these addictive so may not stick to one or two..... I have full fat milk in a mug of tea every other day or so. With variations here and there, that's sort of a basic daily menu.

What am I doing wrong!!! Ok, exercise is confined to normal stuff, e.g. walking round town, housework etc so that could definitely be changed. Too much cream in coffee? Too much cheese and not enough veg/salad?

Has anyone been stuck at pre-diabetic level even though they are following LCHF? And if so, what did you do to shift it downwards? Intermittent fasting? (Although I frequently do 16:8 dinner to lunch.)
 
Are you monitoring your blood sugars at home? I do and enter my readings into the MySugr app so I always have a rough idea of what my HbA1c is at any given time. I have compared my last three lab tests with what MySugr says the same day and they have always been quite close so no surprises for me.
 
Hi @Rachox - thanks for your reply. I confess I don't monitor levels as much as I should but when I have they've been ok. I think I need to up the pro-active stuff and get that app as others have mentioned it's a good one. The latest test was a bit of a shock!
 
Try liver blocks.... They really make a difference to HbA1cs and liver enzymes in those who have fatty liver. (not saying you have one thou)
 
I do find the readings, the HbA1c estimate on MySugr plus the graphs and charts on Glucose Companion (I know two blood sugar apps!) are a huge intensive. I do love a bit of number crunching these days!
 
ickihun said:
Try liver blocks.... They really make a difference to HbA1cs and liver enzymes in those who have fatty liver. (not saying you have one thou)
Click to expand...
I googled liver blocks and got a building supplies company near Liverpool! Could you explain what they are, @ickihun, because they sound helpful? Thank you
 
Just in case it cheers you up a bit, labs use rounding when they arrive at a result. They round up and down to the nearest full number. Your first HbA1c of 44 could easily have been 44.5, and your second one could have been 43.5. There is also an error rate for them, which I think is about 4% in either direction. Don't worry about it, it is still a good result.
 
Fasting might be the problem - If I do not eat early my BG level goes on rising all morning and then goes crashing down soon after I do eat so by late afternoon I am feeling really tired and miserable.
To get my BG to stay fairly level I eat early and late, rather than confining my eating to a narrow window.
 
One of your food choices could be keeping your average higher than you expect. Are the crackers, regular wheat based or made with seeds.
 

The only things that look suspicious in that lot are the 'nutty crackers' (unless that means they are made out of nuts rather than are wheat-based with nuts in), and the choc fat bombs, assuming the chocolate itself is at least 20% carbs. Also the sausages - some seem to have a lot more carbs than others.

On the whole however it looks like pretty sensible types of food.

My only comment based on my own observations are that even on 20g of carbs a day, if I eat excess calories, my fasting bg reliably climbs, so it's worth counting calories for a day or two to see if you get a shock (especially with the addictive chocolate fat bombs!). If you monitor your weight and that has increased since your previous HbA1c then your body may be responding to excess calories in the same way mine does.
 
Sue192 said:
I googled liver blocks and got a building supplies company near Liverpool! Could you explain what they are, @ickihun, because they sound helpful? Thank you
Click to expand...
Fatty protein which blocks the liver dumps. Whether early am dumps or on a morning if no breakfast.
Try a fatty protein before bed and see how improved your fbg is.
 
Three things you can try adding to low carb,
  1. Intermitant fasting
  2. HIIT
  3. Resistance training
But just taking a 10 minute walk after each meal can help.
 
ringi said:
Three things you can try adding to low carb,
  1. Intermitant fasting
  2. HIIT
  3. Resistance training
But just taking a 10 minute walk after each meal can help.
Click to expand...
All these 3 can give me higher bgs, hence a higher hba1c until I've lost weight and using less insulin.
But worth it in the end...... if you keep it all up, permanently!
 
ringi said:
Three things you can try adding to low carb,
  1. Intermitant fasting
  2. HIIT
  3. Resistance training
But just taking a 10 minute walk after each meal can help.
Click to expand...
Unless that person is me of course
All 3 above elevate my BG and keep it elevated. The great thing about it is, I also churn out glucagon by the gallon, I wondered for years, why exercise especially HIIT zapped my appetite. It all makes sense now.
 
Try wearing a libre to get a sense of what may be causing the increases. Also exercise really seems to help as if forces your body to use up glucose stores. When there is less glucose it will get better managing what is available. At least that is what I understand!
 
brassyblonde900 said:
Unless that person is me of course
All 3 above elevate my BG and keep it elevated. The great thing about it is, I also churn out glucagon by the gallon, I wondered for years, why exercise especially HIIT zapped my appetite. It all makes sense now.
Click to expand...
Me too. Stress makes my bgs elevate. Even gym consultant via gp referral was shocked how much mine goes up. His answer was more injected insulin. Nope!
 
Food isn't the problem here.
Stress and liver dumps from fasting is increase hba1c.
 
Sue, the impoetant thing to remember is that YOUR D is different from anyone else’s.

Like you, I found it v difficult to scrape my hba1c down through the low 40s. It was much easier to reduce the higher numbers.

My suggestion is to get yourself one or two Libre sensors and carry on doing exactly what you are doing now. That way you can see exactly where the problems lie. THEN you can make minimal targeted changes.

If you start flailing about with half a dozen diff changes at once, you will never know which ones make the difference.

Hope that helps.
 
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