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Does a HbA1c drop affect weight loss?

Brunneria

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Type of diabetes
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I just misread a post in another thread, then realised that my answer (below) was totally off topic.
But since I'd already written it out, and I am interested in all your opinions, I thought I'd post it here:


In Diane Cress' book 'the Diabetes Miracle' she makes a clear statement that knocked me back on my heels when I first read it.

Here it is:
'I have found that most clinicians do not realise and therefore do not inform their patients that for every point the HbA1c drops (improves), about 5 pounds of fat tissue will form.
For example, if your a1c drops from 7.2 to 6.2 you will have assimilate 5 pounds of fat as a result of moving that excess blood sugar from the blood into the fat cells.'​
That quote is from 39% of the way through my kindle version, if anyone wants to check the ref.

Now, I have no idea if that statement is correct.
Cress didn't reference it, just treated it as a fact.
She has references at the back of the book, but my kindle doesn't seem to link them properly to the book text.
And I can't spot a ref connected with that statement. Which is annoying.

Anyway, setting aside the reference problem, if she is right, then by lowering your a1c one point, and not putting on weight, you have kind of burned off 5lbs.
And presumably, once the a1c stops dropping, you will start to lose weight...

Could this be a possible explanation for plateauing during weight loss?

Anyone else have an opinion on this? @phoenix ?
I have found Cress a reliable and trustworthy source of info on other things, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is correct on this one detail... And I don't think I've come across this idea elsewhere.
 
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I think from what I've read this is very likely true. You make a very inteteresting point. It would definately explain the stall in weight loss that seems to happen to many
 
Hi,

I wouldn't knock Diane Cress's quote.. But I have somehow managed to maintain the same weight for the last 25 years. Recently bringing my HbA1c down on a similar scale to those quoted. No change in body weight.. It could just be a bloke thing..? I was looking forward to being an overweight middle aged guy by now...! Lol
 
Lol
It's your Rock n Roll lifestyle.
Makes you immortal, didn't you know?
 
I did reply to you on the other thread but basically said
"I can believe this is true because all of theose mol seconds of glucose in your bloodstream equates to a lot of calories that you have to remove from your system. Now assuming that the changes you have made to your lifestyle is not driving you to store it as fat (drugs etc) you will have effectively lost quite an amount in fat equivalence".
 
It might be true if the drop in HbA1c is due to higher insulin levels, if you inject for example.

If the drop in HbA1c is due to low carbing I'd say she is way wrong.
 
Totto said:
It might be true if the drop in HbA1c is due to higher insulin levels, if you inject for example.

If the drop in HbA1c is due to low carbing I'd say she is way wrong.
Click to expand...

She is definitely talking about low carbing.
The whole book is a three step low carb program for type 2s and pre diabetics, intended to rest the pancreas, prevent liver dumps, and even out BG fluctuations.

I'm 6 weeks into stage 1 at the moment, and I have to say that everything else she has said has been backed up by my experiences.
 
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makes sense - I've tr ied to tighten up control and lose weight simultaneously before and found I am eating less but not losing weight.

The only thing stopping me from getting completely despondent about my weight is that my doctor has put me on forxiga which basically makes you **** out your sugar.
 
Sounds like ***** to me. I lost 4.5 stone and dropped from HbA1c of 67 to 38 in 4 months. I don't think I had 4.5 stone of muscle to lose, so it must have been fat.
 
@Brunneria You have touched in a interesting point. I think this has some to do with "Amadori rearrangement" .
Like a few members have mentioned life style and change are different. However the book is helping you with good results.
More to the point, Diane Cress's statement can be misunderstanding and inaccurate.
 
It sounds a bit suspicious to me and I would like to see some scientific evidence. As others have said, if the HBa1C reduction is due to increased insulin levels and/or less insulin resistance then the body may store any excess carbs as fat as it has the extra insulin to do it. One answer is to reduce the carbs; something those on insulin know you need to do to avoid weight and fat gain. I'd certainly like to see the evidence of 5lbs of fat for every HBa1C point reducation.
 
Well, I'm due an hba1c around about now, after having reduced body fat from 25% to 14%. I think it should be lower than my last, but let's wait and see...
 

So annoyingly frigging true! Seems to be the case with me!! x
 
 
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