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Hba1c down from 86(12.3) to 38(5.6) in 3 months diet and exercise only and the love of this forum

beatdise said:
No got print out sheets in front of me my HDL started at 0.88 so needed to raise and thats 0.95. and LDL has surpisingly gone up a tad to 2.9 which should have gone down..
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Sorry, I thought you must have had them the wrong way round. Yes, you need to get that HDL up and LDL down a bit. Stick to the diet. It will happen. Mine have got better each time, but I've been diagnosed 12 months now.
 
Beatdise I'm happy for you, I'm glad that you received good results
 
Thanks Very much Adelle...may all of my fellow members enjoy the progress they desire...
 
beatdise said:
Thanks Very much Adelle...may all of my fellow members enjoy the progress they desire...
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Shedding weight seems to be key to getting blood glucose levels down. To accelerate weight loss, exercise, gym, swimming etc. combined with the LCHF diet. Once the weight loss has been achieved, you can throttle back on the exercise as I suspect that if you keep to LCHF diet there will be no weight gain. That has been my experience. I had to call the exercise a day due to a drowning accident but will resume at some point.
 

Ah but ....... what if you have finished getting your weight down, daren't get it any lower, .......... but BS not as low as you would like? What do you do then?
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Ah but ....... what if you have finished getting your weight down, daren't get it any lower, .......... but BS not as low as you would like? What do you do then?
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Meds or cutting back on the carbs more, I guess. And more exercise. Your BS levels are good considering you have chips, fried bread and quite carby veg in peas. If you can keep where you are and still enjoy a diet you can stick to then I'd not be beating yourself up about it.
 

I've cut back a bit on carbs. Averaging 52g. I am happy with my meter averages (30 days 6.2mmol/l) , but my last 2 HbA1c's haven't reflected these, and considering I test a lot, and chase higher ones every half an hour, I can't see why my A1c average equates to 7.1mmol/l. It is very annoying. I really think my A1c's are a bit higher because I have quite large volume red blood cells.(MCV/MCH). I am not anaemic. No-one seems to have the answer to this. I have asked.

I don't want meds, and in any event with my A1c they wouldn't prescribe them.
 
My meter averages about 5.7 with all the dodgy errors and strange strips in. My latest Hba1c suggests an av of 6.6 so I'm going to start testing at 1hr and other times just to see what's happening when. We may just have longer lived red blood cells I guess and then there's meter accuracy, venous v capillary blood and HbA 1c tolerance too. I know that varying average blood glucose levels can end up with identical HbA1c results so I think as long as we keep testing ourselves and can get a handle on our spikes then that's as good as it is going to get. And unless I'm being dense, it is the day to day levels that give us an idea of whether we are entering risk zone for complications given so many other factors influence the HbA1c result.
 
Well done, should be very proud! I'm finding it hard to stay on track! It's easy to slip off and get high blood sugars and eat sugary foods etc…people like you are inspiration and I congratulate and thank you for that! Hope all is still going well
 
My last HbA1c equated to 7.8 (it says on the printout) which I also was disappointed with, being higher than the 5-6.5 range I operate within usually. My meter average is 6. However, nil desperandum. Self-testing is unreliable, I know, but it does encourage me to keep trying.
 
@cold ethyl and @DeejayR I am a bit relieved you have both said your meter averages are lower than your HbA1c. Most folk on here say they see similar results. I Know @AndBreathe is another whose HbA1c and meter averages don't tally. I started testing more, and after a "dodgy" meal I test every half an hour until I know I have passed my peak and back to normal levels. My peaks are all in the first 90 minutes. My average 2 hour readings across all meals are a lot lower than the earlier ones. This pleases me because that is what is meant to happen. It shows my non-medicated insulin is working. However, because I feel I am now catching my higher levels and am back down again by between 2 and 2.5 hours, I cannot understand why my average A1c remains at 7.1mmol/l. According to this website (somewhere), there is a paragraph about this where it says because of the capillary/venous differences, meters read higher than A1c's, so why do ours read lower? Conundrum, not stressing, just curious.

Sorry to derail your thread @beatdise
 

All interesting stuff. I know that it isn't as straight forward as the usual spiel about it representing last three to four months- I think it might be interesting to see what your HbA1c comes out at now you've stopped losing weight- I'm thinking that if mine was realistically capturing say 4 months ( or longer if my red blood cells last longer than average) then for all of them I've been heavier than the next day if that makes sense so if weight loss is the key, then as I lose more and reach a stable weight, I'd assume my test would stabilise and reflect my current average more, if that makes any sense. I know my meter was higher say 3 months ago so that may explain some discrepency.
 
From the diabetic uk site, it may help explain why there is a diffo between your readings & the hbA1c.


How does HbA1c differ from a blood glucose level?

HbA1c provides a longer-term trend, similar to an average, of how high your blood sugar levels have been over a period of time.


An HbA1c reading can be taken from blood from a finger but is often taken from a blood sample that is taken from your arm.

Blood glucose level is the concentration of glucose in your blood at a single point in time, i.e. the very moment of the test.

This is measured using a fasting plasma glucose test, which can be carried out using blood taken from a finger or can be taken from a blood sample from the arm.

However, fasting glucose tests provide an indication of your current glucose levels only, whereas the HbA1c test serves as an overall marker of what your average levels are over a period of 2-3 months

My personal estimated is 38 but my last hbA1c came back as 44. 6 points above my personal estimated.

We could never test enough to be able to get the same reading as the hbA1c, ours is only ever a guide line to help us see how we are doing but with the knowledge in the back of our mind that the true hbA1c will be higher, thus the closer our estimated is to the 48 target the more likely the true hbA1c will be over. well that's how I see it.
Sorry to go off thread but thought it may be of interest to some.
 

That's a tough question Bluetit. I think that if you have shed the weight and keep to the LCHF diet then blood glucose will stabilise. In my case, I have stopped testing, I think most people know the symptoms of when their blood glucose levels are too high. I seem to have stabilised in the low to mid sixes and seem to be fine with this. I suspect that there is a spread of b.g. levels that can be tolerated by different people. I never was greatly overweight and shedding a stone and a half had a significant impact on my levels. If after shedding weight and the LCHF diet doesn't work sufficiently, but I'd guarantee that it would make a difference, then I guess it's the drugs route. The drugs route has been one that I've tried to avoid despite the exhortations of the diebetic nurse to shove as many down my throat as possible. I'm afraid that the sulfonylureas along with the statins are still sitting in the cupboard much to the chagrin of nurse. I do take dry white wine and reds which unfortunately are not on prescription.
 
Well done.

My first HbA1c will be in a couple of months time as I was only diagnosed in Dec and put steps in place to lower immediately

My meter is telling a good story but I now need to see the average to judge how well I'm doing

Please keep sharing as the results of the next test for you should reveal a better trend
 
shelts said:
Well done. Gives me hope
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if i can do it anyone can. the bad old days...a twix with every cup of tea...a donut...an iced danish...fizzy drinks with every take away....cant believe how much control and discipline i have now.
 
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