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How long did low carb take you to lose 15% weight

Tannith said:
How do you calculate HbA1c from meter averages? Do you average the am FBG's?
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No - IMO they are the least useful for me of all my readings - my pre and post meal checks are the ones I take most heed of.

As a rough guide: 3 months meter overall averages (so fasting, pre, post meal, and any other in between readings I take for whatever reason), and my meter does all this working out for me, then as I said I use this average in the converter on our main site: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-units-converter.html.
And it is only a rough guide because it (consistently) gives me a level a couple of points lower than my actual HbA1c, but my Libre would have me a paragon of virtue well and truly non-diabetic when I last did a check on that, so even lower again! So at best these tools can be reasonable pointers, but definitely are not to be taken as absolute gospel.

Robbity
 
Robbity said:
but my Libre would have me a paragon of virtue well and truly non-diabetic when I last did a check on that, so even lower again!
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Same here. One of my Libre estimated HbA1cs said 27, all my other Libres have been in the 30s and my HbA1cs in the low 40s. My meter averages are never anywhere near, and I test many times a day. I conclude it is my HbA1c results that are over estimated due to non-standard red blood cells.
 
Yes, there are several articles and research papers detailing why the HbA1c is not a reliable marker in some people (quite a lot of people in fact), either producing lower than expected scores or higher than expected scores.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG4FKXNUQAA2rMo.jpg
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581997/
http://www.ngsp.org/factors.asp

It is also worth checking the manufacturer's leaflets detailing the specifications of your glucose meter to see if your haematocrit levels fall within the specification limits. (Haematocrits are included in the full blood counts we get when we have our review blood tests) As an example, the Accu Chek Mobile gives clinically correct results with haematocrit levels between 25% and 55%.
 
Tannith said:
How do you calculate HbA1c from meter averages? Do you average the am FBG's?
Click to expand...
My approach to my HbA1c is slightly different. Rather than try to anticipate what my HbA1c might be based on my averages, I purposefully set out to achieve a specific HbA1c target and then I "ate to the meter" to try to achieve this goal. My target HbA1c was 32. This effectively meant that I had to keep my post-prandial spikes as close as possible to 5.6. My most recent HbA1c was 29; over the past year it has ranged from 29-32. I have definitely lost weight with this approach .
 
I think we got a bit diverted by @Tannith's question about how we can predict HbA1cs...

But my main aim has always been to set my targets using my meter, since it's these tests that show me whether I'm stable with lowish spikes or whether I might have wide swings, and it's these that I actually work with and rely on... My HBA1c "predictions" have been done from somewhat idle curiosity since they're what the medics rely on; but similar averages can come from either stable or wildly fluctuating results - and as such don't and can't ever give me my meter's much more important immediate and vital information.

Robbity
 
I've been low carbing for 7 months, and maybe lost 3kg. I'd need to lose 10kg to lose 15% of my original weight, but my HbA1c has still fallen.
 
Tannith said:
How long did people take on low carb to lose the 15% or so of their weight necessary to bring BG back to normal? And how low did your carbs have to go?
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9mths to lose my 15% on 150g of carbs, on average but still not normal bgs without huge basal insulin (66units of toujeo300).
Hope this helps.
 
I too have non standard red blood cells. How do these affect HBA1C?
 
I lost about 25% in 12 months and have flat lined since then.
Probably less than 40 g carbs a day.
Good luck
 
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