I went for a hb1ac test with my doctor in December last year and was recently called by my doctor to say I had a reading of 75 and am now classed as diabetic. However, in the meantime I was undertaking the blood sugar diet and managed to lose 18 kg in 8 weeks, I now weigh 97kg. I was asked by my Dr to take a second hb1ac test which was reading 42. My dr called me to say this was great, but left no other instructions. My concern is this....I was intensively losing weight on an 800 cal low carb diet right before the second test over an 8 week period, if I now start eating normally to maintain weight, will my reading go up again? If so how will I know? Am I still diabetic or has my weight loss stopped me being diabetic ...very confused!
Intensive weight lose and hb1ac reading
- Thread starter sotjas
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archersuz
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Hi @sotjas. Do you have a meter and test your BG levels? If not then I would recommend that you get one. Testing is the only way to see what your levels are and if they are still within diabetic levels. Most of us who have reduced our levels through diet do not consider ourselves to be 'cured'. My GP says I am a 'well controlled' diabetic.
I haven't got to the weight I want to be yet, but when I do, I won't go back to eating carbs, I will play with increasing protein and fat to maintain my weight.
I'm sure others will be along soon to offer more advice.
Well done on what you have achieved so far!
I haven't got to the weight I want to be yet, but when I do, I won't go back to eating carbs, I will play with increasing protein and fat to maintain my weight.
I'm sure others will be along soon to offer more advice.
Well done on what you have achieved so far!
Guzzler
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Hello and welcome. Congratulations on a job well done to lower your HbA1c and your weight loss.
You will always be Diabetic, sorry, there's no getting away from that.
As to going forward, get yourself a blood glucose monitor. This will show you how you are doing with the food choices you make regarding carbohydrates. I would advise a lower carbohydrate diet to maintain your weight loss. Tagging @daisy1 for the info pack offered to all newcomers.
Again, well done on your great work, have a wander around tbe forum and ask as many questions as you like.
You will always be Diabetic, sorry, there's no getting away from that.
As to going forward, get yourself a blood glucose monitor. This will show you how you are doing with the food choices you make regarding carbohydrates. I would advise a lower carbohydrate diet to maintain your weight loss. Tagging @daisy1 for the info pack offered to all newcomers.
Again, well done on your great work, have a wander around tbe forum and ask as many questions as you like.
Thanks for the responses, I have a little more weight to lose then transition to maintenance of weight. I will buy a meter to keep an eye on my levels - I assume that testing initially in the morning (i.e. after a nighttime fast) would be a good approach to monitor what is happening.
Guzzler
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Start your day by testing for a fasting reading. Do this before you start getting ready for your day. Then test before the first bite of food then again two hours after the first bite. The difference between the two readings should be no more than 2mmol preferably less than that. Keep a diary of what you have eaten and the two readings. These readings will show you which foods affect your blood glucose and over time they will show you patterns so you can see any unwanted trends.
There is no Spoon
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Hi sotjas,
Think of it like this "if an alcoholic stops drinking for 10 years there still an alcoholic" your always going to be diabetic.
So why do all the hard work and lose the weight to lower blood sugar levels?
High blood sugars means more viscous blood which is bad for the whole body, nerve damage, loss of sight, put a strain on the heart etc... Loss of feelings in the nerves in the feet so we cant feel minor injury's which leads to complications and amputation.
So now your starting to understand why it's so important to keep your blood sugar (bg) low for the rest of your life. If you go back to old eating habits bg will go back up, and your at risk of these complications.
Not necessarily you will have learned a lot about the food you can eat from the Blood Sugar Diet (it promotes The Meditranian Diet) you are essentially on a Low Carbohydrate Diet. Low Carb as it keeps blood sugars down.
The difference now is you are not restricting your self to the amount you can eat i.e 800 cal a day. But you should find with any low carb diet because you are used to eating less and there are very little carbs you are not as hungry as you were before starting out 8 weeks ago.
Sorry to rub it in mate, but like you I lost a lot of weight in a short period of time I just didn't bother with the counting calorie aspect of it all just low cab = fuller for longer = less hungry = eat less.
Thanks for the responses. The Blood sugar diet certainly did teach me a thing or two about eating low carb - I was surprised how full I could feel on 800 Calories - As I transition to maintenance calories, I will maintain the low carb food through the week -......and maybe take the weekend off!
bassamaklan
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Since you have reach to 75, this means that you are diabetic. Reducing it to 42 means that your diabetes in good control. It will be hard for you to maintain 800k diet so you have to move to low carb diet which will give your body what you need and losing weight.
you may also have to plan your meals. From my personal experience, you may have your break fast before 8am, lunch between 12-1:30pm and a dinner should be erlier than 7pm.
Also you may use fasting levels only as indication for your previous day progress if you dont use medications. Again, from my personal experience, if you get lower than 5.5 you will know that your previous day bg was managed well.
I think the main thing is vigilance in three areas: 1) Eat food that doesn't give you a horrible spike, 2) Check that your fasting levels don't creep up from one week to the next, and 3) Check that you aren't putting weight back on.
I find that 2) and 3) are related and not dependent on levels of carbs. Levels of carbs are more important for 1).
If you want to stick to the LCHF-ified version of a Mediterranean diet and that achieves all 3 targets, then all is good. In my case I needed to calorie count after realising I was putting on weight and my fasting levels were increasing.
Avoiding the definition of 'diabetic'... if you are curious as to how much of your HbA1c reduction is due to not eating many carbs vs how much is due to your body processing carbs better, taking an oral glucose tolerance at the start of the weight loss process and then at the end of the process can give some insight into this. If you didn't take one at the start, taking one at any time may be interesting if you really are curious about that sort of thing.
Re avoiding re-gaining weight, since you are currently used to calorie counting, regardless of the type of food you intend to eat in the future, you might want to try a gradual upping of the calories rather than going straight back to eating whatever you want. This is often recommended after a VLCD. Apart from anything, it may give you some insight into just how little you must eat in order to avoid putting weight back on. This will be because your resting metabolic rate will be quite a lot lower than 8 weeks ago. There may be ways to restore this to some extent, e.g. fasting, but if you are anything like me (hopefully you are not) then 'eating until you feel full' after losing a lot of weight wasn't a good idea.
There is no Spoon
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You have to treat yourself from time to time.
Just a small word of caution sugar is more addictive than cocaine.
daisy1
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@sotjas
Hello Sotjas 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 want and someone will be able to help.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
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:
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
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
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.
Hello Sotjas 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 want and someone will be able to help.BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
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
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
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
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.
