Kenny's "In Remission" thread - Five Years Keto

October's results are in and much as expected.

A1c is 39, so I'm inclining more to the theory that my "real value" on current lifestyle is somewhere about 38. The variation of my results since April 2020 then being down to variation in machines and acceptable testing inaccuracies. Weight unchanged. All bloods "normal" (undefined) and for the first time ever no statin conversation. Maybe they've just given up on that.

I did remember to fast for around 18 hours before the blood draw this time. Recommended.

Today marks five years since my Type 2 diagnosis on 9th December 2019.

9th December 2019 is also the day that I started low carb/keto, and I've been limiting carbs ever since. In anticipation of the diagnosis, I had already read up quite a bit on that way of eating (almost all the good stuff was found on this forum). If not for the advice and support from the people on this forum, particularly in the early days, I don't think I'd be where I am now. Still using the same GlucoRxQ meter but on my third lancet.

If anyone had said to me at Christmas 2019 that by Christmas 2024 I'd not only have normal BGs (achieved by April 2020) but be six and a half stone lighter and playing football three times a week, I wouldn't have believed it. And yet here it is.

So much for keto being only a "short term fix". Keto is sustainable (some willpower is needed in the beginning) and has worked very well for me.

March 2025 checkup/monitoring:

HbA1c 37. BP 125/80. Weight slightly up (14 stone/90kg), which I am not bothered about as I think it's football-driven muscle (re)gain - my waist is still shrinking - down to under 32 inches.

However, there's a story to this. The initial A1c test was done on the machine at the general practice and that returned a value of 53! I challenged it - it would have been my highest ever HbA1c - and the DN agreed to do a blood draw for a lab test. That resulted in the 37 (which is more like what I'd have expected).

I guess the moral of the story is that the testing machines can be really wrong sometimes. One rogue result in five years...... I don't think it's worth fretting much about a couple of points either way - a 39 as opposed to a 37, for example, there's just that built-in level of machine variation. But clearly machines can be seriously wrong sometimes.

So that's five years of normal, non-diabetic, HbA1c results. Next milestone - March 2030.

Chris24Main said:

Congrats @KennyA ... I wonder how often anyone challenges their result with the confidence I'm sure you had..

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I am naturally and by training an awkward sod.