Latest results. Not as expected

[nsh2111]

Hello,I had my latest blood test. Results below.

Nurse wanted to put me on cholestrol medication but I said no. I still get 6.5+ morning blood sugar readings despite being low carb and fairly active .

What else can I change / do to lower hbac and fasting glucose?

is Cholesterol ok?


HBAC = 49 mmol/mol
Total Cholesterol = 5 mmol/L
TGL = 0.75 mmol/L
HDL = 1.69 mmol/L
LDL = 3.0 mmol/L

Thanks in advance
N

 

[Alexandra100]

Do you know how many g carbs you are eating daily?

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi, In my educated (but non-professional opinion) your Lipid profile is GOOD .
Your Triglycerides are nice and low , your HDL is nicely above 1.0

Mine aren't as good as that plus I've had a bypass op and I don't take Statins my GP says he understands why.

 

[ianf0ster]

How long have you been Low Carb? For quite a few of us it takes well over 1yr before the Fasting BG level reduces to 'normal'. Don't worry since it is the fasting BG which is the last to show the result of all that work.

 

[nsh2111]

To answer questions above, I don't necessarily count exact carbs but I avoid all bread, rice, flour, root veg. Any carb I take are either nuts or vegetables.so it will be less than 40-50gram

I have been low carb since Oct 2018 and have not been able to get to that levels which most on this forum get to after a year or so of LC lifestyle.

I cant go 0 carb as that is not sustainable long term.

 

[Alexandra100]

Any carb I take are either nuts or vegetables.so it will be less than 40-50gram

When I began to try to lower my bg I thought nuts were carb free, and ate quantities of them, especially walnuts. Actually, sadly, there are quite a lot of carbs in nuts, particularly in the ones that are really beans eg cashews and peanuts. How I miss peanut butter! I find that even green leafy carbs soon mount up. I even go so far as to weigh my portion of baby spinach leaves, an act that has come to symbolise low carb for me! And the day I discovered that cucumber and celery are surprisingly high in carbs as salad veg. go I pretty much renounced them forever (given that I don't enjoy them that much anyway.) I agree that 0 carb is unacceptable for most of us, although there are people here who manage it long term and still claim to enjoy their meals very much.. I consume 20-30g carbs daily.

I share your disappointment that the level of restriction that brings bg tumbling down for some doesn't quite do it for me. I think our only recourse is either to cut carbs further and / or do more exercise in general and more weight training in particular, as more/bigger muscles will absorb more glucose.

Did you realise that the only truly carb-free foods are fish, fat, flesh and fowl, with the caveat that some fish eg sardines do contain some carbs. Even egg yolks will "cost" 0.6g carb per large egg. And protein raises bg too, roughly half as much as carbs do. I find the Diet Doctor visual guides helpful:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/visual-guides
Good luck!

 

[Bluetit1802]

There is not a thing wrong with your cholesterol results. They are good.

 

[bulkbiker]

Hello,I had my latest blood test. Results below.

Nurse wanted to put me on cholestrol medication but I said no. I still get 6.5+ morning blood sugar readings despite being low carb and fairly active .

What else can I change / do to lower hbac and fasting glucose?

is Cholesterol ok?


HBAC = 49 mmol/mol
Total Cholesterol = 5 mmol/L
TGL = 0.75 mmol/L
HDL = 1.69 mmol/L
LDL = 3.0 mmol/L

Thanks in advance
N

The important ratio is Trig/HDL anything under 0.87 is excellent and yours is 0.44 which is brilliant. Well done.

Maybe even lower carb if you can try for ketosis and sub 20g per day.
FBG can take a long time to "normalise" especially if you aren't low enough carb.
Maybe for a week keep a detailed food diary so you can know exactly what your intake is then you can adjust if necessary.

 

[WAGR57]

Hello,I had my latest blood test. Results below.

Nurse wanted to put me on cholestrol medication but I said no. I still get 6.5+ morning blood sugar readings despite being low carb and fairly active .

What else can I change / do to lower hbac and fasting glucose?

is Cholesterol ok?


HBAC = 49 mmol/mol
Total Cholesterol = 5 mmol/L
TGL = 0.75 mmol/L
HDL = 1.69 mmol/L
LDL = 3.0 mmol/L

Thanks in advance
N

I'm interested to know how old you are and how long have you been T2D? I'm 63 and have been T2D for 13 years ( 12 years on meds) and have been on LCHF & off meds for 11 months now ( a few cheats on special events). August 2020 was my last blood test A1C 6.1 %( about 45 mmol/mol) in May TGL was .73( down from 2.66) Jan 2020 . My morning BG is usually in the 6s, sometimes 5s sometimes 7s. I'm thinking that the longer one is T2D along with their age is different from someone in their 40s or 50s and newly diagnosed, same with some one over weight ( I've never been overweight per BMI), which may be why the morning BG is taking longer it get to the 5s.

 

[nsh2111]

I am 40 years old and was diagnosed in mar 2016. I didn't go low carb until Oct 2018 and since then its been low carb for me which I enjoy.

I will try to reduce my nut intake and see if that helps. I do eat a lot of them to make up the calories. May be need to lower nuts and increase pure fat.

I do a lot of weight training but sadly cant get the muscles to show for that

 

[Alexandra100]

May be need to lower nuts and increase pure fat

I limit nuts to a total of 20g daily (10g Brazils, 10g almonds). My snacking go-to is cheese. Mostly I go for the lowest carb cheeses I can find (Iceland Very Mature Cheddar and Iceland Wensleydale, each only 0.1g per 100g) or Morrisons Edam, which actually claims 0g carbs per 100g, but then I sometimes splash out with selected fetta, Brie, blue cheese, but never @ over <0.5g per 100g. Of course, cheese weighs quite heavy.

 

[Alexandra100]

I do a lot of weight training but sadly cant get the muscles to show for that

Sounds excellent. Maybe your muscles are dense rather than bulky.

 

[WAGR57]

I am 40 years old and was diagnosed in mar 2016. I didn't go low carb until Oct 2018 and since then its been low carb for me which I enjoy.

I will try to reduce my nut intake and see if that helps. I do eat a lot of them to make up the calories. May be need to lower nuts and increase pure fat.

I do a lot of weight training but sadly cant get the muscles to show for that

I find if I eat too many nuts it seem to up the Morning BG. Pork rinds have been a good replacement.

 

[Daibell]

Don't worry too much about your fasting BS as it is affected by the overnight liver dump. Anything between 5 to 7 is considered OK. If low-carbing isn't working well enough for your HBA1C then you may need some tablets added

 

[hankjam]

@Alexandra100
I'm going to have to have a look at cucumber and celery again. Like yourself I do a lot of leafy greens, cabbage and saurkraut esp.
Don't actually count but would think it is well sub of 40g a day.... I should check.
Recent tests was 40 for my HbA1c, same as last year and given the year happy with that.
Total Chol: 8.2, down from 9.6.... always been high even with low carbing..... it is what it is. I fear another chat with GP on statins, of which I've tried three different types and shortly after stopping.... was diagnosed T2....

 

[WAGR57]

@Alexandra100
I'm going to have to have a look at cucumber and celery again. Like yourself I do a lot of leafy greens, cabbage and saurkraut esp.
Don't actually count but would think it is well sub of 40g a day.... I should check.
Recent tests was 40 for my HbA1c, same as last year and given the year happy with that.
Total Chol: 8.2, down from 9.6.... always been high even with low carbing..... it is what it is. I fear another chat with GP on statins, of which I've tried three different types and shortly after stopping.... was diagnosed T2....

Keep working on the good fats. From my research, veggie oils aren't good because they are chemically processed. Good fats like animal fat and fruit oils like olives, avocados, grape seed.

 

[Goonergal]

And protein raises bg too, roughly half as much as carbs do.

Do you have evidence for that? It’s certainly not my experience and I eat almost exclusively animal protein.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Do you have evidence for that? It’s certainly not my experience and I eat almost exclusively animal protein.

I eat a lot of protein, and I mean a lot. It has never raised my BS levels and never affected my fasting levels, which have always been low. I was under the impression that protein will only cause raised BS levels as a very last resort, when all else fails.

 

[hankjam]

<snipped>
And the day I discovered that cucumber and celery are surprisingly high in carbs as salad veg. go I pretty much renounced them forever
<snipped>. I find the Diet Doctor visual guides helpful:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/visual-guides
Good luck!

Checked:
Cucumber 3% carb
Celery 1% carbs
Spinach 1% carbs
Love them all with cheese and olives.

 

[Brunneria]

Do you have evidence for that? It’s certainly not my experience and I eat almost exclusively animal protein.

some T1 diabetics find they need to bolus for protein with half the insulin they would use for carbs.

of course, that isn’t relevant to anyone who doesn’t inject insulin, and it certainly isn’t relevant to someone like @Alexandra100 who has never been diagnosed with diabetes, of any type

- unless you have recently been diagnosed and have started injecting exogenous insulin, Alexandra? I must have missed that announcement (I have been away for a while).
what numbers do you see when eating low carb/keto and the protein you consider to be problematic?